how to lower a1c

[kathymae 9]

my A1c is not low enough for surgery. What can I do?

[Creekimp13 5,840]

Eliminate refined sugar from your diet. Stop eating processed foods. Control your diabetes with the help of your doctor. Test your blood sugar often. Take meds as prescribed on the correct schedule. Choose low glycemic carbs that metabolize slower and don't set you up for rebound hunger. Eat more non-starchy veggies. Watch sugar content in Condiments. Eat Beans.

[TakingABreak 2,733]

1 hour ago, kathymae said:

my A1c is not low enough for surgery. What can I do?

Are they managing it with medication? How high is your A1C? I imagine pretty high if they are withholding surgery. I've seen people in the 12 range that had surgery.

[kathymae 9]

My A1c 8.5 it was 9.9 and 10.4 . Worked every hard to lower this much in two months.

[TakingABreak 2,733]

1 minute ago, kathymae said:

My A1c 8.5 it was 9.9 and 10.4 . Worked every hard to lower this much in two months.

its all about the carbs, not sugars. Its a common misconception that people think its all about sugars with diabetics. You have to manage your carbs, no more than 20 per meal. 10 per snack. Keep under 80 per day, and you should see a big difference. Creek gives some good suggestions too, about testing and what not. Hopefully with your A1C that high, you are taking an oral medication to help manage it. There are also weekly injections you can take that can help. If you haven't already seen an Endocrinologist, I'd highly recommend it. PCP's can sometimes do a good job, but they don't get into depth like an Endo does.

[kathymae 9]

I do whatch the carbs and I work out daily. I can titriate my insulin per dr order and take 2000mg of metfromin a day.. I’ll keep on trying..🙏

[KimTriesRNY 1,853]

An a1c of 8.5 can roughly correlate to a blood sugar average of 190-200 over the last three months.

If you know what your goal a1c is work hard to keep your blood sugar below that number.

I would stick to a high Protein diet and limit all starchy carbs like bread Pasta and rice until your numbers are in control.

Do not get too discouraged it looks like you have made great progress and it can take three months for the full progress to show on an a1c.

[FluffyChix 17,415]

Mr. F. is a T2 diabetic and at dx his sugars were about 290. Within 3 weeks of going on his Met/Januvia and dropping his carbs to no more than 30g whole carbs per day, his fasting bg is in the 80s and 90s and his A1c is now in the 5's. So if you go to a low carb, Protein adequate (for you that's about 70g/day as a female around 5'4"), lowish fat fat diet, your triglycerides will fall rapidly, so will your bg and insulin needs. So be ready to cut your meds pretty quickly.

[shortmocha 39]

My guess is that if it's only been 2 months, you have not given your changes enough time to totally be reflected in your A1C. A1C is roughly a 3 month average. Obviously it's moving in the right direction which is great. After a full 3 even 4 months of doing what you're doing now the A1C may be what you need. My doctor won't even check mine but every 3 months. When I first decided on the surgery I was at 10.3. I got a CGM and when we checked again in 3 months I was down to 8.3 and when we checked again in another 3 months I was down to 7.0. I'm Type 1 so my endo was thrilled with 7. For me, my issue was not checking my sugars enough. Getting the CGM and having the info to make changes and corrections throughout the day was key. If you're eating and exercising like you should then checking your sugars more often might help so you can get a better idea of when you are having spikes.

I could've had my surgery at 8.5. What's your goal?

[damonlg 9]

I had the same problem. You have to be below 8.5. I gave up all added sugar products inc high fructose corn Syrup. Went to sweeteners. I found sucralose was the easiest to get used to. (Yellow packet, splenda) also after looking at research, it is 100 percent safe. Doing that for a month got me down to 7.7. My weakness was BBQ Sauce but discovered a fantastic sugar free one at Walmart. You can do it. Good luck.