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Low carb and hypos

Lynnb63

Lynnb63

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Just wondering if anyone else has hypos when doing low carb? I’m ok for a couple of days then bang hypo time. Don’t know why or what I’m doing wrong.
 
How low are you seeing?
 
Lynnb63 said:
Just wondering if anyone else has hypos when doing low carb? I’m ok for a couple of days then bang hypo time. Don’t know why or what I’m doing wrong.
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I too was experiencing hypos. I spoke to my diabetic dietician and she confirmed that my bolus insulin only worked on carbs but that vegetables, salad etc weren’t counted in that unless eaten in large quantities. I began an experiment with myself..... I ate my usual diet of zero big carbs and did not inject. This has worked for me so far and I have been doing this for several months now. On the odd occasion where I have no choice but to eat the big carbs, obviously I do inject (with varying success). I always inject my basal insulin at night. I definitely need this. I have discussed this approach with my diabetic nurse and she seemed quite happy with it as it’s working for now. I feel much happier and don’t worry about activity and sport anymore as I have not had a hypo since (unless I have had to inject). I hope this is of help but as I don’t know your regime, If it is of interest to you, I would maybe discuss this with your team first.
 
I’m type 2 and don’t take insulin. I’m on Glimepiride 2mg and Dapagliflozin 10mg both one tablet once a day. The lowest I’ve have been was 3.6 and I felt terrible. Since eating carbs again I’ve not had any.
 
Lynnb63 said:
I’m type 2 and don’t take insulin. I’m on Glimepiride 2mg and Dapagliflozin 10mg both one tablet once a day. The lowest I’ve have been was 3.6 and I felt terrible. Since eating carbs again I’ve not had any.
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Your medication is probably causing the hypos if you are cutting carbs. If you are going to carry on with a low carb way of life you probably need to speak to your HCP about reducing medication. Eating more carbs so you can take the pills is a little counterproductive in this case.
 
Lynnb63 said:
I’m type 2 and don’t take insulin. I’m on Glimepiride 2mg and Dapagliflozin 10mg both one tablet once a day. The lowest I’ve have been was 3.6 and I felt terrible. Since eating carbs again I’ve not had any.
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Could I ask what your main objective was in going low carb? Were you doing it to manage blood glucose numbers or were you looking to trim up, and before going LC, what was your latest HbA1c?
 
Both really, but to lower my blood glucose mainly. I started off at 72. Then I managed to get it down to 45. But it went up again into the 50s. My gp put me on Glimepiride as the Dapagliflozin wasn’t working on its own. But then he did think I was on metformin, even though he took me off it as it was giving me bad side effects.
 
As @bulkbiker said above. By increasing the carbs you are eating to your medication. The other way of doing things is to medicate to your eating. In other words, the lower carb you go, the less medication you need. Lower carb will help with weight loss, so if you decide to reduce your carbs again you need to speak to your nurse about reducing the meds. The hypos should then stop. Many folk on this forum have reduced their meds, including insulin users, and managed to end up medication free with low carbing.
 
How long have you been low carb for? I noticed the same trend, particularly worse at the beginning but I just needed some time to adjust my insulin and get the balance right.
I also noticed certain times of the month I run low so an afford more carbs as I also seem to be less sensitive to insulin.
 
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