My Type 2 Remission Log

Category: Medications

  • Statins + Diet: How Much Each Changed My Cholesterol

    Short answer: My cholesterol numbers all normalized, total from 275 to 141, LDL from 193 to 78, and triglycerides from 206 to 93, but I take a statin (atorvastatin), so I can’t claim diet did it alone. My read on my own data: the statin deserves credit for the LDL drop, while the dramatic triglyceride fall tracks closely with the low-carb diet and weight loss. You can’t cleanly separate these, but the medication was part of it.

    My lipid numbers, before and after

    • Total cholesterol: 275 → 141
    • LDL: 193 → 78
    • Triglycerides: 206 → 93
    statins diet how much each changed my cholesterol

    Every number moved into a healthier range. The question is why. → My full lab history.

    What the statin likely did

    Statins are specifically effective at lowering LDL cholesterol, and I started atorvastatin around my diagnosis. Given that, I don’t credit my LDL drop from 193 to 78 entirely to diet. The statin is doing work there.

    What the diet and weight loss likely did

    Triglycerides are strongly influenced by carbohydrate intake and weight, and mine fell from 206 to 93. That kind of triglyceride improvement tracks closely with cutting carbohydrates and losing 131 pounds, which is exactly what I did. So while the statin gets credit for the LDL, I give the diet and weight loss real credit for the triglyceride collapse and the overall metabolic picture. → How I lost 131 pounds

    Why I won’t oversimplify this

    It would be easy to say, “I fixed my cholesterol with diet”; it wouldn’t be true. I take a statin, and the accurate version is that diet and weight loss transformed my metabolic health, and a medication is helping with my LDL. Both are true. → Did metformin or diet lower my A1C?

    FAQ

    Did diet or the statin lower your cholesterol? Both. I credit the statin for much of the LDL drop and the low-carb diet plus weight loss for the large triglyceride improvement.

    What were your cholesterol numbers? Total 275 to 141, LDL 193 to 78, and triglycerides 206 to 93.

    Can diet alone normalize cholesterol? I can’t say for sure. I take a statin, so my case isn’t a clean test of diet alone, but numerous others have normalized cholesterol with diet only.

  • Did metformin or diet lower my A1C? The truth.

    So, did metformin or diet lower my A1C? Short answer: Both helped, but the math points clearly to diet and weight loss doing most of the work. Metformin typically lowers A1C by roughly 1 to 1.5 percentage points on its own, per published clinical data.

    My A1C fell 6.7 points from 12.5% to 5.8%, and no medication caused my 100+ pound weight loss. I do take metformin, but it can’t account for most of my results.

    What metformin typically does

    Metformin is a well-studied diabetes medication, and the research generally credits it with lowering A1C by about 1 to 1.5 percentage points. That’s meaningful, but it’s a fraction of my total drop. If metformin had been the whole story, I’d expect to have landed somewhere around 11%, not 5.8%.

    The math on my numbers

    • Total drop: 12.5% → 5.8% = 6.7 percentage points
    • What metformin typically explains: ~1 to 1.5 points
    • The remaining ~5+ points: the diet, the carb reduction, and 100+ pounds of weight loss

    I can’t assign these with lab precision; nobody can split them perfectly, but the gap between what metformin does on its own and what actually happened is too large to attribute to the pill. → How I got my A1C from 12.5 to 5.8

    The part medication definitely didn’t do

    No medication dropped my weight. I went from a peak of 356 pounds (before my diagnosis) to 225, 131 pounds, and that came from how I ate and how I moved, full stop. Weight loss and the carb reduction that drove it are, in my reading of my own data, the engine here. → How I lost 131 pounds

    Why I’m careful about this

    I’m not anti-medication, and I’m not telling anyone the metformin “didn’t matter.” It’s part of the full picture. But the reason this question matters to me is that I’m working toward full remission; which by definition means holding a normal A1C without glucose-lowering medication. To know if that’s possible, I have to be clear-eyed about how much of my result is the diet versus the drug. → [link: Can you get off metformin?]

    FAQ

    Does metformin or diet lower A1C more? Metformin typically lowers A1C ~1 to 1.5 points; my total drop was 6.7 points and included 131 lbs of weight loss, so diet and weight loss did most of it in my case.

    How much does metformin lower A1C? Published data generally cites about 1 to 1.5 percentage points. Ask your doctor about your situation.

    Can diet alone lower A1C? Diet and weight loss did the bulk of mine, alongside metformin. For me, yes. What it does for you, I can’t say.