N=1 Why am I stalled/gaining on Keto

(Elena) #21

How much protein are you eating. For me protein is very insuligenic I have tested it. I can not consume more then 20g in a meal and I only do 0.69 per lean body mass. I know most recommended 1 to 1.5 g. Or u can do the height ratio 45.5 for the first 5 feet of height and 2.3 g for each inch there after. I’m 5’3 and I do 52.4 g protein. Also for some the longer you do keto the less protein you may need. What chocolate are u snacking on ? Does it have sugar ? Also vegies can be a slippery sloap. I don’t even eat them. How do u know you are not adapted ?

(jilliangordona) #22

Thanks for clarifying! I didn’t realize there was a difference… makes me comment rather pointless now.

(melinda) #23

Hello everyone! My blood glucose meter FINALLY arrived after they accidentally shipped the wrong item.

The only problem is, I have no idea what these numbers mean! I just tested “within two hours of my first bite of food” as per the blood meter instructions and my reading was 92. I guess that’s good because the meter lit up green?

Haha, no idea. I’m melindaperron on myfitnesspal if anyone wants to buddy up there.

Can anyone give me a basic rundown of when to test and what numbers I want?

(Doug) #24

Melinda, that 92 sounds very good to me. Others may know more about it, but I’m used to it being said that 70 to 100 is okay for adult fasting blood glucose, and up to 140 is okay “post prandial” or after eating - usually two hours after, to be specific. 92 thus is going to look really good, considering it was after you ate.

(melinda) #25

Okay, my tests for this morning:

I test about an hour/hour and a half after waking up: 100

I then drank a coffee with coconut oil, heavy cream, and torani syrup. Two hours later: 101

Should I be testing sooner than 2 hours? @carl or @richard do you guys know what “protocol” I should be doing here?

(Richard Morris) #26

To test to see how a food affects your glucose you test beforehand, so you have a baseline.

You want this to be as unaffected as possible by your environment. So you want to make sure you have been awake for at least an hour so any effect of waking up (and making wake up hormones) has passed. You want to have not eaten anything for 3 hours (6 if you are diabetic). You generally test at 30 mins and again at 60 mins. Optionally at 120 mins if still elevated.

I generally don’t eat breakfast so for me about an hour or 2 after I wake up is perfect for me.

So I did this on Saturday testing out one of the meals that restaurants are making for Ketofest - a Padthai using shirataki.

First I took a test before the meal

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I took one immediately after eating (this one is optional. Unless you ate sugar there shouldn’t be a spike)

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I then set an alarm for 30 mins.

We then went for a walk to another restaurant (which made my glucose go down a little with the exercise - but the important thing is it didn’t go up)

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Then I set another 30 mins alarm and walked to another restaurant

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The result is no elevation of my glucose so that meal should be good for ketofest

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #27

What would be an acceptable change? I normally see from high 4’s before to mid-high 5’s after a meal for a couple of hours.

(Richard Morris) #28

0.2 mmol/l is within the expected range of a little moderate exercise, it’s almost noise. If I saw a jump of 0.5 mmol I would consider that significant.

(What The Fast?!) #29

Is there also something about seeing a drop? I remember in your charting a glucose curve post - if your BG goes down, it may be that your body released insulin or something?

(melinda) #30

Thank you!

(melinda) #31

Test blood sugar about 40 minutes after having a bit of meat. It was 106. I drank a Diet Dr. Pepper and tested again 30 minutes later - still 106.

(Richard Morris) #32

I would say from that, that that Diet Dr Pepper had no effect on your glucose.

BTW: you know I totally couldn’t resist saying “that” 3 times in sequence and still be legible.

(melinda) #33

I did notice that - that that phrase was included.

(melinda) #34

I have a suspect - afternoon coffee/too much caffeine.

Yesterday, I tested my blood right before I left work because I didn’t feel good. I had had an afternoon half cup of coffee and a caffeinated soda in the afternoon after having a whole cup of coffee in the morning. I have always been sensitive to caffeine.

Anyway, Tested my blood at 4:45pm - 83, pretty low

6:15pm before dinner - 90

6:45 pm just after eating ground pork, cheese, sour cream, avocado- 97

7:30pm - 93

This morning:

9:15am (woke up around 7am) didn’t eat anything - 105

9:53am after drinking coffee with torani, 2 pats butter, 1/2 tbsp coconut oil, 3 tbsp heavy cream - 101

11:21am (nothing since coffee) - 90

11:45 am - ate 2 burger patties with cheese, pickles, tomatoes, mayo, and mustard from Burger King

12:25 pm - 94

I have literally no idea what these numbers mean though if anyone could help interpret. (@richard, my buddy :wink: )

(LJ) #35

It’s probably not the caffeine.

#36

Those numbers look great to me. A slight elevation first thing in the morning is very common. The readings after eating look very stable.

So, you work nights? Or am I reading that wrong?
83 is slightly lower than your other readings, but it isn’t low low. It would be interesting to see if there is a pattern to the level where you don’t feel good. And of course, it would be great to know what your ketone levels are too. :wink: An increase in ketone levels will allow for a lower glucose level without restricting the energy your brain needs to function at its best.

(Adam L) #37

Hi Melinda, I have T2D & have tested my blood sugar a few times per day for a few years now. For what it’s worth I would like to have your numbers, I average slightly higher than your numbers, I’m still healing & improving. I have to be very strict ZC with no dairy & no sweeteners to get numbers like yours but when I am that strict I get slightly better numbers than yours - so far I only lose weight when super strict & have been gaining a little weight slowly in recent months as haven’t been that strict.

Enough about me, what’s my point? If your not a recovering diabetic you might want to experiment with foods to work on getting these numbers down slightly, say 85-95. As Carol said it would be great to know your blood ketone levels. I am curious to hear what Richard might say, knowing your fasting insulin from a lab blood test might help you to map out a strategy to break the stall. Good luck, following & supporting you to success.

(Sonia A.) #38

Hi Melinda. After reading all these posts, 3 things jumped out to me.

First, if you’ve eaten keto for a year, why aren’t you fat-adapted ? How do you know you’re not fat-adapted ? I suppose the fact that you’re not losing weight is what you perceived as a sign. But, do you have NSVs ? Are you feeling the other benefits of keto ?

Second, you should try to limit or stop using artificial sweeteners for a while and see if it helps. Some people are very sensitive to it. It could be what prevents you from weight loss.

Third, it’s the same thing with dairy. Perhaps you’re sensitive to it. You could do your own n=1.

I hope it helps.

#39

@melindotty in case this helps: it took me a long time (a few weeks?) of regular readings before I really felt I had a handle on the patterns. I have pretty good (not amazing) glucose control, and for me there’s a fair amount of variation day to day that doesn’t connect directly to food (sleep quality, exercise, stress level…).
I’m glad that test strips are pretty inexpensive because I went through a LOT of them in the first few weeks and now that I look back on my first day or so, I realize that I was trying to draw conclusions without much experience or context. It started to make much more sense as I went along.

(melinda) #40

Lol, no, I was leaving work to go home at 4:45