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Fasting and BG

J

jonnoras

Well-Known Member
Messages
96
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi. I am a type 2 diabetic diagnosed a year ago. I have, through diet and weight loss managed to control my blood glucose to fairly reasonable levels. I decided to start fasting using the 16:8 approach. I only check my blood after food. 3 days ago I decided to check my blood after an energetic 30 minute walk in the morning. My blood was at 5.7 which I thought was high, given that I had nothing to eat and had exercised. I am confused as yesterday and this morning I woke up about 6 AM and my blood glucose was 4.6 on both days. However around 9 AM, with no breakfast,no coffee nothing at all, my blood glucose had risen to 6.3. I am confused as to why this maybe as I thought I would've gone past the dawn phenomenon issue by 9am and having no food would've kept my blood glucose low. Not sure whether fasting is working for me? Does anybody have any thoughts. Any views would be much appreciated. Cheers Jon
 
jonnoras said:
. I am confused as yesterday and this morning I woke up about 6 AM and my blood glucose was 4.6 on both days. However around 9 AM, with no breakfast,no coffee nothing at all, my blood glucose had risen to 6.3. I am confused as to why this maybe as I thought I would've gone past the dawn phenomenon issue by 9am and having no food would've kept my blood glucose low. Not sure whether fasting is working for me? Does anybody have any thoughts. Any views would be much appreciated
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Firstly congratulations on seeing the rather magical 4.6 mmol on consecutive morning. That is a good sign. I would take it from these readings that fasting is working for you.

That it rise to 6.3 by 9am isn't really a concern. Over time as you deplete your glycogen store and become more keto adapt by maintaining your current diet/meal frequencies you should see glucose stability between 4.0-6.0 mmol range. Likely trending towards 5.0 mmol.
 
I do a very similar thing to you and still sometimes get odd FBG readings. This morning it was 3.8.. in the middle of Feb I had a 6.8 and some others over 6. I have been ultra low carb for 18 months and in Feb was doing a "zero carb" experiment only eating meat so can't really explain it. Sometimes my morning readings are higher than my bedtime others like this morning they are lower. I don't keep records of how well I slept but I do think that can have an impact. If I wake up in the morning after a restless night and feel hot then I usually get a higher than normal reading. Were you looking to loose weight and has that worked using fasting? I would say if everything else is going ok then just chalk up the FBG's as "one of those things" and keep doing what you're doing. My FBG's were definitely the last to come lower and I wonder if I still need to loose some more weight but then again we have no idea what a "normal" non diabetic's FBG's are either....
 
The Dawn Phenomenon isn't restricted to early mornings.

Ever since diagnosis my FBG levels have been low to mid 5s. I never suffered with early morning DP. However, my liver was dumping glucose about 20 minutes after getting up and kept me up in the 6s all morning no matter what i did, which obviously impacted on my post lunch levels. I also get it after exercise. I stopped the morning rise completely by skipping breakfast but drinking a coffee with cream. Since doing that my pre-lunch levels have been significantly lower, and I don't see any 6s from getting up until after lunch. (verified by a part time Libre sensor and regular finger pricking)
 
Thank you all for your replies. Some interesting stuff here. I lost the bulk of my weight within the first 7 months. I came down from 20st to 14st. I should be around 13st but I'm struggling with the last bit. I'm now 13st 7lbs. Since I started fasting it's had no impact on my weight loss. This morning I was 4.6 at 6am, 6.3 at 9am and 5.3 by 1pm (in time for lunch). I'm not feeling too great and was wondering what effect (how much) can illness raise FBG. Jon
 
Illness can raise blood sugar but it depends on the illness, we are all different and illness affects us differently so I can only assure you that it is normal
 
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