Your fasting glucose is normal, but your A1c keeps climbing, and no one can tell you why. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’m walking you through exactly what that gap means, why post-meal blood sugar spikes are the hidden driver of rising A1c in most people, and the nine habits that target the hours your fasting blood draw never sees.

I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, a board-certified lifestyle medicine physician, and this is one of the most common patterns I see in my practice. A patient comes in with a “normal” fasting glucose of 95 and an A1c that’s quietly drifting from 5.1 to 5.4 to 5.6, and they’re told everything is fine until suddenly it isn’t. The research actually shows that for people in this early-warning zone, postprandial glucose accounts for roughly 70% of the total problem, and it deteriorates years before fasting numbers move. We’ll cover the labs most doctors don’t order, including fasting insulin and HOMA-IR, why a whole food plant-based diet remains the most powerful lever for reversing insulin resistance, and the small, doable habits that smooth out blood sugar spikes after meals.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

* Why fasting glucose misses postprandial blood sugar spikes and what that means for prediabetes risk

* The specific lab tests to ask for, including fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, fructosamine, and CGM time-in-range

* How meal sequencing and a 10-minute post-meal walk can lower post-meal glucose by up to 37%

* Why a whole food plant-based diet improves insulin sensitivity at the cellular level

* How sleep, stress, and hydration quietly drive glucose dysregulation

* When to ask your doctor about iron deficiency and other conditions that distort A1c

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Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/what-does-it-mean-when-your-fasting

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