T2 since end of March

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Tom Trek

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Hi All

I have been looking at the forum and have now finally joined , got diagnosed end of march 24 with HBA1C at 100 , so did all the test with the nurse got eyes looked at ,which were all fine . I was 125 kg when I had my check up and blood test at the start, before diagnosis and now I'm 112.7 kg as of today . I had my next 3 month blood test and results came back with HBA1C 41 , I have been taking Metformin 4 tablets a day .

I just want to know how much do you think this reduction is down to the medication ?
My diet has been very good since diagnosis very low carb , lots of fish and salad , Greek yogurt and berries for breakfast.
Would the diet play a bigger part in the reduction ?
I still have beers on the weekend and when on holiday I will have a treat to eat .

I was gobsmacked when the 41 result came in , Do people think that to reduce even more or sustain current level all I have to do is keep doing what I'm doing ?

I do wonder if I got such a high reading because Christmas 23 I ate like a medieval lord and probably did about 3 litres of baileys over Christmas and about 30 mince pies !!!

Any advise welcome .
 
Welcome to the forum @Tom Trek. You are clearly doing very well. As regards medication v diet, I personally think diet is the primary factor in reducing weight and BG levels though there is no doubt that metformin helps. Although beers are carb heavy (spirits are better) if you're not overdoing it, it's clearly not affecting you badly. Any change to diet/lifestyle has to be sustainable and if you can carry on low carb eating with a few treats thrown in and it's working for you, go for it.
Your GP or diabetic nurse will probably cut down your metformin at some stage at which point you might need to be more careful about the treats!
I've always been lucky in that my annual hba1c test is in August, well before Christmas :D However, my DN has thrown me a curved ball by wanting more bloods done in Feb. So that's my Christmas ruined!
 
Diet will be more effective than Metformin. I did a similar diet to you from the sounds of it and it came down to 36 from 83 but I also lost 3 stone of weight. Metformin can make a modest difference, but probably wouldn't dent 100.

I still drink beer, I find it doesn't cause me a problem.

Eating carbs won't cause a hba1c of 100
A non diabetic will produce enough insulin to reduce levels to normal despite the carb content of the meal. It may go up to around 10, but will drop back down within 3 hours.
 
Dietary changes are generally far more powerful than most oral diabetes medication and
Metformin is the first line and least aggressive oral med, so I would say that you have well and truly earned a big CONGRATULATIONS on that fantastic result and excellent weight loss.

41 is in the normal range so it really comes down to a question of how you feel about maintaining the medication or if you want to try to reduce it and perhaps lose it all together at some point and how your nurse or GP feels about that. You will need to continue with your dietary changes as medication alone will not maintain you at that level. Whether the medication is contributing at all now would be hard to tell without reducing or stopping it in consultation with your health care professional. I think some people here on the forum who went for remission saw a very slight rise when they stopped Metformin which then settled back down in most cases. You always have the option of returning to using Metformin if levels rise beyond what you are happy with, but it looks like you have done brilliantly. It is just a question of how sustainable that is long term.
 
Hiya @Tom Trek - blimey - that was quick! Only diagnosed and made changes 5 minutes ago and wondering if you can reduce the medication already - just hang on a minute here please! :D

We know nowt whatever about you - importantly - do you truly need to lose much more weight, are all the things you've cut down on eating/drinking sustainable in the long term and are you also now taking more exercise generally - always a bit easier when the weather's nice, but when it's dark, miserable weather and ruddy cold in the depths of winter ....... I obviously do wish you every success anyway but simply needs all sorts of consideration before such decisions can be properly made by either you or your health care professionals, is all. 🙂
 
trophywench said:
Hiya @Tom Trek - blimey - that was quick! Only diagnosed and made changes 5 minutes ago and wondering if you can reduce the medication already - just hang on a minute here please! :D

We know nowt whatever about you - importantly - do you truly need to lose much more weight, are all the things you've cut down on eating/drinking sustainable in the long term and are you also now taking more exercise generally - always a bit easier when the weather's nice, but when it's dark, miserable weather and ruddy cold in the depths of winter ....... I obviously do wish you every success anyway but simply needs all sorts of consideration before such decisions can be properly made by either you or your health care professionals, is all. 🙂
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I believe I need to lose at least another stone and a half if not two , I'm 6 ft 2 and very broad rugby player type of body , I enjoy my new diet and the routine of it , don't get me wrong I do have occasional treats. I am looking forward to my next meeting with the DN ( end of sept ) , as I have a lot of questions as to why it has dropped so much and what to do to sustain it . I am exercising more , between 7k and 10 k steps per day , Mountain biking and gym not like a maniac but more than before diagnosis.

I wasn't asking if I can reduce medication I wanted to know if people thought that my HBA1c would reduce more if I sustain current lifestyle .

Like I said I was shocked with 2nd blood test results .

Thanks for replying to me , any advice is great .
 
Yes, it may reduce further with your current lifestyle changes and great to hear that you are enjoying those changes as that is really important long term.

The nurse may put more emphasis on the medication being responsible for the drop in your HbA1c than we do, but that is often because many medical professionals have very little comprehension of how effective the correct dietary changes can be partly because the NHS dietary advice for diabetics isn't effective for many people, so if they give the standard advice and if people follow it they may not see such great results, so they assume that dietary advice only has minimal effect whereas the opposite is actually true provided that the right dietary advice is given. Hence the likes of Dr David Unwin devising a different dietary approach for his diabetic patients which great success, compared to the standard NHS advice.
 
Tom Trek said:
I believe I need to lose at least another stone and a half if not two , I'm 6 ft 2 and very broad rugby player type of body , I enjoy my new diet and the routine of it , don't get me wrong I do have occasional treats. I am looking forward to my next meeting with the DN ( end of sept ) , as I have a lot of questions as to why it has dropped so much and what to do to sustain it . I am exercising more , between 7k and 10 k steps per day , Mountain biking and gym not like a maniac but more than before diagnosis.

I wasn't asking if I can reduce medication I wanted to know if people thought that my HBA1c would reduce more if I sustain current lifestyle .

Like I said I was shocked with 2nd blood test results .

Thanks for replying to me , any advice is great .
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I have a similar story. Diagnosed with HbA1c 114, 5 months later 41. My last 5 HbA1c results have all been between 38 and 41. I've pretty much maintained my post-diagnosis diet & exercise regime but, as you can see, it's not really dropped my HbA1c any lower.

Incidentally my DN did tell me I could stop taking my Metformin, as she didn't think I needed it any more, which was a relief. I could have hugged her.
 
I was really ill taking tablets, so have relied on diet for years now - lost a lot of weight in the early times without really trying, so I put it down to my metabolism recovering from the overdoses of carbs when following 'healthy' diet sheets. You are still 'doing' some carbs, but maybe the exercise helps - there are so many things going on inside us all the time it is impossible to say how things might go - but you do have 'wriggle room' if you do find you need to adapt further to keep this diabetes thing at bay.
Good luck with keeping things normal.
I hit 41 the year after diagnosis and it was a bit boost, psychologically to be in the normal range, even if only just.
 
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