Blood Sugar

Eat frequently, and determine which sort of foods stabilize your blood sugar. Do some research into glycemic index. If your blood sugar starts dropping, EAT, even if it screws up your diet. You can start over again tomorrow. Just make a note of what you ate recently so that you know that meal isn't very lasting.

Things I have done or noticed.

If had a high carb meal ( especially breakfast) I would crashed in about 3 hours or so.
I replaced my carbs with proteins and such for much better luck.
Take a gatorade to drink instead of water for the extra calories.

I have been much better since got back into strength training.

I was having this problem as well eating only 1200 calories I increased to 1400 and eat maybe 200 of my exerise cals back. I also eat small but more frequent meals/snacks. Check out body for life....also carry fresh fruit(apple) and nuts(unsalted almonds are my fav) and if you feel it dropping to wait to long just have your apple. That way you don't blow the diet to badly....also you can carry lifesavers with you...one or two will not blow the diet but will bring the sugar up till you can eat sometime more substancial.

Apples! They have natural sugar and high fiber, they tend to take a long time to digest so they help you stay full and help stabilize your blood sugar. Do more research for glycemic index, and read up on hypoglycemia for more information. Also consult your doctor, there may be medication to help you.

definitely do some research on the glycemic index/load. learning the difference between good carbs and bad carbs is crucial. i eat lots of legumes. high carbs but they take a long time to digest so your blood sugar stays level. plus they have lots of fiber to fill you up.

Misspoke, I meant to say sucrose is turned into glucose. But the information came from the nutritionist I was sent to when I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. She recommended peanut butter on whole wheat crackers as a was to slow down sugar entering my bloodstream. She was also the one that recommended the walk after a high carb meal to curb the blood sugar.

Misspoke, I meant to say sucrose is turned into glucose. But the information came from the nutritionist I was sent to when I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. She recommended peanut butter on whole wheat crackers as a was to slow down sugar entering my bloodstream. She was also the one that recommended the walk after a high carb meal to curb the blood sugar.

Yes, but in this example, the glucose is coming from the starch in the crackers, and from the sugars in the peanut butter, not the protein and fat. Basically, when you eat, your body digests everything. It digests different foods at different rates (carbs generally are fast digesting, fat is slow digesting.) Now, that's only if you eat one macro at a time. Once you mix say, carbs (even a very fast digesting carb, like a slice of white bread) with fat (butter on that bread,) now your body digests the carbs much more slowly, since it also has to digest the fat at the same time. I only point this out, because protein and fat on their own, have negative effects on blood glucose, as they both cause an insulin response (where insulin travels out into the blood stream and removes glucose in anticipation of possible influx of new glucose from food) which will actually cause blood sugar to crash, since protein and fat don't actually contribute any glucose to your blood stream. Just eating protein and fat, without any carbs, can actually make low glucose problems worse in the short term, until insulin levels drop back down and glucagon levels rise, in order to convert stored fat back into glucose to bring the blood glucose levels back up to normal.

And before someone else says it, yes, I am well aware that the body can convert both protein and fat into glucose using gluconeogenesis, however, that would not happen nearly fast enough to prevent a blood glucose crash immediately after eating.

BTW, even if you are not consuming what we technically think of as carbs, if you eat enough of it, it's the same effect. Salad is a good example. People don't think of salads as loaded with carbs and if the salad is small, that's true. When a salad fills a dinner plate, it's a pile carbs.

Where did you ever get this from?

Yeah, I don't get that. Salad greens are carbs. The amount doesn't change what they are. Lettuce may have less carbs gram for gram than an apple, but they're still both carbs.