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

Need help understanding thought I did

E

Ellabella1

Member
Messages
24
Hi I’m still sorry this is my 3rd post. I thought I had understood everything and had got my BG down from 20 to 7.1 to 5.7 was only having 20/30 carbs per day for weeks .. had few extra carbs re rice ( tiny bit) teeny bit potato in a soup ect.. had a piece of sour dough bread today bloods went to 11.4 after 2 hours but then dropped to 4.2 then 5.1 ?? I’m so confused in 30 mins and after those results? But what should I be doing as I was trying to introduce carbs after being almost keto for nearly a month? Please please some one say what I’m doing wrong as I’m losing the will as I thought I was understanding it all but obviously I’m not.
 
Ellabella1 said:
Hi I’m still sorry this is my 3rd post. I thought I had understood everything and had got my BG down from 20 to 7.1 to 5.7 was only having 20/30 carbs per day for weeks .. had few extra carbs re rice ( tiny bit) teeny bit potato in a soup ect.. had a piece of sour dough bread today bloods went to 11.4 after 2 hours but then dropped to 4.2 then 5.1 ?? I’m so confused in 30 mins and after those results? But what should I be doing as I was trying to introduce carbs after being almost keto for nearly a month? Please please some one say what I’m doing wrong as I’m losing the will as I thought I was understanding it all but obviously I’m not.
Click to expand...
Also be as harsh as you like and tell me straight as I’m angry with myself to not obviously getting it right
 
its quite possible the carb hit when you have not been having any then resulted in a bit of a quick hard hit of insulin in reaction causing the rapid drop before it levelled back out. There’s nothing wrong with 4.2 in itself but heading there fast and furious from 11 can feel pretty unpleasant.

you’ve only been keto a month. Barely even time to get fat adapted. It’s not a quick fix. It’s a way of eating. Yes some people can eventually and gradually add in a few more carbs but not usually this fast. And remaining low carb is likely necessary long term. I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong. What you describe is exactly what I’d expect to happen. What did you expect?
 
Hi Ellabella1
Sorry I'm a little confused, why would anyone be harsh? Why are you angry? And why would you want to introduce carbs back into your diet?
When we digest carbs the resulting glucose will cause your blood sugar levels to rise. The more carbs we eat the higher our levels will go. A few weeks of low carb does not mean you will be able to eat bread without consequences.
 
@ellabella There many things that affect bg. Yes food is the main one but there's also
Stress
Illness
Medication
Sleep or lack of it
Exercise, intensity and duration
...and the list goes on
So yes your third reading may have gone higher than a second one within minutes.
BG will never be a straight line nor regular rises and drops, its much more zigzag and seems erratic.
Aim to keep between, say, 4 and 8.5 and be happy with anything in between and don't be cross if when learning it goes outside, how else will you learn?
 
Ellabella1 said:
Hi I’m still sorry this is my 3rd post. I thought I had understood everything and had got my BG down from 20 to 7.1 to 5.7 was only having 20/30 carbs per day for weeks .. had few extra carbs re rice ( tiny bit) teeny bit potato in a soup ect.. had a piece of sour dough bread today bloods went to 11.4 after 2 hours but then dropped to 4.2 then 5.1 ?? I’m so confused in 30 mins and after those results? But what should I be doing as I was trying to introduce carbs after being almost keto for nearly a month? Please please some one say what I’m doing wrong as I’m losing the will as I thought I was understanding it all but obviously I’m not.
Click to expand...
The short story is its too soon!
If you have T2, the fact is you are carbs intolerant to some degree.
Think of it as, you can have so much, but too much is bad and so on.
The longer you are within normal levels of just above as you are (brilliant!) the less issues your levels of insulin resistance you become, and that is gradual, the less severe spikes, the less insulin you produce, which for a T2 is always good, getting your body used to this really does take time, don't forget an hba1c blood test is over a few months period, not a month or few weeks. All the time your health is improving.
There will be some carbs that you may be able to have, depending on your intolerance and your first phase insulin response. But I'm lead to believe after a good while, the odd treat will be okay, but I have to warn you that it will taste so sweet, it might be too much for your taste buds.
Take it easy, relax into a new lifestyle. Going back to those baddies too early will damage all that great work you have done.
I fell off the wagon a couple of times because I had some mental issues. It just made me feel worse with all the symptoms along with the depression and anxiety on top, it was horrendous, really bad.
I swore to my lot I would never go back to my hypo hell before my diagnosis.
Going slowly and cautiosly, with the help of my counsellor, my GP, my family and the support of this forum, I am back in keto, where I have to be. My carb intolerance and the prospect of high insulin and Hypoglycaemia, really gives me a mindset that I have to go through for the rest of my days.
If you enjoy low carb, why change back?

My best wishes.
 
Sorry I am late to this discussion. In my experience Sour dough bread like all Low GI foods can give you a very high spike more after more than 2 hours after eating. I think it's is commonsense that low GI foods are slow to digest so the body reacts later, however I think sourdough actually delays digestion giving you the late spike.
I had a similar experience with rice shortly after my diagnosis and gave it away soon after.
But after discovering sour dough gave good results around 2 hours I thought I had discovered a wonder food . Some random blood test showed a spike of around 10 after 3-5 hours so no more sourdough. Carbs are carbs and Sourdough is high carb just like rice, potato and bread. Best avoided.
 
Ellabella1 said:
Hi I’m still sorry this is my 3rd post. I thought I had understood everything and had got my BG down from 20 to 7.1 to 5.7 was only having 20/30 carbs per day for weeks .. had few extra carbs re rice ( tiny bit) teeny bit potato in a soup ect.. had a piece of sour dough bread today bloods went to 11.4 after 2 hours but then dropped to 4.2 then 5.1 ?? I’m so confused in 30 mins and after those results? But what should I be doing as I was trying to introduce carbs after being almost keto for nearly a month? Please please some one say what I’m doing wrong as I’m losing the will as I thought I was understanding it all but obviously I’m not.
Click to expand...
You are reacting to carbs exactly as a type 2 would - introducing more carbs might be possible at some point, but as in maybe 5 gm per day a couple of times a week, but bread rice and potatoes are high carb and so your BG went up - we have a slow initial insulin response, and then your pancreas panicked and your levels fell rapidly. That is absolutely normal.
 
I don’t think we truly accept what carbs do to us until our sugars shoot up like yours did. At least you’re testing and knew what was going on. I’ve finally accepted that low carb as in keto low is probably the way to go for lots of us unless we want to be increasing medication with all the side effects that come from both the carbs and the drugs used to treat us.
 
Back
Top