Low Carb "Enough" Meal?

[Nexus6]

So just a general question based on the results of some blood glucose testing after eating....been gaining some weight (stupid boredom, covid, etc) and I really need to get back to behaving again....

Trying to gather some solid baselines, I'll eat a meal that I consider low carb/keto friendly...something (example) like a meat dish, cream sauce, some spinach etc. Everything on the "keto" or "low carb" menu in general.

I'll take a blood glucose reading every 30 minutes for 2-3 hours (at least until I start to see it dropping), and usually around the 2 hour mark I'll peak at around 7.0....sometimes creeps to 7.4....rarely higher than that.

Is that on target for both weight loss, increasing insulin sensitivity etc? How do you know how low to go? I cannot seem to find anything related to target levels...

Does something like a 7.4 take you out of ketosis (assuming you were in it to begin with). If I am following this eating pattern every day, is this the right path?

Grant

 

[Goonergal]

What are your readings before eating? The aim at 2 hours is a rise of no more than 2 mmols. If you start within that range it shouldn’t affect ketosis and would put you on the right path.

How many carbs/frequency of eating to reduce weight and is quite a personal thing.

So far as insulin sensitivity is concerned, minimising blood glucose rises will help, as will ensuring that you don’t eat - and trigger an insulin response - too often. So stick to proper meals and avoid snacking to help with that.

 

[Nexus6]

What are your readings before eating? The aim at 2 hours is a rise of no more than 2 mmols. If you start within that range it shouldn’t affect ketosis and would put you on the right path.

Thanks for that....the 2 mmol rise advice was something that I had read previously, but had placed in the back of my thoughts and never really thought about in terms of a practical tool. Yes, I will typically be around 5.0 when starting a meal.

Also fighting (along with many) with some sort of dawn phenomenon issues where I usually wake up to around a 6.0 mmol, and it will not drop (and might even rise) if I do not eat something with some carbs...I am still trying to figure out what works/doesn't work for that. An egg seems to make it rise higher (for example). Intermittent fasting seems to also crank up my hormones, which in turn also raises my blood glucose, so my body seems happier if I eat a very small meal with just a few carbs. Experimentation continues...

So, I wake, trying to find something to eat to knock down the dawn phenomenon, then nothing until about 1:30pm (small keto meal), then dinner at home around 6:00pm. Nothing again until around 8:00am. I was tying to skip the breakfast...but that seems to worsen things.

Really trying to get the ambition to start some high intensity/resistance training.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @Nexus6,
It's unusual for you to need carbs to halt your Dawn Phenomenon. I found that eating a little of anything without carbs stopped mine in its tracks. For example if my pre breakfast reading of 8.0, and I ate 2 boiled eggs, my 2hr post prandial reading would be at worst 7.8. Same thing with Bacon or Cheese.

After 3 months Low Carb I no longer felt hungry at breakfast time ( I had become fat adapted) so I just stopped eating it - that was nearly 18 month ago now,
I tend to eat lunch and dinner during the week and just 'Linner' i.e. one meal a day at the weekend.