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Diabetes and Fatigue

N

NostalgicNeg

Active Member
Messages
34
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Other
Hi,
I am hoping someone can help me. I am fifty and have been diagnosed as prediabetic. I was monitoring things very closely but haven't done that for about two months. I no longer consume carbs (apart from fruit) or refined sugar. Basically, I am exhausted all of the time. I might do two hours of gardening and then I am fit to collapse. I will have two naps over the weekend when I'm not working and when I am in work, once I've returned I am a zombie. I find it really frustrating as I feel like life is slipping by very quickly and I seem incapable of doing anything. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
 
@NostalgicNeg, I had a girlfriend who told me she had stopped eating carbs, and I was very surprised. I asked her how she was finding the carnivore diet, and she told me no - she was only eating fruit and vegetables. It was her turn to be surprised to hear she was eating mainly carbs. That fats and protein were the really low or zero carb foods. And she was barely eating any of them. Could this be your predicament? Forgive me if I have it wrong.

Apart that wee anecdote - I feel what you need is a professional involved in planning your way of eating. Get nutritionists in on it, and there are plenty of great programmes to sign up with and get individualised low carb diets. Absolutely - life is too short not to be eating a well planned low carb diet and have lots of energy, and good blood glucose levels.
 
Are you getting electrolytes? Are you losing a lot of weight? How are you sleeping?

Most fruits have a lot of carbs and some veggies are starchy which breaks down to sugar.

Good for you to make dietary changes.

The fatigue could be due to a number of things. One, if you are in ketosis, is “keto flu”. It is due to a loss of electrolytes. I salt my food and take a magnesium supplement. Also, you have to adapt to a dietary change.

If you are eating a lot less calories it could lead to dramatic weight loss and fatigue.

Do you have a meter? Start monitoring again to see if anything is changing. I get tired when bs is high, like after a big meal.

I am in USA. Are you able to contact someone from healthcare about how you are doing?
 
Time to examine what you've been eating, exactly... Because fruit is generally quite carby, and if you're exhausted all the time you're either high in blood sugars, or you're low in nutrients and/or electrolytes, most likely. Or both. Can you be a bit more specific? So we know whether you're eating/drinking enough protein and fats to compensate for the loss of carbs as an energy source, or you might be overdoing it with the fruit, or...?

Just what you eat and drink on an average day... Be as specific as you possibly can, so we might be able to point you in the right direction. And if you can self-fund a monitor, do! They bring so much clarity in what your body can handle and what it can't. A real eye-opener.

Hugs, and good luck!
Jo
PS: This might help : https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html
 
I have had some great responses from experts for a similar issue - fatigue and aches. The upshot of it all seems to be that diabetes is about insulin resistance and the fact your glucose is loitering in your blood and not getting to your tissue. Your insulin is not unlocking your cells to the glucose. Your tiredness is probably due to the fact your not getting the energy and perhaps the glucose is also causing some inflammation. So, I guess it’s about seeing your doctor or diabetic nurse and finding some cunning plan to send your glucose where it is needed and out of your blood. I imagine that involves tweaking your diet, your portion size, perhaps more exercise and possibly medication, like metformin or possibly insulin (?). You will no doubt get some long and very detailed answers from others, but ensuring that GLUCOSE GOES OUT OF BLOOD AND INTO TISSUE seems the simplest way forward for your and my own state of fatigue
 
Hi @AndyStein. You brought up some really important and interesting points there about insulin resistance based type two.

The insulin being like a key to unlock the starving cells of glucose is a metaphor that I have always had problems with - when I was first introduced to it in an education course for living with type two, oh way back in the day (OK - 8ish years ago), I found it counter intuitive as an explanation for the fatigue - and the how and why of insulin resistance.

Why would our bodies shut down on insulin opening up the cells to glucose like that as a number one response, along with increased urination? And the fatigue. Because insulin resistance is indeed one of the first things that happens when we have too high levels of glucose in the blood, and I would argue - insulin in the blood to attempt to deal wiht the too high glucose. I had my first bouts with insulin resistance in my mid 20s, and along with my cells shutting out more glucose (and the insulin) my fertility also was on a go-slow, relatively speaking (PCOS - an insulin resistance based disease). If insulin resistance is alarm bells and a basic shut down, which I believe it is, reproducing is not on the cards either. At least - easy reproducing. I believe men have an initial reproduction go-slow thing going on too, in erectile dysfunction? It's a very big deal - insulin resistance. And our bodies are going all out to get such an important process as our blood glucose levels sorted asap.

A model/theory explaining the fatigue, gets to the heart of the cell - our mitochondira. And that it is that too much insulin and too much glucose is toxic for our cells, so that too much insulin and glucose needs to be shut out, or else, well - or else we die! So shut it out our body does. And it is not because there is not enough glucose in the cells - but that the cells are overflowing with the stuff! Filled to the brim, as it were, with glucose. Our blood awash with heaps of insulin responding to the signals going haywire. This model of insulin resistance - as a shut down to save our lives immediately, makes a lot more sense to me. But both these models are just that - models and theories of insulin resistance.

For you, with prediabetes, the fatigue is a very big warning sign. Sort your metabolism out now! (I imagine prediabetic bodies are saying .) And don't get to the tipping point over into type two.

I didn't know any of this stuff when I was in my 20s, 30-40 years ago. (Neither did my doctors and specialists. There was no trickle down of this sort of information to the likes of me wiht insulin resistance off and on over the decades.) But you do! This is very good news.
 
I've just been through the same thing. I'd thoroughly recommend reading The Glucose Revolution. You might not want to follow all of her suggestions, but it's very well explained - and has helped me enormously.
 
If you get down to keto levels then your body uses ketones (derived from fats) for most energy needs.
This reduces the need for glucose, and in turn reduces the need for insulin
Energy levels should be good.

However if you don't eat enough carbohydrates to fuel your body on a carbohydrate metabolism, but don't eat few enough carbohydrates to force your body to switch to using ketones for energy you can get stuck in a twilight zone of permanent carb flu.
 
I’m type I, not Type II, so I can’t offer much on that aspect, except to say that I don’t do well on very few carbs. I do better eating carbs and taking insulin. I will add that when I have felt exhaustion or other unpleasant symptoms, it was later diagnosed as a vitamin deficiency. First, it was Vitamin D and years later Vitamin B12. Treating them made a huge difference. I would get that checked out, just to make sure they are ok. I hope things improve for you, once it’s sorted out.
 
You need to eat long acting carbs ie bread pasta rice just a little will help
Fruit has a fair amount of sugar so don't eat too much just your five a day Good luck
 
I disagree with some of this information - we need protein and fats but we do not need carbs. For those of us with a genetic tendency to develop T2 (and therefore prediabetes) we do not cope well with any carbs, including brown bread, sugary fruit, and long-acting carbs.
I found the only way to judge how many carbs my body can cope with was to buy a meter and test. Test before meals then 2 hours after. If the spike is too high that meal had too many carbs for you.
 
If the fatigue is not temporary keto flu (from cutting carbs) or the reaction to carb heavy meals then ask your GP to test your Vit D, B12 and folate levels. if that doesn't show any vit deficiencies then push for other tests?
 
pow1963 said:
You need to eat long acting carbs ie bread pasta rice just a little will help
Fruit has a fair amount of sugar so don't eat too much just your five a day Good luck
Click to expand...
T2s and prediabetics really don't need to eat carbs in any form if we want to reduce our HbA1c down to normal levels.
Although I do have a few berries with greek yogurt and green veg/salad for my 5 a day and towards the 30 plant-based foods a week target.
The latter, to help maintain our microbiome in good health, includes herbs and spices, coffee, coconut milk, nuts and seeds so is easy to achieve.
 
TriciaWs said:
If the fatigue is not temporary keto flu (from cutting carbs) or the reaction to carb heavy meals then ask your GP to test your Vit D, B12 and folate levels. if that doesn't show any vit deficiencies then push for other tests?
Click to expand...
I think i can say after 50 years type 1 that if I miss carbs i have no energy and can feel quite unwell No carbs means your body will convert fat into energy but this causes the release of ketone which can make you feel even worse. You're correct about testing though absolute must I'm lucky enough to be prescribed the G6 from dexcom
 
What exactly are you eating and drinking.

most likely reasons for feeling this way are
1. You’ve cut carbs but not replaced them with anything else so you simply aren’t getting enough fuel
2. You’re stuck between low enough carb to burn fat for fuel and high enough that you don’t use this option. The fruit can be high carb and might be what’s keeping you stuck. Maybe some starch veg?
3. Lack of electrolytes. And maybe water. Make sure you have plenty of sodium, magnesium and potassium, especially whilst you adjust to low carb.
4. It’s unrelated to diabetes and it could be a vitamin deficiency or anything else really. Have you been sick? Changed medications? Anything else different?
 
The OP is prediabetic, on the way to TYPE 2 diabetes, a totally different beast to type 1. We have more than enough Insulin, it just can't work properly due to resistance. Putting ANY carbs into the equation only makes things worse.
Provided you have added in Protein and fats to replace the carbs you've dropped, and importantly drinking MORE, whilst adding in some salt, as your system will pee it out, you should have oodles of energy. i would suggest you try to work out, just how many carbs you are consuming, you may be shocked, that it's more than you thought.
 
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