Need Help Figuring This Out

(Bubba Temkin) #1

My wife is a keto beast. Extremely faithful to the major and intricate aspects of this way of eating and understanding her body. She counts carbs and macros everyday, all day. Averages between 20-30 carbs a day. Fat to protein ratio isn’t perfect but never worse than 50-50. She also intermittenty fasts from about 8:00pm to 12:00 noon the next day. She tests her ketones and blood sugar every morning first thing. Always in ketosis but Glucose levels won’t budge. This is what this question is all about.

Her fasting glucose levels are almost always in the high 90s. That isn’t horrible but it seems strange to me that as faithful as she is to optimal keto eating and drinking, why won’t her glucose levels drop under 90? We are stumped.

Questions? Opinions? Facts?

('Jackie P') #2

Google the ‘Dawn Effect’ this is a well documented phenomena!
With this WOE you need to read, read and read some more!
Good luck.

(Khara) #3

I second looking into the dawn effect if she is consistently testing right upon getting up in the morning. If she’s testing other times of day when fasted… hopefully some others will chime in.

#4

What are her a1c’s at? Try a different glucose meter just for kicks, you must know someone that has one. I rarely test ketones in the morning because they are always .5 but go up a lot by 8pm

(Carl Keller) #5

According to WebMD:

During the day, levels tend to be at their lowest just before meals. For most people without diabetes, blood sugar levels before meals hover around 70 to 80 mg/dL. For some people, 60 is normal; for others, 90 is the norm.

#6

Mine was 92 this morning, It’s usually 85 -90 but it use to be closer to 100 every morning so it might get better with time as mine is doing. Occasionally it’s 82 but that’s withing the degree of error. I tested again after 30 minutes and the reading was 85 when I would have guessed it should have gone up or stayed the same. (degree of error?)

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #8

Getting below 90 may be hypoglycemic for her. If she feels good chances are her body is just regulating her blood sugar to a place that suits her body individually.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #9

In addition to the dawn phenomenon (does your wife ever measure her glucose at any other time of day?), there is also physiological insulin resistance, or adaptative glucose-sparing.

The latter is a phenomenon of fat-adaptation, in which, once the muscles are fully able to metabolize fatty acids, they down-regulate their insulin receptors, so as to save the glucose and ketone bodies that the liver makes for those organs (brain, red blood cells) that must have them. To verify physiological insulin resistance, it would be necessary to know your wife’s current HbA1C reading.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #10

My BG fasting level after 17 hours was 112 most recently, how I would love a 90. That’s a healthy level. Mine is getting there slowly but I have been at this 6 months and my doctor is very positive about the trend. I don’t believe that there are “cookie cutter numbers” that are one size fits all. We are all on our own trajectory metabolically and some take longer than others to get to the same place. Don’t stress over a 90 BG fasting level. You’re striving for a number that is just a marker on a range. She’s in nutritional ketosis, what else really matters if healing is going on, certainly not an arbitrary number in a range of healthy readings. :cowboy_hat_face: