So, I’ve long suspected that I’m insulin resistant and my glucose came back as 101 flagged high, but the comment the doctor put on the lab was my levels are “stable”, though I assume even within the range that the high end is probably not ideal. I took the blood test after fasting for about 14 hours. Any input is appreciated.
What input are you looking for? I’d recommend getting it under control before you’re a diagnosed diabetic. I don’t say that to be mean, I just don’t know how to be helpful here.
- How bad it is
- What I can take to help with this, since I barely have sugar as it is
Did you get your hemoglobin A1C number as well? If not, and we just took that blood sugar number as your average and calculated, it wouldn’t yet hit pre-diabetes. So, basically, you’re on the higher end of the normal range, as you know.
What’s “barely any sugar”? What does your diet and exercise routine look like now?
Indigo-3G on this site is likely your best supplemental help, but we want to make sure we’re nailing the bigger pieces (diet and exercise).
Barely meaning around 40 grams of sugar a day and usually not exceeding 70 grams a day. I know that might not be barely, but it’s barely in the sense of it being much lower than the US average I’m sure. On top of that, most of the sugar I consumes comes from milk. My insurance won’t cover additional tests, but I just saw after posting those tests out of pocket are cheap. In terms of exercise, I stopped working out to gain mass, or strength and instead now only lift to maintain strength and mass. So I really may only lift 2-3 times a month now and honestly part of that has to do with me having constant fatigue. Though if I go take tests at the doctors, everything comes back usually normal, with the exception of something like this which is a bit higher than normal. It has been a long time since I got a testosterone and estrogen check and was going to see how much the “Get Yourself Checked” test is. I wanted to wait and get that tested after loosing weight, but maybe I should take it sooner rather than later. Despite the chronic fatigue, I have been able to maintain strength with no issues.
You’re eating no other carbs than this or just nothing else labeled “sugars”?
That may be fine, although I’d still recommend quadrupling that just to maintain muscle and bone density and all that good stuff. What wise are you doing? Any cycling or anything like that?
This probably wouldn’t be my next worry, unless you have some reason to believe it’s an issue. I saw the fatigue point, so it could be a factor, but if you’re overweight and not doing any cardio I’d tackle that first; that sounds like your plan anyway.
Maybe (I honestly have no idea), but I wouldn’t spend time thinking about this. You’re just worried about your situation, metabolism and numbers; sometimes genetics aren’t fair, so it doesn’t matter what anyone else can get away with.
It would be helpful if you could tell us, specifically:
- Height, weight, age, approximate body fat (nobody needs a picture, but realistically how much fat are you carrying?).
- What you’re actually eating… I’m willing to bet there’s going to be hundreds of grams of carbs in there. It will feel sneaky, because they won’t be labeled as sugars like they’re donuts, but that’s going to be our low-hanging fruit (pun absolutely intended) to address your blood sugars. Total calories come into play, as well.
- Any formal exercise you get outside of lifting… do you like cycling or hiking or any of that?
I didn’t mean to imply I’m not eating a good amount of carbs, simply that I avoid sugar. I mainly eat brown rice an potatoes for my carb sources. I eat these foods mainly to get in calories, because without them I’d probably only get 1,400-1,600 calories a day. I’m unemployed right now and living with family. I won’t go into great detail about this, but I’ve struggled with finding work as I don’t have my own vehicle, but in order to afford a vehicle I need work. So I’m working on getting a motorcycle. With that stated, I simply cannot afford at least I don’t think I can afford to have protein, or fats be my main calorie source. I usually get on average around 170 grams of protein a day and I’d guess 80 grams of fat and 210-240 carbs. In terms of my height, I’m 6 foot and I’m 255 pounds. The thing is, I have looked up my BMR and I usually wind up getting under calories according to the numbers I’ve seen. I usually get I’d say 2,100-2,600 a day. As for body fat percentage, I’d guess around 30%. In terms of my workout routine I should mention that I have flat feet. because of this, I don’t do squats or traditional deadlifts. I do Romanian semi-sumo deadlifts on their own day and on another day I will do dumbbell bench, dumbbell overhead press and hammer curls. I only do 1 set for all of these at a rep range of 8, except for the deadlifts which I only do a rep range of 5. I’d like to go cycling, but my area is kind of shit for that. I live right by a busy road and in order to get to a good biking spot, I’d have to travel about a mile and a half. I like going walking, but frankly haven’t done it too much in awhile, though when I did go walking it barely had any affect on my weight even if I did fasted walking in the morning.
Don’t want you to think I’m ignoring you - I’ll get back to all this in the morning!
Alright, take care.
Okey dokey, here we go. As a caveat, just from the single reading we discussed above, your blood sugar isn’t in a real worrisome spot. I don’t think it’s panic time over that, but everything else will be advice on getting that down with the assumption that’s your goal.
There’s nothing wrong with these numbers, and they’re pretty similar to what I often recommend for beginning dieters, but in this case we’re worried specifically about blood sugar. Blood sugar is a measure I of the glucose in your bloodstream, not the quality of nutrients. The two are certainly related, but carbohydrates are readily converted to glycogen and cause an insulin response (although so does protein, so let’s not get too wrapped up on absolutes there) period. If we’re concerned with fasting blood sugars and insulin resistance, our best first-line strategy is to restrict dietary carbohydrates.
The BMR calculators are helpful starting points, but that’s all they are. We tend to get wrapped up on them as if they’re an exact science, and must work out because math. Then we’ll get on here and say things like “I’m in a caloric deficit, but not losing fat, so my body is broken.” I’m not saying you said that, just pointing out the failure in the calculators.
Now the harsh realities:
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I doubt you’re weighing every portion that goes into your mouth, simply because it’s mind-numbing to do. That’s no problem on its own, but I really doubt you’re eating so few calories. I’ve been shocked how little food 2000 calories is when I count; when I don’t count, I’m annoyed how hungry I have to be to lose weight.
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The difference in that 500 calorie daily range is a pound of body weight a week.
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You know this, but your body fat is too high. We all wake up to this reality at some point, as well, so this is not an attack. Our next conversation, though, is as likely to be talking about hypertension and hyperlipidemia as it is glucose. Let’s take action now.
Life happens, man. This is your business and I wish you the best of luck.
However…
I worry a little that these statements aren’t setting an attitude of accountability. We have to control what we can control. I could be reading this wrong, but it would not be abnormal in a situation where you already feel you’ve lost some control.
You mentioned some exercises. Are those in a gym or at home? Do you like doing them?
If you’re interested, I can certainly recommend resistance training (that doesn’t include restricted lifts for you), cardio, and shopping lists.
In the meantime, I think my knee jerk recommendations would be:
- Eat between 11am and 7pm - let’s get used to being hungry.
- Get some low-intensity activity (walking, etc.) for an hour total every day. Doesn’t have to be all at once, especially if that aggravates your feet.
- Cut your total carbs to 150g a day and ensure you are getting at least 30g of fiber from that.
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Thanks, I appreciate your help. I workout at home, as getting to the gym is a pain and frankly if I had to go to the gym I’d workout even less. I always make sure I sleep a good 9 hours. My body likes 9 hours of sleep. That being stated, my sleep schedule always changes. I’ll get into different sleep routines. Sometimes I’ll wake up at 9am for a few months, sometimes 2pm.
I’m starting to think you’re messing with me
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Thats a new one.
If you’re having trouble losing weight, and you’re tracking every gram of anything that enters your body (weighed raw), AND you’re eating/exercising such that you should be in a deficit - then you might have an insulin resistance issue. However, it is more likely that you aren’t tracking every single thing you eat, or are recording the weights of these foods incorrectly (I count macros, and I don’t track certain items because it’s immensely difficult to while also having very little impact on overall diet (<100cal total for example)).
What I’m getting at is counting macros has procedural flaws that make it difficult to get right… you and I could eat the exact same things and record them the way we think is best, and find a 20% deviation between our recorded macros. So I think it is likely that you are falling victim to your macro counting habits (no offense intended at all, these are just inherent weaknesses of IIFYM).
You might find better results by reducing carbs a bit and increasing fats to cover. If you’re still in a deficit after doing this for a few weeks and haven’t lost any weight - you’re eating at maintenance, not at deficit… However, if you do this and start losing weight - you might have some insulin resistance built up.
I’d recommend starting a food log if you have trouble with adherence like I do.
EDIT:
Fuck, I wish I would have seen this first before typing all this shit out.
Fix your fucking sleep dude, jeez.
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Not to go on a rant, but this kind of thing really frustrates me. I know how hard you and a lot of folks on here try to be helpful, and it legitimately takes time from other things we need to do. We’re happy to do it, because we want to pay forward, but when someone is just wasting our time it is annoying and it takes away from folks that want help. It’s either just excuses and pity party or it’s intentional trolling (which I really don’t understand) and it bothers me. This kind of resource didn’t exist 20 years ago and I truly can’t fathom the thought process behind abusing it.
In this case, I’m extra frustrated because I’m quite sure I’m funding this lifestyle. That’s not necessarily a fair reaction, but there it is.
I said “not to go on a rant,” but that’s exactly what I did - ha! Let him throw some excuses at @T3hPwnisher and see where it lands.
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I almost replied to this thread, then after reading more… thought… nah. Just not sure he’s serious. I don’t understand if he just doesn’t trust his doctor or what is going on here.
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As always, you are wiser than I am.
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I appreciate these threads for validating my misanthropy
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I was actually a little interested in following along on this one to see what the recommendations were as my blood glucose number has been creeping up over the last several years.
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High blood glucose?
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