A few of us who have been successful in losing weight with keto have had mixed results in lowering A1C.
Why might this be and how could those who have not lowered A1C (much) improve results. HDL, Triglycerides and VLDL ALL improved in all 4 of us. All started in the 5.9-8.0 range for A1C and 2 dropped below 5.6 while 2 basically didn’t change.
I am always impressed by how knowledgeable this group is and appreciate your responses.
Are you tracking macros? What’s your protein consumption like? I’ve heard several keto doctors claim that A1c can actually go up on keto if protein is being overconsumed.
What are the exact numbers please?
Did the 8’s go down to 5.6 (a great result)
or was it the 5.9’s with the other 2 still being in the high 7’s?
I wouldn’t have said keto lowers A1c. It’s more the lack of carbs causing more stable blood sugars, with fewer spikes and fewer prolonged highs, as there’s little glucose to sustain it. The end result is typically a lower A1c.
But I would think it could vary significantly between individuals, depending on how ingrained insulin resistance has been and how fat adapted one is.
I’ve seen discussions where long-term keto-ers have said they often go into the 30’s and 40’s for blood glucose testing, without feeling any of the normal symptoms of low blood sugars. That makes sense, because for them ketones are the primary energy source, not glucose. So why would low glucose be a problem?
That’s based on a misconception. Because the body can produce glucose from proteins and fats (glycerol from triglycerides) via gluconeogenesis (GNG), some people have come to believe that all excess protein will be converted into glucose. But GNG produces glucose on an “as needed” basis, because there are some bodily functions that can’t run off ketones and do need glucose.
For me, the biggest thing that lowered my A1C was fasting! I did a lot more fasting between October and January, compared to the other time frames.
Going from eating a lot of carbs, i.e. the ‘Standard American Diet’ or the like, to a very low amount of carbs, I find this hard to believe. I’m not disputing that it happened in your case or others, but wow…
Were all the people you speak of eating a lot of carbs beforehand?
One of the higher ones and one of the lower ones went down SO it was as confusing a result as you could get.
A lot? Well I’d say I was and I think they were all eating more or less normal stuff but I am sure they had various diets going on…
For me fasting got my A1c down from 5,7 to 4,3 but before that taking cod liver oil lowered it from 6.0 to 5.4 (I tryed it after reading a study that sayed that taking vitamin D lowered A1c). So both are low cost low risk interventions you could try
That should work, if you’re fasting enough. The issue is whether that’s just a short term result (while fasting) or permanent (the results last once fasting is stopped). Here are my results (started LC on 1/1/14):
It’s unclear whether the lower values were because of more fasting, although in general, I’ve been fasting less and less. Peak was probably 2016-early 2019.
Also, I find that exercise, even working around the house, causes me to have higher glucose. That means my A1c would go up, but it has nothing to do with carbs or protein. (And during the time shown, I went from high fat to high protein, low fat, and my A1c went down…but I was also fasting.)
Finally, we could all have exactly the same blood glucose, and get multiple values of HbA1c, as one input to this is the length of time red blood cells are “alive”. The longer they live, the higher your HbA1c will be.
Then I’m really surprised that two people really didn’t have their A1C decline - if we are talking about at least a few months gone by. So…
Good comment - and I agree about trying fasting. It’s a long, slow process improving insulin sensitivity for some of us. I spent 50+ years getting to Type 2 diabetes; no reason to think things will turn around quickly. I’m a big believer in fasting, for various reasons, but it’s no magic bullet for blood sugar (unless we’re talking about really long fasts) - last time I checked, mine was 90/5 after five days of fasting, in the evening.
That’s high. I’ve gotten into the 60s (on an official blood draw) when fasting 4.5 days. Oddly, mine is higher now, 4.5+ years later, when fasting longer. It still goes down though.
Were you exercising at all near that reading?
Bob, not at all. Had worked that day, but nothing all that strenuous, and was just sitting around in a hotel room watching TV. I was disappointed at it being that high, but either that’s just my lot (and it’s definitely better than 110 or 120), or else it was an outlier. I haven’t tested any more since, though.
