Blood Glucose question

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Poodle212

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Type 2
Hi everyone, I was recently diagnosed with T2 diabetes and the advice from my GP was to ‘tweak’ my diet whatever that means.

After browsing your forum for a few days I decided I would go low carb, as this makes sense to me, but since I’ve been trying to stick to under 130 g of carbs a day I’ve been feeling weak and lacking energy.

I’ve been testing my BG and it was coming up as low frequently, until last week where I was stressed at work, so I saw an increase. Now I feel weak and tired but my BG is 7.5. Has anyone experienced this before? I’ve stopped eating pasta, rice and spuds but am having limited bread, and carbs from fruit and veg.
 
Have you changed your diet gradually, to give yourself time to get used to it and importantly to minimise damage to your eyes from sudden changes in blood sugar. Or have you just made a sudden change to cut various foods from your diet? Could you have made too many changes too quickly?
 
Hi and welcome. What are you having instead of carbs? It is usually suggested you increase your protein portions to compensate, and unless you have a medical reason not to, increase your fats. For example, I have increased my chicken portion from 70gm to 100 gm, and my fish (not battered or breaded) to 125gm. I have increased my veggie portion sizes and have cauliflower cheese instead of potato, plus I have yogurt daily. Your body does adjust in time and hopefully you will soon feel more energetic. BG of 7.5 (from a finger prick) is good if its 2 hours after eating.
 
Poodle212 said:
Hi everyone, I was recently diagnosed with T2 diabetes and the advice from my GP was to ‘tweak’ my diet whatever that means.

After browsing your forum for a few days I decided I would go low carb, as this makes sense to me, but since I’ve been trying to stick to under 130 g of carbs a day I’ve been feeling weak and lacking energy.

I’ve been testing my BG and it was coming up as low frequently, until last week where I was stressed at work, so I saw an increase. Now I feel weak and tired but my BG is 7.5. Has anyone experienced this before? I’ve stopped eating pasta, rice and spuds but am having limited bread, and carbs from fruit and veg.
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This can happen when people cut down on their carbs especially if they have previously had a very high carb diet. The body is getting used to more normal glucose levels. It is sometimes referred to as keto flu.
Generally it is better to reduce your carbs gradually so work out what you were eating and reduce by a third for a week then another third until you get to where you want to be.
Keeping hydrated is also important as in cutting carbs people can lose fluids.
I cutting carbs then you need to compensate by having plenty protein and healthy fats.
If your monitor is saying low that can mean it hasn't got enough blood in the strip, check your instructions.
 
If you are seeing those numbers and still eating bread, fruit and veges then you aren't deep into diabetes territory.
Up your intake of protein and fats to compensate, and do consider saturated fat your friend. We need saturated fat to form and maintain brain and nervous system, and to be the raw materials for hormones and other essential substances. It might be heresy according to many, but it is a simply biological necessity.
I discovered recently that my intake of fats is actually fairly low, because I avoid seed oils. I know that my cholesterol levels reduced a little after diagnosis, but they were not all that high before.
These days I feels so much more energised.
 
Thanks all for your replies. I didn’t gradually go low carb I just went for it, lol, with hindsight I should have done it differently. My diet was carb heavy before so it makes sense that it will take some time to switch to a lower carb regime.

I will increase my portions as well to compensate for the missing carbs I’m eating fish, cheese, yoghurt, nuts, fruit, veg, pulses and limited bread. Really my diet has changed quite dramatically so it does make sense that it’s been a bit of a bumpy ride.

Everyone here is so nice and helpful, so thank you for that.
 
Welcome to the forum @Poodle212

Hopefully your body will adjust to your new way of eating before too long, and you’ll feel more energised.

When you say you’ve been getting low readings, what sort of numbers have you been seeing? And which meter have you been using?
 
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