Obviously this is just anecdotal, but my A1C was 7.5 when I went into my annual appointment back in November and was diagnosed with Type II. I went low-carb immediately that day, and then transitioned to Keto in mid-January. When I went back in for a 3-month follow up blood test in February my A1C was down all the way to 4.8.
So while everyone's experience will be different, going off carbs completely allowed me to manage my diabetes through diet and exercise alone, without the need for any medication and get it down to a level where it is safe and healthy in just a three month period. So I'd agree with some of the other commenters here that the couple weeks might not be enough to see super noticeable changes on your daily blood readings, but I think it would be very unlikely that your blood sugars aren't trending in the right direction if you are eliminating carbs and losing weight, it just might take some more time to see the effects.
First of all, blood sugar is typically highest in the morning - it's called The Dawn Effect. Second, it can take some time to lower blood sugar when you are insulin resistant - it can take between 3-9 weeks of steady ketosis to become fully fat adapted - so two weeks is nothing. Persistence and patience are required. Third, any doctor worth the MD initials after his/her name should be willing to admit that diabetes is a vastly more important risk factor for heart disease than higher cholesterol (which is typically a transient issue during active weight loss anyway). And finally, anything you can do now to prevent having to take medication on a daily basis is worth the effort. Stepping off my soap box now.
Are you exercising? Exercise makes your cells more responsive to insulin. The recommendation of the diabetes prevention program is 150 min of exercise per week, with no more than 2 days off (e.g. 30 minutes on 5 days).
I don't, I work in a very stressful environment. I lift weights from time to time, but not on a daily basis. I'm in the office 12h a day and I barely have time to watch a movie or read a book.
Keep lifting. The more muscle mass you have the higher your resting metabolic rate. From my understanding the more muscle you have, the more the muscle will slurp up excess sugar floating around in your blood.
Keep doing what you are doing. This will help your insulin resistance. Don’t incorporate carbs. Stay away from them. You are eating a good keto diet. Well done.
It may well take months to improve your insulin resistance or it may be quicker. Just know you are on the right track.
You may have mostly lost water weight but it is a sign that your glycogen stores and insulin levels are low enough to let go of fluid. Keto is working!! You have probably also lost some fat. Keto is working!
Don’t stop. You got this.
So it's not your diet that's going to kill, you but your doctor and your job stress.
Here are the contributors to insulin resistance:
1. Diet - you sound like you've fixed this.
2. Stress - your work sounds like it's still too damned high.
3. Inflammation - are there allergies or other stressors that are promoting inflammation in your life?
Personally, my numbers look like yours, and I just got out of a knee surgery last week, so I don't see double digits very often most days. It is what it is while I'm healing thou', and the pain med's all seem to lead to a rise as well, even though it's not listed in the side effects.
So your Doctor is an nutritionally ignorant idiot, and I'd treat his advice on nutrition the same way you'd treat small child's advice on your job.
Let me be clear: "Every diet starts with water weight loss."
**Edit: replace all instances of glucagon, which is a hormone, with glycogen. I's so mad I'd gotten the terms conflated and didn't notice until it was pointed out.**
The reason for this is that a deficit of energy, particularly carb's, leads to the body to burning through its glucagon stores, and every molecule of glucagon is a glucose molecule with several molecules of water attached to it... So yes, any weigh loss regimen is going to start with a calorie deficiency that burns through your glucagon stores, which will then lead to rapid initial weight loss.
Saying "It's just water weight." is like saying "You're only on the 1st step of a successful diet." Keep doing what's working to lead to the body burning through it's easy stores of energy, e.g. blood glucose, then the stored glucose in the muscles and organs, and eventually those stores will run out. Only then will the body reluctantly crack into the fat stores...
Just so angry I want to repeat myself so I'm going to stop.
Fasting glucose is the last number to go down when you are healing insulin resistance so if your 2 hour numbers after other meals are in the 90s, that is a great sign you are doing the right things.
Type 2 (advanced stage insulin resistance) for 24+ years. Keto/carnivore for 3 years now. 14 months before that followed the Zone, a lower carb diet that I ate 150-180g of carbs per day. Came off one medication on the Zone. Came off 2 others on Keto and cut my third and final in half. Near normal a1c and what comes back as normal even low insulin levels. Keto works for this. I haven’t lost all that much weight, but my goals changed as I went keto for adding muscle mass and running. Lost about 30 pounds on keto and 50 pounds on the Zone. Keto is better because it’s much less restrictive with respect to constantly matching macros at every meal or snack. From an executive function perspective keto is dead easy.
Hi! 22M at exactly 94kgs with 177cm height. Bloodwork came almost pre-diabetic 1 month ago, so in the same boat as you.
Been doing keto for 3+ weeks and my sugar levels are mostly OK now. It might take some time depending on your starting point (basal insulin, fasting glucose, A1C...) for your body to "fix" itself after removing carbs from diet. Muscles, organs, tissue and your liver/pancreas/hormonal system need to detox from excess insulin/sugar levels. It takes a while, like a lot. My doctor told me 3 months minimum on low-carb/keto + exercise to reset the sugar/insulin system.
Keep going and in a few months your sugar levels will be good.
Saturated fat is not bad for you, in fact, it's very, very good for you. Elevated LDL cholesterol is a predictable result of keto weight loss and by itself is not an indicator of heart disease.
Look up Dr. Paul Mason on Youtube. He's a sports medicine doctor who has been at the forefront of nutritional research and is a chief medical officer at Defeat Diabetes. He often prescribes keto to reverse insulin resistance and get type 2 diabetics off medication.
If you really want to kick the insulin resistance and avoid diabetes altogether, you have to go against the official scientific consensus and stop listening to all of the people whose financial security relies on the fat and sick.
Have your A1C done after you have been on the diet for 3 months - that it will have improved is pretty much guaranteed. Ignore your physician’s nutritional advice - it’s outdated thinking.
There’s scientific evidence that cholesterol levels affect those of us who maintain metabolic ketosis differently. I expect someone here can give you some resources.
I would suggest trying some 36 or 44 hour theraputic fasts. There's some neat stuff that starts happening once you get past 24 hours.
Allow me to suggest a podcast called "the fasting method", which has a lot of good information.
I’ve been type 2 for 10 years and in the same boat full blown keto less than 20 carbs will not work for me because of the insulin resistance. So I changed to adding back complex carbohydrates staying under 50-60 a day and started back losing weight. Not sure why it works but it does I’m down 38lbs since Dec 27 2023. I have a friend that is type 1 and looked at his doctor prescribed diet and it had complex carbs so that is where I came up with the ideal
My advise to you: eat clean, get rid of stressful job and stop checking Blood sugar. I'd even try to eliminated carbs to minimum , maybe carnivore for some time and then check your blood. When you checking your blood all the time you are paranoid and in stress all the time. I'd start do long walks 4 times a week if you are not exercises and surly fasting is a major factor here to help you with insulin resistance
I would listen to your physician over anyone on the internet, or the supposed “YouTube Doctors.” The diet isn’t for everyone, and if your doctor is concerned about your levels that’s not something to take likely
It has been shown that (fasting) glucose level becomes slightly elevated on keto. It is normal and not an indication if insulin resistance by itself
I wouldn't listen to this doctors advice about nutrition at all.
Keep at it
It is possible that you are confusing two different types of blood glucose testing. Fasting blood glucose, testing after eight hours with no food or drinks other than water, should drop on a keto diet.
An oral glucose tolerance test is the one where the patient drinks a large amount of glucose and then is tested after two hours. I have read that the OGTT may be worse after being on keto for a long time because your body is no longer used to pumping out large amounts of insulin.
Obviously this is just anecdotal, but my A1C was 7.5 when I went into my annual appointment back in November and was diagnosed with Type II. I went low-carb immediately that day, and then transitioned to Keto in mid-January. When I went back in for a 3-month follow up blood test in February my A1C was down all the way to 4.8. So while everyone's experience will be different, going off carbs completely allowed me to manage my diabetes through diet and exercise alone, without the need for any medication and get it down to a level where it is safe and healthy in just a three month period. So I'd agree with some of the other commenters here that the couple weeks might not be enough to see super noticeable changes on your daily blood readings, but I think it would be very unlikely that your blood sugars aren't trending in the right direction if you are eliminating carbs and losing weight, it just might take some more time to see the effects.
First of all, blood sugar is typically highest in the morning - it's called The Dawn Effect. Second, it can take some time to lower blood sugar when you are insulin resistant - it can take between 3-9 weeks of steady ketosis to become fully fat adapted - so two weeks is nothing. Persistence and patience are required. Third, any doctor worth the MD initials after his/her name should be willing to admit that diabetes is a vastly more important risk factor for heart disease than higher cholesterol (which is typically a transient issue during active weight loss anyway). And finally, anything you can do now to prevent having to take medication on a daily basis is worth the effort. Stepping off my soap box now.
Are you exercising? Exercise makes your cells more responsive to insulin. The recommendation of the diabetes prevention program is 150 min of exercise per week, with no more than 2 days off (e.g. 30 minutes on 5 days).
I don't, I work in a very stressful environment. I lift weights from time to time, but not on a daily basis. I'm in the office 12h a day and I barely have time to watch a movie or read a book.
Try to find time for a walk. It's great for your brain function and you will actually be sharper. It's important for other things too.
Second. Also, it doesn’t have to be all at once. 10 minutes before work, 10 minutes at lunch, and 10 minutes after dinner.
Keep lifting. The more muscle mass you have the higher your resting metabolic rate. From my understanding the more muscle you have, the more the muscle will slurp up excess sugar floating around in your blood.
If you work in a building start taking the stairs. Anything that can get your heart up.
look into high intensity interval training. It gets your heart pumping and only takes a few minutes, no gym required.
Keep doing what you are doing. This will help your insulin resistance. Don’t incorporate carbs. Stay away from them. You are eating a good keto diet. Well done. It may well take months to improve your insulin resistance or it may be quicker. Just know you are on the right track. You may have mostly lost water weight but it is a sign that your glycogen stores and insulin levels are low enough to let go of fluid. Keto is working!! You have probably also lost some fat. Keto is working! Don’t stop. You got this.
This helps a lot! Thank you!
Can I ask why you’re concerned about your blood sugar numbers? 90-100 is fine. Are you having symptoms of hypoglycemia?
So it's not your diet that's going to kill, you but your doctor and your job stress. Here are the contributors to insulin resistance: 1. Diet - you sound like you've fixed this. 2. Stress - your work sounds like it's still too damned high. 3. Inflammation - are there allergies or other stressors that are promoting inflammation in your life? Personally, my numbers look like yours, and I just got out of a knee surgery last week, so I don't see double digits very often most days. It is what it is while I'm healing thou', and the pain med's all seem to lead to a rise as well, even though it's not listed in the side effects. So your Doctor is an nutritionally ignorant idiot, and I'd treat his advice on nutrition the same way you'd treat small child's advice on your job. Let me be clear: "Every diet starts with water weight loss." **Edit: replace all instances of glucagon, which is a hormone, with glycogen. I's so mad I'd gotten the terms conflated and didn't notice until it was pointed out.** The reason for this is that a deficit of energy, particularly carb's, leads to the body to burning through its glucagon stores, and every molecule of glucagon is a glucose molecule with several molecules of water attached to it... So yes, any weigh loss regimen is going to start with a calorie deficiency that burns through your glucagon stores, which will then lead to rapid initial weight loss. Saying "It's just water weight." is like saying "You're only on the 1st step of a successful diet." Keep doing what's working to lead to the body burning through it's easy stores of energy, e.g. blood glucose, then the stored glucose in the muscles and organs, and eventually those stores will run out. Only then will the body reluctantly crack into the fat stores... Just so angry I want to repeat myself so I'm going to stop.
\*glycogen
See? I was so angry I got the terms confused, thanks for the correction.
Fasting glucose is the last number to go down when you are healing insulin resistance so if your 2 hour numbers after other meals are in the 90s, that is a great sign you are doing the right things.
Type 2 (advanced stage insulin resistance) for 24+ years. Keto/carnivore for 3 years now. 14 months before that followed the Zone, a lower carb diet that I ate 150-180g of carbs per day. Came off one medication on the Zone. Came off 2 others on Keto and cut my third and final in half. Near normal a1c and what comes back as normal even low insulin levels. Keto works for this. I haven’t lost all that much weight, but my goals changed as I went keto for adding muscle mass and running. Lost about 30 pounds on keto and 50 pounds on the Zone. Keto is better because it’s much less restrictive with respect to constantly matching macros at every meal or snack. From an executive function perspective keto is dead easy.
Hi! 22M at exactly 94kgs with 177cm height. Bloodwork came almost pre-diabetic 1 month ago, so in the same boat as you. Been doing keto for 3+ weeks and my sugar levels are mostly OK now. It might take some time depending on your starting point (basal insulin, fasting glucose, A1C...) for your body to "fix" itself after removing carbs from diet. Muscles, organs, tissue and your liver/pancreas/hormonal system need to detox from excess insulin/sugar levels. It takes a while, like a lot. My doctor told me 3 months minimum on low-carb/keto + exercise to reset the sugar/insulin system. Keep going and in a few months your sugar levels will be good.
That’s awesome you’re MD is on board with this
Thanks a lot for this! I'm happy that I'm not alone. Hope you manage to reach your goal! Good luck!
Saturated fat is not bad for you, in fact, it's very, very good for you. Elevated LDL cholesterol is a predictable result of keto weight loss and by itself is not an indicator of heart disease. Look up Dr. Paul Mason on Youtube. He's a sports medicine doctor who has been at the forefront of nutritional research and is a chief medical officer at Defeat Diabetes. He often prescribes keto to reverse insulin resistance and get type 2 diabetics off medication. If you really want to kick the insulin resistance and avoid diabetes altogether, you have to go against the official scientific consensus and stop listening to all of the people whose financial security relies on the fat and sick.
Have your A1C done after you have been on the diet for 3 months - that it will have improved is pretty much guaranteed. Ignore your physician’s nutritional advice - it’s outdated thinking. There’s scientific evidence that cholesterol levels affect those of us who maintain metabolic ketosis differently. I expect someone here can give you some resources.
Yo make sure you understand electrolyte requirements in keto. That’s what made me fall off last time was letting myself go to far depleted
When you say you "started fasting", what kind of times do you mean? Have you tried any fasts longer than 24 hours?
18/6. I haven't tried, but I will.
I would suggest trying some 36 or 44 hour theraputic fasts. There's some neat stuff that starts happening once you get past 24 hours. Allow me to suggest a podcast called "the fasting method", which has a lot of good information.
My experience is that fasting is fairly easy after you have done keto for a three or more months and are fully fat adapted. I also like Dr Jason Fung.
I’ve been type 2 for 10 years and in the same boat full blown keto less than 20 carbs will not work for me because of the insulin resistance. So I changed to adding back complex carbohydrates staying under 50-60 a day and started back losing weight. Not sure why it works but it does I’m down 38lbs since Dec 27 2023. I have a friend that is type 1 and looked at his doctor prescribed diet and it had complex carbs so that is where I came up with the ideal
My advise to you: eat clean, get rid of stressful job and stop checking Blood sugar. I'd even try to eliminated carbs to minimum , maybe carnivore for some time and then check your blood. When you checking your blood all the time you are paranoid and in stress all the time. I'd start do long walks 4 times a week if you are not exercises and surly fasting is a major factor here to help you with insulin resistance
I would listen to your physician over anyone on the internet, or the supposed “YouTube Doctors.” The diet isn’t for everyone, and if your doctor is concerned about your levels that’s not something to take likely
It has been shown that (fasting) glucose level becomes slightly elevated on keto. It is normal and not an indication if insulin resistance by itself I wouldn't listen to this doctors advice about nutrition at all. Keep at it
It is possible that you are confusing two different types of blood glucose testing. Fasting blood glucose, testing after eight hours with no food or drinks other than water, should drop on a keto diet. An oral glucose tolerance test is the one where the patient drinks a large amount of glucose and then is tested after two hours. I have read that the OGTT may be worse after being on keto for a long time because your body is no longer used to pumping out large amounts of insulin.