• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

My Low GI diet, counting the calories, and surviving with carbs

It is good to see you back @douglas99 with your quasi blog.

Your intro sets the scene very well and I am interested in following your progress.
 
I worked with instrumentation and in major industry for 28 years and I expect that the meters do not measure sugar they measure electrical properties (probably conductivity).

And with the tiny sample size even super tiny salty dried sweat will contaminate the sample and READ HIGH all WILD readings I have seen have been high.

When we measure something and declare it something else it is called an inferential test.

An example (as a diver) you measure water pressure and infer depth. But pressure is height times density so if the density changes salt water vs fresh water, your depth gauge/pressure gauge will read wrong.

Inferential testing has its limitations.

I hope that helps.
 
I will be your guinea pig @douglas99; I live in a 3 storey house so this is something I do quite a bit in the normal course of the day (maybe not sprinting!)
So tell me when should I do the test, any old time or say measure 2 hours after a meal, then do it?
I did have an odd experience the other day myself ... I always exercise in the morning (walk before breakfast, weights mid morning some days) but one day last week I decided to test a big, grainy bread roll. So, ate the roll (with ham, cheese & salad in), felt a bit lightheaded 90 mins later so decided to go for a 20 min walk (thought it was anxiety). Tested at 2 hours, BG down to 4.3, lowest reading ever. So probably the exercise skewed the result I'm thinking. Unless had a big swing up and a rush of insulin. Got to admit there seems to be so many variables with the testing .. I have a very varied diet and rarely eat the exact same thing twice .. so hard to work out what's doing what.
Anyway, let me know
Lesley
 
Ok ... I have a few episodes of Hollyoaks to catch up on so I'll have lunch, sit do nothing for say 3 hours, test and then retest after a few laps up and downstairs. What a fantastic excuse to laze around, all in the name of science
 
Thanks @douglas99 I have been slack and you made me read up on it.

I just read what wiki has to say the strip does some chemical change and separation but the meter reads conductivity as I expected.

Pressure is height multiplied by density (simple physics) and my reference was just an example of an inferential test. .
 

Here are the results of my test:

1245 BG: 6.5
Cup of Red Pepper, Pumpkin & Tomato Soup
Slice of Bill’s Flax Sourdough w/LF Cheese, Anchovies, Red Peppers, Bacon
Salad w/Mixed Leaves, Tomatoes, Broccoli Sprouts, Avocado
Tea w/Milk
1500 BG: 6.4
1540 BG: 5.8
Ran up and down stairs 3 times
BG: 5.9

Maybe you could try it again yourself and see what happens?
 
@douglas99 Yes the fact of going up and down the stairs a few times will lower your Blood Glucose levels - I can take mine down by 3 mmol in 5 mins on the bike, treadmill, or stairs.
 
In labs spectrophotometers use light wave length reflection to analyse gas, and many other things are measured with procedures to isolate things so they can be weighed or otherwise measured.

But lab methods have problems for general industrial use so process engineers always look for inferential methods of testing for what they want to know.it is not perfect, but it has to be good enough to do the job.

Flow through a pipe without having to measure it in real quantity (buckets full).is measured by pressure drop when it speeds up through a restriction

Acidity/pH the acid forms a cell producing electricity, thermocouples dissimilar wires heated where they are joined produce electricity at the other end many gas analyzers actually burn gas to find out what it is by temperature. radiation thermometers read radiated heat for temperature.

When we work in the industry and the factory is not working properly it is imperative to know what variables we are actually measuring as distinct from what it says on the control panel.

But your dilemma was; where was the sugar coming from, and my answer is it is likely to be a contaminated sample (prob. salty dried sweat) getting into the conductivity sample and the meter cannot tell the difference because it is not a lab quality test. Lab quality tests usually avoid contaminating samples or they have a process to isolate the contamination.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
How many gramms of carb are you averaging a day Douglas?
 
douglas99 said:
11.2 @ 22.29
so, I washed my hands
9.5 @ 22.31
still seemed high.
Up the stairs, washed again.
Realised I had no strips left.
Upstairs, to get more,
Realise I had taken my meter up, back up and down, and washed again, just to be sure.
7.2 @ 22.47
Click to expand...

It's as if you have a sugar lump floating around in your blood stream, like an iceberg.

Many of us have seen this strange effect. I give it another 30 mins and then test again.

Squeezing can affect the reading too. Capillary blood samples are not as good as venous blood, ie using a needle.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
fish fish fish:

rollmops herring, bismarck herring, bratherring, mild matjes herring, dutch matjest herring, salmon trout, smoked trout, smoked salmon, smoked haddock, smoked cod, prawns, shrimps, battered fish, smoked mackerel, peppered mackerel, mackerel in spicy sauce, anchovies, sardines, pilchards, smoked eel, kippers

Fresh Matjes salad:




I can see in the dark now
 
after reading your interesting blog, i often find myself wondering what you mean by not letting diabetes run your life? you record what you eat and post it here, you test your bloods often and post them here, in what way does this differ from anyone else? because you eat unhealthy food sometimes? does this make your life better than someone who doesnt choose these types of food? do you eat whatever you like? whenever you like it? it seems to me that you are very careful about what you eat in the sense you eat low fat and calorie control your diet and weight very carefully but stray from this course often, in fact you seem to be very much more controlled by your diet than me, i dont test for example, theres no need, it therefore seems to me that diabetes is indeed controlling or running your life, i pretty much ignore my diabetes, i do eat certain foods and avoid others, its very easy knowing what your bloods will be all the time and dont feel my life is dominated by diabetes at all, so what do you mean by not letting it run your life please douglas?
 
@Andy12345 It's a relative term. If you have ever seen someone stressed out, almost reduced to tears because of a diagnosis, you'd understand what it can mean to some people.

Years ago I went for mt CPAP machne because I had been diagnosed with sleep apnea. From day 1, it was wonderful to get a good night's rest. I met a bloke who was in for his overnight sleep monitoring. He was very scared and kept saying that he hoped they wouldn't find anything. Yet finding something and doing something about it would be the solution for his feeling totally cream crackered all the time. Fear can take over your life.

And for that, we have prozac
 



huh? whats relative?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…