Did Carb Timing Reduce My A1c?

I have recently received lab results from my provider with my new A1c results. Like many people with diabetes, I get my A1c checked every 3 months. Thankfully, my A1c has been trending down every time I have had it checked since my diagnosis, except for the first one when I was trying something new that was completely useless and actually had a negative effect, but that’s another story.

My last A1c was 7.8 which isn’t terrible but isn’t good either. When my labs came back this time, my A1c was down to 6.5 which, from my understanding, is the highest an A1c can be and your diabetes is considered controlled.

When a new job environment makes for better choices

I haven’t really changed my diet as well as I wanted to. My job, combined with my lack of self-control, didn’t allow me to make the changes I wanted and made it easy to eat junk food at work. I now have a new job that takes away those temptations and I am excited to see how it affects my A1c. However, there is one thing that I did change which was how I timed my carb intake. I wasn’t sure how this would work but it seems it has some effect. Of course, with only one lab result since this change, it’s hard to say if it was the reason, but with the lack of other changes, it’s a good chance it was.

Carb timing as part of my diabetes management

One thing I did not do was intermittent fasting. Carb timing is different from meal timing. I can’t do intermittent fasting. Once I know I can’t have something, I want it. Intermittent fasting is mental torture for me. The way I worked around this was changing my first and last meal of the day.

For breakfast, I ate very little net carbs. I would eat eggs in a tortilla shell as a burrito, but the tortilla only had 5 net carbs. I would sometimes add avocado and tomato sliced up. This was high calorie but would hold me over until I ate next. In the middle of the day, I would eat all my carbs, which still weren’t a ton, but enough to satisfy me. They were also from healthy sources for the most part. At the end of the day I would limit my carbs again, not as drastic as breakfast, but enough that I wouldn’t have a crazy blood sugar spike.

Focusing on A1c then weight loss

This really seems to be a good way of eating for those that still like to have some carbs and hate intermittent fasting. This doesn’t have anything to do with weight loss if you are working on that. The way I was eating was to decrease my A1c while being satisfied. I do have some work to do to get to a better range, but at the moment I am happy with my progress. If you are struggling with lowering your A1c and you like to eat, this may help you. Like others, I need to lose some weight, but it's hard to work on both at the same time. This way you can correct your A1c, get in those good habits, then work on your weight. You might have better success working on one at a time rather than both.