Eggs make blood sugars rise?

[Pepsi Max]

Hi, I started the modified Atkins diet & so far can handle it, I'm only a week in so no weight loss to report yet (weigh in is Wednesday) anyway, I wake up & my BG are in range, I have an egg of some sort for breakfast- scrambled, poached or omelette but when I check my BG for my next snack/ meal (usually 3-4 hours later) they are in the teens!!! Why is this? then I need to take a correction of insulin so what's the point since trying to lose some weight! anybody else experience this? Please help! Also any other suggestions for a quicker & easy breakfast!


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[pav]

Are you having any thing else with the eggs?

I found with me that eggs on there own don't do anything for my BS and need to eat some thing with carbs otherwise if not careful my BS goes low.

 

[roo.be]

This is called gluconeogenesis. It is the liver producing sugars when non carbohydrate foods are consumed. If you were to consume some carbs with your eggs this would not occur as the liver is only stimulated to do this when there are no carbs in the food.
I followed the Dukan diet regime which is similar in many ways to Atkins and discovered the same thing. After eating just protein foods my sugar would rise as if i'd eaten cans. I eventually worked out how much insulin to take in these situations but it was a bit trial and error as protein is not the same as carbs.
Good luck with the diet.

 

[Pepsi Max]

Thank you, I wasn't eating any carbs or anything else with the eggs... But doesn't that defeat the purpose of the diet? Anyway this morning I will have a small class of light juice with the eggs... Fingers crossed!


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[phoenix]

Yes, I need to take some insulin for all low/no carb meals. Eggs are the worst offender for me and I have to take them into account even when I eat carbs alongside.

People with working pancreases release insulin when they eat protein they also release some glycogen (glucose) from the liver to compensate for this ie so that they don't go hypo with the insulin. The insulin is required to metabolise the protein.

My thoughts are some of us, when we eat protein without insulin, release more glucose from the liver than others. How much it happens seems to be very individual (depending on both food and person)

You might be interested in the 'insulin index' . It shows that the 'normal' person releases about as much insulin for All Bran as they do for eggs (if they eat quantities to yield the same amount of calories ) The glucose response is also similar. There was a recent trial where they used this index as a basis to calculate insulin doses. For higher protein meals it worked better than carb counting alone. Carb counting was fine for a higher carb meal. Unfortunately, It's not yet a practical method.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_index

 

[Pepsi Max]

Thank you for that! At least I'm not alone! My body does the opposite of what it should! It's so frustrating!! So how do you work around a low carb diet if the theory is less carbs=less insulin= lose weight??


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[noblehead]

Another how needs as much insulin for protein based meals such as eggs as I do for carbs.

Thank you for that! At least I'm not alone! My body does the opposite of what it should! It's so frustrating!! So how do you work around a low carb diet if the theory is less carbs=less insulin= lose weight??

Not sure if low-carb always means less insulin as I know some low-carbers who take more or similar amounts of insulin to what I take (I'm roughly around 150-180g of carbs a day)taking into consideration what has been discussed on this thread may explain the reasons why.

As for weight loss, if you low-carb I'm sure you will lose weight anyways as most find they are eating fewer calories than they were beforehand, stick with it for now and see if the weight does begin to move.

 

[Pepsi Max]

I will thanks, I'm eating about 80g carbs a day but think I will go back to porridge for breakfast, my BG were always spot on after! Patience is a virtue with diabetes!!


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[SamJB]

As others have said, it's your body producing glucose. I'm a low carber (around 30g per day), but I still take insulin (4u breakfast, 5 lunch, 6 dinner). I believe this to be something called the Chinese Restaurant Effect. See here (half way down the page):

http://www.diabetes-book.com/cms/articl ... acn-fccws-

When you eat and food enters your small intestine your body produces glucose in anticipation of the meal you are about to eat. This is so you can get immediate benefit of the food before it is digested.

 

[mike in london]

hi from michael type 1 insulin dependent , please can you tell me regarding a LCHF. If part of my meal contains LC and quite a bit of protein say chicken, im aware I have to calculate the carbohydrates but do i also have to calculate insulin for the protein ,
if so how do i do this ? Also if i only eat protein in a meal do i still calculate for insulin . Im not sure what to do around this area of the LCHF diet. Im new to this diet and this diet.
regards mike :roll:

 

[Superchip]

SamJB - thanks for the link Sam, I've just read the whole article and found it most helpful in explaining some basics.

Staightforward and simple to understand, good find

All the best....................Roy