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Is my blood sugar too low?

5K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  TN Dad 
#1 ·
Hi all,

new member here (for those who I haven't met just yet). I was diagnosed with type II on 1/12/12 with:

a1c of 6.6
cholesterol: 196
Trig: 134
HDL: 39
LDL: 130

I've been doing the Dr. Kruse Leptin reset for 19 days now. Lost 20 lbs :)...but I have been light headed after meals.

I assumed I was having bg spikes, until I bought a meter yesterday:

1 hr post dinner: 111
upon waking: 65
1hr post breakfast: 95
1hr 15min post break: 90

My goal had been to eat 25g/carbs a day, but have adjusted to the Bernstein 6/12/12 plan. Last night was the first meal with 12g carbs (no lightheadedness). Breakfast this morning had me lightheaded eating 6g carbs.

Maybe 12g carbs is my sweetspot? I'm shooting for 50/25/25g protein (usually slightly higher).

What do you all think?
 
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#2 ·
65 is on the low side for a type 2 thats not taking any medication for Diabetes. Your liver will normally let some glucose lose to bring you back up. I did an experiment on myself where I would not eat before dinner just to see how low I would go before my liver would bring me back up. I would test every 15 minutes with each increasing hunger pain until the hunger subsided, thats when my BG level went back up. It added to my level of self confidence I wasn't going to hypo out. I got as low as 62 before my liver kicked in. You maybe feeling whats called a false hypo, or your just really hungry, meaning your body was use to higher numbers, so it reacts when you fall this low. I will say when I am in the 60's I'm hungry, nodoubtboutit, I got to eat.
 
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#3 ·
The thing that confuses me is the feeling/false hypo happens 1-3 hours after eating. I felt perfectly fine, not overly hungry this morning when I tested.

Dinner:
29g protein
12g carbs
42g fat (including 1 tbs coconut oil)
585 calories total

As an aside, I did lose weight overnight - 3lbs!; hadn't registered any weight loss the previous 6 days. Hopefully, I've broken through the plateau
 
#5 ·
I remember the first 4 or 5 months on a low carb diet, I had those false lows all the time. I would get the light headed shakey feeling and test and find out I was 125. All I can tell you is as your body adjusts to normal bg this feeling should lessen somewhat. I do my own version of Bernstein. I eat 1-3 carbs at breakfast, 10-12 at lunch and around 10 at dinner. I do eat several snacks that are 2-5 carbs each. I need to do this to avoid liver dumps. I think you are doing great for a new diabetic. I like to keep my bgs in an 80-120 range with most bgs around 100 during the day.
 
#6 ·
I've found that the shakes come when the bg is rapidly dropping. It doesn't even have to be low; it's the dropping I seem to react to.

As for what's "too low," that's got to be an individual thing. Doctor daughter told me about bg testing in med school and how one classmate was sitting there, perfectly fine, with a 38. Part of that's got to be the inaccuracy of the meter, but still.
 
#9 ·
If you're not on medication, then you're probably not in any danger in the mid-60s.That's a truly non-diabetic level. The only issue is whether you feel lousy when you're that low, but the problem could probably be remedied simply by eating. None of your other readings are at all low - they're excellent. You probably could afford to eat more carbohydrates, but you don't need to in order to drive your blood sugar up. 60-100 is where non-diabetics are the majority of the day and that's your range, too. As far as I'm concerned, waking up in the 60s amounts to good control.
 
#10 ·
I get it now!

I found an explanation on Blood Sugar 101

If you have had high blood sugars for a while--even only moderately high blood sugars--and start working to achieve lower blood sugar targets you may find that you feel shaky and even downright sick as you bring your blood sugars down into the normal range.

This is because over time, your body has become accustomed to those much higher blood sugars and it interprets the normal blood sugar as being dangerously low. When this happens, the body secretes fight or flight hormones in order to push the blood sugars back up to what it erroneously thinks is the safe zone.


This confirms what all of you have been telling me! :)

I got a reading of 120 tonight, 1 hr 12 min after dinner. :amen:
 
#13 ·
There is nothing wrong with those numbers at all. Check the graphic of a continuous glucose monitoring (of non-diabetics) on the Blood Sugar 101 website. Absolutely nothing wrong with any of those numbers. They are in the normal range.

If you feel lightheaded or low-energy it might be just that: a shortage of energy. At the cellular level, you can get energy from exactly three sources: glucose, free fatty acids (some cells only) or ketones (most - 95% - of cells but only if you are in ketosis which you probably are on your diet).

Glucose comes from carbohydrates (mostly and most quickly) and from protein you eat. FFAs come from fats (always) and ketones come from fats (only in ketosis) you eat.

When you cut carbs as you have you have to make sure they are replaced with adequate fats to supply the energy your body needs. Add some calories which are not from carbs or protein (as either of those will only lead to glucose) in other words from fat. I don't think BG readings - which again are all normal - have anything to do with what you're experiencing.
 
#14 ·
Thank you, Salim. I am finding that the light-headed feeling after meals is getting more mild by the day. I have also reduced my protein a bit (100-115g/day as opposed to 125-150g).

Because I am not snacking at all, my meals are usually 700-800 calories (although lunch more like 300-500). I wonder if my system has been preparing for what usually would've been a big carb load - and secreting an appropriate amount of insulin.
 
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