Help?

[Alison Daniels]

Good morning all, can someone help shed some light on my issue. Diagnosed type 2 in November. No medication as yet. HB1AC 55. On a very strict low carb-keto type diet. Exercising within an inch of my life. 17bs down, bmi of 25, aiming for 23. Monitoring my sugars and am having a reading of 8.1 in the morning after fasting since 9pm the night before. Don’t know what else I can give up??? Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance, Alison x

 

[Brando77]

My morning readings are high too. It's called Dawn Phenomenon, it's just a thing that happens to some people. Don't let it stress you too much. My am readings are a lot of times anywhere between 6-8 after fasting since 6pm. Good luck. 🙂

 

[Docb]

Agree with Brando. Suggest you monitor at various times of the day ( morning, bedtime, before a meal, after a meal) over several days and get an average. If that is 7 or so , then you are doing OK. If it is 8 or above then think again. If you look around the forum you will find that it is easy to get hung up on single readings. What you should be looking for are the patterns - do specific foods give you highs, what sort of rise do you get after a meal, what is your average reading over a few days - and react to those.

 

[Alison Daniels]

My morning readings are high too. It's called Dawn Phenomenon, it's just a thing that happens to some people. Don't let it stress you too much. My am readings are a lot of times anywhere between 6-8 after fasting since 6pm. Good luck. 🙂

Thank you for the reply! I feel better about it already!

 

[Alison Daniels]

Agree with Brando. Suggest you monitor at various times of the day ( morning, bedtime, before a meal, after a meal) over several days and get an average. If that is 7 or so , then you are doing OK. If it is 8 or above then think again. If you look around the forum you will find that it is easy to get hung up on single readings. What you should be looking for are the patterns - do specific foods give you highs, what sort of rise do you get after a meal, what is your average reading over a few days - and react to those.

Thanks for the info. I’m eating so few carbs and yet my readings are still over 8 much of the time! Rarely below 7. They go up after exercise. I’m a bit flummoxed! But I am dropping weight so that should be a good thing. Thanks again. Alison

 

[Neens]

From the reading I have done levels around 8 are not too concerning, when it goes to 9 is time to consider. Your Hb1Ac is diabetic but isn't massively high so I am pretty sure with the weight loss and all the changes you have made you will find this is lower at your next testing. Try not to stress, that may raise BG levels. As people have already said that Dawn Phenomenon will give higher readings.
Try not to panic.

 

[Alison Daniels]

Thank you for the calm words. Stress is one of my biggest problems!!!! But you have made me feel better! X

 

[Neens]

Thank you for the calm words. Stress is one of my biggest problems!!!! But you have made me feel better! X

I'm glad Alison, keep on asking - this is a great place for support.

Breathe 🙂

 

[Drummer]

You might perhaps be over doing things - strange though it may seem as you are doing what we are all supposed to be doing - but I found that exertion raised my blood glucose levels and I was better off doing gentle exercise a couple of times a week to improve my general fitness levels and stamina. I was pretty surprised to discover that I'd lost weight, as I was not trying to, I monitored after meals, discovered that peas and beans affected me more than might be expected, walked a bit more, and once I was under 8 mmol/l most of the time I just stuck to eating the same, and saw my numbers drop to 7 most of the time. I coulnt myself as fortunate, and perhaps not everyone will be so lucky, but avoiding igh starch and sugar foods was the key for me.

 

[ianf0ster]

I agree with Drummer, To me it sounds like you are at least overdoing the exercise. Lots of vigorous exercise will increase your Blood Glucose levels more than lack of exercise will!
When you think about it the reasons are obvious: If your muscles are working so hard they need fuel, and the fastest available fuel your body can provide to them is glucose - manufactured in your liver!

When I went LCH, I was lucky that I was normal weight (a TOFI), so I was just trying to control my BG and not trying to lose weight.
Thus I didn't reduce my total Calories per day, just eat more fat and protein to compensate for the reduction in carbs.
Diets which restrict Calories usually also reduce the Base Resting Metabolism - meaning you adjust to lower Calories and so need to cut by even more in order to lose weight!
This is why 'crash diets' usually fail!

It is important to aim to keep your Insulin low for as long as possible each day. This is easiest overnight when you are asleep and so not eating anything, but snacks are to be avoided - instead eat a big enough meal so you don't suffer hunger between meals.
Once my body became 'fat adapted' I discovered that I was not hungry or not as hungry at some meal times, so the logical thing to do was to either eat less or just skip that meal.
When I do this (I haven't eaten Breakfast for over 5 weeks now), my body supplies the fuel deficit between my food intake and the energy I need by 'burning up' stored body fat without me ever needing to suffer from prolonged hunger.

It is a case of less is more! - Get some gentle to moderate exercise, but don't overdo it. If you like, try muscle building exercise (like squats or push-ups , weight lifting etc.)