Type 2 Diabetics on LC - question about morning blood sugar

greenautumn17

The last time I really went LC was in 1999, before I was diabetic. Now that I am, I am concerned this time around about my BG levels, especially in the morning. I have always had the dawn phenomenon, but since eating LC, it has spiked about 20 more points higher. It matters not what I eat or when I eat before going to bed. Will this eventually even out as I lose weight, or will this continue as long as I am in ketosis? Please advise.

wabmester

Hopefully somebody can give you a response based on actual experience. In the meantime, I can try to entertain you with my pure guesswork.

Two things going on:

1) A natural insulin resistance due to your ketogenic diet. Your body is trying to allocate all available glucose to the brain, so other tissues have their insulin sensitivity reduced to help this.

2) Higher cortisol levels, also due to your ketogenic diet. Very low carb levels seem to do this.

So, I would expect those morning spikes to continue as long as you stay at your current carb levels. Ask your doc if this should be a concern, but I've read that it shouldn't be.

DittoDan

This is a common phenomenon among diabetics. Your liver dumps sugar into your bloodstream at night. I always took my long acting insulin at bedtime. Now that I don't take insulin or other diabetic meds, I don't worry about it.

Keep calm and keto on...

I hope this helps,

Dan the Man from Michigan
It's Ketogenic or Bariatric! How I Found the Ketogenic Diet
Blog #10 Keto: Abbreviations, Acronyms & Terminology Used on the LCD & Keto Discussion Groups
Blog #13 DittoDan's Milestone's, First's And Good Changes Since Starting the Ketogenic Diet

GaleHawkins

My fasting reading went up for a while after I first went full time keto. DittoDan's and wabmester's posts are backed up by the research I have read. The first 6-12 months on full keto eating lifestyle can bring about some weird stuff happening to the body it seems.