Keto and Hypoglycemia

UrsulaBrownBear

Anyone else experience intermittent hypoglycemia while eating keto? I find myself becoming dizzy, headachy, shaky, weak, and sweating profusely. Sometimes I have night sweats and wake up shaky and soaked. I am not taking any medications. But I am eating low carb; about 30g carbs a day.

What do you do if/when this happens? If I eat 1 slice of whole wheat bread (13g carbs) with several pats of butter, then I feel better within 10-15 minutes. Doing this, I seem to stay in ketosis, according to my ketostix.

I would be grateful to hear from others who have experienced this !!

KnitOrMiss

That is called Reactive Hypoglycemia, and I know there are others who've dealt with it, but I can't remember who all has managed it. Mostly, they do what you do, manage it when needed, but loading with fat first, and after a period of time it levels out, as you become more adapted to running off of ketones/fats and less reliant on blood glucose. It generally is around 12 weeks that muscles can switch system fully, and the body adjusts...

This often times has to do with glucose levels/needs and either insulin resistance or cellular energy resistance. Have you ever had fasting insulin, fasting glucose, and/or A1c tests run? What about liver testing? Sometimes adding in some supplements to support this will help, because the liver is supposed to do a mini-dump of glucose into your system when your levels get too low for your body to be okay...if you liver isn't doing this, or if it isn't enough, something is wrong somewhere else in the signaling/release/coping system... Since glucose rises and drops are bad for the body long term, if it happens more than once a day or every day in a row, I'd get to your doctor even while waiting for it to level out... I have found that a ketogenic diet uncovers a boatload of issues which were camouflaged from view before!

I tend to run into this, but mine surfaces differently. My body does a temporary shutdown, which I have affectionately labeled "Food Narcolepsy" but really is a version of Postprandial Somnolence. Kind of like that nap after Thanksgiving turkey situation, but compacted into a short timeframe. But typically, it is not accompanied by blood glucose changes that I've been able to catch in testing...it's more like my body does a temporary shut down to get rid of excess, etc.

KnitOrMiss

This group is one I'm in that covers all types of low carb, restricting any type of carbs or being under 150 grams a day and everything in between, and someone there can probably better answer the mechanics of this condition.

community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-lcd-group