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Has anyone had poorer carb control while on a low carb diet?

M

Meriwether

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My blood glucose control isn't fabulous. I'm not technically prediabetic yet, but I am close. When I realized how close I was in December, I decided to be proactive. Since then I have lost about 35 pounds, mostly by being more active and cutting out almost all flour/sugar/packaged foods. I've had about one dessert each month and two slices of pizza twice per month. Other than that, the only carbs I've had have been vegetables and the miscellaneous carbs in things like cashews. I don't often log my food, but I seem to eat about 50-75 carbs per day. Sometimes fewer. Rarely more, usually only on my dessert or pizza days.

For awhile my blood sugar levels seemed to be improving. I tested sometimes after the pizza since it was something I tested in December and it was a splurge. In February, it seemed to spike up to about 135, down from about 150 in December after pizza. Last week it spiked to 180. Since then I have checked after some moderate carb meals (30-50). The trend seems to indicate that I am not handling carbs well at all. To be honest, it made me kind of mad. I've been working hard at giving my pancreas a rest. I've lost weight and become more active. It doesn't seem right that my bg is getting worse instead of better.

I've wondered over the last week if my body isn't reacting well to carbs because it isn't as used to dealing with them anymore.
 
I am new to the low carbs idea only being advised of it in mid May (I previously see-saw dieted due to poor advice) Since mid May I have followed advice of 2 excellent advisors on this site, and lowered my daily carbs to approx 25 carbs a day with a deliberate increase in my Fat and Protein intake. During that time I have lost 7 kg, my blood sugars have dropped from a typical 14 down to 5 and I even had a 3.8 yesterday- UK mmol/ L ) Unheard of in the last 5 years of testing. Further my high blood pressure has decreased from 150/100 down to a typical 127/88. Cannot say it is right for everybody but it is working for me! I just realised that seeing my own results has lifted my spirits with a possibility of bringing all my readings back to "normality" If I just continue to adhere to my current (no hardship) regime :)
 
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Is it really no hardship for you? I find myself really craving carbs, breads especially, almost drooling over the memory! And I'm coeliac as well, so even the bread available to me is disgusting - but it doesn't stop the craving!
 
Hi,

There is a lot of technical speak that I can't quote with accuracy, so I will give you the dumbed down version - because it is the version that I understand. lol.

When we low carb, our body gets used to it, and adjusts. One of the ways it adjusts is to downgrade its enzyme production and insulin production. I think of it like the pancreas gets a bit lazy.

So, this is good, yes? Pancreas on holiday. But then, when you eat carbs, or rather more carbs than usual, your nicely snoozing pancreas is caught by surprise, and takes a little longer than usual, so your bg rises higher than it used to, back in the day when you were eating more carbs and your pancreas was raring to go all the time (and a bit overworked and worldweary).

With me so far?

So it looks like you are worse off, but the reality is that you ARE resting your systems, and if you ever want to go back to eating higher carbs, your body will wake up to the fact within a few days (say 3-7ish days) and then your enzyme production will bounce back up to full capacity.

This is why low carbers are advised to eat higher carb for several days before they take an OGTT - because it gets their pancreas up to speed so that they take the test on a level playing field with all the 'normal carbers' out there.

You can test this yourself. If you eat more carbs for several days, the resulting spikes will gradually reduce. But they probably won't reduce enough to make you happy, and your bg will be higher than you want.

Interestingly, this effect has nothing to do with diabetes. If you took a perfectly healthy non-D and gave them low carb for a while, they would experience the same peaking effect when high carb was reintroduced. Of course, with a set of perfectly healthy organs, they may adjust to re-carbing more quickly, and their peaks would probably be lower, but they would experience the same process.
 
Google physiological insulin resistance. It is a normal process for everyone who is low carb. It is part of the fat burning process.
 
ExD said:
Is it really no hardship for you? I find myself really craving carbs, breads especially, almost drooling over the memory! And I'm coeliac as well, so even the bread available to me is disgusting - but it doesn't stop the craving!
Click to expand...
Truthfully No problem at all. Typical meals might be 2 rashers of bacon and 50g dry fried mushrooms OR 3 sticks Celery with 30g Brussels Pate for Bfast. Lunch will be 100g Spinach or similar, with one finely chopped Raw tomato and a boiled egg sliced OR 60 g Cheddar cheese peppered to taste. Dinner might be 200G Haddock Fillet with 100g boiled white cabbage and 200g boiled cauliflower drained then tossed in a knob of butter and a teaspoon of curry powder. That lot in a day is more than sufficient to meet my needs. I supplement that with 3 glasses of water per day (I hate water!)
 
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Thats interesting Brunneria.
PNJB - I have a problem with greens and also mushrooms and cauli - I just HATE them (and they give me smelly wind). I do like lettuce with salt which I used to eat in sandwiches, but can enjoy on its own now. But I think I'd be hungry on your diet! Do you eat any berries? I like a few rasps or blueberries with cream or some rhubarb sweetened with stevia.
 
Brunneria said:
Hi,

There is a lot of technical speak that I can't quote with accuracy, so I will give you the dumbed down version - because it is the version that I understand. lol.

When we low carb, our body gets used to it, and adjusts. One of the ways it adjusts is to downgrade its enzyme production and insulin production. I think of it like the pancreas gets a bit lazy.

So, this is good, yes? Pancreas on holiday. But then, when you eat carbs, or rather more carbs than usual, your nicely snoozing pancreas is caught by surprise, and takes a little longer than usual, so your bg rises higher than it used to, back in the day when you were eating more carbs and your pancreas was raring to go all the time (and a bit overworked and worldweary).

With me so far?

So it looks like you are worse off, but the reality is that you ARE resting your systems, and if you ever want to go back to eating higher carbs, your body will wake up to the fact within a few days (say 3-7ish days) and then your enzyme production will bounce back up to full capacity.

This is why low carbers are advised to eat higher carb for several days before they take an OGTT - because it gets their pancreas up to speed so that they take the test on a level playing field with all the 'normal carbers' out there.

You can test this yourself. If you eat more carbs for several days, the resulting spikes will gradually reduce. But they probably won't reduce enough to make you happy, and your bg will be higher than you want.

Interestingly, this effect has nothing to do with diabetes. If you took a perfectly healthy non-D and gave them low carb for a while, they would experience the same peaking effect when high carb was reintroduced. Of course, with a set of perfectly healthy organs, they may adjust to re-carbing more quickly, and their peaks would probably be lower, but they would experience the same process.
Click to expand...

Thank you for taking the time to type all of this out. It seems like it explains what is happening to me. I've got no problems cutting out my desserts and pizza cheats. The reason I modified my eating was precisely to give my pancreas a rest. Since I am not diabetic, I'm hoping losing another 30-35 pounds, getting more active, and resting my pancreas and liver will allow me to eat...not a standard American diet... but along the lines of the occasional sandwich or bowl of ice cream without being concerned about a bg spike. I'm pretty sure I'd fail an OGTT right now when I wouldn't have before changing my eating patterns. When I'm done losing weight, I'd like to be able to eat around 100-150 carbs/day with most of those being vegetables and berries.
 
ExD said:
Thats interesting Brunneria.
PNJB - I have a problem with greens and also mushrooms and cauli - I just HATE them (and they give me smelly wind). I do like lettuce with salt which I used to eat in sandwiches, but can enjoy on its own now. But I think I'd be hungry on your diet! Do you eat any berries? I like a few rasps or blueberries with cream or some rhubarb sweetened with stevia.
Click to expand...
All I can say ExD is, I am a very large bloke and i promise you my diet MORE than meets my needs! Wind was a problem for me initially, but my pharmacist suggested non- prescription charcoal tablets. They were immediately effective and only required for a short while, but not any more. I have occasional mixed nuts as a treat only but seeing low carbs is the only way I have found to normalise my readings, I jealously minimise every carb in a day being < 20 carbs on most days.Cauli tastes excellent with butter and curry powder I promise.(jjust try it once to see!) Mushrooms I presume you do not like the texture of when they are fried slimy, so just try dry frying them. No slime! Go on! Take a chance and surprise yourself. I took a chance on the little bird that advised me, and I was fantastically pleased that I listened. Whilst I do use pepper, I do not add any additional salt to my food. (Habit from excessive Blood pressure, but I might be more venturesome when I am certain my BP is not just a short term phase)
 
You say you're bordering pre diabetic so things aren't critical for you. The rest will follow and your present regime will indeed be giving your pancreas a rest which you say is your goal. From what I understand, just losing weight on its own will achieve this as well as going a long way to controlling diabetes for those of us with a problem.
Just as we have proved that fat does not create weight gain, I have read that salt isn't the great big bogeyman of high BP so don't worry too much about that. carry on as you are and in time, when the extra weight has gone, you'll gain control of your pre-diabetes. i think you're doing really well, don't stress!
 
ExD said:
You say you're bordering pre diabetic so things aren't critical for you. The rest will follow and your present regime will indeed be giving your pancreas a rest which you say is your goal. From what I understand, just losing weight on its own will achieve this as well as going a long way to controlling diabetes for those of us with a problem.
Just as we have proved that fat does not create weight gain, I have read that salt isn't the great big bogeyman of high BP so don't worry too much about that. carry on as you are and in time, when the extra weight has gone, you'll gain control of your pre-diabetes. i think you're doing really well, don't stress!
Click to expand...

I really wish you could prove to my body fat doesn't make you gain weight, as it's hilarious how some people can't get their heads around the fact it's not actually true because it's on the internet somewhere as a fact.
So is the fact everyone should be using the eatwell plate. I don't find that's true either.
As to salt, everyone needs some. If you cut out all junk food, and eat fresh, obviously your salt intake cuts down to a bare minimum. So some salt is advised.
However, too much is always going to be bad still.

However, to answer the op, I'm the same.
If I low carb, my response to carbs becomes poor.
If I increase them, it sharpens up markedly.
I tend to stick to a mediterranean diet when I can, it seems to tick all the boxes for me.
 
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