Thank you. I am south East Asian and my BMI is on the lower end of overweight but I use that as a guide as a I recognise it doesn’t take into consideration muscle weighing. My mmol on waking today is 5.8mmol. Is there a guide you can share of what the ideal ranges should be please? Every time I look on google I seem to get different ranges!Hi, I'm a 73yo male Type 2 diabetic in remission for over 4yrs.
Your BMI is either on the hi side of the healthy range or the low side of the overweight range depending upon your ethnicity.
Your spot BG figures don't tell the whole story, but look good to me (low enough to keep you in remission if you were/had been T2D).
I don't know much about PCOS except that a Low Carb way of eating often cures/puts it into remission.
You seem to be looking after your health, congratulations!
If you are interested in getting a CGM, take at look at this … https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/th...with-a-continuous-glucose-monitor-cgm.204410/One thing that maybe helpful, if it’s affordable for you would be to get a CGM (continuous glucose monitor). This would show you blood sugar level continuously (as the name suggests) Check if you have a compatible phone first. This would enable you to see when your blood sugar peaks after eating. This can be missed with finger pricks.
A rise immediately after eating carbs is to be expected. Depends what you ate - if it was exceptionally carby (pastry would do it for me) that sort of rise would be expected. I find that carbs in hot/warm liquid form are digested very quickly. It won't take much to alter the level of glucose in your blood - there's only around 4 grams of glucose in the 8-10 pints of blood most of the time.Hello everyone
My post is more curious than anything. I’ve logged my blood sugar levels through the day today via finger pricking. I seem to be sitting at 5.6-5.7mmol. I have PCOS and I think I could be insulin resistant.
I lift weights 3 times a week, eat high protein and moderate to low carbs.
31, 61kg, 160cm
Fasting - 5.5mmol
1.5hr after whey protein - 5.6mmol
Immediately before food - 5.2mmol
Immediately after food - 11.6mmol
2 hours after food - 5.6mmol
Thanks
Did you wash your hands and retest to double check?Immediately after food - 11.6mmol
Is the GP treating your PCOS with any medication?Hello everyone
My post is more curious than anything. I’ve logged my blood sugar levels through the day today via finger pricking. I seem to be sitting at 5.6-5.7mmol. I have PCOS and I think I could be insulin resistant.
I lift weights 3 times a week, eat high protein and moderate to low carbs.
31, 61kg, 160cm
Fasting - 5.5mmol
1.5hr after whey protein - 5.6mmol
Immediately before food - 5.2mmol
Immediately after food - 11.6mmol
2 hours after food - 5.6mmol
Thanks
Thank you for this! I can tell you what I ate was a very unhealthy meal off plan (don’t judgeA rise immediately after eating carbs is to be expected. Depends what you ate - if it was exceptionally carby (pastry would do it for me) that sort of rise would be expected. I find that carbs in hot/warm liquid form are digested very quickly. It won't take much to alter the level of glucose in your blood - there's only around 4 grams of glucose in the 8-10 pints of blood most of the time.
I can go from 5ish to 9.6 and back again inside an hour, just from lactose in a small latte - as shown by CGM. The point of testing isn't to see "how high you go" - it's to see how well your system is doing at managing the glucose being added.
Glucometers have a substantial level of acceptable inaccuracy of up to 15% which means that single readings aren't always to be trusted. For example, a true BG value of 10mmol/litre could return "acceptable" results of anywhere between 8.5 and 11.5.
All your results in the five range are therefore pretty much the same and are bang normal. The only question I'd have is about what you ate to see the higher figure - which your system dealt with inside 2 hours.
I definitely have one of the physical symptoms of IR which is the skin changes. The difficulty is I can’t go off plan because it may be aggravate my PCOS symptoms further and take away progress I’m making. The second hardest thing is getting the GP to agree to me having a fasting insulin test which more often than not… they tend to send me towards checking my hba1c.Your current diet could be masking insulin resistance, as you're high protein low carb. No way of knowing for sure though, unless you eat carbs for a bit as an experiment or do an oral glucose tolerance test to see whether you spike good and proper. Non-diabetics can hit an 11 after all too, though you haven't mentioned whether that was after eating a cake or a hamburger, or anything carby... But if there's PCOS, insulin resistance is likely. But all we can do on here is guess, really. Just go from the odds, and those are likely to lean over into the resistant category.
Mind you, sticking with a low carb diet is likely to keep you out of the diabetic range for quite a while yet, if not indefinitely.
Good luck,
Jo
No. The GP always sways towards looking at my HBA1c despite me having some physical symptoms of IR (skin changes). And that’s usually because (a term I hate using) I don’t fit into textbook PCOS ie I don’t appear to be physically overweight so often my symptoms and experience is overlooked.Is the GP treating your PCOS with any medication?
Oh and just to add, the dinner was very carb-y so to me the spike is not out of range.Your current diet could be masking insulin resistance, as you're high protein low carb. No way of knowing for sure though, unless you eat carbs for a bit as an experiment or do an oral glucose tolerance test to see whether you spike good and proper. Non-diabetics can hit an 11 after all too, though you haven't mentioned whether that was after eating a cake or a hamburger, or anything carby... But if there's PCOS, insulin resistance is likely. But all we can do on here is guess, really. Just go from the odds, and those are likely to lean over into the resistant category.
Mind you, sticking with a low carb diet is likely to keep you out of the diabetic range for quite a while yet, if not indefinitely.
Good luck,
Jo
I didn’t. But have just responded to a few others to explain that I had an exceptionally high carb dinner.Did you wash your hands and retest to double check?
...And your HbA1c is probably normal because you're low carbing. I see the problem. Mind you, most GP's don't know all that much about diabetes... And when I was told I had PCOS, all that was mentioned was that I'd have difficulty in the pregnancy department, which was a non-issue for me. At that point in time, if anyone'd bothered to check my HbA1c, it would've likely have been diabetic already. And since I didn't want a baby anyway, I didn't delve into the subject matter, as there were more pressing issues at the time. Basically we kind of tend to have to fend for ourselves here.I definitely have one of the physical symptoms of IR which is the skin changes. The difficulty is I can’t go off plan because it may be aggravate my PCOS symptoms further and take away progress I’m making. The second hardest thing is getting the GP to agree to me having a fasting insulin test which more often than not… they tend to send me towards checking my hba1c.
It must be very hard for you.No. The GP always sways towards looking at my HBA1c despite me having some physical symptoms of IR (skin changes). And that’s usually because (a term I hate using) I don’t fit into textbook PCOS ie I don’t appear to be physically overweight so often my symptoms and experience is overlooked.
...And your HbA1c is probably normal because you're low carbing. I see the problem. Mind you, most GP's don't know all that much about diabetes... And when I was told I had PCOS, all that was mentioned was that I'd have difficulty in the pregnancy department, which was a non-issue for me. At that point in time, if anyone'd bothered to check my HbA1c, it would've likely have been diabetic already. And since I didn't want a baby anyway, I didn't delve into the subject matter, as there were more pressing issues at the time. Basically we kind of tend to have to fend for ourselves here.
Best I can do: go from the assumption that you are resistant. Don't go off plan if you're uncomfortable with it, (An oral glucose tolerance test would only last a few hours, but would show your potential spike. Not a test GP's have heard about more often than not, though, but specialists might have). You could get in touch with an OB/GYN for further research, but since it also goes into endo territory, I'm not entirely sure what direction to point you in. But considering that you did see a spike of 11 while there were quite a few fats involved in that meal as well, which should slow down the uptake of carbs, flattening out the spike and lengthening the duration of it some... We can't diagnose, but I think if it'd been just carbs and no fats, you would've likely seen higher numbers. Which would have been consistent with IR. I'm just hazarding guesses, though.
At this point in time, would you do anything different from what you're doing now, if you had solid answers one way or the other? You're on the low carb high protein diet because of the weights, are you considering ditching that? Because that diet just happens to be quite excellent for someone with PCOS and/or insulin resistance, the more muscle mass you have the smaller the amount of IR, and so at least the diet is something you might want to consider keeping up even if you would stop your training regime tomorrow. (Also, no-one here's going to tut-tut over a carby meal; it's just information that helps us answer your questions, no worries.). PCOS doesn't get much treatment aside from Metformin, which I wasn't offered at the time, and relatively few of us are, so... Would it change anything for now? Would you want meds, change your diet, deviate from the status quo? You mention skin changes, which ones? Acne, skin tags, fungal issues? Getting tags cut off at the GP's might be an option, topical creams would get the others sorted most likely.... And maybe going even lower carb, if possible, would make other symptoms go away.
I may be saying too much again, but when it comes down to it... If there's PCOS, your hormones are likely to be a mess. Insulin is a hormone. Take care of yourself, especially if the medical professionals aren't.
Hugs,
Jo
Absolutely no judging being done. It's a carby meal, and one with an amount of fat, so that may have affected the pattern and rate of carb absorption. Hard to tell from one reading. I'd expect a figure somewhere in that region after that sort of meal.Thank you for this! I can tell you what I ate was a very unhealthy meal off plan (don’t judge). It was breaded chicken with lots of cheese, chips and cabbage mash. In other words it was very carb heavy despite of the chicken protein. So I guess that explains to big spike post dinner.
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