My Low GI diet, counting the calories, and surviving with carbs

[douglas99]

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[forge]

It is good to see you back @douglas99 with your quasi blog.

Your intro sets the scene very well and I am interested in following your progress.

 

[forge]

I worked with instrumentation and in major industry for 28 years and I expect that the meters do not measure sugar they measure electrical properties (probably conductivity).

And with the tiny sample size even super tiny salty dried sweat will contaminate the sample and READ HIGH all WILD readings I have seen have been high.

When we measure something and declare it something else it is called an inferential test.

An example (as a diver) you measure water pressure and infer depth. But pressure is height times density so if the density changes salt water vs fresh water, your depth gauge/pressure gauge will read wrong.

Inferential testing has its limitations.

I hope that helps.

 

[Lesleywo]

I will be your guinea pig @douglas99; I live in a 3 storey house so this is something I do quite a bit in the normal course of the day (maybe not sprinting!)
So tell me when should I do the test, any old time or say measure 2 hours after a meal, then do it?
I did have an odd experience the other day myself ... I always exercise in the morning (walk before breakfast, weights mid morning some days) but one day last week I decided to test a big, grainy bread roll. So, ate the roll (with ham, cheese & salad in), felt a bit lightheaded 90 mins later so decided to go for a 20 min walk (thought it was anxiety). Tested at 2 hours, BG down to 4.3, lowest reading ever. So probably the exercise skewed the result I'm thinking. Unless had a big swing up and a rush of insulin. Got to admit there seems to be so many variables with the testing .. I have a very varied diet and rarely eat the exact same thing twice .. so hard to work out what's doing what.
Anyway, let me know
Lesley

Well, very strange results, as I just remembered the blood test.
In the space of a few minutes.

11.2 @ 22.29
so, I washed my hands
9.5 @ 22.31
still seemed high.
Up the stairs, washed again.
Realised I had no strips left.
Upstairs, to get more,
Realise I had taken my meter up, back up and down, and washed again, just to be sure.
7.2 @ 22.47

So, what is the real reading?

Did the glass noodles send me to 9.5? or 11.2?
Did the simple exercise of running up and down stairs a few times drop me by 2.3?

Do I sweat glucose?
Is my keyboard sugar coated?
Does high glucose blood pool in my fingers, and does exercise simply swill the old blood from from fingertips.?
Does running up stairs a few times use 2.3 points of glucose?

Now if
'Does high glucose blood pool in my fingers, and does exercise simply swill the old blood from from fingertips.'
or even
'Does running up stairs a few times use 2.3 points of glucose'
are true, that means all my testing is a complete crock.

So.

in reverse order.
Could I use glucose that fast, and circulate the blood though my body?
I'm going for no.

If I run upstairs (even though I'm reasonably fit) will I pump my blood faster. -Yes.
So, that suggests my fingers are little lethargic capillary pools of blood, that are lagging a long way behind the rest of my circulatory system.
So, that suggests my blood drops quicker than i realise, and my body is fairly low in BS.
(Which is good news for all of us, as that's what is swilling around our beta cells)
But if I sit on my backside, my extremities don't do much, apart from pool gently.
This ties in with exercise seeming to push my BS down, maybe it doesn't as much as I think, maybe it simply increases my capillary action, and I simply measure 'new' blood, not old.
So, are we better than we realise, and should we run to our meters?
Literally.

So, who rates my theory?

And who is going to test, after sitting around, then sprint up and down stairs until they are slightly out of breath, then re test?
(Not hard exercise, just enough to literally get the blood moving)

 

[Lesleywo]

I can only say what I did.

it was after my meal, I forgot to test, so it was at least two hours.
I can't lie, it's been a long day, lots of lifting, carrying, etc.
So I ate my meal, with glass noodles, that aren't normally bad.

I tested, after at least a couple of hours, and was higher than i thought I would be.
But I had been sitting since I ate, so no exercise.
I ran up and down stairs a few times, maybe ten minutes of movement.
Then re tested.

So I guess the test has to be.
Eat
sit on your bum.
test
run around, (but not enough to burn calories, just enough to circulate blood a bit faster)
re test.

See if there is a change?

Ok ... I have a few episodes of Hollyoaks to catch up on so I'll have lunch, sit do nothing for say 3 hours, test and then retest after a few laps up and downstairs. What a fantastic excuse to laze around, all in the name of science

 

[forge]

Thanks @douglas99 I have been slack and you made me read up on it.

I just read what wiki has to say the strip does some chemical change and separation but the meter reads conductivity as I expected.

Pressure is height multiplied by density (simple physics) and my reference was just an example of an inferential test. .

 

[Lesleywo]

I can only say what I did.

it was after my meal, I forgot to test, so it was at least two hours.
I can't lie, it's been a long day, lots of lifting, carrying, etc.
So I ate my meal, with glass noodles, that aren't normally bad.

I tested, after at least a couple of hours, and was higher than i thought I would be.
But I had been sitting since I ate, so no exercise.
I ran up and down stairs a few times, maybe ten minutes of movement.
Then re tested.

So I guess the test has to be.
Eat
sit on your bum.
test
run around, (but not enough to burn calories, just enough to circulate blood a bit faster)
re test.

See if there is a change?

Here are the results of my test:

1245 BG: 6.5
Cup of Red Pepper, Pumpkin & Tomato Soup
Slice of Bill’s Flax Sourdough w/LF Cheese, Anchovies, Red Peppers, Bacon
Salad w/Mixed Leaves, Tomatoes, Broccoli Sprouts, Avocado
Tea w/Milk
1500 BG: 6.4
1540 BG: 5.8
Ran up and down stairs 3 times
BG: 5.9

Maybe you could try it again yourself and see what happens?

 

[andcol]

@douglas99 Yes the fact of going up and down the stairs a few times will lower your Blood Glucose levels - I can take mine down by 3 mmol in 5 mins on the bike, treadmill, or stairs.

 

[forge]

In labs spectrophotometers use light wave length reflection to analyse gas, and many other things are measured with procedures to isolate things so they can be weighed or otherwise measured.

But lab methods have problems for general industrial use so process engineers always look for inferential methods of testing for what they want to know.it is not perfect, but it has to be good enough to do the job.

Flow through a pipe without having to measure it in real quantity (buckets full).is measured by pressure drop when it speeds up through a restriction

Acidity/pH the acid forms a cell producing electricity, thermocouples dissimilar wires heated where they are joined produce electricity at the other end many gas analyzers actually burn gas to find out what it is by temperature. radiation thermometers read radiated heat for temperature.

When we work in the industry and the factory is not working properly it is imperative to know what variables we are actually measuring as distinct from what it says on the control panel.

But your dilemma was; where was the sugar coming from, and my answer is it is likely to be a contaminated sample (prob. salty dried sweat) getting into the conductivity sample and the meter cannot tell the difference because it is not a lab quality test. Lab quality tests usually avoid contaminating samples or they have a process to isolate the contamination.

 

[paul-1976]

*BUMP*

 

[paul-1976]

Interesting signature.
Do you have pies on a LCHF diet?
Would have thought the snake oil would have been ok though?

Pies on LCHF Douglas??...Ka-mon fella Of course I don't ! lol but this Low carb Key lime pie may allow me to indulge.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/key-lime-pie---low-carb-version/

As for 'Snake oil'? Haven't tried it myself but I hear that Snake tastes just like Chicken and is very low carb!!

 

[paul-1976]

 

[AndBreathe]

How many gramms of carb are you averaging a day Douglas?

 

[Yorksman]

11.2 @ 22.29
so, I washed my hands
9.5 @ 22.31
still seemed high.
Up the stairs, washed again.
Realised I had no strips left.
Upstairs, to get more,
Realise I had taken my meter up, back up and down, and washed again, just to be sure.
7.2 @ 22.47

It's as if you have a sugar lump floating around in your blood stream, like an iceberg.

Many of us have seen this strange effect. I give it another 30 mins and then test again.

Squeezing can affect the reading too. Capillary blood samples are not as good as venous blood, ie using a needle.

 

[Yorksman]

fish fish fish:

rollmops herring, bismarck herring, bratherring, mild matjes herring, dutch matjest herring, salmon trout, smoked trout, smoked salmon, smoked haddock, smoked cod, prawns, shrimps, battered fish, smoked mackerel, peppered mackerel, mackerel in spicy sauce, anchovies, sardines, pilchards, smoked eel, kippers

Fresh Matjes salad:

I can see in the dark now

 

[Andy12345]

after reading your interesting blog, i often find myself wondering what you mean by not letting diabetes run your life? you record what you eat and post it here, you test your bloods often and post them here, in what way does this differ from anyone else? because you eat unhealthy food sometimes? does this make your life better than someone who doesnt choose these types of food? do you eat whatever you like? whenever you like it? it seems to me that you are very careful about what you eat in the sense you eat low fat and calorie control your diet and weight very carefully but stray from this course often, in fact you seem to be very much more controlled by your diet than me, i dont test for example, theres no need, it therefore seems to me that diabetes is indeed controlling or running your life, i pretty much ignore my diabetes, i do eat certain foods and avoid others, its very easy knowing what your bloods will be all the time and dont feel my life is dominated by diabetes at all, so what do you mean by not letting it run your life please douglas?

 

[Yorksman]

@Andy12345 It's a relative term. If you have ever seen someone stressed out, almost reduced to tears because of a diagnosis, you'd understand what it can mean to some people.

Years ago I went for mt CPAP machne because I had been diagnosed with sleep apnea. From day 1, it was wonderful to get a good night's rest. I met a bloke who was in for his overnight sleep monitoring. He was very scared and kept saying that he hoped they wouldn't find anything. Yet finding something and doing something about it would be the solution for his feeling totally cream crackered all the time. Fear can take over your life.

And for that, we have prozac

 

[zand]

ah Prozac!

 

[Andy12345]

@Andy12345 It's a relative term. If you have ever seen someone stressed out, almost reduced to tears because of a diagnosis, you'd understand what it can mean to some people.

Years ago I went for mt CPAP machne because I had been diagnosed with sleep apnea. From day 1, it was wonderful to get a good night's rest. I met a bloke who was in for his overnight sleep monitoring. He was very scared and kept saying that he hoped they wouldn't find anything. Yet finding something and doing something about it would be the solution for his feeling totally cream crackered all the time. Fear can take over your life.

And for that, we have prozac

huh? whats relative?

 

[paul-1976]

huh? whats relative?

Y'know! Relative as in 'Auntie' or as in the North west of England where some of my family live-we pronounced it "Anti"