Was on keto last year and lost 30 pounds and felt fantastic. Went off it for awhile and back on this July. Came across a book called The Diabetes Code by Dr. Fung. Started adding fasting and everything was going well. Went completely off all my meds as an experiment to see if I can control my Type2 with only diet and exercise. For 4 weeks everything was going gangbusters, Yesterday my numbers were up a little bit…nothing significant. All of a sudden today my numbers are up quite a bit and I can’t figure out why. Have not changed anything…except today i was doing some pretty strenuous yard work. My numbers have been around 5.6 for weeks…today 95. Just can’t figure out why. It would be great if someone could offer something helpful. Perhaps this has been discussed before? Thank you so much.
Hi...newbie question
I cannot speak directly to any numbers as I am not T2D and - when I do measure anything - it is just blood ketones.
But, more generally, it is best to measure anything under similar conditions. Want to monitor fat loss? Don’t measure your weight right after a “last meal” and then again just before breaking a fast. It is “fun” to see a big change on the scale but really, the 5 pound difference after a 72 hour fast is much more likely a 1 to 1.5 pound actual fat loss.
In your case, maybe your body reacted to the heavy exertion by spiking cortisol and dumping glucose into your blood in anticipation of continued stress? I am not a doctor nor in the medical profession. I have no idea whether heavy exertion would affect hormones this way or not.
But, for me personally, I throw away outlier numbers when monitoring things when I realize the conditions are not the same. For example, measure your blood pressure upon waking - worry about an upward trend measuring this way. But, measure you blood pressure at 7 AM every day - after sometimes no coffee, or one cup or several cups - numbers might misguide you into thinking there is a problem.
Strenuous exercise can transiently raise serum glucose, and so, I believe, can fasting. But there is obviously a mistake here, since 5.6 and 95 aren’t even on the same scale. I’m assuming there’s a missing decimal point, and you went from 5.6 to 9.5. If you don’t normally measure yourself in the morning, I’m sure that a part of today’s high level could be accounted for by the dawn phenomenon.
What is the context, however? Have you yet returned to full fat-adaptation? Do you have a recent HbA1C? What about your ratio of triglycerides to HDL? Your WBC, HS-CRP, and ferritin?
I thought so! In American numbers, 5.6 is well below the level that would cause hypoglycaemic death to a sugar-burner. I could believe a ketonian would possibly get that low and be fine, but it would still be extremely unlikely, lol!
I am not as familiar with the non-American system. How does 9.5 compare with the normal range? Nevertheless, the answers to the questions I asked—if you happen to have them—would be helpful in assessing your situation.
Between I believe 4.0 and 7.0 give or take for normal non-diabetic.
For someone returning to a ketogenic diet, you are probably just fine. Give yourself another four or five months before you start to worry.
Also, in case it helps, here is a piece by Peter Dobromylskiyj on “physiological insulin resistance,” or as I prefer to call it, “adaptative glucose sparing,” that may help you in thinking about this:
Phew… was getting worried… did you retest for finger contamination just to be sure?
Heavy exercise has been known to push up blood sugar levels (hence I try to avoid it at all costs)
Providing it comes down afterwards you should be ok.
So today my numbers are back down like always…I think maybe my hands weren’t washed well enough, or maybe a couple of faulty sticks. Thank you to everyone who responded.
Strenuous exercise + eating only protein (activates glucagon and releases glycogen which is converted back into glucose[1]) will cause a jump in numbers like that! I would not be too concerned about it unless it is a constant occurrence and you have not been physically moving very much?
That is why eating only protein (1 ounce or more or less but not too much) is good if your feeling a little hypoglycemic rather than eating sugar; endogenous supplied glucose verses exogenous glucose (very bad).
Important caveat: If you eat a lot of protein (more than the amount mentioned above) without carbohydrate it will actually lower blood sugars because it is going to activate insulin (are you diabetic and do you have enough endogenous produced insulin?) rather than glucagon but not as much insulin as carbohydrates would to clean up the glucose; that’s why you don’t want to eat too much protein when feeling hypoglycemic. It is a very delicate balance so the less amount of protein only, the better! I know this might be contrary to the stories that have been told by the so called ‘experts?’
References:
[1] “…Glucagon activates glycogen phosphorylase, the rate-limiting step in glycogenolysis, leading to increased glucose concentrations. …” …More