As a healthy 82 yr old, taking regular exercise, I am keen to reduce my HbA1c level (last tested @ 51) to within range. I prefer not to take medication and have lost excess weight and can easily maintain 55kg. I am currently wearing a Freestyle Libre monitor which shows peaks after eating from 9.1-13.3. I have set my range to between 5 – 9 which I maintain for 76%. How can I reduce the peaks to lower overall range.? I adopt a low carb diet and am now concentrating more on this aspect. I love my food and enjoy cooking!
Good morning. Thank you for your question, and apologies for the slight delay in responding.
It sounds like you have a great basis from which to experiment with some further lifestyle changes, to help you work towards your health goals. The fact that you enjoy cooking should certainly help too.
“Experiment” is probably the key word here, and the Freestyle Libre monitor is an excellent tool to help with this. Although there are some key factors that we would recommend everyone consider (e.g., minimising the intake of ultra-processed foods and considering your total carbohydrate intake), different people can actually respond differently to the same foods. As such, experimenting with different foods and meals to help you identify which cause the biggest spikes in YOUR blood glucose levels will provide valuable information to help you make informed choices going forwards.
You might also start to notice patterns based on other lifestyle factors, such as what types of physical activity you take part in, when you are active (relative to when you eat your meals), how you sleep, stress levels, etc. Tracking any lifestyle factors that you think might be meaningful to you, and seeing how these match up to your blood glucose levels, might therefore be useful too.
Apologies that I cannot provide any more specific suggestions, but a little trial and error can be the best option sometimes!
Beyond that, as you have chosen to follow a low carb approach I would recommend checking out https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/ – a free site that provides some excellent resources and information, including about low carb foods and dietary swaps. This might help you to identify some suitable food/meal options.
We do also offer one-to-one virtual coaching, if you would like to discuss this topic in more detail. This could be used, for example, to discuss your Freestyle Libre readings with someone at X-PERT to help you make informed choices about dietary changes you could try. This option is available to purchase from https://www.xperthealth.org.uk/product/one-to-one-appointment/
Hopefully that helps, but please let me know if you have any further questions. We would love to hear how you get on too!
Best wishes,
Sean
Dr Sean Wheatley, MSc, PhD
Science and Research Lead at X-PERT Health
