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| January 11, 2016 |
Today is Day 63
Weight goal - 141.6 or lower
Actual weight - 142
Blood glucose goal - 83 or lower
Actual blood glucose - 79
Today is a Fast Day.
For me, that means that all I will have today is water, coffee, tea, or broth, all without caloric sweeteners or fat. Each day, I will weigh in, check my fasting blood glucose, find out if I will feast or fast that day, update my chart and post it here on the big blog. I'm posting it to motivate myself not to give up, and if I think that anyone is looking at this, it will help to keep me accountable.
I can't believe it! After a full Feast Day yesterday, my FBG is only 79! Now, that's progress!
My weight did bounce up a bit, making me need to fast today, but I still have a lower high.
A few people, here on the big blog and elsewhere, have asked why I am shooting for a fasting blood glucose of 75, when the standard is 83. Why push it, they ask.
The standard may be 83, but that is meant to be an average of all readings for a day, not just first thing in the morning before eating (FBG), which is the only testing that I am doing. If, after eating, my BG goes up, which it will, then my average goes up, too. Here is an example:
75 - fasting blood glucose (in the morning before eating)
92 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating breakfast)
82 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating breakfast)
75 - before lunch
92 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating lunch)
82 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating lunch)
75 - before dinner
92 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating dinner)
82 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating dinner)
The average for the above 9 tests is 83. And that is being ambitious, thinking that I could get my BG back down to 75 before each meal, which might not be realistic.
If I were shooting for a FBG of 83, then the rest of my numbers might look like this:
83 - fasting blood glucose (in the morning before eating)
100 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating breakfast)
90 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating breakfast)
83 - before lunch
100 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating lunch)
90 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating lunch)
83 - before dinner
100 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating dinner)
90 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating dinner)
The average for the above 9 tests is 91. So you can see why FBG of 83 is not good. However, if you were able to keep your postprandials from going up as much after eating, your FBG could, theoretically, be higher than the 75 I am shooting for. Maybe like this:
79 - fasting blood glucose (in the morning before eating)
90 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating breakfast)
80 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating breakfast)
79 - before lunch
90 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating lunch)
80 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating lunch)
79 - before dinner
90 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating dinner)
80 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating dinner)
This would give you an average of 83. At this point, we can see that the only way to have a FBG of 83 and also a daily average of 83, is if your testing looked like this:
83 - fasting blood glucose (in the morning before eating)
83 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating breakfast)
83 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating breakfast)
83 - before lunch
83 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating lunch)
83 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating lunch)
83 - before dinner
83 - 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after eating dinner)
83 - 2 hours postprandial (2 hours after eating dinner)
So that is why I am shooting for FBG of 75. I may not ever achieve that, because my pancreas may be damaged enough to not allow that to happen. But I am giving it a try. The fact that I had such a low FBG this morning after feasting yesterday gives me some hope that it might be possible.
62 DAYS DOWN AND 29 DAYS TO GO
43 FEAST DAYS AND 20 FAST DAYS - FASTING 32% OF THE DAYS
12 POUNDS GONE AND 6 POUNDS TO GO
67% OF THE WAY TO MY GOAL AFTER 69% OF THE DAYS
7-DAY AVERAGE WEIGHT - 142.2
7-DAY AVERAGE FASTING BLOOD GLUCOSE - 80
I made a few charts to track my progress. The yellow lines are my long term goals. The blue lines are my actual results. The grey lines are my 7-day averages. The last chart is a little heat map to show at a glance how often I have actually had to fast to achieve the results I am after.
To find out more about this challenge - the rules and how it started - click here.
Hello, new reader. Absolutely love what you have achieved so far.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered an alternate form of testing and fasting, so before each meal you test blood sugar and if you are not at 83 or lower, you fast until the next meal? That's the idea I got from the optimum nutrition post linking to you. I'm no longer Pre-diabetic, but if I can get my hands on some cheap glucose test strips for the monitor I've been loaned, I'm hoping to give it a try. Well done on what you have achieved so far! I'm enjoying catching up.
Hi, Shawn!
DeleteI did consider that way of testing and fasting, but I decided against it for a few reasons. First, I did not want to be expecting to eat a meal, preparing that meal, then testing and finding out I was not allowed to eat that meal. Second, without full day fasting, I felt that my blood glucose and insulin would not go down as quickly as I would like, and it could take twice as long or longer to reach my goals. Third, if I was only skipping meals here and there, it would turn into simple caloric restriction, which I hate, and I would find myself trying to eat small amounts at each meal so that I could eat the next meal, hopefully. And, last but not least, I like full day fasting. It sets me free to not worry about food and I know that I get to eat whatever I want (within reason) the next day. It seems like a good fit for me.
If you decide to do some version of this, please be sure to keep me up to date on how it's going, okay? Thanks for reading!
Rebecca