I’m 11 weeks in, 18 lb down, waist -3.5 in. First 6 weeks fasting glucose dropped from 118 to 101, now it’s bouncing 104-108 for 10 days. Same food, same walking, sleep has been trash from a work deadline. A1c was 6.1 at start. Anyone else see glucose lag behind weight?
Wondering if this is normal noise or if I should look at morning cortisol / dawn phenomenon stuff.
Sleep is the first thing I’d fix. When I was waking at 3am, my fasting numbers ran 8-10 pts higher for a week.
Yep, dawn phenomenon. CGM shows my 4-6am rise.
The A1c at 6.1 and only 11 weeks? I’d give it more time. My lipids moved before glucose did.
How are you measuring fasting? If it’s a 6am fingerstick after bad sleep, that’s different than a lab draw.
Good point. Home meters drove me nuts. Same vial? Control solution?
I had a similar pattern around week 10-12. Weight was falling, fasting glucose hung around 100-106, then at week 15 it settled into the 90s.
What changed for me was eating dinner earlier and not checking at 5:30am. Not saying that’s causal, just my n=1. My A1c went 6.3 to 5.8 over 6 months. The scale and glucose don’t move in lockstep.
Did you change injection day? I noticed fasting spikes 2 days before my next dose when I was on weekly.
My fasting insulin moved before glucose too. Weird but encouraging.
Work deadline is probably the whole story. Bad sleep spikes mine 10 pts.
What are yoru evening meals like? If I have a late carb-heavy dinner, morning is always 5-10 higher.
Not sure cortisol testing is worth the hassle unless you have other symptoms. I spent $150 on a 4-point saliva test and it just showed stress. The CGM data was more useful: I could see the 4am rise, then it fell after coffee and a walk. Maybe track for a week before adding more tests.
Week 9 hree, stuck at 103-107 despite 14 lbs down. Not just you.
Man, 11 weeks and 18 lbs is awesome, but that glucose stall is so real. Mine sat at 108-112 for almost a month after dropping 15 lbs, super frustrating.
The thing that finally moved it was getting my sleep back on track after a brutal deadline. I started a hard 10pm lights out, no screens, and within 8 days fasting went from 110 to 98. Work stress can absolutely keep cortisol up and glucose stubborn. Gve it another week or two.
I had the same thing around week 10, fasting stuck 103-107. Turned out my weekend pizza/restaurant meals were spiking me even though weekday food was identical.
I started logging sodium and saw a direct pattern: high sodium Friday meant Monday fasting up 6 points. Dropped the Friday takeout, numbers went to 96-99 within a week. 18 lbs down is great, but water shifts can mask real progress.
Congrats on the waist loss! But honestly, 10 days of 104-108 is just noise. My fasting bounced like that for 6 weeks straight after losing 20 lbs, then suddenly dropped to 92. My A1c went from 6.2 to 5.6 over 5 months.
Waist and weight can move while glucose lags because insulin sensitivity takes longer to shift. Don't chase morning cortisol yet. Check your 2-hour post-meal numbers instead—those improved before my fasting did.
What time do you test? I used to check at 6am right after waking, then realized if I waited 30 min my numbers were 10 points lower. Turns out I was catching the tail end of dawn phenomenon.
Also, a 15-min walk after dinner dropped my next-morning fasting by 5-7 points consistently. Not saying it'll fix it, but worth testing before adding more labs. Week 11 is still early.
My fasting number always trails the scale by a week or two. Weight first, glucose second, every single time.
The sleep thing is probably doing more than you think. One garbage night bumps my morning number 6-8 points, and a deadline week had me sitting about 5 high with zero change in food or steps. My worst stretch was the week I was up at 5:30 for calls and going to bed at 1, and no food tweak touched it.
I'm at week 23 now and lived through this exact stretch. Started at 6.4 A1c, 214 lbs, 44 in waist. First two months the morning number fell fast, 122 down to about 104, then it parked between 104 and 109 for almost three weeks while I kept losing, dropped another 5 lbs, waist down 1.5 in, and the glucose did nothing.
I did the whole panic thing, googled dawn phenomenon at 2am, stared at my meter like it owed me money. What turned it around for me was stupidly counterintuitive: I'd been skipping breakfast to keep my fasting number low, basically coffee and water until noon, thinking a longer window was helping.
A friend who'd been through it told me to actually eat within an hour of waking, so I did, two eggs and some yogurt, nothing fancy. Within about eight days my mornings were sitting 96-100 instead of 105, and they've mostly stayed there.
I think my body was dumping glucose because it thought I was starving, but honestly I don't know the why, I just know what the numbers did. Sleep mattered just as much, the deadline weeks were always my worst and nothing on my plate fixed a five hour night.
Ten days is still noise range for me, and my meter can read six points off a lab draw. I'd gie it another two weeks, protect the sleep as much as the job allows, and look at the weekly average instead of the daily.
Login to reply to this thread.
Login / Sign up