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LCHF sticking to below 50g carb per day

Mandy Hexter

Mandy Hexter

Active Member
Messages
33
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Since April 2016 on diagnosis T2, fasting BG 48, i've been keeping my carbs below 50g per day. Reduced portion sizes and eating earlier in the evening to work off the sugars before bed. I have been in single BG all the time when self monitoring. Fasting morning bg readings between 5.1-8, mostly 5.7 - 6.7 Do I just carry on as I am and things will improve with time or do I need to change things to bring those readings down lower? Also what is a "normal" blood sugar rise after eating please? I know to look for spikes but not sure what a normal/high spike is really. Does any of that make any sense?
 
Hi @Mandy Hexter ,

There is no medical definition of a 'spike' and people on the forums have different opinions, some will say it's a rise of over 2mmol/l between before and after readings, and others will say something different.

It seems to me that you're doing pretty well with those numbers so I wouldn't worry too much about trying to get even lower.
This page will give you some guidance on diabetic glucose levels in comparison to our 'normal' friends.......

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/blood-sugar-level-ranges.html
 
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@Mandy Hexter as said above the levels you indicate show you are doing fantastically well. If you continue as you are doing your levels will continue to improve gradually, which is really what you want to be aiming for.

Different people will have different targets for post meal "spikes". For me I have always aimed to be no more than 2 mmol higher at 1 hour and back to my base level by 3 hours. Different foods will affect the timings, but your Carb target is quite low so small changes should be attainable.


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Hi, you're doing very nicely indeed - you my find that after a great initial improvement it will take longer to see further improvements, so just keep on doing what you're doing!

Robbity
 
Thanks for the replies guys, very helpful. Especially the chart from Robbity. I have a lot of weight to lose and I have my head in the right place to do it. Reading all the reverse your diabetes stuff, and as my HbA1c was only 48 compared to others that are much higher, I feel I should really be able to work on it and bring my numbers down. Patience has never been one of my virtues but I'm working on it.
When a newbie like me posts it really helps to see an example like Robbity posted to get an idea of time span expectations. On the other hand I don't want to be complacent and not push myself a bit to acheive my goals.
Thanks again
 
It does take a while to see results. I was diagnosed in March 2012 with an A1c of 48 - next test after 6 months was down to 37 and by 1 year was down to 31. I've bounced up and down between 31 to 39 since then, but always staying below 6% in old money which is my goal.
 
Indy51 said:
It does take a while to see results. I was diagnosed in March 2012 with an A1c of 48 - next test after 6 months was down to 37 and by 1 year was down to 31. I've bounced up and down between 31 to 39 since then, but always staying below 6% in old money which is my goal.
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Thank you so much, I'll keep at it.
 
My next appointment with the Dr is September for my next blood test, that will be 5 months so I'm hopeful there will be some inmprovement.
 
Well done your levels are really good and I am sure your next blood test will be down from the 48 when you were diagnosed
 
I agree with the others. You are obviously doing the right thing, and your next HbA1c should show an improvement.

As for spikes, the usual reference on here is to advise newly diagnosed to try to stay under 2mmol/l at 2 hours after first bite. This is a good initial target, but once reached can be lowered and amended. Through vigilant testing and using a Libre sensor I know my post meal peaks are at around 90 minutes from first bite. I have therefore set myself a spike target of under 1.5mmol/l at 90 minutes, on my way down by 2 hours, and back down to where I started by 2.5 or 3 hours.

You can set your own spike targets. We all have different ones.
 
Good you are doing well. Occasionally you may find you have the odd week or even two of unexplainable higher or if you are lucky lower readings if you do don't panic it is par for course you can never have 100% control.
 
You are doing wonderful and ought to be congratulated. We can never understand blood glucose because it is not just what we eat but also our moods, sickness, emotions and stress that plays quite a role on fluctuating blood glucose. There will be days when you think everything should be fine because you are eating well and following guidelines but all of a sudden it creeps up. Just sit back and do some yoga, deep breathing and good thoughts. Forget about things that stresses you out and your blood sugar will return to normal. Always remember no one is perfect.


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Mandy Hexter said:
fasting BG 48, i've been keeping my carbs below 50g per day. (--------) Also what is a "normal" blood sugar rise after eating please? I know to look for spikes but not sure what a normal/high spike is really.
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Did you mean fasting BG 4.8? That's great.

The typical person with no prediabetes, taking the OGTT (drinking only glucose), spikes up to 7.8. This was the result in a study population. 2 out of 3 had this high a result. Humans from 10,000 years ago eating a "paleo" diet probably would have scored much lower. The lower the better. The OGTT is meant to be a maximal challenge. If you reach 7.8 while eating a real meal, that's surely too high.

My fasting BG is 4.7. When I eat a typical meal, I may reach 7.8. This too high figure is due to a secretion defect. Late in the meal, the secretion catches up.
 
Thanks for all the comments, I've been doing well the last couple of weeks then this week I've been higher again. Diet the same but in Portugal and its around 30-35 degrees plus got visitors staying. More exercise as the pool and sea are readily available so hoping this is just a blip.


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Mandy Hexter said:
Thanks for all the comments, I've been doing well the last couple of weeks then this week I've been higher again. Diet the same but in Portugal and its around 30-35 degrees plus got visitors staying. More exercise as the pool and sea are readily available so hoping this is just a blip.


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The heat makes a difference. I am sure your bg will drop again when you get back to chilly Blighty. :D
 
Thankfully chilly Blighty won't see me until September. I'll just keep doing my best and exercising.


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sud5nala said:
Did you mean fasting BG 4.8? That's great.

The typical person with no prediabetes, taking the OGTT (drinking only glucose), spikes up to 7.8. This was the result in a study population. 2 out of 3 had this high a result. Humans from 10,000 years ago eating a "paleo" diet probably would have scored much lower. The lower the better. The OGTT is meant to be a maximal challenge. If you reach 7.8 while eating a real meal, that's surely too high.

My fasting BG is 4.7. When I eat a typical meal, I may reach 7.8. This too high figure is due to a secretion defect. Late in the meal, the secretion catches up.
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I have only gone as high as 7.8 after eating on two occasions since being diagnosed. usually 5.4-6.4 just chasing those lower numbers...
 
Keesha said:
You are doing wonderful and ought to be congratulated. We can never understand blood glucose because it is not just what we eat but also our moods, sickness, emotions and stress that plays quite a role on fluctuating blood glucose. There will be days when you think everything should be fine because you are eating well and following guidelines but all of a sudden it creeps up. Just sit back and do some yoga, deep breathing and good thoughts. Forget about things that stresses you out and your blood sugar will return to normal. Always remember no one is perfect.


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I think that is some of what I have been struggling to get my head around Keesha. Have to accept I cant have all the ansews at once.
 
Back to your original post. After two years of Googling, I have yet to see any findings of average rises after meals. Unsurprising, given the infinite variety of meals and of individual metabolisms. If 75 g of glucose, swallowed all at once and unaccompanied by fats or proteins (this is the standard test, OGTT), brings most people up to 7.8, then it stands to reason that a genuine meal should bring us lower. On top of that, if you're only eating 50 g of total carbs in an entire day! Any carb besides glucose is going to cause a slower rise in BG. (Comparison: one 12 ounce can of Pepsi has 41 g of carb, all of it high fructose corn syrup. HFCS is 45% glucose, call it 50%; that would make for 20 g of glucose, versus 75 g. BTW, most other brands of cola contain about 35 g of HFCS.)

The lower the peak, and the briefer the period of postmeal increase, the lower the average glucose will be. If the peak is 6.2 or so, you might regain fasting level in an hour, but there's so much individual variation in glucose response curves. You can see the variation by Googling glucose response curve tura; from there select Images. Look for the single image with 12 graphs labeled A through L. The 4 graphs A - D are different glucose response curves. (Tura is the lead author of the study. You can leave his name off and get other search results.)

A lower peak value is probably more important than a shorter postmeal hump, but more than 2 hours is not so good. Tura et al.'s curves show that many people who exceed 7.0 mmol/l need 3 hours. Although we'd like to improve both glucose tolerance (by reducing the postmeal peak) and fasting level, some people have more trouble with one of these.

I have risen to 10.0, but still come back to 4.7 in just two hours. The BG was actually still 10.0 at 75 minutes. Coming down by 5.3 mmol/l in just 45 minutes is great, but peaking at 10.0 is rather bad.
Consider doing more exercise. I brought my A1c from 6.3 to 5.5 by walking alone, without diet changes. (After 10 months, though, it shot up to 6.2, then fell to 5.9. Frustrating.)
 
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