Sugar spike after coffee

(Liz Santiago) #1

Hi all! I am so desperate!! So January 2023 will be my 2ndo year doing Keto. My first 6 month I lost 60 pounds but after that I have been struggling. I have lost in total 83 but since the summer I have been stuck in a yo-yo losing 1-2 gaining it back. During the summer my doctor put me in Trulicity, then Mounjaro, then Trulicity again but I noticed that I measured my ketones at different parts of the day and nothing. One day I would see .5 then the next day nothing. Because of that I decided last week Monday to start measuring my glucose and ketones every hour to see what food did what to me. I usually started measuring the glucose by 8am even though I wake up by 4am. I would always see 70-90 at different parts of the day. Saturday, I drank my coffee and measure glucose like 1 hr later and my glucose was 140 something. Thinking it was a mistake I did it again like 3 more times because every time was higher up until it got to 200. At that point I was to the point of hysteria. I do my labs every 3 months for my endocrinologist and I have never had high blood sugar. Anyway on Sunday, I measure my sugar before the coffee and it was 70, I drank my coffee and started measuring again but the same thing happened. I had to go out, so I though of not eating anything and when coming back home, I would drink another coffee. I took my blood and it was 90, drank the coffee and up again up to 200. 3 hrs later it was back to normal. I had lunch it went up and after 3 hrs it was back at 106. The thing is that I drink my coffee with almond milk unsweetened, I do use a coffee mate French vanilla zero sugar creamer and great value stevia so it should not raise my sugar especially when I take Trulicity which even though it is for diabetes it is to help with insulin resistance.

WHAT DO YOU THINK??? I AM GOING CRAZY!!! Tomorrow I will not drink coffee at all and measure again to see what happens but in the meantime any ideas as to why this is happening?

#2

When on any of the *glutides, you’ll secrete more Insulin, it’s how they work. They’re chemically making you more Inuslin sensitive, which is a good thing. But you need to take that in the correct context. You’ll release more Insulin than you would before, like an Insulin sensitive person would, that’s NOT a bad thing. It could be a reaction to the Coffee and relationship to Cortisol, which when accute, is fine. Your Ketone levels don’t matter, don’t go crazy testing them. If you’re eating right, you’re good!

(Liz Santiago) #3

But the sugar goes to 200 isn’t that bad? An I am not losing since Aug I am in the same weight

(KCKO, KCFO) #4

Try it without the coffee mate, that stuff is awful, not sure I would trust their labeling either.

As for the yoyoing with 1-2 lbs. that is nothing to worry about, you have been doing great. Your body is adjusting. I put on in the last two years 10 lbs eating the same way I had been eating for the last 5 yrs. I think it was due to stress. My DH and I both are in the high risk group for Covid, and it stressed me out. Now I am over that fear, I have been doing some timed eating window days for the last month and the weight has come off.

KCKO, you have done so well, you will do it agaiin.

#5

Losing 83 pounds in eleven months is FAST for a woman. That’s not going to continue forever, and expecting 7+ pounds loss per month from here out will likely lead to disappointment. Disappointment of that sort often leads to people going back to junk food. (It certainly did for me the first time eating LC, though in my case, the stall was 18 months long). For post-menopausal women, for instance, most who started 100+pounds overweight only lose 10-15 pounds their third year. But it’s better than regaining 100, right? It happens when it happens.

My advice: Weigh once a month. Or never. I’ve weighed four times in a decade and not weighing hurts me not at all. If my behavior is right, my body finds its own best size/weight/body fat percentage, and I truly do not need to know them. The waistband of my jeans and my bra tell me if I’m gaining.

Anxiety is awful for your health. Stress hormones can raise blood sugar and slow down weight loss. If obsessive measuring and weighing are raising your cortisol levels, quit doing them, except your daily fasting blood sugar if your doctor wants you to do that.

Keto isn’t itself the end goal. It’s a tool so you can live a joyous, calm, healthy, and wonderful life. If it’s making you feel the opposite of those things, try putting it on the back burner, just eating fewer than 20 grams carbs, and I’m sure you know what that looks like for you in your favorite meals, and do the other things you want to do that have nothing to do with food or body size or sticking needles into your fingers ten times a day. Crafts? Travel? Learning something new? Decluttering your house? Meeting an old friend for a walk?

Watching the pot come to a boil does not change the boiling point of water. Obsessing on ketones, sugar, and macros several times a day doesn’t change how fast you’ll gain health and lose excess fat. The behavior, eating keto, and after 11 months of course you know what that is, is what makes that happen. The obsessing is a waste of the precious moments left to you in this life.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

Actually, the point about insulin resistance is that cells have down-regulated their insulin receptors and therefore it takes more insulin to get their attention and achieve the same result that an insulin-sensitive person achieves with far less insulin.

@liz_santiago What was your starting weight? I was around 300 lbs./136.4 kg, and lost 80 lbs./36.4 kg. That is around 26% of my starting weight. Dr. Phinney said in an interview on the 2 Keto Dudes podcast that he and Prof. Volek have generally seen a fat loss equivalent to 20% of starting weight, so I figure I’m ahead of the game. Sure, it would be nice to lose a further 80 lbs., but since my primary goal was to reverse my pre-diabetes and I have, I am fine.

If your glucose is rising, one thing to check for is what we call “carb creep.” It might be helpful to check everything you are eating and verify that you are staying under 20 g/day. Look especially hard at any manufactured products you consume, as well, since the manufacturer can reformulate a product with no notice. One that used to be safe might now be loaded with more carbs. Also, almond milk and Coffee Mate are loaded with carbohydrate, so you might want to make sure that you are not getting too much of them in your coffee.

(Liz Santiago) #7

the milk is unsweetened and the coffee mate too. I started a 300 but almost 2 years later I have lost 83 pound in total but I want to be at least 150 and I am stuck and losing 1 pound a month.

(Liz Santiago) #8

It has been 2 years not 11 months and the problem is that I have been stuck in the same weight for the past 6 months. I am 51 and started at 300 but it is frustrating to barely eat and not lose. I basically eat once a day (dinner), coffee in the morning and some days a snack if I get really hungry. And now I see that the coffee is making my sugar go to 200 plus I do not think I am in ketosis. :disappointed_relieved:

(Liz Santiago) #9

I was 300 too and today I will test drinking coffee without the coffeemate, if I see the same thing I will then try just black until I find why is my glucose going to 200 in the morning. The almond milk is unsweetened.

(Bob M) #10

I’d double check any blood sugar reading that seems off. Those pinprick meters are error prone.

The fact that you are so concerned could raise your cortisol, which could raise your blood sugar.

Coffee is likely not causing a blood sugar rise, for 99.999999 percent of people. What’s causing your blood sugar to rise is the morning and what happens then, and cortisol is a part of that.

If you are barely eating, that’s not good. That will lower your basal metabolic rate. Try something different. Try eating two meals a day sometimes; eating higher protein, lower fat; higher (animal) fat, lower protein; if you’re eating dairy, try stopping; if you’re eating anything sweet, try stopping. try eating (meat) until you’re not hungry. And ignore the scale for a while, because that seems to cause stress for you. Instead, look for clues from belts, pants, etc.

(Allie) #11

Water, Corn Syrup**, Vegetable Oil (High Oleic Soybean and/or High Oleic Canola), and Less than 2% of Micellar Casein (a Milk Derivative)***, Maltodextrin, Mono- and Diglycerides, Dipotassium Phosphate, Natural & Artificial Flavor, Carrageenan, Sucralose, Acesulfame Potassium (Non-Nutritive Sweetener). **Adds a Trivial Amount of Sugar. ***Not a Source of Lactose.

Unsweetened or not, there’s enough crap in it to cause issues and milk naturally contains lactose which is sugar.

(Edith) #12

This is just conjecture on my part, but could it be the caffeine? Maybe caffeine elicits a cortisol response in you which would increase your blood sugar.

Maybe try decaf and see if the same thing happens? :thinking:

(Edith) #13

Also, I agree with this 100%!

(Bob M) #14

That’s a possibility. Hard to test, though. I did one cortisol test, and the result was slightly high (according to the test). But with only one test, it’s hard to know what to do with that.

Mine was a blood test you send in, so theoretically you could take one test, drink coffee, wait a bit, take another test. Send both in. But even that might not be valid, as you’d need a baseline (eg, take a test, wait a while without drinking coffee, take another test).

For a while, I thought that coffee was causing higher blood sugar (pre-CGM), so I delayed drinking coffee…and still got a higher blood sugar before drinking. And the coffee didn’t seem to cause an additional blood sugar rise once I did drink it.

#15

pretty sure corn syrup is and is sugar— i think those ingredients are not for the sugar freee version which is here and seems a little better

WATER, COCONUT OIL, 2% OR LESS OF SODIUM CASEINATE (A MILK DERIVATIVE)**, DIPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, SALT, SUCRALOSE, ACESULFAME POTASSIUM, BETA CAROTENE AND RIBOFLAVIN (FOR COLOR).

(Edith) #16

I figured she could take her blood sugar pre-decaf coffee and then take a blood sugar reading post-decaf and see if it spikes like it does with caffeinated coffee.

(Edith) #17

It could also be that the serving size makes it seem low carb, but the quantity being used makes it more carbs than realized?

#18

I understand that.; But what does it mean you barely eat? If it’s really little, I am with the others. If I say and fell I barely eat (it doesn’t matter if I eat once a day or 3 or 6 times), I still eat enough - but I lose fat that way, too bad it’s almost impossible for me. Eating to satiety definitely isn’t good enough for me for fat-loss unless I do EVERYTHING right all the time and I am not nearly that perfect. But I tweak things and train myself until I reach success. No matter how many years pass with zero fat-loss. I am super stubborn and I need it.

Too much time passed for you so something must be off… Can’t you change things which may help? Bob had some good ideas! But if you really barely eat, stop it, that just ruins your metabolism and probably causes multiple problems anyway, I would be super annoyed in that situation and it’s probably true for most of us.

(Bob M) #19

It’s a good idea, although coffee is complex. The people who get high triglycerides drinking coffee get them even drinking decaf. Gah!

I’m not saying that would happen here, but you never know.

(Robin) #20

I switched to decaf long ago and it made no difference in my blood work results