For most of my adult life, fasting BG around 96. Did keto a couple of years ago, and got it down to 87. Went off keto for a year and a half, and realized going up a Jean size to accommodate my belly was a no go. I’m a few days into it again, and my BG two hours after a meal has been in the high 70’s. Is my BG meter broken? Tried it three times.
Is the third time the charm?
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#2
The meter is probably not broken. After a year and a half of eating carbohydrate, your insulin-resistance has probably returned to some extent, so lower serum glucose is to be expected, especially that long after eating. Your insulin has risen and driven down your glucose.
Give yourself plenty of time before starting to worry. Dr. Paul Mason says that in his patients he doesn’t worry so much about the absolute level of glucose as about keeping the curve as flat as possible. And a low-carb diet certainly does that.
SomeGuy
(Joey)
#5
@Regina Sounds like you’re off to a fabulous (third) start. Knowing what lies on the other side, perhaps you can make this your final “keto go” (i.e., the one that sticks)? 
Best wishes.
Fangs
#6
Paul answered your BG issue in good form!
Third time the charm? Hopefully it is 
Higher big carbs back in our menu = going up a jean size.
Your third time to lock in only will depend on if you want to lose that jean size again and again and then do it a fourth or fifth time? 
I know, I walked that path a few times also and it isn’t fun at all. It gets super duper old real fast losing the same lbs over and over again til that one time we figure out we have to stay on the healthy eating plan to keep the lbs off and feel better.
So best of luck!
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#7
I think there’s another possibility, which is energy. When the Diet Doctor (Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt) went high P:E and ate more carbs, he said his morning blood sugar went down. That makes sense to me, as I figure your body can tell it doesn’t need to create higher blood glucose in the morning, since you’re feeding it carbs anyway.
What I expect will happen is that Regina’s blood sugar will go up, not down, while on low carb. Particularly in the morning, once her body realizes she doesn’t have a supply of carbs every day.
I’m sure it’s way more complex than what I’m describing. And, there’s currently no way to test this. We’d need a home insulin meter.
And even then, the results would be hard to interpret. For instance, consider this graph from Hyperlipid:
Now, one might say that butter caused a high insulin response (note: each of these also came with carbs, so they modified the fat but kept the carbs basically the same). The VEFO is olive oil, if I remember correctly, and it has a better insulin response.
It’s looking bad for butter.
Until you realize that Peter D.'s theory is that saturated fat causes fat cells to be insulin resistant. What does this mean? It means you’d have higher blood insulin, because your fat cells wouldn’t be sucking up the insulin in your blood. But it also means that you wouldn’t be getting fatter, since your fat cells also wouldn’t be taking in carbs.
And his theory is that PUFAs like linoleic acid cause fat cells to be insulin sensitive. In theory, this means the fat cells should “suck up” more insulin from the blood, meaning the insulin curve would be lower (as it is). But it means you’re getting fatter, as fat cells are taking in carbs.
Anyway, an insulin meter would be very useful, but only if one realizes what it means.
In the case of Regina, I’m not sure that it’s solely a “higher” blood insulin level that’s to blame for lower blood glucose. Requires some thought.
Regina
(Empress of the Unexpected)
#8
A year-and-a-half-later update. Back at it. Never went back to a classic SAD, as I was having maybe fries or a bun twice a week. 0 sugar. I am giving myself points for switching to grass fed beef and dairy. No nitrites or nitrates in bacon, pepperoni, etc.
However, I am two years overdue for a blood test, and I am dreading it. I started keto to get my 150 plus triglycerides under control. It worked. But, I got a new bg monitor and now am showing 104 fasting. With or without keto I have always been under 100. I know different monitors give different readings, but this is shocking. I will double down and report back. Today, one rye cracker. Guess no more. I don’t want my doctor to label me as pre-diabetic. Two hours after meals 117, so the numbers are not making sense to me.
islandlight
(Laurie)
#9
Hi Regina. I don’t understand all the numbers. Are you back on keto now? I hope you stay healthy and happy.
Greta
(Greta)
#10
If you eat a lot of food (a lot of fat) the day before on low carb, morning glucose will be higher. I’ve always seen that. You can overload your body with too much on the energy side of the equation, leaving your body trying to stuff away fat into storage, and you become more insulin resistant the next morning and glucose goes up.
Try eating less food (less fat) and test the next morning. You should see a drop.
Another way to drop am fasting glucose it is to add some carbs in. When I added 75-100 carbs, my fasting glucose dropped into the 70s-80s. When I go low carb, I can easily see fasting glucose in the 80s-90s.