BG readings and low carb

[googlegoss]

How long should it take for your bg readings to come down on low carb?

 

[Lamont D]

It all depends on you! No one can accurately say when.
But you should see differences within the second week.
Everyone is different.
Watch out for the carb cravings.

 

[googlegoss]

Thanks Nosher

 

[Winnie53]

Googlegoss, I've been on the low carb diet for 3 months. Blood glucose readings stabilized after 1 month. I want my blood glucose to be under 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L) 100% of the time, so I still have a ways to go.

My highest blood glucose reading, using my meter, was 297 mg/dL (16.5 mmol/L) on Day 3 of the LCHF diet, my lowest was 93 mg/dL (5.2 mmol/L) on Day 46.

To give you an overview of my progress over the last 13 weeks, the following is my lowest and highest BG reading for the first day of each week. It appears that I am meeting my weekly goal of staying under 140 mg/dL 65.5% to 87.5% of the time.

Day - Lowest & Highest Blood Glucose Reading - Percent Under 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L) - (Number BG Readings Taken Per Week)

A1C 9.9% (US), February 2015

1 - 217 & 258 mg/dL - 0.0% - (28)
8 - 145 & 174 mg/dL - 0.0% - (43)
15 - 147 & 183 mg/dL - 5.9% - (51)
22 - 123 & 194 mg/dL - 38.6% - (44)

29 - 111 & 167 mg/dL - 67.6% - (37)
36 - 120 & 162 mg/dL - 63.0% - (46)
43 - 108 & 143 mg/dL - 83.3% - (36)
50 - 112 & 136 mg/dL - 77.4% - (31)
57 - 104 & 174 mg/dL - 82.8% - (29) [end Accu-Chek Aviva meter]

64 - 113 & 142 mg/dL - 87.5% - (24) [begin ReliOn Prime meter]
71 - 112 & 117 mg/dL - 76.9% - (26)
78 - 104 & 128 mg/dL - 69.2% - (26)
85 - 130 & 168 mg/dL - 65.5% - (29)
92 - 148 & 160 mg/dL - 70.4% - (27)

A1C 5.5% (US), May 2015

99 - 116 & 146 mg/dL - 84.2% - (19)
106 - 119 & 170 mg/dL - 68.2% - (22) [4.5 of 7 days]

It appears that I started checking my fasting blood glucose and 2-hour post meal readings only after the first two months.

For the last month or so, I've developed a few techniques to manage my higher BG readings. If I get a high reading, typically after dinner, I will retest every hour or two until I get a reading below 140 mg/dL. To do that, I'll go for a long walk and increase my water intake. If I get a high reading after breakfast or lunch, I often skip having a snack.

I know I've had high blood sugars since 2011 - (based on an A1C in mid-2011 with no testing between then and mid-February of this year) - so for now, I've decided to focus on sticking with the diet and upping my exercise. In addition, I'm rethinking everything I do, particularly in regards to negative stressors - (positive stressors are still okay). I'm also taking nutritional supplements to help repair the damage I did over the last 4 years.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ian DP]

How long should it take for your bg readings to come down on low carb?

My experience was immediate. If you very low carb your BG level will only rise a little two hours after eating and will be lower before eating again. If you continue very low carbing at every meal during the day you will most likely be lower the next day, then lower still the day after etc. and this will likely to continue for a week to a month until they level out to your new BG average levels.

 

[Hedonista]

I know I've had high blood sugars since 2011 - (based on an A1C in mid-2011 with no testing between then and mid-February of this year) - so for now, I've decided to focus on sticking with the diet and upping my exercise. In addition, I'm rethinking everything I do, particularly in regards to negative stressors - (positive stressors are still okay). I'm also taking nutritional supplements to help repair the damage I did over the last 4 years.

Hope this helps.

I've been wondering about supplements - do you mind saying what you're taking?

 

[Winnie53]

My experience was immediate. If you very low carb your BG level will only rise a little two hours after eating and will be lower before eating again. If you continue very low carbing at every meal during the day you will most likely be lower the next day, then lower still the day after etc. and this will likely to continue for a week to a month until they level out to your new BG average levels.

@Ian DP, you are one of the forum members here who inspire me to keep trying new things to get my BG down all the way. May yet have to take medication. Time will tell.

I thought you took medication, initially only, to get your blood glucose levels down, then kept them down with the LCHF diet only. Am I remembering wrong?

 

[Winnie53]

I've been wondering about supplements - do you mind saying what you're taking?

Glad too.

I should say first that there are people who maintain excellent health with a healthy diet only, and those people irritate me, though I'd like to be one of them.

I have had to supplement with a multi-vitamin and a B-complex my entire adult life, likely because I have Inflammatory Bowel Disease, though have only had three flares in 25 years thanks to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and four years ago I was formally diagnosed with non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Perhaps one or both of these conditions explain why I don't absorb some nutrients well from food alone. Don't know.

And thank goodness I took those B vitamins. With my out of control blood glucose levels for too many years, I think I would have had peripheral neuropathy by now. At this time, I have no PN symptoms, and I am so grateful.

I should also say that I believe I have calcification of the arteries due to a bout of chest pain I had a month or two ago, likely due to taking calcium supplements for years and years without vitamin A (from cod liver oil), and vitamin K2 (from natto, fermented soybean), so nutritional supplements, like anything else, can do harm.

I took what I believed to be a good quality brand of nutritional supplements for 20 years, but I recently discovered they're having quality control problems, also that they don't include vitamin K2 in their calcium formulation, so I had to start all over again on finding a company I felt I could trust.

In the end, I decided to take nutritional supplements that are made from organic, whole-foods. Here's what I take:

Multi-vitamin and mineral supplement that includes all B vitamins, 2,000 IU vitamin D3, and all forms of vitamin E, 1/2 at breakfast and 1/2 at dinner
Cod liver oil (for vitamin A), breakfast
240 mg Vitamin C (sourced from berries and other plants) 1/2 at breakfast and 1/2 at dinner
180 mcg Vitamin K2 (MK-7 as menaquinone-7, sourced from Natto, fermented soybean), breakfast
2,000 mg Fish oil, 1/2 at breakfast and 1/2 at dinner
An eye health formulation - (I don't have retinopathy but I do have grade II atherosclerosis of the arteries in my eyes; hoping the K2 with cod liver oil, D3, and magnesium will reverse or stop the calcification)
100 CoQ10 mg, breakfast
450 mg Magnesium Citrate, 1/3 at breakfast, 1/3 at lunch, 1/3 at dinner (reduced blood pressure, reduced muscle cramping, and improved sleep)
99 mg Potassium Citrate, breakfast (I and others have found that the LCHF diet sometimes causes problems with electrolytes; I feel better taking a small amount of potassium with magnesium daily)

After reading the COMB study - (Combination of Micronutrients for Bone (COMB) Study: Bone Density after Micronutrient Intervention (2012); http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/2012/354151/ ) - I plan to add 680 mg Strontium citrate. Refer to Table 1: Combination of micronutrients (COMB) Protocol for Bone Health for list of supplements used in this study.

1,000 mg Meriva, 1/2 at breakfast, 1/2 at dinner - (An antioxidant, sourced in part from the spice turmeric but made more absorbable; it's essentially an anti-inflammatory; I can provide links to information (based on research) on Meriva, if requested. Hoping it will reduce inflammation in my heart, brain, and neck arteries, but it also helps those of us with diabetes in other ways too.)

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to add additional supplements for peripheral neuropathy because any symptoms I had have remitted, and I'm already taking some of the supplements known to help this condition.

I think that's all I'm taking, though I plan to take probiotics on a temporary basis when I finish the Brain Maker book.

 

[JTL]

Almost instantly for me ... within hours.
Supplements I'm very very wary of.
Time and again there have been reports about them being pretty much a waste of time and in this criminal corporate world where big companies don't mind selling you boiled donkeys head as best beef and chicken breast fillets that went rotten three weeks ago bleached back into life well ......

 

[Winnie53]

JTL, what has been your personal experience? Do you take any medication or supplements? If no, is that because you're enjoying good health? I hope so.

I have been harmed by both physicians, as well as the pharmaceutical and nutritional supplement industries, so I also am wary. I trust no one. But I listen to people's experiences and investigate anything that I believe may be helpful for me or the people I care about.

I cannot stress enough the importance of understanding your health condition, it's treatment, and where to get products proven through research to work, preferably from companies who have demonstrated trustworthiness over time.

In the US, Consumer Labs tests nutritional supplements and reports on whether what's in the capsule or tablet matches what's on the bottle's label. My husband I subscribe to that service for a nominal annual fee.

I also find it helpful to use all available networks, including forums like this, particularly well respected nutritionists, naturopaths, and practitioners certified in functional medicine, doctors and other specialists too, who regularly use the products and gain a sense over time which companies can be trusted and which products work.

For the last 15 years, my husband has lived with atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that is not easily managed. Thanks to an excellent cardiologist, catheter ablation, a few cardioversions, a number of medications, magnesium, aspirin, fish oil, and other nutritional supplements, he's still alive, enjoying a good quality of life, and working. Eventually, he'll have to get a pacemaker. Atrial fibrillation, untreated, causes blood clots which result in other potentially life threatening medical conditions.

What do you suggest we do?

Sometimes, taking a medication or nutritional supplement is the right thing to do when diet isn't enough.

I can't begin to tell you how frustrated I am with the attitude of "once diagnosed, there's little that can be done". While sadly, that's sometimes true, often there's something, sometimes even a lot of "somethings", that can be done.

 

[Totto]

How long should it take for your bg readings to come down on low carb?

Post meal readings often normalise more or less immediately, FBG can take a while and may not come down to normal levels regardless of hard you try. I suppose these things depends a lot of what type of diabetes you have and your specific set of genes. LCHF keeps my bg perfectly normal anyway, including morning readings. I keep under 30 grams of carbs a day, eat normal amounts of protein and a lot of fat.

 

[Ian DP]

@Ian DP, you are one of the forum members here who inspire me to keep trying new things to get my BG down all the way. May yet have to take medication. Time will tell.

I thought you took medication, initially only, to get your blood glucose levels down, then kept them down with the LCHF diet only. Am I remembering wrong?

When diagnosed T2 (21 months ago) I was put on Metformin and Gliclazide, these were stopped when diagnosed T1 / LADA (18 months ago).
I now take 25micro Levothyroxine for a thyroid problem diagnosed a few months back (guess this is diabetic related, but not sure).
I also take half a multivitamin pill each day. MyFitnesPal indicates i am a little low on a few vitamins, and my GP advised hat although I was in the normal range, my vit D was a little low..... So I take just half a pill.

 

[googlegoss]

Thanks for all your replies, it has been interesting reading and hopefully my bg's will come down soon. At the moment it doesnt seem to matter whether I eat low carb high fat compared to eating "normally" so will just have to persevere.

 

[Winnie53]

Googlegoss, hitting a plateau is discouraging.

Are you saying you observe no spikes in blood glucose when you eat fruit, grains, or legumes as compared LCHF foods? Not sure what you mean by noting no differences whether you eat LCHF or "normally". What's happening?

 

[Winnie53]

When diagnosed T2 (21 months ago) I was put on Metformin and Gliclazide, these were stopped when diagnosed T1 / LADA (18 months ago).
I now take 25micro Levothyroxine for a thyroid problem diagnosed a few months back (guess this is diabetic related, but not sure).
I also take half a multivitamin pill each day. MyFitnesPal indicates i am a little low on a few vitamins, and my GP advised hat although I was in the normal range, my vit D was a little low..... So I take just half a pill.

Ian DP, your experience in part is what's leading me to believe that I'm going to have to use medication, berberine, or something else, if only temporarily, to get my blood glucose levels completely into the normal range. It's almost as if my body is confused and thinks 110 mg/dL (6.1 mmol/L) is normal, instead of 83 mg/dL (4.6 mmol/dL). I'll get it sorted out eventually.

 

[Ian DP]

Dr Bernstein recommends medication, if needed to get into the normal range. He also recommends exercise. I have recently found 1 hour of cycling lowers my BG levels by 10 to 20%.... So your 6.1 could come down to 4.9 almost immediately. Maybe worth a try.... Works for me.

 

[Winnie53]

Ian DP, with the nice weather, I've been walking sometimes 3 miles or more a day. I think it's helping. Going to keep that up and maybe try taking Berberine or try fasting next.

 

[Winnie53]

Googlegoss, I'll be interested in hearing what you find works for you after you get this sorted out.