Confused by A1C Numbers

On April 1st of 2026 I had my A1C checked and it was 6.0%. I had gotten it down to 5.5% from 6.0% in November of 2025 but gradually then went off of the wagon from eating really well and exercising and it shot back up to 6.0% by April 1st, 2026. My doctor told me it's time to get really serious about this so from April 6th to June 1st I did all the things that seem to work and it did. By June 1st I had dropped my A1C down to 5.6% woohoo! I'm on the right track and doing things correctly. That was a huge drop in two months.

July 1st comes around and time to check A1C again. Yes, I'm one of those people that goes pretty much every month to check it lol. I get obsessive. Anyway, on July 1st it stays at 5.6%. I definitely felt a bit discouraged because it didn't go down some more but figured that's okay, it's just stabilizing now in the normal range and my really bad sugar blood cells are dying off. I just went yesterday (July 30th) and checked A1C at lab again and it was 5.8%...WHATTTT? How could that be? I basically did the exact same things for 4 months that I did when it dropped 4% in two months. I exercise, eat right, weight is good...all the things I have learned in this reddit and from dieticians and tons of research.

Has this happened to anyone else where you saw yourself going backwards and had no idea why and you found out what could be doing it? Whether it was iron or something else? I have an appointment with Doc coming up to explore this. Of course, with my health anxiety I am very worried that something more damaging is wrong with my body now. I can't imagine how fast my A1C would increase if I just loosened up my restrictions just a little. I find this terribly discouraging. I realize that the numbers aren't crazy bad or anything but the fact that they went up that much so fast worries me. I've worn a CGM for 4 months and ALL the numbers on it don't line up with this 5.8%. They are way lower. Everything is...time in range, average glucose, GMI etc. Also, I finger prick for fasting almost every day and the numbers are under 100 quite regularly on a daily basis. I also prick finger at random times also to see how it lines up with the CGM and everything points to a much lower A1C.

My Vitamin D was at 25 on July 1st, but I've been supplementing with that for a month. I showed no signs of anemia on my July 1st blood test either, but I did not get an iron panel done. Anyone else have this happen and figured out why and then fixed it? I'm sorry for such a long post. I got carried away as I was writing it out. I wanted to get out all the details.