Blood Sugar and Protein

(German Ketonian) #1

My situation: I currently do OMAD in the evening. I have recently started to up my protein intake from 80 to 120, based on the Naiman/Bikman advice (185cm, 75kg). My BG pre-prandial is usually around 80. Postprandial, BG stays at pretty much that, it doesn’t really budge. I’ve tracked T30/60/90/120.

So everything’s fine, right? Not really, because I am doing this for a week and my usually relatively low BG levels in the morning have now skyrocketed. I know, there are many factor influencing this, including sleep, stress and so on. But really, I don’t have much stress at the moment, so the conditions have remained the same.

I should mention that I always stick to my macros, especially the 20g Carbs and 120g protein limit. Fat is usually around the 300g mark, so my average macros are 85f/17p/3c.

Now the question is: Can protein be insulinogenic even many hours after consuming them, leading to a exacerbation of the dawn phenomenon? Or is there some other reason?

(German Ketonian) #2

I realized that I’ve not actually stated my BG levels in the morning, silly me!

Normally, I get something around 75-95. If everythings perfectly aligned, I have seen rare instances of my BG in the morning being around 75, but it’s far more common for me to have something in the 90s. So I definitely am “suffering” from the dawn effect and some adaptive glucose sparing.

For the past week BG levels are around 115, so significantly higher. Since I am my ideal weight range and I don’t have any metabolic damage, this is very high for me. I have never seen BG go this high after a meal, ironically…

(Deb) #3

I was also having BG panic attacks recently, and not even just with protien! And 2 things were pointed out, both of which are easily found both here and on the internet.

First, a.m. bg levels (Dawn Phenomenon) is a normal thing. And second, as you become more insulin sensitive, your cells, which formerly ACCEPTED glucose for storage, is now saying “no thank you” and has no where to go except to float around your bloodstream waiting to be used up.

During my panic stage, I learned a very important lesson (and why I stopped chronic testing): my bg readings on a daily basis have NOTHING TO DO WITH MY FAT LOSS RESULTS.
Hope that helps a little!

(German Ketonian) #4

Those two things I know (see my second post). But the interesting question is: why now? I am already keto-adapted (doping this for 4 months now).

I am not trying to lose weight, my goal is to become healthier in terms of biomarkers, thus my monitoring. I don’t think I am overly OCD about this stuff and I don’t let it dictate my day or anything. But it’s surely strange that this now thas happened after upping my protein, I figure…

(Deb) #5

Sorry, didn’t see your 2nd post! That is odd that it is happening now. You don’t, then, chalk it up to physiological insulin resistance? That’s my only thought but I’m sure someone smarter and geekier than me will chime in!