I have been LCing for 3 months and whereas my blood sugar was at 90, it is now at 182... any thoughts?

When did you test and what do you eat? How are you feeling? Do you have a cold, stressed anything like that?

If it jumped after a meal you might want to see what you ate, sometimes hidden sugars.

If you are sick or extremely stressed, that will raise your sugars.

Was this first thing in the morining? Do you test throughout the day?

If you can post a days or two of what you eat, when you eat and your blood sugar before a meal and then two hours after a meal that will help others to look at it and give you a better idea of what is going on.

Keep us posted.

Debi

Gloria, sorry to hear that your blood sugars are not looking good but I agree with Debi that we don't have nearly enough information to even begin to guess as to what's going on.
Debi listed a lot of possible factors, but the best person to determine exactly what is going on here is your doctor. While we can offer suggestions and share our experiences with you, the internet is no substitute for a visit to your doctor.
It's very rare for a person's blood sugars to increase while low carbing correctly although I can see it happening in an insulin dependent diabetic when carbs are cut very low and gluconeogenesis kicks in to compensate.
Post some daily menus and perhaps we can pinpoint a problem area or food that may be contributing to the problem.

Gloria,,,do remember that it is low-carb not no-carb on DrBs plan. From experience I know just how easy it is to drop the carbs altogether. Doing that sent my liver into a frenzy of partying.....and it took ages to smooth levels out again. I am IDDM T1, but I also believe T2s have to be careful too.....

Cheers.....Eve

Thanks everyone for your words...My blood sugar has always been normal as has the cholesterol...

My typical menu:

3-egg omelette with some cheese
coffee with 3 tsp coffeemate
2 sweetNlows


2 cups of lettuce
1/2 tomato
3 tbsp dressing
baked chicken (usually a thigh and a leg)
1 cup of jello (Jell-o light)

cheese
pork rinds

Sometimes I vary what I have for breakfast ( cold cuts, nopales (prickly pear), Mexican sausage (chorizo), or a low carb shake)

I had a bad Saturday... I don't know if that could make a difference in my readings.

I had 2 cupcakes, four small cookies, a small bag of cheetos and 2 tablespoons of Nutella (throughout the day)...Could that have anything to do with yesterday's reading?

Gloria, while all that stuff you ate on Saturday probably didn't do your blood sugar a whole lot of good, I doubt that it would cause a reading 4 days later to be elevated unless something else was going on.
Some other things to consider, though:

Where did you get the test done and who did the test?
Is it possible that the test strips were expired and gave a false high reading?
Was the test done fasting (no food or drink for at least 8 hours) or after you ate? If after you ate, how long after and what did you eat before the test?
Do you have a cold or any other infection going on?

I'd still like to encourage you to follow this up with your doctor. Further tests can show if this was simply an anomaly or if there really is a problem developing. I don't see anything wrong with your current menu, although I'd really encourage you to stay away from the cupcakes and such especially given the high reading you got.

I'm curious why you think no carbs is a problem. I do eat some carbs, generally non-starchy vegetables or berries for nutritional diversification. However, I may go totally non carb for several days with no noticeable problems. Indeed there have been several experiments with zero carb dieting, I know of no problems developing. What was the liver problem you experienced?

Hi lazysailor...
I presumed Gloria was following Dr Bernsteins plan when I replied in this thread, and he recommends a 6-12-12 carb day. I don't know whether she is T1 or T2, but as a T1 myself, I know that if we do not eat some carbs, our liver will provide the 'fuel' required to energise our bodies..blinking, thinking, walking etc. Our brain especially doesn't like reconstituted glucagon at all.
Lack of carbs puts one into ketosis---if you are T2, that is not likely to be a problem, but can become dangerous if one is using insulin.
Were you in ketosis when going zero-carb..?? I imagine you would have been.
Also, in the absence of adequate carbohydrate for fuel, the body initially uses protein (muscle) and fat. the initial phase of muscle depletion is rapid, caused by the use of easily accessed muscle protein for direct metabolism or for conversion to glucose (gluconeogenesis) for fuel. Eating excess protein does not prevent this because there is a caloric deficit.

When insulin levels are chronically too low as they may be in very low carb diets, catabolism (breakdown) of muscle protein increases, and protein synthesis stops.


...all of the foregoing paragraph....liver was in constant state of gluconeogenesis....and as I need insulin to survive it became chaotic trying to
get any sort of balance to bGs. As I said, I am IDDM T1, but I also believe T2s have to be careful too.....

Cheers......Eve

Hi,

Just being new at this, (4 weeks), I am finding the same is true for me too. I sometimes went to low or without, and found out it was a mistake, this really is a learning experience and I am finding that no two people are the same in what works for them. My husband also is a type 2 and even his needs in carbs is different than mine for his better readings.

Ketosis, (Atkins said he used wrong word should have used lipoylosis...spelling???) wont send you into a coma, ketosiacdiosis will. Only type I's can do both (if go so low while in ketosis…. and type II mainly wont go into ketoacdisis unless on insulin or totally uncontrolled. They are two different things; some signs the same maybe but not same issue as well. Ketosis is meaning your body is burning fat. It has nothing to do with diabetes unless you are low carbing but people get it confused.
BethM is you are that low you really are on Atkins, his starts out at 20 but work up and if maintain self that low that is good. Sounds though you have never read it.???? New book Atkins Diabetic revolution is excellent.
Atkins basically cured my diabetes and it is dormant unless I eat high carbs. I am a II though.
I think we each need to find out own balance.
Someone up above is using coffeemate which is laden in sugars and no wonder you are getting screwy readings.
lots here mentioned if they don't eat a long time they have high BG, well of course that is normal, the longer you go, the more freaked your body gets thinking it is starving thus your liver compensates and spews out some glycogen to keep you alive and no thermostat to tell it to turn off so you get a rebound hi reading. that is why aktins and Bernstein etc all say to eat something every few hrs and aktisn says NEVER go over five hs without eating while awake. One reason type II's have hi morning readings is due to the fast all night.That is how I understand it all.
If a type I and low carbing you can get hi readings from rebound effects so it is almost a magical act to get it all together. Evee sounds like you have found a good balance.

PS: in my next life i want to return as a male in NZ LOL
PPS:if going really low carb on insulin either need to drop insulin dramatically or will have rebounds.Type I's will always need some but such small amts of insulin and I know lots that eat low carb but have not dropped insulin enough, it is for sure a difficult task.
I also feel no diff on zero carb to low carb but once raise carbs and go to 70 boy do cravings, hunger, feeling tired come into play but Bg will still be normal at that level but dont feel as good.

PS: in my next life i want to return as a male in NZ LOL

Don't believe everything you read on here 4myfuture..haha

I like your thinking with regard to this dx....Cheers.......Eve

True as far as for us, so what does a person do to have a lower reading in the morning, get up during the night and have a snack? I am serious, the morning reading is always high and doesn't come down till after breakfast. Is it possible to get that am reading lower? (type 2)

Upback:
I'm in the same boat with you. My FBG is the highest reading of the day. I usually adjust it with a small snack right before bedtime, some plain yougurt, a slice of turkey breast, few nuts. If I don't eat a snack, my FBG will be around 110-120. If I do, in 100-110 range. FBG is used for dx since it's a best indicator of your BGs control in general, which is basically insulin availability and utilization. DP due to "liver dump" is absolutely normal, and the higher FBG is mostly due to insuffucient insulin before dawn to conteract the liver. I too have to eat as soon as I'm up to stop the liver from charning glucose and/or to get pancrease to pump some insulin. Most type 2 are have rather higher than lower insulin, so this FBG is actually an indicator that we are not in complete control, another words are diabetics, LOL. Interesting, that back in 1995 FBG high limit was <140, now it's <100. Since my Hb1C never was higher than 5.7% and current is 5.4%, I question the whole "low FBG" concept for non-diabetics too. DP was widely discussed on this forum and others as well, it's hard to deal with. I just can share what works for me, BTW, exercise before bedtime works too. So, try to workout after dinner and eat a small low carb snack as close to bed time as you can, and see if this works. It's trial and error, sometimes even more carbs at dinner time lowers my FBG, generally the lower 2 h pp after dinner, the higher my FBG will be. As for eating something at 2 am, I wouldn't do this simply because I need uninterrupted 8 hours of night sleep. Good night sleep is also important for better FBG readings. And last one, some folks swear by drinking alcohol before bedtime to control FBG. As much as I love my wine, alcohol at dinner always raises my FBG regardless what I ate. With this evil Dx, YMMV .
Good luck,
Dina

Upback, that depends on why you are having higher morning readings. If it's a rebound hyperglycemia due to the Somogyi effect (hypo during the night causing gluconeogenesis to compensate), a small snack at bedtime or during the night might help or less medication at bedtime (your doctor can help you with that one, if needed).
If it's due to the Dawn Phenomenon where a combination of hormones (Cortisol, Adrenaline, Glucagon and HGH) paired with the liver clearing circulating insulin are causing the morning increase, there isn't any therapy currently that is consistenly effective other than perhaps Glucophage (Metformin). From my own experience, it did settle down once I had been low carbing for a while and now my morning readings are better; not necessarily my lowest of the day but usually below 90 which is fine with me.
Here is a link that discusses the difference between Dawn Phenomenon and Somogyi effect as well as some strategies for dealing with either: http://www.diabetic-talk.org/dp.htm