Three guesses at his name…
Ernie, Edward, @eric ?
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Good Chicagoan you are, yes!
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My A1c has been hovering around the mid-6s for a while now, but for years was in the 8s and 9s, especially creeping into the 9s during grad school. Then I got diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy, my first (and to date, only complication… so far), and that was the trigger for me to really change things. I would have never thought this was possible. Thanks to my CGM, metformin, and eating lower carb, it was actually way more doable than I expected, but I don’t think would have been possible without all of those (listed in order of importance). I’m not sure I really could get into the 5s range without putting significantly more time into it as well as restrictions on my life, so for now I’m good with my 6.5ish A1c—my guess is if I’d been anywhere close to that for all those years, I’d have avoided complications, which makes me sad to think about sometimes…
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Have to agree with cardamon and I am probably sounding like a broken record - but it’s all about diet diet and diet
If you don’t eat any foods that spike the bg and stick to very low gi foods like green vegetables etc - then it’s pretty darn impossible unless you never look at the cgm or test your blood to get high bg and get your a1c under 5
My bg takes so long to rise now on this diet I can turn it around easily if i haven’t dosed correctly
I was In the 8s for years but that’s because I ate bread pasta potatoes and drank milk - i didn’t eat sugar though but i had some fruit now and again - not a massively terrible diet but it still kept me up there
Now I don’t and my a1c is 5 - 5.3 and it’s very easy to keep it there
I 100 per cent support that everyone is welcome here but I also agree with whoever said that our hope is everyone gets their a1c down as low as they can
For me I escaped the serious complications through a twist of fate but the other benefits for me of going from 8 plus to 5 this year have been amazing - my mood has lifted as the mild depression I’ve had for 30 odd yrs has gone - my energy levels have risen exponentially - my mind is clearer - my skin is clearer - my libido has bounced back and lastly I have to admit my advancing ED has completely reversed itself in about 6 months - I cannot be happier right now and recomm d anyone who is even in the 6 range tries the diet and gets it down to 5- and feel the powerful difference it makes
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Not sure if you sound like a broken record or not, but I am happy you have an approach that works, and aren’t afraid to share it.
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If only this were the case… Other chronic medical conditions and hormones (growth/menses) and the like can seriously interfere with control and cause high BG and make it impossible to get a sub-five A1c even while eating very low carb.
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Why would we target a sub 5 a1c? I really don’t understand why so many diabetics are trying to maintain lower and flatter blood sugar levels than non diabetics.
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I think it can become a contest.
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Oh, sorry. I meant sub-six. Though the original post I responded to said sub-five.
And there are some, like Dr. Bernstein, who claim a normal A1c is 4.2 - 4.6 among healthy people who don’t eat piles of carbs each day. And that the risk of heart disease (in particular) begins rising at an A1c of 5.0 or 5.5.
For me, I just worry about complications, and the lower I can keep my A1c the better (not that I’ve ever been able to hit sub-6).
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Bernstein is considered a bit of a loon by virtually every other doctor on the planet, I can’t help but notice…
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I’m just saying that’s in part why many people aim so low.
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I don’t know how anyone targets a particular A1C. I try to have good BG, and the A1C is just a result, not a goal. Maybe others have a different approach, but I’ve never once went after a particular number.
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100% agree.
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I target an A1c of 10, but I never seem to be able to reach it 
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I know for years I “targeted” an A1c <7.0 because that’s what the clinical practice guidelines say people should get, and I couldn’t hit that. Then when I managed to hit it several times (after getting a pump) I targeted an A1c <6.5, but I wasn’t able to hit that. After I got a CGM, I started to get virtually all results <7.0 and many <6.5. Now that I can consistently get an A1c <6.5, I’m not aiming any lower. If I can hit the 5s I would be very happy, but ti’s not something I actively aim for.
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i agree with Eric I’m not targeting an a1c its a result of what I have chosen to do and what my targets are and also what i’ve decided to do around good nutrition - the result is an a1c of about 5-5.3 - i doubt it will go lower than that without a lot of focus, but if it does great I would be very happy - so I may tinker with doses like swapping to a longer lasting insulin in the day as everything I eat has such a slow BG release.
I aim for a fasting or normal rate of between 80-90 and i aim to always never go above 140 after meals or ever - this is actually advice from Michel I got when I joined the site and I took it to heart and have followed it ever since.
Fully understand Jen’s point also - Ive read about your struggles with other conditions and how they effect the BG and thankfully I don’t have these so I count myself lucky on that part - I think without these its easy for any type 1 to maintain an a1c of 5 through their diet.
To Sam’s point, there are also lots of non diabetics that get our complications - lots and lots of them particularly heart disease and cancer - they may get them later in life but I want to live a very long life now I’ve been given this chance. who’s to know whether an a1 higher than 4.6 leads to that - the science is finding out that glucose in our body is a nasty thing - the science is out and our understanding of nutrition is still very immature as its impossible given the variety of diet in our society to really pinpoint the causes. We are borne with an a1c of 4-4.5 and babies that breastfeed have this value (and are also in keto state) and then it goes up from there. So I aim to get as low as possible without being a complete maniac about it.
I never really told my full story, but I lost my job just when I came on here. I had fully expected to be dead by 50 or maybe 60 from complications given my lifestyle - so I joined this site, read up, listened to everyone on here, got the tests and found out I had a second chance - so I’m taking it.
Processed foods have gone and we have debated this. I can’t eat fruit or potatoes as I can’t keep the BG under 140 - I eat green vegetables / salmon / chicken / turmeric / cinnamon / chia seeds / garlic and herbs / coconut oil / avocado oil / hemp etc etc. All of this really means that its ‘darn impossible’ for me not to have an a1c in the range 5.3 or below.
The effect is a miracle though - and I do believe this is by getting my a1c as low as possible and if so lower than many non diabetics that I now feel better than most of them as well !!- I hope it protects me for years to come - but my overall wellbeing and state of mind improvements are ridiculous and something I feel passionately about paying forward when I have the opportunity - sermon over 
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Maybe I misunderstand but that does sound like targeting an A1c.
Just as a clarification, glucose itself is not a bad thing. Carbs are broken down into glucose which the body uses for fuel. Too much can be a bad thing, but I couldn’t do what I want to do without sufficient glucose.
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Thomas - Don’t think it does - I could run myself at 60 all day and peak to 250 each meal eating bread and taking enormous doses of insulin to get it down - that would get your a1c down but not In a good way / although doubt you can use that method to get to 5
Eric - yes I correct myself - although my point would be starchy and surgary carbs are pointless to eat to me as they provide no material nutritional value and are impossible to get control of the bg - both immediately with the spikes and after by disturbing the processes in the liver - so they’ve gone