Breakfast and blood sugar dilemma - question for insulin resistant people

[Kirsteen]

Hi folks, I'd be so grateful if someone could shed light on a problem I am having.

I've been on the Atkins diet for 6 weeks. I lost 17b the first 9 days, then nothing thereafter. (I had a bad blood sugar prob, so I think that initial loss was water). In week 3, I doubled my calories by adding in a flax oil and cottage cheese breakfast, (which included 1 brazil nut and either 3 blackberries or 1 rosehip), for a health problem - over 400 calories. This gave me a big surge of energy enabling me to exercise in the morning. However, although there was no initial problem, over the past week, I feel starving hungry and craving food within 2 hours. I thought it might simply be that the exercise is causing me to use up all the energy. Today, I decided to omit the fruit, in case that was the culprit. I used powdered ginger instead, though it's about the same number of carbs as the tiny amount of fruit I was having. It was a cold day today, and in spite of having breakfast, and not being fit to exercise, I went into the typical low blood sugar mode of cold, sweaty, no energy and feeling rough. (No cravings yet, though :) ) In spite of being in bed with central heating and two hot water bottles, I have only improved a little over the course of three hours. This was the norm before I started the Atkins diet, and I don't want to return to that level of non-functioning.

Can anyone advise me on what might be the problem. Is it a possibility that I have been causing an insulin spike in the morning, and that now I have cut out the fruit. my body will adjust over time, giving me more energy in the morning? Alternatively, would a snack last thing at night help to keep my system more stable?

Sorry if this is uneccessarily long - my brain is never that great when my blood sugar is low.

BW - Kirsteen

[cs_carver]

I understand it's easy, but it's not exactly LC.

Might suggest trying something all-protein-and-fat (fried eggs) and see how that works for you.

[Kirsteen]

Thank you very much for the reply. Just to clarify - the low blood sugar was present during and despite eating breakfast, and eating eggs would have had the same outcome. This was par for the course before I tried the Atkins diet. I don't want to revert to feeling so rough for most of my day.

What I was wondering is if the small amount of fruit I added on previous days could have been spiking my blood sugar, thus pushing me out of ketosis?.. And also if a snack last thing at night might help me to keep blood sugar more stable the next morning. (or if that is not necessary on a ketogenic diet).

Also, I'm eating the cottage cheese/flax breakfast for a health problem, but the carb content of the cottage cheese I eat is 1.5 grams, which doesn't seem that high carb to me. Is dairy is more likely to cause a peak in blood sugar than meat or eggs?

[chandbaby1]

How do you know it is low blood sugar? I have had hypoglycemia symptoms all the time before. Until I got a blood glucose meter. Please dont speculate you will definitely learn a lot by getting a glucose meter. Buy one from walmart they are very inexpensive.

i would have hypoglycemic symptoms even when my blood glucose was in the 80s. I started taking a lot of readings and found that my blood sugar was never low to the hypoglycemic symptoms at all.

What really happens is relative hypoglycemia. What this means is this consider you got up in the morning at say 110 blood glucose. When you eat something protein or sugar ...(yes protein gets converted to sugar in absense of enough sugar in the diet especially when you are very insuline resistent)
insuline is produced and quickly your blood sugar drops from 110 to 80. This fast falling of blood sugar is what causes the hypoglycemic symptoms.


So although , your blood sugar is not actually in the hypoglycemic range you experience hypoglycemia. If at all you are taking metformin you can have true hypoglycemia as well.

So how do you deal with it ? Decrease protein and carbs in your diet and increase fat. I recommend coconut oil 2tbs per day. You will see you can get into ketosis sooner with coconut oil and also get a lot of energy since you bypass both protein and carbs.

You dont need to do this for long as you get more insuline sensitive as you lose weight you will find that you can eat a lot more carbs. :wave:

[Kirsteen]

Thanks very much for this usual information. I had no idea that I could buy these monitors. I think I will get one, because it might at least give me a little more insight as to what exactly is going on on days like this. I do currently have a lot of oils in my diet, including coconut oil - it is about 70% fat - mostly healthy oils. My normal breakfast has 3 tablespoons of flax oil, which has to be mixed with cottage cheese in order to be assimilated by the body.

With regard to the post-exercise cravings, I found some information today :

http://www.accu-chek.co.uk/gb/rewrite/content/en_GB/1.3.6:60/article/ACCM_general_article_4037.htm

I understand from that article that exercise can create high blood sugar which explains to me why I am craving food so badly after the exercise. I need to decide whether I would be better easing off the exercise to try to keep my blood sugar more stable, or persist and try to cope as well as I can with the consequences, which include eating a lot more throughout the day.

With regard to being off-colour today.. I have a nasty health condition and I have always had days when my body doesn't seem to be able to get any energy from anything except basic forms of sugar, and I used to try everything then give in and reach for honey or chocolate, which worked miracles. Perhaps today was one of those days. Rather than reaching for something sugary, I sweated it out literally, and spent the day feeling miserable in bed - slept all afternoon. I tried some coconut oil, but it hasn't really made any difference. I will just have to continue to try to find a reason and solution for this.

Thanks again for the very useful advice and encouragement.

[chandbaby1]

If your metabolism is anything like mine it is the high blood glucose which is the culprit.

I spent a lot of months not knowign what was happeneing. A glucose meter will tell you a lot about your health. Please have a glucose meter and a ketostix kit I might add which will tell you a lot about your metabolism.