DoseLogDan said:

Fasting glucose improved within weeks and my HbA1c barely moved for three months, which I now understand and did not at the time.

Patient selection optimization for glycaemic control: emerging predictive biomarkers for GLP-1 agonist response include:

The 4-week early responder criterion is the most clinically actionable: if you haven't lost ≥3% by week 4 at a therapeutic dose, discuss optimization strategies with your provider.

KevinCompounds said:

Patient selection optimization for glycaemic control: emerging predictive biomarkers for GLP-1 agonist response include: Biomarker Association…

Fasting insulin is the lab my functional medicine doctor cares about most for glycaemic control: it's a much earlier marker of metabolic dysfunction than glucose or A1C.

My fasting insulin: 23 → 13 → 6 uIU/mL over 9 months. Target is <7. By the time your fasting glucose is elevated, your insulin has been elevated for YEARS trying to compensate.

Ask your doctor to include fasting insulin in your bloodwork panel. It's cheap (~$20) and incredibly informative.

DoseLogDan said:

Fasting glucose improved within weeks and my HbA1c barely moved for three months, which I now understand and did not at the time.

Same experience, arrived at from the opposite direction. The detail I would add is minor and it is already implied above.

Clinical perspective, offered as context rather than as advice.

My labs after 6 months on glycaemic control: A1C 6.1%, fasting glucose 76 mg/dL, fasting insulin 9 uIU/mL. My endo says these are "textbook perfect."

For context, my baseline A1C was 6.7% and fasting glucose was 121 mg/dL. The improvement has been dramatic and consistent.