I had been warned, and knew it was true, that Steve (DH) would likely experience some lows as he drops his blood sugar by going totally sugar free. Yesterday, he was doing his inventory purchasing for the three stores at a local auto auction. He must stay sharp when doing this because it costs the store mucho bucks if he messes up and gets a loser of a car due to not seeing a mistake made by a seller or by the auction house such as an older than stated model year or discrepancy in equipment. So, with that little detail in mind, he of course, had his first serious low sugar symptoms while at that auction.
I had sent him off with a breakfast of two or three eggs covered in cheese (can't remember which), and half an avocado stirred up with mayo, pink salt and onion powder. I had served him some leftover Italian sausage from Wednesday night but he couldn't stomach it, first thing in the morning so he didn't eat that. He did have one extra slice of cheese. The trouble started probably about two hours after he ate. The atmosphere is somewhat active, with them walking around looking at the cars and standing for extended periods, watching the cars run through the lane.
Why wasn't that a good enough brekky and what should he have eaten to end his shakes, and headache? He tried having a salad from the cafe but when he briefly walked away, someone cleared his table and threw it away.
I won't say what he did next, but suffice to say, it was his first off plan food.
How would protein or fat replenish his sugar to keep him level? I know protein can be processed to glucose but would it do it fast enough? The explanation I've seen online looks like it would be a slow process.

I used to have reactive hypoglycemic episodes like that in the early days.

What's I figured was happening is at the 2-3 hour mark, the insulin rises have come and gone. (they happen when you eat, even with low carb; insulin is just lower), and now is the time for systems to switch from sugar-burning under higher insulin to fat-burning. Alas, that machinery is sluggish for him until fat adapted. Those drops happen to habitual sugar-burners (and they don't happen to people who are primarily fat burners)

personally I would have a 6 oz can of V8 just to avoid those symptoms. I hate, hate, hated that feeling. It was a temporary stopgap until I could go between meals without the crash.

For me, changing breakfast didn't change a thing. it happened with more low carb, or less, or none. the issue was bonking because I wasn't getting energy. Not from the sugar I used to get and the fat energy wasn't kicking in properly yet. also from a sluggish liver maybe.

Maybe eating more often like 2-3 hours after breakfast would help? That way he would stay on an evil keal and his bs wouldn't crash until his body adjusts.
I had many of those
low BS with dizziness when I first started LC.
A Slim Jim or beef jerky is portable, string cheese and an adkins bar saved me many times.

Anyone taking insulin must be very careful not to go into hypoglycemia, ever. Better to reduce the medication and let the blood sugar readings go back up. Your doc should be able to reduce it.

Metformin will not cause one to go hypo but other meds can. Play it safe until he's only taking metformin.

Fasting on the weekend is another way to bring down BG and weight quickly - but reduce insulin appropriately. During fasting there's no meal the insulin has to compensate for.

Thanks. He is only taking metformin right now.

First you need to find out what his BG is when he has the symptoms and then work from there. Headache and shakes could just as well be low salt as low blood glucose. It's important to get the proper information first. Next time he has an episode, take his BG. In the meantime, for a couple of meals take BG pre meal and 1 hour and 2 hour post meal to see what his BG is doing in response to food.

His snacks through the day are salty, so I hesitate to say that's it. Although, he did not have any access to those on the day I described.
As for the response to food though, last night, I checked him immediately before dinner and his number was 218. At one hour pp, it was 217. That was at midnight and he really needed to get to sleep, so I didn't take it at two hours but I was really encouraged that he was one point below baseline at one hour.
If that's not important, let me know. I have a lot to learn still but in my study so far, it seems that is an important development. And no, I did not get a fasting number this morning. I stuck him over and over and his fingers did not bleed enough to get a reading. He was in a hurry because they have a mandatory Saturday am management meeting and he was running late.

Hi Ann~
I would like to pass on something I discovered about myself recently.
I found out something about not being able to get blood to come out very well. The phlebotomist told me my blood wa too thick and clotting too easily.
So, After a lot of reading I discovered that vitamin E thins the blood. I started taking it right away and by days end my blood flowed much better, only 1 stick; I also noticed that by BS dropped my 10 points.
Maybe this could help your DH too....

Whoa, that's good advice. Thanks so much. I'll definitely add that to his pill minder. That's something we all could probably benefit from. Aren't forums great?

That is fantastic for one hour PP - he's really making progress!

It is highly unlikely that he's experiencing true hypos, it could be that his body is just trying to get used to lower numbers, or it could still be the salt thing - on low carb we lose a lot of water which takes a lot of salt with it, so we need to replace plenty of water and salt, so maybe make sure he has a salty low carb snack and a bottle of water to have when these episodes hit. Eating something high carb won't help his body adjust to lower levels of glucose.

Sounds like he's really committing to this and you're doing a great job Ann, of researching and helping him.

Yes I learn so much on this forum.
The E info I did find by rereading one of my Adkins books called Age-Defying Diet Revolution, 2000. I am taking the 400I.U.
Those Adkins bars can be really helpful to keep in the pocket or purse in my case. Does he like coconut? Because I found that one made me feel better.
DH went to Sams once and came back with a box of slim Jims. Yea they aren't perfect as a regular thing but on occasion along with a meat stick, they kept me from feeling like I was going to go down and they're portable and he keeps some in the car for emergencies. He also found some really high quality meat sticks like a cross between beef jerky that really help too, he found those at Rattlers gas stations and it is locally made here in Texas.

Your husband has had really super high BG so backing down is going to cause false hypos. I'd suggest having periodic snacks until his body acclimates to more normal blood sugars. LC snacks. Make sure he's prepared with them. Nuts are easy to carry, jerky, stuff like that.

He should also use the meter so he can see if he has real low BG or whether it is just "lower" BG than he's used to. Real low BG is something like 60 or less.

I hope he will eventually start testing but for now, he is doing the diet like a champ. He does snack on snacks with protein and low carbs. Boiled eggs, nuts and cream cheese, so far.
I'm afraid I will have to be happy with that for now. He has now quit bitching about me testing him when I get the chance and the numbers are overall trending down. Last night, he returned to baseline (minus one little point) at only one hour.

In addition to all the great advice here about snacks, etc, is he still on BP meds? He may really resist taking that test too, but sometimes BP drops and that should be monitored. Keep track of it same time of day over a period of weeks, take the reading to doctor, as dose may need to be adjusted.

Okay, no, he isn't on them but he has had periods of extreme stress when he took them until he got through that. Also, his doctor told us of a corollary between kidney stress and hypertension so he put him on lostartin to address this. He has a long history or kidney stones and diabetes of course, is hard on the kidneys, so until I am taught that the potential for trouble with his kidneys is a different type of problem, I remain pleased that maybe his kidneys are receiving some needed support as he works through this. His doctor certainly knew he was diabetic when he prescribed the losartin but did not mention any connection.
I will break out the BP cuff at the next opportunity and check it out. He is currently under some pretty severe stress so it is surely pertinent. He remains constantly fearful for his job and/or his rate of pay (like they might demote him rather than firing him). He is our only source of income and we are not prepared at all for retirement, and are in our middle fifties. And he's naturally a worry-wart anyway.
I would be surprised if his BP drops. If you're saying that lowering bg carries a tendency to reduce BP, independent of weight loss, maybe it is a further protection against hypertension as well as insulin damage for him to be on this diet.
Thanks for this additional info. Please correct me if I misunderstood the situation you were introducing.