A1C going higher

(Gary hoover) #1

Question I have is my A1C has been going up from 6.1 to now 7.3 I have not gained any weight at all. I have no sugar but what’s in rotello cheese. Only change is increasing of carbs and that being keto cookies, rotello cheese and some cottage cheese. My guess it’s too much cheese. Comments appreciated

#2

I would stick to whole (Keto foods) and avoid dairy. Keep it very simple and you should notice a nice change in your sugar levels.

You also might want to look at the fatty acid composition of your foods. Foods high in linoleic acid (which unfortunately include chicken and the much-beloved bacon along with safflower and soybean oil) aren’t great for mitochondrial health. (Not everyone agrees with this! but I’ve heard some pretty convincing evidence recently)

#3

You might benefit from getting a glucose meter and doing some testing. The A1c is more or less just a long-term average of blood glucose. You could test before eating something, 30 minutes after, 60 minutes after, and 2 hours after. That might help identify exactly what is driving your A1c up.

Do the cookies use a “bad” sugar alcohol as the sweetener? Almost anything but erythritol (e.g. maltitol or sorbitol) still affects blood glucose.

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #4

I suspect the cookies. “Keto products” can be a useful bridge, but health is best with food one makes one’s self. Not that I never eat anything processed. But know it is never the best choice.

(Gary hoover) #5

No keto cookies are Keto Perfect is name. 0 added sugar. That’s I have one and will check a1c

(Bob M) #6

Can you get a CGM? Other tests done?

The problem with A1C is that it uses red blood cell lifetime. So, if your lifetime is longer, your A1c goes up, but it has nothing to do with average blood sugar level.

The CGM can give a fairly good estimate of A1c and what your blood glucose is. By a CGM, I’ve had lower estimates (4.6 in this one) than actual (about 5.0 at that time):

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According to this chart, your increase is about 30 (in US units), which seems like a lot. I highly doubt cheese can cause that.

https://professional.diabetes.org/diapro/glucose_calc

(Gary hoover) #7

Thanks. I eat little bacon or chicken. That has not changed. It’s got to be ricotta cheese. Way too much. I lv that stuff.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #8

Ricotta cheese has 4 grams of carbs per 100 grams of cheese. The fatty acid profile is not bad with PUFAs only 0.322%.

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/781701/nutrients

There are lots of zero carb cheeses and generally the fatty acid profiles of cheeses are good, ie low PUFAs.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #9

So a pound of that ricotta would have 18 g of carbs. I could see that happening. Not with ricotta, of course, but some other, tastier cheese! :cheese::grin:

(Bob M) #10

Actually, I got some ricotta that was locally made that was GREAT! And I spent many decades eating low, near zero fat, so I started low carb not being a fan of any cheese. If I go back to dairy (I’m currently at my infrequent dairy eating), I’m definitely getting more of that.

@Luciee65 I don’t see how that’s possible. Your A1c increase is about 30 units per DAY. That is a ton.

That A1c I showed above includes the day before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving. Here’s Thanksgiving:

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9.7 = 174.6 (multiply by 18) in US units. And I still got an A1c of 4.6 for the month.

I think if you ate ricotta all day long, you couldn’t get 30 points per DAY increase in your blood sugar.

Switch to hot cereal (eg, oats, maltomeal) for breakfast, pasta for lunch, and rice and beans for dinner (as I used to eat), and you MIGHT be able to increase it that much.

But I would bet good money that ricotta does not cause that much blood sugar rise.

(Bob M) #11

Shoot…I guess Tgiving is just outside the month. No matter, as I would still have gotten a low A1c, but I’d have to get to my records…which take a while to dig up.

#12

You don’t mention your daily blood sugar readings but it’s worth keeping in mind that iron deficiency anemia can lead to a higher HbA1c even where blood sugar readings are normal.

(Gary hoover) #13

Been keto strict for 20 months last two months been on ricotta cheese and cottage cheese Kick and powering it down. It has to be it.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #14

A1C covers about 90 days. Look for sugar alcohols in any keto product. Some tolerate them well while others will see big jumps with even little amounts.

Try doing salads without a lot of added cheese, the harder the cheese the less carbs, cottage and ricotta both are higher in carbs, eating meats with the salad. Use a bs monitor to see how that way of eating effects your body. We are all n=1 experiments. See how your daily numbers react to what you eat, that is the only way to find out what is causing the rise in the cumulative nos.

Good luck sorting yourself out.

#15

Are you actually tracking your intake? If not I would. Sounds like you’re changing things a lot more than you think you are. We’re all different but I went from years of strict keto to eating about 150-200g carbs a day with the exception of days I’m not in the gym and my A1C has only gone up from 4.8 to 5.3, I definitely look at what’s in those cookies but you should really track.

(Bob M) #16

An A1C of 7.3 is an AVERAGE blood sugar of 163, all day long, every day, for 90 days.

In order for me to get to that 174.6 (9.7), I ate bread (homemade, sourdough, Einkorn) and homemade stuffing (sourdough, Einkorn), and mashed potatoes. The bump after that was dessert.

In order for you to average 163, you would have to eat what I ate all day, every day. And even then I don’t think you could get there, unless you’re really lack blood sugar control.

I don’t care how much ricotta cheese you eat (though I don’t know what “rotello cheese” is, and a search doesn’t turn up much), you’re not getting an average blood sugar of 163/day/all day. It’s not possible. At least based on the carbs in ricotta, it’s not.

Now, could there be something else going on? That would be my guess. @TheOrangePimpernel’s idea is as good as any.

(Bob M) #17

Is this some type of targeted/cyclic keto diet?

(Gary hoover) #18

It’s ricotta I spelled it wrong. It has to be that cottage or perfect keto cookies. Cookies have 0 sugar and only three ingredients. I have changed nothing else. One meal a day, no other sugars, intermediate fasting almost every day,

(bulkbiker) #19

Ever had a c-peptide test?
Might be worth looking at to check your endogenous insulin production?

#20

More or less ya, still kinda a made up hybrid as I do some weird stuff that neither TKD or CKD do but as a whole close enough. Then pretty much keto on off days. I think the biggest difference it when I’m taking them in I take in more than either the standard TKD or CKD does.