The FastDay Forum

[carorees]

(Also, Caroline, each time I see a post from you I read your user name as 'calories' instead of 'Carorees'!. I think I must have them on my mind!)

The best way to avoid reactive hypoglycaemia is not to eat high GI foods (sweets, chocolate, cake, white bread, sugary drinks, some fruits, fruit juice...all the things I like basically!)

Lots of intersting info re blood sugar. I used to get some low readings below 4mmls when I was testing and trying to understand my migraines a few years ago. I think this was because I was eating a high sugar diet and then having the blood sugar crashing as mentioned above. I was advised by a dietician to eat some low fat protein every 3 hrs and this seems to help. I do have a sweet tooth but I think I am coming to understand that sugar is is worse than fat and so I try to avoid it but it is difficult. I will continue to avoid sugar on and around fast days, it seems to be keeping the migraines at bay. Carorees I've never been on twitter perhaps I will give it a try!

I do know my last blood sugar reading (fasting overnight) was 2.9, they never said anything so I guess it's normal?
I feel very anxious and weak if I go without food but I have noticed some improvement since late August when we started 5:2.
I always struggle if I have eaten sugary foods the day before and in fact writing this I have weakness and headache and I'm putting it down to a choc souffle at 8pm....silly me. I also know that if I eat a sweetie the feelings will go.
I have to say, I have battled with my weight all my life and only a very drastic diet helped loose weight but I felt most healthy on a GI diet.

2.9 is very low - hypoglycaemic. http://www.diabetes.co.uk/Diabetes-and- ... aemia.html

<2.5 is panic stations http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Hypoglycaemia.htm

I knew it was low because that's why it had been tested.
I know it's totally normal on a regular blood test so perhaps that's why they didn't seem concerned?
Not sure when it's supposed to be tested again...only get it tested if I'm ill.
Strangely my Mother is type 2 diabetic so suffers with higher BS levels.
Human bodies are very interesting.

[carorees]

It could be you have high insulin levels which is causing the low blood sugar. Fasting will help with that as it lowers the insulin level. And as you already know, keeping off high GI foods. High insulin levels are associated with development of diabetes in later life, so it's good you have started this new lifestyle!

Just thought I'd mention (re my earlier post) that I've done 6 fasts and have not had any blood sugar problems on either fast days or food days. I've been staying away from bread & sugar( & alcohol!) and have never felt so good.

Hi All

I am pre-diabetic, plus have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome - which makes me especially insulin, and weight-loss resistant) and so have been testing my blood sugar every day with a glucose meter for almost a year now.

When I was young and skinny (lo those 2-3 decades ago), I was hypoglycemic, and felt I had to constantly eat to avoid that. For some reason, I was never especially attracted to sugar as a way to control it - I always knew that I felt even worse an hour or two afterwards, so I would stick to eating a bag of nuts or a piece of cheese whenever I could.

Anyway, I've been on Metformin for about 5 years, doing Low-Carb (more or less strictly) for about 10 yrs, and yet I still only barely kept my blood sugars at 110-140. OK, but not great.

January 2, 2013, I added the 8 Hour Diet to my usual Low-Carb diet, and soon noticed my blood sugar levels were a much healthier 105-115 average - both fasting, and 2 hours post eating, even after eating something high carb which used to send my blood sugar soaring. And I lost about 6 lbs. About a month ago, I tapered off my Metformin, and my my blood sugar levels remained steadily at that healthy level.

Unfortunately, I stalled, and then I regained a couple of lbs, so I've added the 5:2 diet to my low carb and 8 Hr diets. It's been remarkably easy for me to maintain 500 kcals per fasting day, and I have again lost those 2 lbs I had regained.

I came here, though, because the past week, I've woken up feeling shaky (but not grumpy or headachy as I did when I was younger), and my blood glucose tests at 60-80. Once I eat, it's fine, but I've been wondering if there might be consequences to having this morning low blood sugar. I also am wondering if it's just going to take awhile for my body (insulin and growth factor) systems to reset to the new "normal" (which would be wonderful, of course!)

The funny thing is, before I knew I was pre-diabetic, I had noticed I was no longer hypoglycemic, no matter how long I went without eating. I was happy with that, though I now think that may have been an early sign of the developing diabetes. So, feeling hypoglycemic now actually makes me ... er... kind of happy to know that at least, I'm not having high blood sugar.

[Tracieknits]

Hi and welcome to the forums!!

I'm not really an expert on this, but I wanted to welcome you here and wish you luck on this journey to health

[carorees]

Welcome Valdev97!

I wonder whether your insulin levels are still a little high preventing effective fat burning. This might explain the low bloods sugar in the mornings as you should be burning fat overnight.

How low carb is your diet? And when do you eat the carbs that you do eat? When is your eating window?

Something a bit weird happened today - fast day, 1st meal at 3pm,had a cottage pie (frozen ready meal). About 5pm got the shakes & had to have an oatcake to stabilise. This hasn't happened in ages & not on any fast day over the last 3 months. I'm trying to understand why - low blood sugar presumably but why did it drop? Surely not the mashed potatoes in the cottage pie? Weird!

Let's see.... I eat meat, sausage, fish, chicken, cheese, nuts, greek yogurt, hummus (which is probably a little too high-carb), greek olives, eggs, and salads with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Also broccoli and cauliflower, eggplant, asparagus and avocados. Sometimes I have a low-carb protein powder smoothie made with a few blueberries, almond milk, and greek yogurt (and, these days, Benefiber!).

I'm doing a fast day today, but yesterday (feed day) I had Mexican Pozole soup from a can, with chicken, chili peppers, and hominy for dinner. Sometimes I have cheese on Rye Crisp Wassa bread (also a little too high carb, but not as bad as regular bread). I haven't had tortilla chips, potato chips (crisps), french fries (chips), pasta, candy bars, or, gasp, Nutella in ages. I mostly drink water and herbal tea, but on my feed days, I have 2 glasses of white wine.

On the rare occasion that I have other carbs, it's usually when my bad husband brings home good french or italian bread, or I break down and have fruit, like peaches, plums or mangos (during the summer). When I have even a tiny amount of fruit, my blood sugar rises to 160-170 2 hours later. Well, until I started IF - now my blood sugar doesn't rise very high even after fruit.

I feel OK about my weight loss, especially after reading on this forum that the average weight loss for women is 1 lb per week. That's about what I've been losing, so, that's good.

My eating window? Do you mean on Fast Days, or Feed Days? For the 8 Hour Diet, I eat breakfast at 11-12 noon, and dinner at 6:30-7:30 pm. On Fast Days, I eat first time about 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon, and dinner at 6:30 pm, then nothing but water and herbal tea after that. I can't handle caffeine, so never drink coffee, and rarely drink black or green tea. Well, I'm becoming better at handling the caffeine in green tea (been trying to drink it because it's supposed to help with dieting)

Oh, I just thought of something - previously, when my blood sugar levels were higher, I was one of those people (there are some, it's a variety of insulin resistance) whose BS was higher first thing in the morning, before eating, than AFTER eating (except when I ate fruit). It has something to do with cortisol levels rising in the morning. Something like that. I wonder if it's affecting me now in the opposite direction.

I'm no expert, but don't you think it would help to see an endocrinologist to sort things out?

[carorees]

Hmm. Of course protein in excess of your body's needs is converted to glucose so that's something to be careful of. Protein does stimulate insulin release. Further, the dawn phenomenon (high blood sugar in the morning) is thought to be due to too much conversion of protein into glucose by the liver overnight. I wonder if you are producing too much insulin in response to the conversion of protein to glucose resulting in a dip? Maybe try reducing the protein content of your evening meal and see what effect that has?

This is just guesswork mind you!

Ah ha... that could be. I probably do get too much protein, I must admit.

Re going to an endocrinologist, I live in a rural, backwards kind of place, and the one endocrinologist I met with knew less about PCOS than I did. I just don't have much faith in the up-to-date medical knowledge of most of the doctors in my area, unfortunately. I wish I was a back in a big city where I could trust my doctors to be well-educated again.