Can anyone help me understand…

[helloem]

Hi all,

Wondering if someone can help me understand as I feel like I’m at a loss and must be missing something.

As background, 30 years old and not long been diagnosed with Type 2. I wasn’t really embracing it at first and didn’t cut down on the naughty things strait away.
However, the last 2 weeks I have been incredibly conscious about everything and really been trying to eliminate sugar from my diet so that I can get some weight off and get sugar levels under control.

Everyday for the past 10 days I have had the following:

Breakfast - 2/3 eggs scrambled or fried. Occasionally accompanied by 2 slices of bacon or ham.

Lunch - Slices of cucumber and either Tuna or plain chicken.

Dinner - Salad (Cucumber, Radishes, Spinach, Lettuce, Rocket/other green leaves) & some kind of protein like plain chicken, pork and today was steak. No dressings/no sauce.

All week my glucose levels have been similar, but today they were as follows:

Before breakfast: 8.7 (9am)
After breakfast: 7.7 (11.30am)
Before lunch: 6.8 (1pm)
After lunch: 7.9 (3pm)
Before dinner: 5.8 (6pm)
After dinner: 5.6 (8.30pm)
Before bed: 7.3 (11pm)

What I’m not understanding is where my body is finding sugar from because there is none going in, or should I say minimal amounts. I have been drinking plain water and no added sugar squash which reading the nutrition labels has no sugar either.

If someone who has knowledge can help me understand why 2 hours after dinner i drop to lows of 5+ but then as it comes to bedtime and then the next day I’m jumping up to 7+
I thought that it would peak after dinner but then start to drop again before bed and certainly by time the morning comes

I take 1000mg of metformin with 2 meals a day, breakfast and dinner.
Sorry for the long post… but I’m finding it difficult to understand where I’m going wrong.

Thank you!

 

[Sally71]

In the absence of carbohydrates your body will metabolise protein into glucose. You have to have some glucose in your blood to provide your brain with the constant source of fuel that it needs, and those numbers are pretty amazing, well done!
Nobody’s blood sugar stays constant all the time either, even if you aren’t eating anything. The fluctuations you are showing are minimal and don’t really mean anything at all.

 

[Ljc]

Hi . Those numbers are great, so stop worrying .

Our body and brain needs glucose as fuel and our body is quite capable of making glucose from protein if and when it need to , plus our liver can put out glucose when needed, in fact it does this most mornings a few hours before we wake up, it’s to ensure we have enough energy available for when we need to go out and hunt for our brekkie , yes a throw over from our past . Hence our waking number is often higher than our bedtime one .

These figures are taken from our main site

If you have Type 2 diabetes​

• before meals: 4 to 7mmol/l
• two hours after meals: less than 8.5mmol/l

 

[Ljc]

Tbh I am wondering the meals meals mentioned are going to become rather boring for you after a while.
Have a look on this running thread for ideas, but please bear in mind that people with all types of diabetes post there and some will be on insulin which can give us greater freedom .

What did you eat yesterday?

It can be helpful sometimes to know what sort of things people are eating, as it might give some ideas for a more varied diet. So, I'll start off with what I ate yesterday: Breakfast - 1 slice buttered Burgen toast (my breakfast every day, I don't like to run with too much in my stomach)...

forum.diabetes.org.uk

 

[rebrascora]

As others have said. our liver trickles out glucose it manufactures to keep our vital organs fueled during the times that we have no fuel from food (during the night particularly and in the morning to give us energy to start our day. Add to that, 40% of protein (and 10% of fat) breaks down into glucose in the absence of enough carbohydrate, so this is where the glucose in your blood is coming from. This is why a low carb, higher fat way of eating works quite well, because the fat provides calories with minimal glucose input compared even to protein. It also provides slow release energy over many hours rather than carbs which are often released within an hour or two causing a BG spike and then drop.

Your readings are really quite steady which is brilliant but I can understand that you might want your waking reading to be a little lower. This often takes more time to show an effect from dietary changes than the other readings. Ie waking readings are the last to come down. It would also be interesting to know when you take the waking reading? ie the moment you wake up before you get out of bed or half an hour later when you have been to the loo and got dressed and sitting with a cup of coffee perhaps as that can make a significant difference as just getting out of bed can trigger the liver to start pumping out glucose.

If you don't mind me asking, do you have much/any weight to lose and do you have a family history of Type 2 diabetes and how physically active are you?
Whilst your readings are really pretty good considering you have only been making these dietary changes a short time, you are on an extremely carb restricted diet and I would have expected that your levels might have dropped a little lower, so just wondering if you fit any of the Type 2 profiles or if it's a possibility that you might have a different type of diabetes. The fact that you are only 30 which is the younger end of the scale for Type 2 just makes me question the diagnosis.
How did your diabetes come to be diagnosed.... ie were you symptomatic weeing, thirsty, tired etc or was it just discovered through a routine blood test?
What was your HbA1c result at diagnosis? This is the blood test used to diagnose diabetes?

The answer to all these questions might help to shine a bit more light on your situation and help us to help you.
Just for clarity, from looking at your previous posts, you have been prescribed Metformin. Is that the only medication you have been given?

 

[helloem]

Hi Barbra,
Thanks for your message, as with everyone’s it has helped me understand just what is going on.

I was diagnosed because I did a Thriva at home test as I was feeling lethargic and struggling to get the weight off, the doctors didn’t really put any pieces together for me so I paid for a private test which is when they picked up that my HbAc1 was 105. It then started falling into place, i didn’t really realise how bad the thirst etc was until it was gone once I started on Metformin and started changing my diet.
I’m currently at 15st and so to get down to guidelines, need to loose about 3, but honestly, id be happy just to get a little off.
My Grandad had diabetes but he only got that in his 80s. I have a feeling that there may have been a link to it from my dads side of the family but unfortunately I don’t know then or know much about them.

Yesterday we went to a bbq and I just couldn’t resist a few crisps, a bit of cake and a cider (no bread though) - when I woke up this morning I measured at 10.3.

I test everyday pretty much as soon as I roll out of bed. I work from home so there is no commute, I just head to my home office. I get out for an hour or more walk probably 4-5 times a week and sometimes in the morning I will go for a cycle for an hour, but that’s not overly regular at the moment.

Thanks again to everyone for their help.

 

[BlueArmy]

Glucose is stored in your liver and released when its needed, and in your muscles which tend to use it for themselves. Its a good idea to build some muscle mass as this will help lock up some glucose. When your liver store is low, your muscles can break down and release protein which your kidneys can then convert to glucose. Your brain cells are the only ones in your body that can use the glucose without the help of insulin. Your body is pretty clever at making glucose and metformin works by acting on your liver to reduce its glucose output. Thats my understanding- correct if I am wrong.