I'VE OBSERVED QUITE A RANGE OF FBS FOR PEOPLE. DOES IT ALWAYS REFLECT ON HOW LOW CARB THE PERSON IS?

[Debandez]

My daily routine nowadays starts with testing my FBS and reporting back I can't help but notice that ther people's results fluctuate quite a lot. I just wondered if its always down to low carb influence ie if its a raised level eg 7, 8 or 9 and above is it usually a reflection of the person's carb intake from previous day (s). I think mine is when it's been higher. I can normally track it to that. But I'm sure it's not always that simple. I'm just curious.

 

[Brunneria]

For me, my FBG is mainly dictated by quality of sleep and amount of stress. I am not talking huge dramatic stress here, just normal everyday morning deadlines, like getting to work on time or having a lie in, needing to give a presentation at a meeting in the afternoon, or taking MIL out to lunch - that kind of thing. The bigger the stress, the bigger the morning reading.

I have never found any association between food the night before and FBGs, although other people do.

I guess we re all different.

 

[Guzzler]

Many things can affect fasting blood glucose levels. Dawn Phenomena, infection, poor sleep patterns, stress, booze, medications for conditions other than Diabetes and insulin resistance as well as carb intake. Our bodys do not run like clockwork and fluctuations can be normal. It is the trend towards a personal optimal level that is important. FBGs are usually the last to 'normalise'.

 

[AdamJames]

My daily routine nowadays starts with testing my FBS and reporting back I can't help but notice that ther people's results fluctuate quite a lot. I just wondered if its always down to low carb influence ie if its a raised level eg 7, 8 or 9 and above is it usually a reflection of the person's carb intake from previous day (s). I think mine is when it's been higher. I can normally track it to that. But I'm sure it's not always that simple. I'm just curious.

100% of the time I've put this to the test I get the same result: to within a very large range of calories and carbs, calories consumed during the day affect my fasting bg levels the next morning far more than carbs.

Last year I did all sorts of experiments trying to work out how my body worked and this particular result was always dependable: If I ate an amount of calories that was definitely 'above maintenance', even on low carbs, my fasting glucose would rise. If I ate an amount of calories that was definitely 'below maintenance', even on high carbs, my fasting glucose lowered.

I never pushed the tests to the extreme, e.g. zero carbs, so I'm not sure what the boundaries are, but they are pretty huge.

I verified exactly the same phenomenon again quite recently. Over the last few months I must have been eating more than maintenance calories as my weight has increased. So recently I double-checked my diet one day and sure enough the carbs were 20g but the calories were high. I really needed to solve the problem as, on the surface, my lifestyle seems very active and healthy recently, but weight and fbg is heading the wrong direction. So I did the same experiment again: I switched from 20g carbs and a lot of calories to a day of 270g carbs and much less than maintenance calories. The next morning my fbg had dropped to a lower level than it had been for a while.

I'm not under the illusion that means it's safe for me to eat big carbs - the individual spikes after eating will have been huge and are likely to make insulin resistance worse. But for me, over a period of 24 hours, energy input is a reliable predictor of blood glucose in the morning, and carbs are not.

It's not exactly a revelation - the various Newcastle studies show very clearly that if you restrict calories, even on quite high carbs, you can expect fasting glucose to lower. The upshot for me is that I need to count calories, especially if I am doing a lot of exercise and increasing my appetite.

 

[bassamaklan]

I take no meds and I am on moderate carb diet.
When my lunch is after 2pm and is some sort of heavy, my next fbg is no less than 100. If lunch at 12pm, I can manage to make next morning fbg lower than 100.
However, for me in order to break this law, I have to make long 2 hours evening walk plus meditaion.

 

[Bluetit1802]

What I ate the day before never makes a jot of difference to mine, be it an exceptionally low carb day or a carby day.

High morning levels are normally a reflection of high insulin resistance, exacerbated by hormones reacting to stress, disturbed nights and so forth.

 

[james11]

I feel my morning bg is definitely a reflection on what I've eaten the evening before , , my insulin injections are pretty much the same everyday but if i eat something carby without taking any my morning levels are definitely raised...interesting how other factors. .sleep ,stress etc affect some people.

 

[Boo1979]

I keep my carb levels pretty consistent but find that the amount of protein in my evening meal has some effect on FBG.
Overall tho I would agree with other posters that so many out of a myriad of factors outside of diet ( infection, slep, stress etc) can affect FBG so it is not a single factor dependent issue

 

[AdamJames]

I forgot to give the context to my own observations:

I'm talking about lowering fasting blood glucose from a chronically unsafe 9.5 down to much safer levels around 5. Right now I'm a textbook Newcastle study participant in terms of weight (~100kg), years since diagnosis (~4) and fasting blood glucose (~9.5 unless I take action each day, can get 5s so long as I take action, and still think I may be able to get low 4s but that really takes some effort) so it's not surprising that my own observations match those.

Once I get into the 4s/5s I don't think I could reliably predict whether it's going to be 4.5 or 5.5 the next morning.

 

[Debandez]

100% of the time I've put this to the test I get the same result: to within a very large range of calories and carbs, calories consumed during the day affect my fasting bg levels the next morning far more than carbs.

Last year I did all sorts of experiments trying to work out how my body worked and this particular result was always dependable: If I ate an amount of calories that was definitely 'above maintenance', even on low carbs, my fasting glucose would rise. If I ate an amount of calories that was definitely 'below maintenance', even on high carbs, my fasting glucose lowered.

I never pushed the tests to the extreme, e.g. zero carbs, so I'm not sure what the boundaries are, but they are pretty huge.

I verified exactly the same phenomenon again quite recently. Over the last few months I must have been eating more than maintenance calories as my weight has increased. So recently I double-checked my diet one day and sure enough the carbs were 20g but the calories were high. I really needed to solve the problem as, on the surface, my lifestyle seems very active and healthy recently, but weight and fbg is heading the wrong direction. So I did the same experiment again: I switched from 20g carbs and a lot of calories to a day of 270g carbs and much less than maintenance calories. The next morning my fbg had dropped to a lower level than it had been for a while.

I'm not under the illusion that means it's safe for me to eat big carbs - the individual spikes after eating will have been huge and are likely to make insulin resistance worse. But for me, over a period of 24 hours, energy input is a reliable predictor of blood glucose in the morning, and carbs are not.

It's not exactly a revelation - the various Newcastle studies show very clearly that if you restrict calories, even on quite high carbs, you can expect fasting glucose to lower. The upshot for me is that I need to count calories, especially if I am doing a lot of exercise and increasing my appetite.

WOW I was NOT expecting that! Thank you for taking the time to write your interesting info down. Just when I thought I was getting my head around diabetes it throws a curb ball! Amazing. Thanks again.

 

[Debandez]

I take no meds and I am on moderate carb diet.
When my lunch is after 2pm and is some sort of heavy, my next fbg is no less than 100. If lunch at 12pm, I can manage to make next morning fbg lower than 100.
However, for me in order to break this law, I have to make long 2 hours evening walk plus meditaion.

That's really interesting. Just moving your lunch can make so much difference! Thanks for your reply.