Active Low-Carber Forums
Atkins diet and low carb discussion provided free for information only, not as medical advice.
Home Plans Tips Recipes Tools Stories Studies Products
Active Low-Carber Forums
A sugar-free zone


Welcome to the Active Low-Carber Forums.
Support for Atkins diet, Protein Power, Neanderthin (Paleo Diet), CAD/CALP, Dr. Bernstein Diabetes Solution and any other healthy low-carb diet or plan, all are welcome in our lowcarb community. Forget starvation and fad diets -- join the healthy eating crowd! You may register by clicking here, it's free!

Go Back   Active Low-Carber Forums > Main Low-Carb Diets Forums & Support > Low Carb Health & Technical Forums > Dr.Bernstein & Diabetes
User Name
Password
FAQ Members Calendar Mark Forums Read Search Gallery My P.L.A.N. Survey


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   ^
Old Fri, Apr-02-21, 09:28
CallmeAnn's Avatar
CallmeAnn CallmeAnn is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,728
 
Plan: HFLC/IF
Stats: 218/176/140 Female 5'4"
BF:27%
Progress: 54%
Location: Houston area
Default My Glucose Readings

I have never considered myself to definitely be diabetic. I haven't been diagnosed because I don't want it on paper, as a pre-existing condition. Also, if a doctor did tell me I am diabetic, what would I do about it? The same thing I'm doing now.
But, when I had been back on lc for several weeks, this time, I got out my meter and started checking my glucose. I knew I needed to get more strips but started out using what I had. The numbers were good, which didn't surprise me, as I had been losing steadily and I think I've lost about 20 lbs. But I got new strips the other day and used them for the first time yesterday morning before eating but not immediately upon getting up for the day. I checked twice and read 121 the first time and 117, the second. I am so upset. I know I'm still almost 200 lbs, but I hear all the time about people's sugars normalizing on a low carb diet, after a couple of weeks. I get no more than about 15 grams per day and like I said, I've lost 20 lbs, which is ten percent of my body weight. I also fast every day and have had several OMAD days.
And, I eat cleaner than I ever did when I did lc in the past. I don't do sf treats, etc.
So, I guess I am diabetic, which doesn't surprise me much, but shouldn't my sugar be lower than this? Is weight that much of an actual cause of high sugars? Why would I still have so much sugar in my blood when I'm still fasting for the day?
Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
  #2   ^
Old Fri, Apr-02-21, 09:43
GRB5111's Avatar
GRB5111 GRB5111 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 4,036
 
Plan: Very LC, Higher Protein
Stats: 227/186/185 Male 6' 0"
BF:
Progress: 98%
Location: Herndon, VA
Default

Ann, a few of us were just joking about meter readings being inconsistent in another thread:
https://forums.lowcarber.org/showth...213#post9401213
See the most recent posts from yesterday and today.

It's true, so don't be too concerned, as steadily losing weight is a good sign, and eating consistently is the best approach. The new strips are a different lot than what you've been using, and my experience has been that they can produce very different readings. However, the best thing to do is to make sure you're being very consistent with the meter reading by doing the same things each time: cleaning the area before drawing blood and making sure you get enough in the blood drop for the strip to do its thing. Once you settle in to a routine with eating and measuring, good things usually happen. I strongly believe we are able to resolve pre- and type 2 diabetes by eating healthy. When you think of how long it took for you to get high blood glucose, you realize that it's a process and takes some time to resolve.

The thread referenced: Marty Kendall's Data-Driven Fasting is a good summary of how people are able to take control of their blood glucose, but it requires measurements, corresponding adjustments in what is eaten and when, and consistency throughout. It's not hard, but it does take determination to not get distracted when it doesn't progress smoothly all the time. Good luck.
Reply With Quote
  #3   ^
Old Fri, Apr-02-21, 11:22
Charran's Avatar
Charran Charran is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 9,446
 
Plan: my own
Stats: 253/176.0/153 Female 5 feet 7 inches
BF:
Progress: 77%
Default

Being diabetic is a very complex set of processes and it's very difficult to figure out. I am a long term diabetic. I've been eating this way for years! It used to work great for me, but for about the past year or more, I am having trouble keeping it under control. I have recently started IF to try and get things in line but so far I"m having no luck. It really depends on so many things, how much insulin your pancreas is producing, how insulin resistant you are, how much your muscles are able to utilize, etc. The list just goes on on and on. I don't really have any answers for you. There are a lot of great doctors out there who can explain things way better than I can. Dr. Jason Fung seems to be a good one for information. Search him out. He has some books and videos on YouTube.
Reply With Quote
  #4   ^
Old Fri, Apr-02-21, 11:23
wbahn's Avatar
wbahn wbahn is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 8,651
 
Plan: Atkins-ish, post-WLS
Stats: 408.0/288.0/168.0 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 50%
Location: Southern Colorado, USA
Default

If I don't eat for too long a time my sugars rise as my body converts protein to glucose. I've seen this effect (gluconeogenesis) push my sugars above 200 mg/dl.
Reply With Quote
  #5   ^
Old Fri, Apr-02-21, 15:38
CallmeAnn's Avatar
CallmeAnn CallmeAnn is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,728
 
Plan: HFLC/IF
Stats: 218/176/140 Female 5'4"
BF:27%
Progress: 54%
Location: Houston area
Default

The glucose your body makes is more than what you get in food? I never expected it to be that much, when I read about that process.
Reply With Quote
  #6   ^
Old Fri, Apr-02-21, 15:40
CallmeAnn's Avatar
CallmeAnn CallmeAnn is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,728
 
Plan: HFLC/IF
Stats: 218/176/140 Female 5'4"
BF:27%
Progress: 54%
Location: Houston area
Default

I have watched a lot of his fasting videos and have read most of The Obesity Code, but I have not focused on other material he may have out, about diabetes separately and specifically. I'll check it out.
Reply With Quote
  #7   ^
Old Fri, Apr-02-21, 15:43
CallmeAnn's Avatar
CallmeAnn CallmeAnn is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,728
 
Plan: HFLC/IF
Stats: 218/176/140 Female 5'4"
BF:27%
Progress: 54%
Location: Houston area
Default

Thanks, Rob. After reading that, I think I'll just keep on eating and not-eating as I've been. Thanks for saving me the money for a Keto Mojo meter. I keep meaning to check on the price but have not, yet.
After another three months, I think I'll just order up an independent A1C from some lab.
Reply With Quote
  #8   ^
Old Fri, Apr-02-21, 17:05
wbahn's Avatar
wbahn wbahn is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 8,651
 
Plan: Atkins-ish, post-WLS
Stats: 408.0/288.0/168.0 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 50%
Location: Southern Colorado, USA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by CallmeAnn
After another three months, I think I'll just order up an independent A1C from some lab.


You can get home A1c kits that are just as accurate as the lab test results. I've probably taken a home reading on the same day as getting a blood draw about a dozen times and the results are almost always with 0.1 percentage points. The cost for a single test is about $20. You can also get them in packs of 2, 10, and 20. At the 20 level the costs are down to about $8 each. They shelf life is a year, but I've gotten the same performance well over a year after the expiration date (but I keep them in the fridge).
Reply With Quote
  #9   ^
Old Fri, Apr-02-21, 20:44
Ms Arielle's Avatar
Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 19,177
 
Plan: atkins, carnivore 2023
Stats: 200/211/163 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: -30%
Location: Massachusetts
Default

Take heart. Apparently when the body is fully keto adapted, the blood sugars rise a bit. Seems the body prefers the ketones over the sugar so it accumulates un-used.


Also morning cortisol high causes release of glucose.

Sorry I dont remember the source. Didn't know I would be sharing.
Reply With Quote
  #10   ^
Old Sat, Apr-03-21, 09:55
CallmeAnn's Avatar
CallmeAnn CallmeAnn is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,728
 
Plan: HFLC/IF
Stats: 218/176/140 Female 5'4"
BF:27%
Progress: 54%
Location: Houston area
Default

I don't mind the glucose just being there if it isn't damaging my tissues. Of course I have no idea if that's possible.
Don't worry about that source question. That was the first time I had seen that, and yet I've seen that "fat cells filling up with water" narrative for years. Right after I read yours, I read it again, and with some decent level of attribution. It really doesn't make much sense for fat cells to do that.
Reply With Quote
  #11   ^
Old Sat, Apr-03-21, 12:59
wbahn's Avatar
wbahn wbahn is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 8,651
 
Plan: Atkins-ish, post-WLS
Stats: 408.0/288.0/168.0 Male 72 inches
BF:
Progress: 50%
Location: Southern Colorado, USA
Default

The oft-repeated claim that fat cells fill up with water and then dump it has been pretty well debunked in recent years. Apparently there's no mechanism for them to even do it. But that was always just an overly-simplified attempt to provide an explanation for a phenomenon that thousands routinely observe. That the explanation has turned out not to be valid in no way means that the phenomenon isn't happening. It is -- we just need a better way of explaining it. The underlying mechanism still appears to be the same -- the body retains water even as fat is being lost and at some point the body dumps the water. The current thinking is that the body is attempting to maintain homeostasis and water retention is part of that. At some point the body loses that battle and readjusts to a new level, resulting in a purge of the bulk of the retained water. A lot more research needs to be done to nail down a more detailed understanding.

From a practical standpoint, it doesn't really matter. The Whoosh phenomenon, however well or poorly understood, is very real for many people that are losing weight (and it is not unique to LC by any means -- I experienced it each and every time I've ever tried to lose weight and succeeded in more than ten or twenty pounds no matter what diet/exercise program I was trying).

When I was trying to find some information on it a while back it was interesting to see the spin that the anti-LC sites put on the study that refuted the notion that fat cells fill with water. They talked about people going on LC for the sole purpose of experiencing the Whoosh effect. Huh? I've never heard of anyone saying that they wanted to try LC for the whoosh. They seem to be confusing the initial large weight loss with a whoosh, but that's absurd since a whoosh is, even by the fat-cells-fill-with-water model, by definition, something that can't happen until AFTER the fat has been lost. The initial weight loss on LC is NOT a whoosh, that is a different mechanism.

As for glucose being higher when on a ketone metabolism. This is the first time I've heard of this and it doesn't jive with my personal experience. But each person is different.
Reply With Quote
  #12   ^
Old Thu, Apr-08-21, 12:27
CallmeAnn's Avatar
CallmeAnn CallmeAnn is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,728
 
Plan: HFLC/IF
Stats: 218/176/140 Female 5'4"
BF:27%
Progress: 54%
Location: Houston area
Default

Thanks. I’ll refer back here in a few months.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:16.


Copyright © 2000-2024 Active Low-Carber Forums @ forum.lowcarber.org
Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.