Food logging and Low blood sugar.

Krisstah

Soo... I am just wondering, for any diabetics out there, when you have a low blood sugar, do you log the foods you use to bring your sugars back to normal? Normally im pretty good at guessing how much insulin to take, but it seems with my recent drop in weight that my units of insulin may need to drop yet again.. 26lbs ago i was using 3 units for 10 carbs .. and then i had to reduce that to 2 for 10... it looks like i might have to reduce it to 1 for 10 now.. cause i was down to 3.3 and i had a pretty hefty carb meal tonight.

but yeah.. so that is my question.

do you log the foods you use to bring yourself back up?

Ruthe8

They still have calories. Why would you not log them?

Krisstah

They still have calories. Why would you not log them?

because lets say if someone was having one of those days where sugars seemed to have a hard time getting up, and they were drinking a lot of juice or eating carbs to bring them up.. i know sometimes that happens, the body just goes nuts, if i had to drink 2-3 juice boxes to bring my sugars back up, thats 300 calories out of my day and its not like i had a choice.. i dunno, im just wondering if people do log that stuff

airangel59

Food is food.
Calories are calories.
If you bite it, write it.

Krisstah

Food is food.
Calories are calories.
If you bite it, write it.

I did, again.. just wondering if other diabetics like myself, log this stuff.

Ruthe8

They still have calories. Why would you not log them?

because lets say if someone was having one of those days where sugars seemed to have a hard time getting up, and they were drinking a lot of juice or eating carbs to bring them up.. i know sometimes that happens, the body just goes nuts, if i had to drink 2-3 juice boxes to bring my sugars back up, thats 300 calories out of my day and its not like i had a choice.. i dunno, im just wondering if people do log that stuff

I understand why you are eating the food. That has nothing to do with it. It doesn't matter if you had a choice in eating it. Your body will use those calories. Facts are facts, whether you think that's fair or not. If you don't log it your body still uses it as calories.

Ruthe8

Food is food.
Calories are calories.
If you bite it, write it.

I did, again.. just wondering if other diabetics like myself, log this stuff.

If they have common sense then of course they log it.

Krisstah

i must of picked a night when no diabetics are on and all im getting is snippy answers from people who think im an idiot.. LOL... ANYWAY, moving on now. if any real diabetics wish to share their experiences inbox me.

night.

CyberEd312

I am a type 2 diabetic and have bouts with low blood sugar normally during exercise or right after... I use glucose tablets (carry them every where) but to answer your question if I do have say a glass of juice or something like that i will log it but not my tablets. they are 10 calories and 4 grams of carbs a tablet and I do not get that picky to have to log them.. Best of Luck

Ruthe8

Well if the shoe fits, darling.

MichelleLaree13

When you say your BS is low, what is it actually? Are you doing a fingerstick? I once had a teacher that said a pb &j was the best on whole wheat bread because it raises your BS up and stabalizes it. In an emergency, eat packets of sugar, drink juice eat a candy bar and do whatever you must. I would count the calories....

chicadejmu

I'm hypoglycemic and yep, those low blood sugar calories still count. I'm logging all my food. Hang in there - at least your body is getting more efficient with insulin use!

Sidesteal

Log it.

jenmwolfe

Krisstah...I am so with you on the confusion, girl. I understand EXACTLY what you're asking about, and have had the same question myself in the past. If I'm eating my "emergency candy" because I'm low, it means my body has already used those calories...in fact, it's OVERused them, and now it's like I'm having a calorie deficit, and I'm eating the candy (or juice, or glucogon tablets, or whatever) just to bring myself back up to normal. The calories have already been burned...when low blood sugars occur it's because the body is literally burning calories that aren't even at its disposal to use in the first place. In short...I do not log the candy or juice. I think if you WANT to log them, more power to you. And if you don't, you're not doing anything wrong.
The purpose of MyFitnessPal (or any good dietary program) is not to become so obsessed with numbers that you don't allow for any flexibility at all. If once in a while you're off by 50 calories because you had to have a snack...it doesn't mean your whole weight loss program is awash. All the experts say that becoming too rigid is a sure way to FAIL at losing weight. Don't overthink it...if not logging a few jolly ranchers is going to blow the whole system...then it's not a very good system to begin with.
Rock on, girl. Diabetics unite!

mrtastybutt

I use the glucose tabs. I log them.

abatonfan

I log everything I consume for lows under a "hypo treatment" section. There have been times where I could eat 250+ calories in low treatment (or post-low snacks, especially if it's a really bad middle-of-the-night low), and not logging those calories would cause me to gain instead of maintain. It's important to remember that weight loss and physical activity improve insulin sensitivity, so it's always a good idea to be in communication with your doctor/endocrinologist in order to adjust insulin dosages as your sensitivity increases (personally, I need to lower my basal insulin dose 10-15% for every 10ish pounds lost, and I need to lower my basal 30-35% if I plan on getting at least 10K steps into my day).

Having a low DOES NOT mean that you burned more. All it means is that there's a low concentration of glucose within the blood (typically due to taking too much insulin or too high of a dose of a drug that stimulates the pancreas to release insulin). There's no extra calorie burn associated with low BG, because metabolism -burning glucose into calories in this instance- occurs within the cells themselves (and insulin is the key to bring glucose into the cells).

Josh_lol

Yes, if you eat food. Log it.