So I've totally bombed on my low carb diet the last year. I low carb most of the time but then eat lots of grain free treats that I know aren't high carb. And I've had 3 miscarriages this year and after most of them I've just eaten crap out of depression and self pity. It's driven my insulin, A1C and testosterone up. :/

My Dr put me on Metformin about 6 mo ago. I learned on Valentines Day this year that it can give me scary reactive hypoglycemia. My husband bought me a box of chocolates that were not sugar free. I actually ate some candy in bed and not breakfast. I was playing with the kids in bed and found myself feeling super super sleepy and like I just had to go to sleep right then and there. Then I started to feel shaky and realized something must be wrong. I wondered if my bg was low and grabbed two pieces of candy and ate them and called my husband. We took my bg shortly after the candy...15 to 20 min later and it was in the 40's. I felt like I was shaking inside and out and could not walk without support for an hour or so. It scared me to death.

I've had it happen a couple of others times but never as bad. So I know if I eat high carb on Metformin I get a high and then a super low. Right now I'm back on very low carb and my bg is getting nice and low. Tonight an hour after dinner it was only 77. I'm not sure what it was before. But I'm wondering how I'd know if the Met was too much? I never had lows on it before unless I ate high carb. But I was never eating really low carb for long just more moderate levels most of the time then binging. So if I'm eating low carb will it just otherwise keep my bg low and steady?

Before Metformin and one other supplement I successfully tried I'd normally have a BG that always ran above 100. Fasting would be just above 100 and I never got really any higher after meals. So can I low carb on Metformin and just keep normally steady numbers or do I need to cut my Metformin dose as my bg drops?

I'm in part taking Metformin to lower testosterone levels as well so I don't want off it entirely. But I'm just scared of ever having lows like that unknowingly.

Well metformin can cause lows. You will have to experiment to find what works for you. Testing your blood sugar staying away from the swings.

From my limited expereince, I really never of heard of anyone on metformin having those huge of swings when they over carb it.

I took metformin and it did nothing for me. I had high insulin values (93 being the highest recorded for me - normal was <9)

Normal BGs range in the 80s from what I have read.

Why did your Dr. put you on Metformin? What was your A1C?

Are you on other meds for depression? or anything else ?Wondering if there is an interaction going on.

For me metformin gave me a chronic cough and liquid diherea so I never took the prescribed dose. They wanted me to take 2000 MG a day. I could barely tolerate 500-750 MG.

I also know there is a difference in pills there is extended release and immediate release you might look into that as well.

Have you talked to your Dr. about this?

Low carbing it according to Dr Bernsteins plan, results after 2 months took my A1C from a 6.8 to a 5.8. With no meds.

I found all the different medicines didn't help and just gave me too many weird side effects I wasn't willing to tolerate.

Doing diet only now.

I can't recall if I mentioned it or not but I also had the highest bg swings I've ever had on Metformin. Before Metformin my BG never ever went above just under 200 if I ate something super high carb. After Met I ate some things, tested my bg and it was 220-240!! That is an absolutely insane jump for me. Now my bg is great if I don't much in the way of carbs on Met which is what I need to be doing. But I never had super highs or super lows like this before Met. over the 3 years since I started testing my BG, not even on a OGTT.

So metformin caused you to have higher insulin levels? That's scary. I'm trying desperately to lower my insulin levels so it will lower my testosterone levels to normal.

My Dr put me on Met because I'm insulin resistant, have high insulin and have high testosterone. My last A1C was either 5.7 or 5.9 without digging out my labs. When I first started low carbing and brought it down it was down to 5.1 so this is a jump for me.

The only other meds I am on are Labetalol for high blood pressure. And I'm on Naturethroid which is a desiccated natural thyroid prescription. The Metformin is 500 mg extended release twice a day. I usually get a lot of side effects from medication so I was surprised that I've never really had any from the Met, other than that pesky bg swing if I eat too high carb.

Hi sap, no metformin can't cause higher insulin levels as far as I know. For me my insulin levels are just naturally high based on my insulin insensitivity which really kinda sucks...

With metformin you still need to not do high carb. Metformin is not like insulin. Where you take more insulin if you go too high in carb.

You experiencing higher BGs means you are becoming more insulin resistance and you need to cut out the high carbing and start getting the carb intake under permanent control before you develop type 1 diabetes or go into insulin shooting for type 2 diabetes.

Taking insulin basically makes loosing weight harder. It is already hard enough because we have the excess insulin in our bodies naturally. Insulin tells the body to store energy as fat and is a hormone that plays in regulating hunger.

The only way to really lower your insulin levels is really by controlling carb intake.

Every time you do high carb you are "burning" you pancreas out even more and your body is becoming less effective at using your own insulin.

Yes, I was not able to take Metformin because I'd have major crashes. My endo said that's a fairly common problem.