New to fast and worried about blood glucose (BG)

#1

Hello !

I’m in ketosis and I’m monitoring my BG. It’s higher before I eat than after I eat. Sometimes even above 100 mg/dL before food. Today it was 109 morning fasting BG. Then I had a tiny bit of 86% chocolate and about 4 pecan nuts. I’ve measured after 1h and my BG was 96. I think it’s always like this: when it’s high fasting BG (between 100 and 109), after I eat something, it goes down. Should I worry?

Now, the reason for this message is that I’m doing OMAD. But I want to do whole day fasts, may be even multiple days. But then, I worry: if my BG is high when I don’t eat, if I go a whole day without food, or longer, it’ll be high all of that time. When I say high it’s between 100 and 109.

My weight is normal (BMI 22.6 today) and I run/walk/mountain bike often during the week. The reason I want to fast is to try to cure myself of insulin resistance.

My ketostix says I’m in ketosis.

Thank you for your help!

(Bunny) #2

That looks good, after you eat is what really matters.

#3

Thank you! I’ve read these. But if it lowers after I eat and I stop eating because I’m fasting, won’t the high BG damage me?

#4

Your number’s aren’t bad. It’s going to go down a little because you ate something. There was an insulin response which dropped your sugar a little. It’s supposed to work that way. Don’t get in the mindset that insulin is 100% the enemy (because it’s not) and that keto foods don’t create an insulin response (all foods do). If we didn’t have insulin we’d be dead. It’s TOO MUCH that you don’t want.

Also, stop tracking BMI, it’s an absolutely useless number unless you’re skin and bones. I’m a 5’9" Male @215lbs, my bodyfat is around 15% or so right now, so not bad at all. Not fat, only got a little bit extra around the edges. barely noticeable visually. Per my BMI I’m morbidly obese! Because I have more muscle mass than “Average” the whole equation goes out the window. BMI can’t account for muscle which makes up a lot of us, therefor, useless. Don’t be shy about giving your stats out for accuracy, not around here! Many of us were VERY big when we started. I was almost 300!

(Bunny) #5

No, because it is endogenously produced glucose not exogenous, your body is producing just enough sugar to keep glucose dependent organs (e.g. kidneys) and processes working so your safe.

(bulkbiker) #6

Your fasting blood glucose level is probably being caused by something called the “dawn phenomenon:” which is a burst of glucose release into the blood stream to get us motivated in the morning.
You then eat something (a very small amount) which triggers an insulin response which lowers your blood glucose levels (hence the lowering you are seeing)
If you don’t eat you’ll probably find that your blood glucose levels will lower naturally over the day as your body uses up the glucose that the early morning boost has provided.
Your FBG isn’t especially high anyway … have you been diagnosed with anything that is causing your concern?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #7

This is to be expected, since the insulin response is driving down your serum glucose. If you wish to reverse your insulin resistance, the key is to avoid burdening your system with glucose, which means eating as little carbohydrate as you can manage.

There is no requirement for carbohydrate in the diet, because the body is perfectly capable of manufacturing the small amount of glucose that it actually requires. The key to eating ketogenically is to limit your daily carbohydrate intake to an amount below your glucose threshold, so as to allow your insulin level to drop. Not only does excess glucose (hyperglycaemia) cause damage, but chronically elevated insulin levels (hyperinsulinaemia) do, as well. Some increase in insulin during and after a meal is expected and necessary for life, but we want to avoid the excessive response that results from insulin resistance. After a time of eating ketogenically, however, it is possible to reduce, and sometimes even eliminate, insulin resistance.

#8

Thank you!

I haven’t been diagnosed yet, but I’ve had a blood panel and my fasting BG was 102mg/dL.

Anyway, I kind of diagnosed myself with insulin resistance, because I’ve compared how slow my BG goes back to normal after a carb meal (high carb, like normal people eat) and it was worse than that of the person I was comparing with. His BG is back under 100 after high carb meal and mine can take 3h to go below 100. Perhaps even worse when I wasn’t looking.

Another thing is that I appear to have dawn phenomenon. Only diabetic/prediabetic have it. Therefore, I must be prediabetic.

I’m hoping I can go back to being like a normal person.

#9

Thank you!

I could cut more carbs, but I force myself to have some broccoli for vitamins. Do you think we can completely cut veggies and be healthy? I wonder about the vitamins.

(bulkbiker) #10

Sorry but that is not a reliable diagnosis… if your blood sugar is back to 100 mg/dl 3h after a high carb meal then it’s fairly unlikely you have diabetes… if it were 200 then maybe…
See if you can get an HbA1c test which is kind of “average” of your blood sugars over the past 3 months. That would give you a far better idea if you are T2 or pre-diabetic.

(KCKO, KCFO) #11

Dawn phenomenon can happen to anyone. I’ve never been diagnosed as diabetic and I had it for years.

Also when you fast, if you are losing weight, your BS no. will take a temporary uptick. Dr. Jason Fung has addressed this in many talks. So keep that in mind when you fast. You didn’t mention if weight loss was your goal, if it is, then mix up protocols. Do some Intermittent fasting, some TMAD, OMAD, 36 hr., keep your body guessing.

I also think you might want to do the HbA1C test to see what average is for you.

Welcome to the forums. :slight_smile:

#12

Thank you!

I don’t think I’m diabetic. But I do think I’m already insulin resistant to some degree, perhaps prediabetic already, or getting there if I don’t take measures to stop it.

I intend to ask the A1c as soon as possible. The covid19 hit hard here and we can’t go to the doctor at the moment, unless we’re really sick. In another thread someone told me about tests one could purchase in the pharmacy, but they aren’t available in my country.

Even if I’m not pre, or diabetic, I know I’ve been abusing my body with too many carbs and low fat food and I want to change for the better.

#13

Thank you!

I don’t want to lose weight. I just want to have low insulin and low blood sugar. The aim is to do all I can to avoid illnesses.

I didn’t know you could have dawn phenomenon if you weren’t insulin resistant! Really?

Because I’ve read a person who wasn’t insulin resistant would release a little insulin when BG would go up and the body would quickly react to that insulin and lower the BG. But an insulin resistant person, BG goes up, insulin goes up, body doesn’t respond to insulin and BG stays up. That’s what I understood from what I’ve read.

When I take a measure of my BG and I see it above 100, I imagine I’m also full of insulin in my blood and my cells just don’t react to it, not absorbing the sugar from my blood. And the horrible sugar stay there, doing damage, driving me closer to atherosclerosis and dementia.

(bulkbiker) #14

Well getting rid of carbs and eating well and enjoying your food won’t do you any harm so give it a go!

Which country are you in as it might be possible for you to get insulin resistance measured too…?

(Allie) #15

No they don’t, that is not an assumption you can make.

Please stop stressing yourself out! :heart:
You’ve made the best decision now so focus on sorting your diet out and improving your health from now.

#16

Thank you!

Only when ordered by the doctor. I’ll go see him when possible. In the meantime, I’m being proactive.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #17

Properly raised meat contains all the vitamins and minerals people generally need. Factory farming methods can make meat an unreliable source of such nutrients, but soil depletion from intensive mono-cropping poses the same problem with plant foods.

On the other hand, I know of several people whose diet has consisted of nothing but meat and water for several years, with no apparent ill effects.

(Ellenor Bjornsdottir) #18

I’ve found that fasting tacks my blood sugar up. So I don’t do it. You don’t have to fast to be successful on keto

#20

Thank you!

That’s encouraging in a way: with keto and no fasting, is your BG always below 100 mg/dL when you measure it?

May I ask how many carbs a day you usually eat?

I’m trying to find my way and struggling. When I think something is working… it doesn’t.

(Ellenor Bjornsdottir) #21

I don’t measure my blood sugars that often for cost reasons, and I don’t really track carbs anymore either (instead preferring to avoid obvious carbs including fruit, and most vegetables except for lettuce, celery and measured amounts of onions). But when I was measuring, I did a thirty-some hour fast, and at the end, with riding my bike (my performance, by the way, went and fell apart. That was the first time I had ever “bonked” in my entire life, both pre and post keto), my blood sugar went up to the 7s mmol/L. At another time I also had a 5.9 without exercise.

But, the times I’ve measured, I was almost always under 5.6 (which is equivalent to the threshold you defined) and always under 6 if I’m doing the diet right, unless I was fasting and exercising a lot.

I’ve never received a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, nor of type 1, and I don’t use any substances with a view to lowering blood glucose, but I have a family history of covert diabetes involving hypertension, abdominal obesity, and Atkins diets working well to curb the same.