hba1c – BJJ Caveman

Cyclic Ketogenic Diet and Blood Glucose, HbA1c, Fructosamine, and Insulin

Posted on January 5, 2014February 18, 2015 by BJJ Caveman

Cyclic Ketogenic Diet and Blood Glucose, HbA1c, Fructosamine, and Insulin

Brief Summary:

Recently I completed a 10 week experiment doing a variation of a cyclic ketogenic diet called the Carb Nite Solution, which basically entails eating strict low carb (less than 30 gm per day) with one 6-8 hr window of massive carb loading per week. At the end of this experiment, before going on a trip to Italy, I had a series of fasting labs drawn.

So far we’ve looked at my:

Now I want to go over the labs reflecting my glucose control.… Read More

The Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Cholesterol Part 5

Posted on October 13, 2013October 9, 2014 by BJJ Caveman

As you know, the past couple of months have been a bit of a whirlwind. During this time I wasn’t trying too hard to eat low carb… unlike the militant way I was counting carbs during my initial n=1 experiment. I know there were a some weeks when I was definitely eating very low carb and spent at least a few of those days in ketosis (I hadn’t been testing my blood ketones these past few months), and there were other days when my carb intake increased due to social situations as well as my desire to avoid the keto-rash: prurigo pigmentosa.… Read More

The Effects of Nutritional Ketosis on HbA1c Part 2

Posted on March 6, 2013December 4, 2016 by BJJ Caveman

In part 1, I tried to find a reasonable explanation as to why my HbA1c remained elevated at 5.7% before and after 72 days of nutritional ketosis where I remained in ketosis (documented with blood ketone tests) almost the entire time, and to top it off I had low fasting AM blood sugars (avg of 83 mg/dl).

The most plausible explanation I came across was:

Low Carb -> Lower Blood Glucose -> Longer RBC lifespan -> Higher HbA1c

Even though this explanation made the most sense, at least in my situation, I still wasn’t satisfied and had to prove it to myself. … Read More