Side effects of going on to low carb low sugar diet

KennyA said:

OK, I'll try to do this as asked....

Fingerprick readings give you a snapshot of how things are right now - the HbA1c gives you a longer term view of how things have been over the last three months or so.

Most people do an FP test at a couple of repeatable points: first thing before eating in the morning , when you've not eaten for ~12-18 hrs; before eating, to establish a baseline; and 2 hours after eating, to see how well your system dealt with whatever carbs you ate.

The morning readings tend to be the highest; they do come down but it takes time.

Everyone's blood sugar goes up and down perfectly naturally, so don't worry about changes in themselves. Also, the meters aren't that accurate so there is not a lot of use investigating (eg) a 5.5 versus a 6.0 reading as it might be the same.

"Keto" is just a name for a very low carb diet. It's "keto" because it promotes ketosis, otherwise the normal process of using bodyfat rather than the food eaten for fuel. Normally I aim for less than 20g carb/day, which sustains my ketosis.

None of the readings you're quoting are problematic in themselves. Are you diabetic?

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ianf0ster said:

Hello, How often to test your Blood Glucose really depends upon why you want to test it.
But in your case (pre-diabetes) I should think you want to test it to be able to reverse your pre-diabetes by jut eating a little differently - is that correct?

If so that will be based on the knowledge that all the carbohydrates you eat (both sugars and starches) turn into glucose when digested.
Thus the easiest way to get your level of Blood Glucose lower is just to eat less carbohydrate i.e. not more than your body can easily handle.
A misconception is that most people believe that dietary fat makes them fat, where th truth is that it's the carbohydrates that cause body fat much more than the Fat does (unless you eat a lot of both together.
So a fair bit less carbohydrate and a fair it more traditional) fat is the way to go.
OK , so how to test if a meal is right for your body or not:
1. Ignore the NHS EatWell, 5 a Day and 'healthy whole grain stuff. Only your Blood Glucose meter can tell you, and what it tells you is both unbiased and also specific to your particular body, because e all have different genes and different gut bacteria etc.
2. Test your Blood Glucose just before eating and then again 2hrs later (after starting eating rather than after the meal, unless its a 2hr meal).
3. If the 2nd reading is more than 2mmol higher than the 1st one, that meal had more carbohydrates tan your body likes, so reduce the carbs by either reducing the portion size (of the carbs) or substituting something with less carbs in it. For example switching breakfast from breakfast cereal and fruit juice to just eggs( boiled, fried, scrambled, omelette with cheese of mushroom) and tea/coffee with no/little sugar.

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