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3.9! That is good - I think.

LittleGreyCat

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
4,388
Location
Suffolk, UK
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
I wasn't quite sure where best to post this as I eat LCHF (when I'm being good), however after a wake up call I am now eating low calorie as well and probably qualify for intermittent fasting to round things off.

Anyway, I ate an evening meal around 16:30 to 17:00 yesterday which was a bowl of chicken and cauliflower soup and a Lidl protein roll with cheese in. I then fasted for my blood test today at 11:00 and finally had my "morning" bullet resistant coffee (coffee, butter, double cream) at about 11:45 to 12:00. So a 19 hour fast. Didn't have anything else until after 18:00 today.So that means all I had over a 25 hour period was the bullet resistant coffee.

Tested just for the heck of it at 17:52 and scored a 3.9. Somewhat startled I checked using another finger and score 4.2 which is, I think, within the margin of accuracy of the meter. Slightly complicated because these are my first tests using a brand new box of test strips so who knows how close the old and new are.

Anyway, given that my fasting BG in the morning was 9.5 on Tuesday :oops: (which scared the fertiliser out of me) and resulted me going straight on to a low calorie LCHF diet with absolutely no concessions to personal enjoyment at all I think this is a pretty good result. My pancreas hasn't given up the ghost and I can get my BG down to almost hypo territory.:):cool::happy::joyful:

If I was on glucose lowering medication I might be worried that I was going into hypo territory but I feel fine and as far as I know it is very unusual for a T2 on diet, exercise and Metformin to hypo.

I didn't rush for something small and sweet to boost my BG, but had my usual (for a bit) soup and sandwich. I will test again at 20:00 just to see what the meal has done to me. Hopefully not too much.

Hmmm....looked back through the last year of occasional testing and I haven't been below 5.1 in any tests since February 2017 and I have a few sub-5 readings from 2016 but none quite as low as this. So assuming the meter is accurate this is a personal best.

Yeah, yeah, rambling now but I've gone from very worried at a high fasting reading to a personal best in four days so I am pretty sanguinary cheerful at the moment. All I have to do now is stick it out and lose some weight so I can resume small luxuries. This may, however, take a while.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
I wasn't quite sure where best to post this as I eat LCHF (when I'm being good), however after a wake up call I am now eating low calorie as well and probably qualify for intermittent fasting to round things off.

Anyway, I ate an evening meal around 16:30 to 17:00 yesterday which was a bowl of chicken and cauliflower soup and a Lidl protein roll with cheese in. I then fasted for my blood test today at 11:00 and finally had my "morning" bullet resistant coffee (coffee, butter, double cream) at about 11:45 to 12:00. So a 19 hour fast. Didn't have anything else until after 18:00 today.So that means all I had over a 25 hour period was the bullet resistant coffee.

Tested just for the heck of it at 17:52 and scored a 3.9. Somewhat startled I checked using another finger and score 4.2 which is, I think, within the margin of accuracy of the meter. Slightly complicated because these are my first tests using a brand new box of test strips so who knows how close the old and new are.

Anyway, given that my fasting BG in the morning was 9.5 on Tuesday :oops: (which scared the fertiliser out of me) and resulted me going straight on to a low calorie LCHF diet with absolutely no concessions to personal enjoyment at all I think this is a pretty good result. My pancreas hasn't given up the ghost and I can get my BG down to almost hypo territory.:):cool::happy::joyful:

If I was on glucose lowering medication I might be worried that I was going into hypo territory but I feel fine and as far as I know it is very unusual for a T2 on diet, exercise and Metformin to hypo.

I didn't rush for something small and sweet to boost my BG, but had my usual (for a bit) soup and sandwich. I will test again at 20:00 just to see what the meal has done to me. Hopefully not too much.

Hmmm....looked back through the last year of occasional testing and I haven't been below 5.1 in any tests since February 2017 and I have a few sub-5 readings from 2016 but none quite as low as this. So assuming the meter is accurate this is a personal best.

Yeah, yeah, rambling now but I've gone from very worried at a high fasting reading to a personal best in four days so I am pretty sanguinary cheerful at the moment. All I have to do now is stick it out and lose some weight so I can resume small luxuries. This may, however, take a while.
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Great news, well done! This is very encouraging for me also. My fasting bg has been in damage territory for all too long recently.

I was also equally pleased and scared when I got my first (and so far only) 3.9 after fasting all day some time ago. I thought about eating something just to make sure I didn't 'hypo' but tried 30 seconds of kettlebells instead, and sure enough my trusty old liver came to life and bumped things up enough to convince me my metabolism remembered what to do after all these years!

Also it's good to hear someone else talking about short-term calorie restriction helping out. I've found this works each and every time to help get things back on track. I know calorie restriction is not an especially popular idea and I understand why, but the fact is it works for me to get blood sugars back on track in a few days, regardless of what else it may be doing to my system.

Long may your lows continue!
 
Nice one - I’ve been intermittent fasting this week, 16:8 style and while my morning numbers are not as good as yours - I’m averaging just over 5 a day.

Attempting a 24 hourer over the weekend to see if that can help the mornings
 
LittleGreyCat said:
Hmmm....looked back through the last year of occasional testing and I haven't been below 5.1 in any tests since February 2017 and I have a few sub-5 readings from 2016 but none quite as low as this. So assuming the meter is accurate this is a personal best.
Click to expand...
Great stuff, but as with all research you need to wait and see if your result is reproducible.
 
Alexandra100 said:
The OP is taking Metformin, which I believe has the principal advantage of lowering fasting bg.
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Noting however that I have been on Metformin for years, so a personal best is still significant. :-)
 
Alexandra100 said:
The OP is taking Metformin, which I believe has the principal advantage of lowering fasting bg.
Click to expand...

Yes, I was on Metformin a while ago and managed to get off it. I won't be too devastated if I need to go back on it, but I am really hoping to 'crack' this naturally. It is nice to know it's there as a backup however. Thanks.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
Noting however that I have been on Metformin for years, so a personal best is still significant. :)
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Absolutely. And possibly a hopeful sign you may be able to restore your metabolism enough to not need it! From what I've read the effect isn't that huge, so it sounds like even without it, you may well have got a lower number than the 5.1s you've been getting up till this point.
 
@LittleGreyCat and @AdamJames
Well done both on great numbers. You of course both know that I would recommend fasting instead of calorie restriction per se.. i.e. don't eat lots of little bits but have a decent meal once or twice a day.
 
bulkbiker said:
@LittleGreyCat and @AdamJames
Well done both on great numbers. You of course both know that I would recommend fasting instead of calorie restriction per se.. i.e. don't eat lots of little bits but have a decent meal once or twice a day.
Click to expand...

I think I am doing both fasting and calorie restriction at the moment.
The basic plan is Bullet Resistant Coffee in the morning, a small protein snack (such as 3 rounds of salami with a bit of cheese folded in each) in the middle of the day and then soup and a sandwich for the evening meal. I would normally eat around 17:00 but was a bit busy today.
I managed without the protein snack today so it isn't essential.

I could tinker around a bit, perhaps having nothing before coffee and a snack at midday then a meal around 17:00.

Whatever, as long as my BG stays down and my weight slowly slips away then I have a working strategy.

At the moment I am waiting for my body to start complaining by making me feel cold and tired because I'm not feeding it as much as it thinks I should.
 
bulkbiker said:
@LittleGreyCat and @AdamJames
Well done both on great numbers. You of course both know that I would recommend fasting instead of calorie restriction per se.. i.e. don't eat lots of little bits but have a decent meal once or twice a day.
Click to expand...

Haha! Guess who I was thinking off when I wrote "I know calorie restriction is not an especially popular idea"!

I can't accept your congratulations just yet as my low number was a while ago now and I've been in danger territory for quite some time. I have a plan to put things right. I even intend to go for another 3.9 and then once there work hard to keep things very low. You won't like to know that calorie restriction and exercise is part of that plan, but you might like to know that fasting will be the final phase!
 
I don’t know how anyone can fast for the vast lengths of time some of you do. I don’t get as hungry as much or as often as I used to but still?! :stop:
 
Well done on your personal best! That is as good as an Olympic Gold :)
 
Still getting interesting readings.
Fasting this morning 5.3.
Bullet Resistant Coffee for breakfast.
Cheese wrapped in two slices of ham around mid-day.
Pre-meal 17:30 is 4.4.

So not a personal best this time, but it does look as though if I eat very little (and LCHF) then my fasting levels during the day come down below 5. Which is nice. :-)

I think my stomach is shrinking as well as I could only eat half my Lidl roll with my soup just now. I feel pogged, having been background starving all day. I will wait a while then eat the other half. It does make me think that it might be easy to develop an eating disorder where you aren't eating much but feel full after a very small meal.

Anyway, I will continue to tinker but as long as I keep losing weight without bursting into tears I will try and soldier on. If I stop losing weight I'll take a day off and eat more to see if that changes things.

Anyone doing the Roy Taylor 800 kcal diet has my utmost respect.
 
What???

@LittleGreyCat "At the moment I am waiting for my body to start complaining by making me feel cold and tired because I'm not feeding it as much as it thinks I should."

Is this common for everyone or just you?

I've been cold and tired since December. But I've been eating plenty of calories (1800-2100), 60%F 20%P 20%C.
 
LouWilk059 said:
What???

@LittleGreyCat "At the moment I am waiting for my body to start complaining by making me feel cold and tired because I'm not feeding it as much as it thinks I should."

Is this common for everyone or just you?

I've been cold and tired since December. But I've been eating plenty of calories (1800-2100), 60%F 20%P 20%C.
Click to expand...

I only know about me, but this would be consistent with a lower metabolic rate to conserve energy.

It is fairly well accepted that as you cut back on the food you eat, after losing weight for a while you plateau because your body has adjusted to the new normal. Some of the adjustment can be a lowering of the Basal Metabolic Rate. This in turn reduces the heat that your body produces and you feel less warm. Losing a layer of fat also loses a layer of insulation which doesn't help.

For myself, I tend to feel cold until I exercise when I warm up again.

It is logical that if your body is burning more energy than is coming in, this is not pro survival at a basic level and the body may have mechanisms to husband scarce resources.
 
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