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A couple of questions

M

minitata

Well-Known Member
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If I am hungry in the night when does my liver dump glucose - immediately or when I get up (or there abouts)?

I am on a low-carb diet which means that I'm in ketosis (I hope) most of the time - so where does my liver get the glucose from to dump? Or does it dump fat to burn?

Thanks in advance

MTT
 
I'm not sure about liver dump, but the liver turns glucagon to glucose and gives you some as you begin to wake up - if you're insulin resistant that can cause the Dawn Phenomenon. Presumably if your blood glucose drops too low during the night it will do the same thing to bring your levels up again. I don't think it's anything to do with hunger per se.

Glucagon is derived from glucose and is stored by the liver for emergency use.

Please, someone tell me if I've understood that correctly?

Re glucose - your body metabolizes some of your protein intake into glucose (can't remember what percentage), but does it very slowly. That's one reason why we are able to eat very few carbs, I believe - there are some parts of our systems that need glucose and its products, but enough is made from protein for those bits, while the rest of the system uses ketones from burning our body fat.

Someone will tell me if I have got that wrong! :lol:

Hope it helps a bit, anyway.

Viv 8)
 
Me personally-if I was waking up whilst I was asleep feeling hungry I would be worried......

I wake up due to pain, tubes, testing etc...but I would defintiely query my sleep pattern for other things than liver dump etc for waking up during the night......do you have other things to also wake you..i.e do you go to the loo at all at the same time, do you wake up actually thinking of something.....do you wake up at set times?
 
I wake up due to pain, when I turn over I always wake up; and stiffness, at which time I have to walk around for a few minutes so that I can straighten my legs properly, usually I go to the bathroom. This is when I notice that I'm also hungry.

thanks for the answers.

MTT
 
Perhaps you could eat a small snack at bedtime to see you through? Maybe something like a couple of oatcakes and a piece of cheese - oatcakes are about 5g carb per biscuit, and release slowly. The fat in the cheese also helps to slow down the carb 'spike' (not that they spiKe me :) )

Viv 8)
 
Personally, I have also previously woken up at nights due to pain, and it has just returned in last couple of day....however....I really believe that some of this feeling hungry may well be down to habit and timings of wakings up etc.

Our bodies need to have undisturbed sleep to rejuvenate itself and to heal itself. Waking up at night with pain kick starts the cycle off in to the cycle of then going to the toilet, and then thinking self hungry....

I only say this from having had similar problems at night with pain, although I used to be only able to crawl out of bed at times with the pain!!!!

Since getting the right treatment for my pain and brain, I have at last broken the cycle's that I had set up for myself within my brain.

I am not a psychiatrist or anything HCP etc......I have been on a GP managed Stress Management Course that helped me recognise the cycles of how our brains get in to habits, needing unbroken sleep etc......
I am not going to suggest that it is because you are low carbing etc, etc, as I personally believe that if you go to bed without feeling hungry then you should not wake up during the night feeling hungry if your sleep pattern is a good one.....
 
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