[Achilles]

I know that everyone is different, but I have a question for the Type II's out there who manage to control their blood glucose levels with diet and exercise alone. The reason I ask is that maybe there is some hope for me based on numbers I am seeing.

My basic question for folks who are controlling their Type 2 D with diet and exercise alone is how good of control do you seek for a goal?

To quickly recap my situation, I was diagnosed about 3 weeks ago with a fasting plasma glucose of 262 mg/dL. I am 5'-10" and about 180 lbs. I could probably lose a few lbs but not severely overweight. I did very little exercise besides cutting grass once / week. Also used to love eating high carb meals like blueberry muffins for breakfast or pancakes. An entire 12 inch subway sub for lunch ~ 100 grams carbs, etc.

Since diagnosis, I have been taking Metformin 500 mg/day at night for the first two weeks. I also take Chromium Piconolate tablet 400 mcg and a GNC mega man multivitiman in the morning.

Been working out very vigorously almost every day with weight training and interval cardio training. I will work out with weights doing a set with only about 30 seconds rest before going to the next set. I use a weight that I can probably do about 12 repititions with but only do about 8 - 10 reps per set until the final set where I go to exhaustion.

I started a low carb diet where I believe I'm eating maybe 50 - 60 grams of carb per day. I haven't actually started counting to "a tee" yet.

This past few days, my morning numbers have been (upon waking up), 109, 98, 110, 118, & 111.

An example of my day yesterday. Woke up to a 118. Had 3 hard boil egg whites and a piece of turkey sausage for breakfast with coffee. Went shopping at the mall for Mother's Day and to get a new mountain bike. Ate Subway for lunch, 6 inch BMT on wheat (still ~45 g carbs though). Two hours later when I got home tested and I was 160 a little high but too many carbs for lunch! Went work out and tested one hour later and was back down to 118 mg/dL. For dinner, I had a piece of grilled chicken, and stir fry with cauliflower, asparagus, mushrooms, spinach and a handful of nonsalted almonds. Two hours after this dinner, my BG was 130 mg/dL.

I was feeling pretty good and I've worked really hard the past three weeks. Not a drop of alcohol in over three weeks. I didn't take my Met last night because I wanted to go out. The previous day I only took 500 mg. So basically I only took 1000 mg of Metformin for about 4 days in a row.

So I go out to get away from the house and meet up with some friends. I have 3 low carb beers over the course of 3.5 hours. I know, one more than I'm supposed to have so I slipped up a little. Felt fine though and I was being very cautious.

Got home and tested. BG was 155 mg/dL. Ate a low carb tortilla with homemade chili and tested one hour after that. BG was down to 127 mg/dL. I hardly felt any effects of the alcohol. Went to sleep.

Woke up this morning to a surprising 111.

So what's going on is what I'm wondering. Do Dr's. put people on Metformin right away because of fear that the patient will not be diligent with maintaining a low carb diet and exercising? I know that is tough to do in the long run, but when you have diabetes, it is a required life style change if you want any chance of staying off the meds.

I'll probably take 500 mg of Metformin tonight and keep monitoring my BG numbers. I know I am not following Dr. orders exactly, but he didn't even want me to start testing myself yet. This is all a big experiment right now.

Thanks for any advice! Is diet and exercise >>>> Metformin for some people? How good is "good" control here? I don't want to take more Met than I have to and hopefully as I build more muscle and lose more fat through exercise I can maybe eliminate it altogether if my Dr. agrees.