- Messages
- 818
- Type of diabetes
- Gestational
- Treatment type
- Insulin
I'm finally biting the bullet and reintroducing extra carbs to see what happens after having had gestational diabetes and having eaten mostly keto and low carb for the past 6 months. (Now 4 months postpartum.)
I'm on Day 2 of extra carbs and apparently you need at least 3 days to full reawaken the pancreas from keto. Is that right?
I wasn't in ketosis constantly over this past 6 months though and have tried a couple of times to experiment with more carbs but got scared off when I started seeing 8s, 9s and 10mmols at the 1 hour mark...
But this time I really want to do it because I wonder if I've really been eating enough potassium foods while low carbing.
I am breastfeeding a 4 month old and have been having heart palpitations worse than anytime before. I wanted to rule out something lacking in my diet but am really suspecting the lack of sleep (and possibly low carb) is causing more cortisol to be released so actually anxiety about not being able to sleep enough is probably why I'm having heart palpitations.
In any case, I need to see how I really am going to react to carbs and in another week or so I already have the pathology request form from my GP to have a HbA1C, electrolytes and an ECG to check out my heart just in case.
In the meantime, would anyone care to humor me and tell me how diabetic these numbers sound for what little extra carbs I have eaten this past 2 days?
Bear in mind that on the morning of Day 1, I was in ketosis (trace - weak according to the urine ketostix) so perhaps that makes me less glucose tolerant than usual on this first day, but now, at the end of Day 2, I'm still not confident that I don't have a problem with glucose tolerance and insulin resistance.
The week prior to this, my morning fasting levels were good while I was eating keto / low carb: 4.4; 4.6, 5.1, 5.2, 4.7, 4.8 mmol.
The night before Day 1, I ate carbs at midnight to add some potassium to my diet after potassium counting the day before and falling well short of the 4700mg that I keep seeing is recommended... (How does anyone get that amount from food without overeating I have no idea!)
My fasting level on Day 1 was 5.1 mmol.
I ate a slice of sourdough rye bread with peanut butter and a glass of coconut water (sources of potassium apparently). 60 mins 7.4; 90mins 5.1 mmol. Seems okay, doesn't it?
Around lunch I had another slightly thicker slice of sourdough rye bread with half a cup of raspberries and about a tablespoon of banana followed by sweet potato pancakes that I was eating straight off the frying pan and would have just kept on eating but thought I should stop and measure when the first hour was up. Lucky I stopped... My metre told me I was 11 mmol... By 2h I was 8.6 mmol.
The rest of the day I ate low carb...
Day 2 Morning fasting 5.4 mmol. (Higher than usual and I find this has happened each time I added a few carbs back into my diet - that also made me go back to low carb before I stuck out the 3 days.) I'd also only had 4 hours sleep last night though. I was no longer in ketosis this morning.
Had 1 slice of sourdough white bread with peanut butter and a bite of banana.
60 mins 7.4 mmol
100 mins 6.2 mmol.
Seems okay again I guess.
2 hours and 40 mins later I was 4.6 mmol
Had a strange new thing for lunch - goat's liver! We bought a whole free-range freshly slaughtered animal so it was the first time I'd tried it. Nice! Milder then lamb's fry.
This was a low carb meal with a bit of a beetroot salad on the side. Numbers were fine.
Afternoon snack was a few sweet potato pancakes. Only measured 1h later. 6.9 mmol.
Had a nap in the afternoon and woke up with 4.3 mmol.
Then had 1 slice white sourdough with 3 cheeses, 1 dried apricot, pepitas and macadamia nuts.
1h 8.6 mmol
90 mins 8.2 mmol
2h 7.8 mmol
Seems high for that amount of carbs... I dunno.
Don't even ask what dinner was... okay, I'll tell you, but even though I thought I was adventurous (I mentioned the goat's liver?) well, my husband decided to make Goat's HEAD Soup... Brains and all.. I had trouble eating it. I love ox tongue and beef cheek, and the goat's tongue, the one bit I found in the pot, was really good! But he broke the head up into bits and pieces and mixed it all up in the soup so each bite was a surprise. The lips, or gums.... and something else that had the texture of snot... Oh man, I'm not going back for seconds. The goat's eyeballs are sitting on a small plate on the kitchen bench. Not sure what my husband plans to do with them... ha ha
Anyway, I digress...
Does anyone know how to estimate your HbA1c from home tests? I mean, if I kept eating like this and saw 11s and 8s once or twice a day, that's not going to be a great result over months, is it? Or will the odd 4s keep the average in the okay range?
In any case, isn't 11 mmol already in the diabetic range if it's discovered randomly, or is that just classed as a glucose intolerance if it drops back to 8 mmol by 2 hours and if my fasting stays under 5.5 mmol?
I know these numbers are not optimal anyhow. I think I want to eat just enough carbs to stay out of ketosis mostly in case that's causing extra stress hormones to be released at a time when I am already under pressure, and to get more potassium from my diet from vegetable carbs, but the white sourdough bread is obviously not a good one. Especially not paired with any amount of fruit... not that it was much fruit really.
Thoughts?
I'm on Day 2 of extra carbs and apparently you need at least 3 days to full reawaken the pancreas from keto. Is that right?
I wasn't in ketosis constantly over this past 6 months though and have tried a couple of times to experiment with more carbs but got scared off when I started seeing 8s, 9s and 10mmols at the 1 hour mark...
But this time I really want to do it because I wonder if I've really been eating enough potassium foods while low carbing.
I am breastfeeding a 4 month old and have been having heart palpitations worse than anytime before. I wanted to rule out something lacking in my diet but am really suspecting the lack of sleep (and possibly low carb) is causing more cortisol to be released so actually anxiety about not being able to sleep enough is probably why I'm having heart palpitations.
In any case, I need to see how I really am going to react to carbs and in another week or so I already have the pathology request form from my GP to have a HbA1C, electrolytes and an ECG to check out my heart just in case.
In the meantime, would anyone care to humor me and tell me how diabetic these numbers sound for what little extra carbs I have eaten this past 2 days?
Bear in mind that on the morning of Day 1, I was in ketosis (trace - weak according to the urine ketostix) so perhaps that makes me less glucose tolerant than usual on this first day, but now, at the end of Day 2, I'm still not confident that I don't have a problem with glucose tolerance and insulin resistance.
The week prior to this, my morning fasting levels were good while I was eating keto / low carb: 4.4; 4.6, 5.1, 5.2, 4.7, 4.8 mmol.
The night before Day 1, I ate carbs at midnight to add some potassium to my diet after potassium counting the day before and falling well short of the 4700mg that I keep seeing is recommended... (How does anyone get that amount from food without overeating I have no idea!)
My fasting level on Day 1 was 5.1 mmol.
I ate a slice of sourdough rye bread with peanut butter and a glass of coconut water (sources of potassium apparently). 60 mins 7.4; 90mins 5.1 mmol. Seems okay, doesn't it?
Around lunch I had another slightly thicker slice of sourdough rye bread with half a cup of raspberries and about a tablespoon of banana followed by sweet potato pancakes that I was eating straight off the frying pan and would have just kept on eating but thought I should stop and measure when the first hour was up. Lucky I stopped... My metre told me I was 11 mmol... By 2h I was 8.6 mmol.
The rest of the day I ate low carb...
Day 2 Morning fasting 5.4 mmol. (Higher than usual and I find this has happened each time I added a few carbs back into my diet - that also made me go back to low carb before I stuck out the 3 days.) I'd also only had 4 hours sleep last night though. I was no longer in ketosis this morning.
Had 1 slice of sourdough white bread with peanut butter and a bite of banana.
60 mins 7.4 mmol
100 mins 6.2 mmol.
Seems okay again I guess.
2 hours and 40 mins later I was 4.6 mmol
Had a strange new thing for lunch - goat's liver! We bought a whole free-range freshly slaughtered animal so it was the first time I'd tried it. Nice! Milder then lamb's fry.
This was a low carb meal with a bit of a beetroot salad on the side. Numbers were fine.
Afternoon snack was a few sweet potato pancakes. Only measured 1h later. 6.9 mmol.
Had a nap in the afternoon and woke up with 4.3 mmol.
Then had 1 slice white sourdough with 3 cheeses, 1 dried apricot, pepitas and macadamia nuts.
1h 8.6 mmol
90 mins 8.2 mmol
2h 7.8 mmol
Seems high for that amount of carbs... I dunno.
Don't even ask what dinner was... okay, I'll tell you, but even though I thought I was adventurous (I mentioned the goat's liver?) well, my husband decided to make Goat's HEAD Soup... Brains and all.. I had trouble eating it. I love ox tongue and beef cheek, and the goat's tongue, the one bit I found in the pot, was really good! But he broke the head up into bits and pieces and mixed it all up in the soup so each bite was a surprise. The lips, or gums.... and something else that had the texture of snot... Oh man, I'm not going back for seconds. The goat's eyeballs are sitting on a small plate on the kitchen bench. Not sure what my husband plans to do with them... ha ha
Anyway, I digress...
Does anyone know how to estimate your HbA1c from home tests? I mean, if I kept eating like this and saw 11s and 8s once or twice a day, that's not going to be a great result over months, is it? Or will the odd 4s keep the average in the okay range?
In any case, isn't 11 mmol already in the diabetic range if it's discovered randomly, or is that just classed as a glucose intolerance if it drops back to 8 mmol by 2 hours and if my fasting stays under 5.5 mmol?
I know these numbers are not optimal anyhow. I think I want to eat just enough carbs to stay out of ketosis mostly in case that's causing extra stress hormones to be released at a time when I am already under pressure, and to get more potassium from my diet from vegetable carbs, but the white sourdough bread is obviously not a good one. Especially not paired with any amount of fruit... not that it was much fruit really.
Thoughts?