High Readings even after low carb meal.

Hello and welcome,

Just a couple of things- I am assuming you were born in 1989- is that correct? if so it may be that you are a type 1 variant rather than a type 2. My knowledge is abysmal so just putting it out there. There are many here who understand the tests you may need to do to ensure you are a type 2.

Assuming you are a type 2 on no medication (other than metformin) yes I believe you will be able to bring your levels down.

In relation to the fasting levels- google 'dawn phenomena' as that will be part of the explanation. I personally find my levels increase after waking and then doing some exercise- if I eat something that can help otherwise it decreases in the afternoon non. I usually only have one meal a day but do sometimes have more. That is at least a lot to do with wanting to lose weight.

Second thing- have you started actually recording your carb intake. I keep very low carb- under 20 grams a day on a higher carb day- others go lower and other higher. I went low as I find that easier and wanted to reduce my insulin resistance. I love carbs- my body doesn't. The important thing to find out is the level of carbs your body can tolerate. Now blood sugar levels are effected by exercise, stress, illness and other things so it may take some time to work out the amount of carbs your body can tolerate. I would suggest going as low as possible for a while (google 'keto flu' though) and once your levels have dropped you can consider gradually increasing your carb level until you find where your body can't cope (or stay low that works too-lol)

Also read

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/

Good luck and welcome.

Hi @alembic1989

You may well find it’s a question of patience. If I wander a bit off track - and by that I mean eating a lot more low carb food, rather than excessive carbs - it can take a while to get my blood sugars back to where I like to keep them.

If you’ve had a prolonged period of eating/drinking less than optimally it could take a while to get back in range. You’re doing the right thing by testing, so you’ll get some instant feedback and can keep track of whether things are slowly getting back in track or not.

As @VashtiB says it might not be a bad idea to track your carb intake for a while to make sure you really are low carb and also to understand what level of carbs your body can tolerate.

And keep us posted - lots of advice here and sure there are people that could help with tweaking what you’re doing as you go.

alembic1989 said:

Before the meal my reading was 5.2. Net carbs were 5.4 g ( meal consisted of monkey nuts, walnuts and a protein shake made with water)...high fat, low carb, high protein.

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Your BG before the protein shake was good. The spike after would indicate that what ever was in it was too many carbs.
Better to eat some meat and low carb vegetables and then test.

alembic1989 said:

Only 1.2 g carbs in protein shake.
Forgot to mention I also had hi lo bread toast with real peanut butter...the Hilo net carbs are about 3g.
I’ve had the same first meal with no low carb bread..( so negligible carbs)...and still got a high reading after.
I don’t know what’s going on.

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For me it makes a difference what the carbs are. Any grains and legumes spike my blood sugar. Same amount of carbs from above ground vegetables keep my blood sugar stable.

alembic1989 said:

Only 1.2 g carbs in protein shake.
Forgot to mention I also had hi lo bread toast with real peanut butter...the Hilo net carbs are about 3g.
I’ve had the same first meal with no low carb bread..( so negligible carbs)...and still got a high reading after.
I don’t know what’s going on.
Ps...I’m a vegetarian so meat/fish is out....eggs & cheese fine.

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Just to check, is that shake 1,2 total, as in, per portion rather than 100 grams or ml? Because that's pretty low for a shake. Just to make sure. (Do you have a brand name or something to check the info of?

Your carb-intake seems very low, yet your numbers are rising. Are you very stressed, ill, fighting an infection, was there a change in medication (for other conditions, like statins or steroids), or might you be dealing with the after-effects of covid? It might not just be food you should be looking at, if your meals are that low.

Good luck!
Jo

alembic1989 said:

Only 1.2 g carbs in protein shake.

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What are the ingredients? Any sweeteners/sugar alcohols in there? For some people (me included), some of those cause a big spike in blood sugars, while for others they don’t. Worth checking that out. Anything ingested in liquid form will hit the blood stream more quickly too, so if you can get the same nutrients, especially the protein, from natural, solid sources you may see a different result. Worth a try.

alembic1989 said:

My hunch is that all those months of excess drinking and bad eating habits means it is going to take longer than I thought to
‘ get back to normal’

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As I mentioned in my earlier post ‘up thread’, I’d agree. Many people find it takes longer to sort blood glucose out than it does to cause it to rise by going a little off piste. Do you have records of what you ate previously that kept blood glucose in check? Perhaps two or three weeks of sticking religiously to a menu that is known to ‘work’ would give you a clearer idea of whether there’s an underlying issue or it’s just time that’s needed to get back to where you want to be.

Your liver may be taking a while to recover from the drinking.

I second the suggestion to double check the protein shake.

I could be wrong but hasn't beer got a lot of non-OH sugar?

alembic1989 said:

Hankjam...I don’t know what non-OH sugar means.

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Sorry, non-alcohol sugars.

That’s great news @alembic1989

Some beers are quite high in carbs, I have in the past been told you don't need to count carbs in alcohol but that has never been my experience and find my bgs can spike after a couple of cans of lager .