cstehansen wrote: »

Just a few thoughts. First, if scheduling has caused you to not exercise, your stress levels are likely higher. Stress increases cortisol which increases BG.

Second, according to Dr Adam Naly, it is not uncommon for someone who is IR to have FBG a bit over 100 after becoming fat adapted. He said his morning FBG is consistently around 105, but his A1c is 5.2. The more important measure is the PP reading as that will tell you how well your body is processing what you eaten. I would suggest finding a way to fit this testing into your schedule.

Third, why did you up your carbs, and with what foods and how have you spread them out? If you are taking them in mostly in one meal, then that will cause some problems as will taking them in via straight sugar. According to Dr Bernstein, your body does not process carbs as well first thing in the morning so breakfast should be the lowest carb meal of the day. He suggests 6 g for breakfast and 12 g each for lunch and dinner. That is only 30 total, so maybe double if you think 60 is where you want to be.

@cstehansen - Dr. Berg suggests a 1/2/3 breakdown. so if you number is 60 total carbs, it would be 10 at breakfast, 20 at lunch, and 30 at dinner. As a non-diabetic who is insulin resistant, my carb tolerance is many times over better at night, so this very much corresponds to my own experience. (Dr. Berg may not be the person I remember with this breakdown in reflection...it was the Diabetes Summit...and I remember the podcast was an older Diabetes doc now... I think Dr. Berg said something similar, which is why it linked in my brain... I'd have to dig out my notes to remember which doc this was, and I'm happy to do so if anyone really wants to know. Just lemme know.)

But I have also recently discovered, as it seems you did at the Brazilian Steakhouse, that it isn't always just insulin resistance - meaning glucose is the issue, but I was having the equivalent of carb crashes with keto only meals, leading to a tentative complication - being total cellular energy resistance.

I would absolutely LOVE to find out my cellular threshold. Like if I eat 600 calories per meal, no more than 25% carbs.... or I can't handle more than 750 if low carb, or 500 if high carb or whatever. Since cellular energy overload and even direct measures of insulin sensitivity really aren't there yet, I bet this would be way off.

I did get the RMR of like 1890 with a breath test I did, if I remember right, so I'm not as messed as some other thyroid patients (apparently some have such suppressed metabolisms they practically have to do starvation caloric level diets to lose weight...)...but I still just feel like I have more questions than answers.

And having IR and still being morbidly obese with all my other complications, I'm on the yellow brick road to T2D unless I can make more sense of my mess...so, I'm following for interest... Thanks all.

Thank you Paleo in Scotland now I understand and will blame my high readings on the flu.

2t9nty
Good luck with your A1C tomorrow I go for it tomorrow also. And I know the numbers won't be nice.

Oh well it is what it is. Just going to work hard these next three months and hope for lower #.

See you all lighter.

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LinCharpentier wrote: »

Thank you Paleo in Scotland now I understand and will blame my high readings on the flu.

2t9nty
Good luck with your A1C tomorrow I go for it tomorrow also. And I know the numbers won't be nice.

Oh well it is what it is. Just going to work hard these next three months and hope for lower #.

See you all lighter.

Let us know how it goes.

genmon00 wrote: »

You know some people fear the scale, I don't. I fear the freakin meter. My FBS keep going up even though I lowered my carbs BUT I was sick this past week so that may have something to do with it. I have my Dr's appt next Friday so I know she will be doing an A1C and I'm nervous as heck. I do not want to add any meds to the metformin and I WANT to trust that my body will heal itself BUT I want to be wise enough to know when I will need to increase meds for the best of my health. Anybody else feel this way too?

How much metformin - sipping or gulping amounts?

genmon00 wrote: »

cstehansen wrote: »

genmon00 wrote: »

You know some people fear the scale, I don't. I fear the freakin meter. My FBS keep going up even though I lowered my carbs BUT I was sick this past week so that may have something to do with it. I have my Dr's appt next Friday so I know she will be doing an A1C and I'm nervous as heck. I do not want to add any meds to the metformin and I WANT to trust that my body will heal itself BUT I want to be wise enough to know when I will need to increase meds for the best of my health. Anybody else feel this way too?

Once you change to this WOE, the biggest change in BG will be to your PP reading. FBG reading - especially first thing in the morning - is impacted by the dreaded dawn phenomenon for most with IR and even with many "normal" people. Over time, it should go down some, but don't be surprised if it is always higher than normal.

Since A1c is a measure of "average" BG, avoiding the spikes PP will should still improve your results.

Also, Dr. Fung and others talk about how long it takes to get glycogen stores to lower levels once they have become elevated. He is a big proponent of using fasting to drive down glycogen faster. Keto will lower it, just not as fast.

Assuming I am understanding the research I have read, once you have larger glycogen stores, it can take quite a while before your body adapts to not needing them to be so large to the point where it doesn't push gluconeogenesis from protein in order to keep them at high levels.

The best thing you can do is keep calm and keto on as stress will elevate BG.

Please let us know how your results come out afterwards. I think you may be pleasantly surprised - especially if you have only been testing FBG and not PP BG.

Thank you! Although I am a big believer that diabetes can be controlled by diet and lifestyle (this my WOE for life), doctor's have drilled into my head that diabetes is a PROGRESSIVE disease that will eventually kill me. I know this not true but its a long held fear.

I just bumped the Introduction thread - has great info from @albertabeefy on depleting glycogen stores.

Ok call me dumb if you wish but what is PP BG

Personally, taking Metformin is like swallowing air. It would do virtually nothing for me. I was on 1500 mg/day, so my GP put me on two kinds of insulin, after only one kind wasn't doing enough. My FBG is probably always going to be a bit "high", but then again, what is "normal blood glucose", really?

I feel like the more I stay strict 20g/carbs a day and not worry too much about calories and keep my protein under 80g/day, the better my levels might be, or at least stay the same. But I'm a bit worried that my GP will think 150-170 a.m. FBG and PP BG of between 140-155 is still too high for her liking and wants to put me on something, when Glucophage is not available as a co-pay item thru my insurance. And I am someone whose BG used to be close to 200 in the mornings, never lower than 140-ish pre-meals, and never lower than 170 post-meals...am currentlys not on any drugs whatsoever, since May...controlling BG via diet alone.

I'm not too worried...remember, my first reading at diagnosis in 2007 was clear over 430 fasting...and while 150-170 is high for PP, that's with NO drugs (now, after starting keto), when I used to be almost 200s PP, pre-keto and ON drugs