HI

I'm looking for others with Reactive Hypoglycemia/Low blood sugar. I was diagnosed 10 years ago but I'm only now doing something seriously about it. It's gotten to such a bad state.

I have had reactive hypoglycemia/low blood sugar for at least the last 10 years also. It is worse in the morning so I can't eat many carbs for breakfast or lunch. I usually eat bacon & eggs, a cheese omelet or scrambled eggs made with 3 eggs for breakfast and some cheese. I try to get 30 grams of protein at each meal. The amount of protein you should eat varies based on your body weight. As the day goes on, I can eat more carbs. I usually eat a small salad with enough protein for lunch. If the salad is too big in relation to the carbs in the salad, my blood sugar drops. I find the Atkins plan works the best for me with this condition. If I wait too long to eat between meals, I get a bad low blood sugar episode. When you eat low carb, you don't get hungry as often so I have to eat based on the clock rather than hunger. I was recently diagonosed as a pre-diabetic because I had gained weight. I have been on the Atkins plan since Jan.10, 2005 and have lost 22 lbs. My fasting blood glucose level was 6.4 before I started but was 5.4 when I tested yesterday which is in the normal range. I will be eating low carb for the rest of my life in order to keep my blood sugar levels stable and avoid diabetes.

Hiya! My Mom has had this for years, but undiagnosed by anyone until I started watching and working with her. She kept going in to see the docs with palpitations, severe mood swings and dizziness and so on and no-one ever did a GTT or thought about this being hypoglycemic episodes. Fasting blood tests never did much because tho she clocked at 6.0 (top of the so-called 'normal' range), because of her age it always got written off as not significant -- and they never actually did any tests when she was actually having an 'episode' or symptoms. Whole thing makes me so mad, medicine by statistics!

I got her on a moderate protein, low carb, high nutrition eating plan (mostlyh resembles Atkins Maintenance) every two hours meal plan and she is feeling and looking 1000% better (and coincidentally dropped 15 pounds). She must eat on the clock, too, if she's hungry it's pretty much too late...and bam.

I hadn't heard it called 'reactive' hypoglycemia before, but I looked it up and that seems to be the same thing I have. I was diagnosed as 'hypoglycemic' back in...1990? They told me to go on a low fat diet and lose weight.

I'm sure we all know that song.

I've been doing some low carb long before I found out it was a dieting method just from trial and error with my own eating habits. I didn't lose any weight, but I stopped constantly gaining and more importantly was able to begin to keep my blood sugar stable.

Now I'm doing serious Atkins, and mostly it has been the perfect thing, although I still ocassionally find some unsuspected pit to fall in. The latest one was protein shakes. I think they're too processed, so my body converts them to glucose.

Like Anne55 I start the day with just protein and fat, then increase my carbs as the day goes on. I can't tolerate artificial sweeteners in any quantity, and any kind of treat, like the ocassional (pms) piece of lc chocolate, needs to be in the evening after a full meal containing some other real carbs.

The medical profession tells me this should improve when I lose weight, and now that I'm excersizing. We'll see.

Island Girl, I feel for you & your mom. I was diagnosed 10 years ago but moved to Vancouver 3 years ago. Trying to get a doctor to take you seriously knowing you have hypoglycemia is like trying to shoot yourself in the foot. I've had doctors totally dismiss me, others put me on anti-depressants when I told her that I'm hypoglycemia & another one say I can't help you. I've been going to a homeopath & he is really great. He's given me different remedies & with the hypoglycemic diet it's done wonders for me. I've also started doing reiki, energy work & that is amazing. I feel so much more better, lighter, clear headed & with purpose & hope. The diet takes care of the nutrition but this you have to change your mind set / spirit to really make a difference, well that's for me anyways.

My Homeopath also did an allergy test called a Vega Test. They can test for various things. I found that I must stay away from red meat, chocolate, coffee, artificial & natural sweetners, milk (I knew this already), wheat - that is the biggest one. Artificial flavorants too. Obviously I'm staying away from all the startchy, high carb, high Glycemic Index foods too.

At the moment I'm eating 4-6 meals a day, depending how I feel. I'm doing protein with every meal, good fats & good carbs. The ratio should be 40% carbs, 30% protein & 30% fats. I find that when I eat a good balanced meal that I do alot better & then if I keep eating small meals evry 4hours or so it also stabalizes me. Been almost 2 months like that & I'm not falling a sleep after every meal, no constant pain in my body too & my mood is alot better too.

I'm following an adapted version of the hypoglycemic diet & also the Glycemic Index one. I was reading the Zone & it also agrees with the Hypo diet.

I don't think hypogylcemia improves very much when you lose weight. I started getting symptoms when I was close to normal weight for my 5' 9" height. My sister has the same problem and she has always been at normal or even a little under normal weight. I think we are genetically pre-disposed to this condition. She doesn't feel that low carbing is healthy so she continues to have bad episodes. She eats very healthy for someone without hypoglycemia but not for someone who has it.

I agree with Bat Spit about the protein shakes. When I tried one at lunch, my blood sugar dropped immediately and I had to continue eating to get it back. It threw my blood sugar off for the entire day. I also had the same problem with Atkins bars and too much artificial sweetener early in the day.

I only realized within the last few weeks that the only way to keep my blood sugar level is to eat enough protein and fat early in the day. Prior to that I was watching only the carbs and was having low blood sugar episodes often. Sometimes I don't eat enough protein and fat and I know almost immediately. For example today for lunch I made a pizza on a low carb tortilla. I put about 2 T. of regular pasta sauce, pepperoni and mozza cheese on it but I had to eat more cheese and some macadamia nuts immediately after.

I also find drinking lots of water and chewing sugar free gum help keep BS level.

I've also found that if the food is too processed that I can't tolerate it. Even if I do it myself, I noticed I can't eat soups that are pureed, I also made rice milk & it's too thin for me. It only had a bit of vanilla flavour & some stevia in it. I sometimes drink a a protein drink called "100% whee protein" from London Drugs . It only has 1g of stevia in it. It seems to work for me - I don't get any reaction to it but I do add extras to it. I find that I need to still eat a meal with it within 2 hours. I add Greens Plus to it, olive oil, coconut milk, soy milk - unsweetened & a bit of water. I find that if I add coconut milk it's more sustaining & a little more filling.

I'm not doing this diet to loose weight. I'm doing it because my health was really suffering & it got to a point that I couldn't even work. But I have been loosing & it feels like I've lost 6 margarin block already in 6 weeks. I'm not weighing myself either. I'm a little scared about being thin - I remember as a teen I was of normal & below normal weight & I felt worse for it. My body was in pain all the time. I hope this time, with a healthy diet that there will be no pain.

I've basically cut out ALL sugars, artificial & natural. I occasionally have stevia in my tea but that's maybe 1-2 a week. I had a 2 mini candy canes when I had my anxiety attacks 2 weeks ago. But that's it. No sugar - i'm basically making all my meals. It's going to be hard when I go back to work though. I think the only time I do consume hidden sugar is when I eat out & there's a consiment or salad dressing. I've only been out 2-4 times in the last 6 weeks.

Also eliminated wheat in ALL forms. I'm doing spelt, 100% rye or kamut bread. The only grain that I'm eating is brown basmati rice. I'm also doing quinoa but that technically isn't a grain & it's a proetein. But I find that even eating the quinoa I still need to have a good carb.

Yes - the meal has to be balanced, if it's missing any component, either a carb, fat or protein or if it's too little of one then I do feel the hypo really quickly. I've also found though that for protein my body copes alot better if it's an animal based protein, chicken instead of a soy based burger. I feel stronger & don't get the pains. i read in the Zone book that vegtable based protein is encased in fiber & our body can digest it properly so we pass it out & for a person with hyopoglycemia that isn't good.

I find I do better on three meals a day, with reasonably high fat and enough calories to get me to the next meal, 4-6 hours away. Eating more than that keeps insulin flowing, and it's the insulin that causes the blood sugar crash for me. When I eat three meals, my body's glucagon can do its work to stabilize blood sugar.

I got the information that helped me from www.masteringleptin.com.

Since we have this nice thread going, do any of you notice that your blood sugar destabilizes if you supplement chromium? I've had that problem more than once, so I'm fairly sure that's what is causing the problem.

I used to go with just 3 meals, but now that low carbing keeps my sugar mostly stable, I eat about 5 times. 2 'full' meals and 3 snacks with breakfast and dinner the 2 full meals.

This is so much a hunt and peck kind of condition to deal with. I know I'm continuously poking at things to see if they work better, or trying new things to see if I can handle them.

Tonight's experiment is low carb pumpkin pie after a full supper. I hope its ok, I've been craving it for weeks.

It really annoys me that my insulin system can't tell the difference between real sugar and fake sugar. I really miss the ocassional soda.

One day, after a previous day's constant craving for sweets, I woke up and felt suicidal. I tried calling a shrink, but there was only an answering machine, so I figured I'd call back later.

After I ate breakfast I felt so much better, that I realized I wasn't crazy, it had to do with either being hungry, what I ate, or something biological. I went to the MD for a fasting GTT, and sure enough - hypoglycemia.

The low carb works great for me.. I feel very sensitive to carbs, and that is why I believe it is so difficult to lose weight, and why cravings come back so quickly if one "goes off" the plan.

I do 3 meals and 1 or 2 snacks a day. I sometimes get hungry at night, even if I eat dinner at 6 pm, so I might have some cheese or something around 8:30pm. I'm still "up in the air" on this pm snack, because a lot of folks say not to eat at night, yet on the Zone they say it is important to keep the blood sugar level. So--if I'm really hungry, I do eat a litttle. It seems to be OK for me.

Also, though, I do have to count the calories or I don't lose weight. I'm afraid to go "whole hog" (pun intended) and not count them, like Atkins suggests.

Just last Sunday in the newspaper it said to eat every 3 hours (and nothing after 7pm) and that will help with weight loss. I guess everyone has an opinion!

Well, that's my story. Hope it helps!

thats interesting... I have reactive hypoglycaemia and feel that theoretically the 5 - 6 small meals should work, but in fact I feel better on a large protein breafast/ then lunch/dinner.

Im still struggling with it, even on Atkins. Particularly bad lately, dont quite know what to do.

I also think chromium helps to steady me at his stage.

cs_carver, could you give me a snapshot idea of your menus ? I am having a 4 pm crash and wondering if I need to do something different at lunchtimes./ or any other info on leptin ? I read your link, then a whole lot of info about refeeds here which has been a bit confusing.

thanks
plum

Barb,

Before I changed my diet there were nights that I was racking myself. I was extremely nervous & couldn't get to sleep. Then one night at about 2 or 3 in the morning I gave up trying to calm myself down, trying to keep myself warm & trying to meditate - I went to the kitchen & had something to eat. After I ate I fell right back to sleep. I realized then that I was hungry, I knew I was but also didn't want to do the midnight snacking. But I realized that it's my body & it's screaming for food. I should listen to it regardless of what other people say. So now, when I'm hungry - I eat. But I'm not a glutton at all & I don't even gorge on sweets or carbs any more. So I reckon if I'm hungry at night & it's making me nervous I should eat.

"Hypoglycemia for Dummies", very informative & I go back to it all the time. Easy to understand too.

"The New Glucose Reveloution", explains that carbs are different, high, low & medium. It explains the rate the differnt carbs turn into sugars & also lists a ton foods & give the glycemic index for them as well.

These two books have changed the way I think about food, but more importantly the way I think about my life & what's important to me. It's opened up the way & given me hope that I can have a better life. They have been more helpful than the doctors I've seen as well. The internet has also given me the info that I'm looking for, these message board have saved me alot of agrivation too. My gosh, 10 years ago I felt like i was an alien - now I feel like there are solutions.

Breakfast is three eggs, cooked somehow and generally with a fair amount of fat (egg salad, fried, scrambled with sausage sometimes).

Lunch is large chicken and leafy salad, lots of dressing.

Dinner is meat, leafy something, and a sweet potato, both veggies with lots of dressing.

Sometimes I'll skip the breakfast and start with lunch.

Hard exercise seems to help. Letting dinner go longer than 60 minutes, clock starts with the first bite, makes getting through the night without cravings much harder. The closer I stick to "clean" (natural), the better. Keep "experimenting" with LC ice-cream products and am slowly learning that they just aren't helpful, however entertaining they may be at the time.

This made me laugh. Ah the triumph of hope over experience. I keep doing the same thing.


I used to always prefer the 3 regular meals, but now that I'm low carbing food just doesn't interest me, and I can't make myself eat enough at one sitting to last until the next normal meal time.

Speaking of which, it just occurres to me that I left my lunch in the microwave...an hour ago. I suppose I should go eat it now.