Interesting BG Change?

CarrieMoritz

For the diabetes "experts," I have an interesting situation. Had a metabolic panel done in May 2015 to test my thyroid, since I'd been suffering from the effects of hair loss, fatigue, etc. Weight was 170, diet was SAD, and BG was 70. Thyroid all tested normal, dr told me to increase my nutrients and stay in contact if the fatigue didn't lift. Never really has, even after going keto. Had a new metabolic panel done last week so dr could establish numbers for physical. Weight at that time was 156, diet is keto (120pro/76fat/20carb), and BG was 90. Both panels were done fasting. Any ideas why BG would have tested higher (even though still well within normal range)? Mom has T2D that is at the insulin dependent stage, so of course diabetes was one of the reasons why I went keto.

idocdlw

Wow...who knows? But congrats on your weight loss! 170 to 156 is admirable. Maybe your body is still adjusting to the changes. I am not a diabetes expert...hopefully some of those folks can chime in and give good insight. All I can do is rah rah rah for your weight loss.

tcunbeliever

short answer - because not eating carbs means not triggering insulin release

I don't claim to totally understand the long answer, but this article has links to a lot of studies about it if you want to read more

http://ketopia.com/high-blood-sugar-in-ketogenic-dieters-plus-a-special-surprise-hint-genotypes-and-metabolism/

CarrieMoritz

idocdlw wrote: »

Wow...who knows? But congrats on your weight loss! 170 to 156 is admirable. Maybe your body is still adjusting to the changes. I am not a diabetes expert...hopefully some of those folks can chime in and give good insight. All I can do is rah rah rah for your weight loss.

Well, it had climbed up to 180 by the time this last September rolled around. *cringe* I've currently stalled for the past four weeks at 156-157, but I keep plugging. Two of those weeks were Christmas, where keto was followed *very* loosely if at all.

CarrieMoritz

tcunbeliever wrote: »

short answer - because not eating carbs means not triggering insulin release

I don't claim to totally understand the long answer, but this article has links to a lot of studies about it if you want to read more

http://ketopia.com/high-blood-sugar-in-ketogenic-dieters-plus-a-special-surprise-hint-genotypes-and-metabolism/

Ooooh, how interesting. Muchos gracias! That was an interesting read!

cstehansen

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it for a couple of reasons. The biggest being there is a margin of error on the testing equipment. I know it is stricter for what they use in labs, but for the home testing monitors, it only has to be within 15%. That means the same blood could test between 85 and 115 as both are within 15% of 100.

Given the margin of error on an A1c is 0.5, which translates to about 14 mg/dl, and that is for professional labs, again, you could have a spread of 28 using the same blood sample.

The second is better explained in the article @RalfLott posted in this thread:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10502801/great-article-diet-insulin-resistance-marty-kendall#latest

If you are concerned about you BG due to family history, it is pretty cheap and easy to do some checking on your own. Here are links to a 3 part post (all pretty short) explaining:

https://chriskresser.com/when-your-normal-blood-sugar-isnt-normal-part-1/

https://chriskresser.com/when-your-“normal”-blood-sugar-isn’t-normal-part-2/

https://chriskresser.com/how-to-prevent-diabetes-and-heart-disease-for-16/

bjwoodzy

@CarrieMoritz - I'm type 2 diabetic and noticed a lot of swings up and down on my BG readings over the first few months (quite a few months, actually) and and the success stories about folks dropping many many points lower in BG the first week or so of keto were very disheartening to me, until a lot of experts I was reading up on would say that not everyone experiences dramatic decreases only. My dad had horribly high high readings even on drugs and following the "American Diabetes Association approved" strict diet of high carb, low fat, etc.

I was Metformin and insulin-dependent (1000 mg pills/116 units Lantus/day) until May-ish of 2016. I am happy to report that by doing keto as strictly as I can (which I need to say has been easier than I ever imagined) I'm getting normal to "normal high" readings through dietary changes only. I think you're doing GREAT. Keep it up.