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BG looking better but why am I tired?

T

terrierist

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Aintree
Hi All..

Recently i have gone through a big change, after feeling unwell, and not testing, I discovered I was running BG's at 18-20. A drastic change of diet, alcohol intake and help and advice from this forum, my BG's are between 4.9 and 8.1.. My average reading is 6.7.

However, as I type this, I am feeling VERY tired, is this normal? Is it the reduction in carbs?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Kev :thumbup:
 
I'm tired too and have reduced by food and have started taking metformin for the last month ... problem is I don't know which one is doing it (or if it's both) but I really do feel like I could sleep for hours all the time which makes everythign very difficult :sick:
 
If you have reduced carbs enough for the diet to become diuretic (flushes water out) then you may get lots of symptoms like fatigue, weakness, headaches, cramps. Drink lots of water and take some extra salt to replace that flushed out. Adapting to low carbs can take from a few days to 6 weeks or so.
 
If it doesn't get any better, there are other things that can cause tiredness such as Anaemia, Vitamin D deficiency, Vitamin B12 deficiency or Hypothyroid, so get these tested.
 
It is normal for your body to respond to reduced calorific intake (low carb) by shutting down to some extent in order to eke out those fatty reserves for sustaining all the important things that go on in your body.

To combat feeling tired try some gentle excercise, I know it can be hard to get motivated but once your body gets the message that you need some fuel it will start "letting go" of some reserves as the liver turns fat into sugars. It is that which can cause a rise in BGs during and after heavy excercise, so best keep it gentle excercise like walking at a pace that gets you slightly out of breath.

Excercise also releases feel good hormones and will soon dispell the feeling of tiredness. By the time bedtime comes it will all have worn off and you should sleep like a log! Lack of proper sleep can also be a factor in feeling tired.

H
 
Yes, this is ringing true for me too. Only been monitoring for a month - have reduced carbs quite significantly, and my BG is coming down slowly - nothing dramatic. But I do feel a little tired. Been trying to do regular swimming as part of increased exercise - and yesterday afternoon it felt like the last thing I wanted to do. But I went - didn't feel tired at all once in the water, did 40 minutes and felt much better when I got out and for the rest of the evening. Slept well too.

And this tiredness now does not compare to the general exhaustion I was feeling before I got to grips with being diagnosed and doing something about it.

CathyN
 
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