Always trying to stay awake after meals

[coby]

Hi everyone.
Is this normal?
It doesn't matter what I eat .... be it a couple of hard boiled eggs, a simple tuna sandwich ( always from a small sized wholemeal loaf) or an evening meal such as chicken slices, sweet potato and lots of mixed vegetables .... but within minutes I am fighting to keep my eyes open!
The times I have woken up having missed the news or some other programme are so frequent.
I am Type 2 ... diagnosed last January and on Metformin tablets three times per day.
Would it be the tablets causing this to happen to me?
I would so appreciate some input, and wish to know if this is normal? Thank you

 

[Kristin251]

All starchy carbs make me very sleepy. I don't eat them. Too much protein can too but not as much. I eat small meals because of this as well as to keep my BS steady without spikes and drops.

Could you possibly have reactive hypoglycemia?

 

[Brunneria]

Hi and welcome.

A few questions, hope you don't mind:

Do you have a blood glucose meter, so you can test?
If so, what are your before and after readings?
Is this worse after carbs, or does it happen with anything, even just fat and protein (you mentioned eggs, but were those eggs with any carbs?)
Is it certain times of day, e.g. just lunch or just dinner?
Do you have any known food intolerances?
What do you typically eat before this happens?
Do you know how many g carbs you eat?

I am not trying to diagnose you, or give you any medical advice, just getting a bit more info.

But we T2s are often sleepy if we have overloaded with carbs.

 

[Lamont D]

Hi everyone.
Is this normal?
It doesn't matter what I eat .... be it a couple of hard boiled eggs, a simple tuna sandwich ( always from a small sized wholemeal loaf) or an evening meal such as chicken slices, sweet potato and lots of mixed vegetables .... but within minutes I am fighting to keep my eyes open!
The times I have woken up having missed the news or some other programme are so frequent.
I am Type 2 ... diagnosed last January and on Metformin tablets three times per day.
Would it be the tablets causing this to happen to me?
I would so appreciate some input, and wish to know if this is normal? Thank you

This sort of condition, was recently an article in the online daily mail.
It was in the femail section.

 

[coby]

Hi and welcome.

A few questions, hope you don't mind:

Do you have a blood glucose meter, so you can test?
If so, what are your before and after readings?
Is this worse after carbs, or does it happen with anything, even just fat and protein (you mentioned eggs, but were those eggs with any carbs?)
Is it certain times of day, e.g. just lunch or just dinner?
Do you have any known food intolerances?
What do you typically eat before this happens?
Do you know how many g carbs you eat?

I am not trying to diagnose you, or give you any medical advice, just getting a bit more info.

But we T2s are often sleepy if we have overloaded with carbs.

I have never used a blood glucose meter so have no idea about readings I'm afraid. I eat two hard boiled eggs for my lunch once or twice per week but on there own ... not with bread. I don't know how to work out the carbsw I eat, but if I have bread ... say with tuna on it .. then it's wholemeal and the small rounds of bread that you get in a small loaf. How do I know what carbs I'm eating?

 

[Brunneria]

Hi,

There are two ways of doing it.

The mathematical way:
Look at the nutritional info on the back of the packet.
It will give the amount of carbs/100g, or per slice, or portion. Check carefully that you are actually eating 'a portion'. Most cereal manufacturers say that 'a portion' is a tiddly amount that barely covers the bottom of the bowl, and most people eat 3-4x that. Then you just add up the no of carb grams per meal, or during the day.
- if you get sleepy after certain foods, or higher carbs, then you know you need to cut down and replace them with other, non-carby foods.

The blood glucose way:
You get yourself a blood glucose meter (they are on sale in most chemists, but the cheapest one I know of is the SD Codefree. The meter is about £14 and 50 test strips are about £7, available over the internet from Homehealth, ebay or amazon.
- then you eat your normal diet for a few days, and see what happens to your blood glucose. If it goes too high (info on good bg levels is on the main part of this site), you know that you are eating more carbs than your body can cope with, and you cut down a bit. Still too high? Cut down more. Replace the lost carbs with veg, and maybe a bit more protein and fat. It is called eating to your meter, and it is, in my view, the best way to control T2. A lot of people naturally lose weight doing this, which is often an extra bonus.

Hope that helps. Give a shout if any of it didn't make sense.

 

[Catlady19]

There is also quite a good book called 'Carbs and Cals' which you can purchase from the website here or from Amazon. It gives you a good guide for most types of foods.