You can feel fine and still be walking toward a problem. According to the CDC, more than one in three American adults has prediabetes, and roughly eight in ten of them do not know it. A blood draw is how you find out.
Common panels your doctor can order
- Lipid panel — total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides.
- Hemoglobin A1c or fasting glucose. An A1c of 5.7 to 6.4 percent is the prediabetes range; 6.5 percent or higher is diagnostic for diabetes.
- Comprehensive metabolic panel — kidney and liver markers, electrolytes.
- Complete blood count.
- Thyroid (TSH), vitamin D, and — if symptoms warrant — testosterone.
Screening guidance
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening adults aged 35 to 70 who are overweight or obese for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. Blood pressure and cholesterol screening have their own USPSTF recommendations by age and risk. Your doctor decides the interval; the point is that these are ordinary, inexpensive tests.
Retest before and after
Numbers pulled before you change your training and eating, then again three to six months later, turn 'I think it's working' into evidence. It is also the most motivating thing most people ever see about their own body.
Billy cannot order labs or interpret them — that is your doctor's job. What he can do is build the training and eating that tends to move them.
If you want this handled for you instead of figured out alone, Billy's 90-Day Program is the version of all of this built around your body, your schedule and your starting point.
See the 90-Day ProgramCompletely optional. Everything above is yours either way.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — National Diabetes Statistics Report; Prediabetes
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force — Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes: Screening (2021)
- American Diabetes Association — Standards of Care, diagnostic A1c criteria
- American Heart Association — cholesterol and blood pressure guidance
Figures reflect the published guidance from these bodies at the time of writing. Guidelines are updated periodically — check the source for the current version.