8 weeks on Trulicity: A1c down but fasting glucose stuck?

Aug 27 1313 views 19 posts

Week 8 checkpoint on the dulaglutide (Trulicity) numbers today. Baseline A1c 8.4, now 7.1. Weight log went 232 to 219. Fasting glucose is the stubborn one, usually 128-142, even with post-meal readings looking way better. The clinician mentioned the NCT04200625 epicardial fat study enrolled 80 people, but the outcome data is nowhere I can find. Anyone else seeing fasting lag while after-meal numbers improve? What did the 8-12 week labs look like, especially fasting and triglycerides? Not asking for dosing advice, just trying to compare patterns.

Same pattern showing up at the 10-week mark in my labs spreadsheet. A1c 8.1 to 7.3, fasting still hanging in the 130s. After-dinner numbers came down first. Triglycerides 210 to 148, which surprised me.

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Fasting was my last number to move too.

Been watching this thread because the fasting glucose on my labs barely budged until around the 14-week mark of tracking, while post-meal spikes cleaned up by week 4. Just timing, not making a claim about anything bigger.

I asked my endo about that 120,000-participant semaglutide vs dulaglutide CV-risk study, and the raw data only lists enrollment — no outcomes. Good reminder how much of this is just comparing anecdotes.

Question for everyone: did triglycerides move before or after fasting? Mine sat flat until the evening meals changed too. Labs are noisy, and appetite shifting in that same window muddies the picture, but the sequence feels too consistent to write off.

Mine was the opposite: fasting dropped first, post-meals stayed high. Bodies are weird.

Did your evening meals change around week 14?

My 12-week lipids: trigs 188 to 121. Fasting glucose still 120s. A1c 7.8 to 6.9.

That fasting lag matches what I saw on Trulicity. I only tracked A1c and weight, not epicardial fat. The 80-person study u mentioned is interesting but tiny. I’d love to see actual outcome data, not just enrollment. Anyone here had a CGM show dawn phenomenon while A1c improved?

Fasting was the last thing to move for me, and it turned out to be my own evenings — I shifted dinner from 8:30 to 6:15 and my 7am number dropped from low 130s to around 118 in about two weeks, while post-meals barely changed at all. The surprise was that the week I had three nights under 6 hours of sleep (kid's finals, brutal), it bounced right back to 133 on identical food, so now I write sleep next to my morning reading and the pattern is embarrassingly obvious. Post-meal numbers respond fast, fasting seems to run on sleep, late eating, and how long you've gone since your last bite — my waist is down 3 inches and fasting didn't really cooperate until week 11 or 12, whereas A1c led the way early. I wouldn't hold your breath on outcome data from anything still collecting imaging; those take forever to post, and the 8-week snapshot is honestly too early to judge the fasting piece anyway.

My “stuck” fasting number was half tracking habit—I was testing 30-45 min after waking, after coffee and a shower, and it ran 15-20 points higher than when I tested right at first blink. I moved my meter to the bathroom counter and did it before my feet hit the floor for a week; my average went from 137 to 121, while my 12-week A1c still came in at 6.9. The weirder part: my waist dropped 2 inches by week 10 even when the scale sat at 221 for 11 days. Are you testing truly on waking, or after you’ve been up and moving?

Curious whether you’ve looked at sleep or overnight CGM yet. Mine was a mystery until I saw a 3am–5am climb plus really fragmented sleep—late screens, warm room, inconsistent bedtime. Fixing sleep consistency moved my fasting numbers more than any dinner tweak. At goal and maintaining now, and that was the missing piece for me. Are you tracking overnight at all?

I went down that NCT rabbit hole too (great use of my tuition). All I found was protocol/recruitment, no posted results; sometimes they end up in the CT.gov results tab or a conference poster, not PubMed. Emailing the PI can sometimes get the abstract. On fasting, my dorm metric that finally correlated was stress: exam weeks high, break lower, even with similar dinners (canned tuna + rice, gourmet). Have you compared class days vs weekends?

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my fasting number weirdly tracked daily steps more than anything else. On 2k-step WFH days I’d wake up in the 130s; on 7–8k days it slid into the 110s. I started jotting step count next to the morning number and the pattern was stupidly obvious. Have you looked at the day-before activity, not just the usual suspects? Also, for that NCT, if results aren’t posted, try the study contact or conference abstracts—small trials often show up there first.

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Fasting is often the last to budge because it’s largely overnight hepatic output, not post-meal clearance. The variable I’d add to your log: dinner-to-bed gap and evening alcohol. Mine sat in the 130s until I stopped nibbling after 8pm and kept my last real meal ~3h before bed; dropped 8–12 points over two weeks, no med change. Hard lifting late also bumps my next-morning number transiently. What’s your typical last-intake time, and does fasting differ on weekends vs workdays?

I’m a road warrior too, and my fasting numbers traked my last meal timing more than anything. Hotel dinner at 9:30 plus airport lounge grazing = 135-ish. Early dinner, no evening snack, and I’d see 118-122. Not scientific, but my travel logistics were the hidden variable. Are your stubborn fasting days clustered around hotel/travel nights, or home nights too?

Night shifter. My fasting was stubborn until I tracked sleep fragmentation, not just hours. Broken sleep = higher morning number. Three days with one solid sleep block, same food, fasting dropped 8–12 points. Flipped back to days, it jumped again. Also: are you testing right when you wake, or after you’ve been up a while? My number drifts 10+ points if I wait. Log sleep midpoint next to fasting for a week. Boring, but it showed me more than that study ever would.

Empty-nester reset here too. My fasting didn’t care about my new walks; it tracked my evening stress/wind-down. On nights I read or did a slow bedtime routine instead of doomscrolling, I’d wake up 8–12 lower. I logged a little 1–5 stress score next to my fasting number for two weeks, and the pattern was almost embarrassing. Have you noticed anything like that, or found the NCT04200625 outcomes? I looked too and came up empty.

Same boat: fasting was my last holdout, and late dinners mattered way more than mornings. Also still no NCT results either.

Hi, I’m brand new—only week one—so I’m mostly here to learn. Congrats on the A1c and weight, that’s really encouraging. For the fasting puzzle, I’ve started jotting my morning number next to evening stress and whether I had any alcohol, even one drink. Too early for a real pattern, but I’m curious if anyone else has noticed those moving fasting more than the usual suspects? Trying not to overthink every blip, but the spreadsheet is already happening, ha.