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Free style Libre and Ketosis

CherryAA

CherryAA

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,170
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Over the xmas period my blood sugar readings have gone up from an average 6.8% to 8.8%. When I have tested my sensor against its own finger prick results it indicates that maybe 1% of the increase is to do with the fact that this sensor seems to read on average about 1% higher than expected which leaves 1% being xmas!

I have remained with the low carb approach over xmas, though inevitably I have not actually had a significant daily calorie deficit and have eaten 2000-2500 calories per day compared to my previous figures of around 1200- 1400 per day. mainly through higher proteins. The result of this is that I was not in ketosis over xmas, whereas before I was and I am of course trying to get back there now.

When in ketosis the movements are smooth, my dawn phenomena damped, when not in ketosis all the swings are exagerated with higher highs and lower lows . Obviously with higher protein intake one expects to see an increase in blood sugars overall however I have had some high protein days when in ketosis and not seen any significant increase.

The difference between ketosis and not with the same foods now seems quite stark, and its the second time I have experienced the phenomena. Is this something anyone else has noticed?
 
CherryAA said:
The difference between ketosis and not with the same foods now seems quite stark, and its the second time I have experienced the phenomena. Is this something anyone else has noticed?
Click to expand...
Hi @CherryAA. Although I can following the majority of what you're trying to put across, I'm lost as to what it is you're asking at the end?

Are you saying that a diet which you used to follow to get you into dietary ketosis is no longer working for you?
 
No.
Sorry must be the drink
I am asking if anyone who
Uses a libre also.monitors blood ketones and ca. Thus correlate whether Thete blood sugars are more stable ( and lower) when in ketosis compared to when not in ketosis even when eating tje same meal. For me it is tje ketosis that seems to make a difference, so I wondered if anyone else noticed the difference
 
CherryAA said:
No.
Sorry must be the drink
I am asking if anyone who
Uses a libre also.monitors blood ketones and ca. Thus correlate whether Thete blood sugars are more stable ( and lower) when in ketosis compared to when not in ketosis even when eating tje same meal. For me it is tje ketosis that seems to make a difference, so I wondered if anyone else noticed the difference
Click to expand...
It must be the drink indeed...:)

I hope you get an answer for your question(s)-'s soon;)
 
CherryAA said:
No.
Sorry must be the drink
I am asking if anyone who
Uses a libre also.monitors blood ketones and ca. Thus correlate whether Thete blood sugars are more stable ( and lower) when in ketosis compared to when not in ketosis even when eating tje same meal. For me it is tje ketosis that seems to make a difference, so I wondered if anyone else noticed the difference
Click to expand...
Have a read of this - I think it answers your question.
 
Thank you that is a very interesting post. It nearly answers my question !

The extra bit I am trying to understand is what happens when one is not in ketosis but eating low carbs.

The poster does not mention if he is actually in nutritional ketosis or whether he loses it on his refeeding days. Not being an athlete I didn't quite understand the refeeding. is the 2,000 calories and average including those days? or is 2000 the base number per normal day/ . At that level with such high proteins it would seem quite likely that he is not in ketosis and therefore his numbers could get even lower if that was his prime strategy as opposed to his muscle maintenance strategy.

It is possible to be on a very low carb diet and yet still be eating too much protein to actually be in ketosis.

I discovered this at xmas ( unsurprisingly ) where my 7 day carb average was still around 30, ( similar to before) but whereas before xmas I had an almost 1000 calorie per day deficit in food being on a strict weight loss diet, over xmas I stuck with the very low carbs, but ate freely of the meats and proteins and thus had no overall calories in/ out deficit . ( and put on 2 kilos as a result - which is I assume mainly water) My ketones reading went to zero as a result, ( I assume ) of the extra proteins) so even though I was still on a very low carbs, I was not in ketosis.

My blood sugars increased dramatically ( average 2 mol), my dawn phenomemon increased. and lasted about 4 hours ( to around 10 before was about 2 hours at 8. ) The actual variability around meals was not particularly noticeable, just that my fasting blood sugar were much higher and everything then followed on from that .

When doing exactly the same amount of carbs but accompanied by a major calorie deficit sufficient to get the blood ketones reading above 0.5 - I still have a serious dawn phenomenon problem, for the rest of the time my blood sugars seem to flat line at around 5.5 (as opposed to 7). - Whether in ketosis or not the actual food spikes from carbs are expectedly small( bt less in ketosis) , just from the different base.

So it is the ketosis itself that seems to trigger the low fasting blood sugar not the lack of carbs per se. I assume that that is because at the point your body makes the switch something either enhances your insulin capabilities at that point or somehow the damaged pathways have less work to do than before even if its the same actual meal you are eating at that particular moment.

It reinforces my belief that in order to be truly successful at controlling one's blood sugars you should really equip yourself with a ketone meter and eat however little is necessary to achieve nutritional ketosis, then eat to the meter based off of that.
That is what I am now trying to do, so I am really searching to see if anyone else reached the same conclusions, given that it is only really with a 24/7 monitor and some history that you can start to see these patterns.
 
I'm a multi coloured reader :) so its a lovely xmassy red !
 
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