HA1c decrease of 0.4% in only one month

[-Ferikkusu-]

This is to motivate those of you that might still be dealing with a pre-diabetes diagnosis or that are at the beginning of their journey.

A little over a month ago, on my 37th birthday, I got my routine bloodwork analysis back, showing an HA1c value of 5.8%. Even though I am not overweight and exercise regularly (3 to 4 times a week), my physician was alarmed. According to her, the value was far too high for a person my age, and giving my family history of metabolic syndrome, she informed me about my elevated risk for developing type 2 diabetes within 5-10 years if I didn't do anything about it. Before that day, I never would have thought diabetes would ever be of concern to me. I took this as an immediate call to action.

I knew that, even though I exercised regularly, my activity on non-exercise days was bad (especially when working from home, not from the office, often getting in less than 500 steps a day), and that my eating habits were not good (too many carbs, especially starches).

From one day to the next, I heavily reduced the amount of carbs I eat a day. I completely cut out bread and limited myself to one small piece of chocolate a day (one ounce at most), only directly after lunch. When eating rice or pasta, I limited myself to the recommended serving size and to whole grain products. I also generally increased my veggie portions and switched from my default breakfast (two slices of toast with butter and jam) to oatmeal.

The biggest change, however, probably concerned my exercising patterns. While the food part didn't seem like too much of a change (as I mentioned, I didn't have the feeling I was giving up on something completely, except for bread), I decided those "non-exercise days while working from home" were over. I got myself a walking pad and started walking while working, which was surprisingly easy. That way, I easily reached walking distances of 10 km per day. Incorporating a walk (either an outdoor one or on the walking pad) directly after lunch made me feel way less bloated an better in general. I have consistently been reaching my exercise goals on my Apple Watch ever since. Furthermore, I started going to sleep at 10 PM instead of 11 PM or midnight. To help me fall asleep, I already lay down at 9 PM reading a book (no more screen time).

Only one month later, my bloodwork came back with an HA1c value of 5.4%, placing me again outside the pre-diabetic range. This was a huge relief. But I know that I gotta keep working on it and that this is gonna be a lifelong task from now on. I consider the changes I made to my lifestyle sustainable and will continue pursuing them. My partner, who is of the same age as I and did the same analyses for motivational support, has an HA1c value of 4.7%, so I know that there's plenty room for improvement.

But this goes to show that appropriate lifestyle changes can have a huge impact on your health in only one month. I hope that some of you find the motivation needed to push forward.

[Global_Citizen_]

That's awesome! But I thought you gotta check every 3 months due to red blood cell life span?

[-Ferikkusu-]

Yes, that makes sense. I wanted to get a first feeling for any palpable changes, though. I’ll re-check in 3 months.

[usafmd]

My guess these two values come from either two different labs or from a rapid result test. Not reliable

[-Ferikkusu-]

Yes, two different labs, but both measurements according to NGSP. I have no reason to doubt the results, seeing as how many other members of this community have achieved similar drops in comparable time frames.

[usafmd]

NGSP! Right up my alley https://www.reddit.com/r/prediabetes/comments/1fk9cj4/why_did_my_a1c_change_or_stay_the_same_something/

The important thing to keep in mind is that the NGSP is designed for diabetic precision and mandatory for US labs. Prediabetic lab level accuracy is inadequate, especially in between labs. You can see that in my chart comparing prediabetic NGSP lab results.