Who was diabetic before starting keto?

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
C

Cnsper

Awesome Friend
Neighbor
Joined
Dec 8, 2017
Messages
3,580
The reason for asking is that when testing my blood sugar it would read 180 to 220 first thing in the morning. Just before bed it would read 100 to 120. This has not made sense to me at all.

After finding that out I did back slide a bit and had to start metformin again. Mainly because it shot up over 350. Have dropped 100 points in three days.

If someone can point me in a direction on how keto works with diabetes I would appreciate it.
 
Keto cuts way down on carbs.
Since starting keto 2 weeks ago my blood sugar has gone from the 140-150 range down to the 110-120s.
My BP has also gone down from the 140s/90s to 120s/70s
My weight has gone down 14 pounds.
I don't follow keto religiously but I have cut my carb to less than 50 a day.
Keto includes a lot of fat and I just don't like eating that much fat.
One web page said to eat eggs, up to 36 per DAY.
No way will I eat that much of anything.
No bread, potatoes, pasta, or rice.
No refined sugar and no processed packaged food.
I have a full blood work up scheduled for Oct.1st so it will be interesting to see those numbers.
 
I've been on keto for almost a year. I've lost 40 or 50# and my A1c went from over 11 to 5.7. My BS ranges from 90 to 120 with outliers when I go off diet. I have almost entirely eliminated one of my diabetes medications and only take it when I'm a bad boy and then only a quarter to half the prescribed dose.

Both my wife and I tend to higher BS in the morning. It used to frustrate me but now I just accept it as normal. My doc wasn't fazed at all when I brought it up.
 
Decided to try a short fast after listening to Dr Fung last night. I ate about 8 pm and did not eat again until 3 pm. Probably could have made 24 hours but I was getting light headed. Just something light to get me to dinner.

6-7 strawberries, 2 slices of swiss cheese snd 2 pepperoni sticks. And I drank a glass of water with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. The second slice of cheese was after the vinegar.

Then at 6 pm I ate 1/4 pound of sage seasoned pork sausage with a slice of swiss along with a salad.

It is now 8:30pm and my blood tested 194 where my fasting at 2 pm tested 233.

That has been the biggest drop that I've seen yet. I know it is not the metformin doing that.
 
Got up this morning to have breakfast, suprising that my blood sugar had gone back up to 233.

Had 2 sausage patties slice of swiss cheese and another glass of water with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.

For lunch I had a salad with lettuce, cheese, olives, spinach and ranch dressing.

Now my blood sugar is 184. I think that I will drink a second glass of vinegar at supper time to work through the night.

Figured out that my light headedness and slight headache was from quitting smokeless tobacco cold turkey. After 34 years I guess I need to take that slower.
 
I guess if it works keep on working it, but it is not for me. But who knows.
 
All kinds of things can be making your BS spike. Bad sleep, too many carbs as a snack before bed or wrong kind of snack before bed, meds need adjusted, you could be coming down with something. You may need to up your exercise or some find exercising before bed to work better.
You'll have to try everything other than your food intake to see what will work. Sometimes just looking at the food is not whats doing it.
Good Luck
 
When you say ACV is it the raw ACV with the mother?

The worst I saw in your diet is the dressing. I take mayo, granulated garlic, some coarse pepper, grated parmesan, and thin it with whipping cream for a almost zero carb dressing. I shoot for under 30 carbs a day and love it when I'm near 10.

I up my fat in the morning with a bullet proof coffee. Coffee, heavy cream, butter, and coconut oil. (zero carbs)
 
Yes it is raw ACV. The dressing I make myself. I get a mayo called just mayo that has no oil in it. Found it at walmart of all places. All the other mayo has soy bean oil or canola oil.

After finding this article by Dr Fung last night I am no longer concerned about my morning numbers.

https://idmprogram.com/dawn-phenomenon-t2d-8/

This morning my glucose was at 235 ate 4 eggs at 7 am and did not eat anything else till just now. Basically a 14 hour fast and my glucose is 155.

After listening to Dr Fung, I not only decided to do intermittent fasting but to also mix up the fasting periods so there will not be any rhythm about the fasting and food cycles.

18 hours followed by a day of normalcy followed by a 12 hour overnight fast followed by a 14 hour fast. Don't know what I am doing tomorrow yet but I am happy with the direction of the numbers.
 
Just to make some heads spin I ate a large dinner/breakfast. Not strictly keto but not loaded with carbs either.

Country fried steak, cottage cheese, 3 eggs and marble rye toast with water.

Numbers this morning were 190. So tired I did not test the blood last night.

Before the ninnies start digging at my choices, this stop I usually buy their chicken bacon ranch stuffed bread roll and awesome brownies that i just walked right by.

I could get a salad from the cooler but sometimes when you are on the road like I am you just need a hot sit down meal.
 
I saw my doctor yesterday. He said that I'm not on a keto diet, but rather that I've assumed a keto lifestyle. I guess that means when I eat carbs that I wouldn't be cheating.:ghostly: Sentry used to say that cheating once in a while was okay but to make it worth the cost. In other words, if you really want that brownie, fine, but blowing it with a big mac is a shame. Don't cheat often but reward yourself on occasion.
 
Cnsper said:
Just to make some heads spin I ate a large dinner/breakfast. Not strictly keto but not loaded with carbs either.

Country fried steak, cottage cheese, 3 eggs and marble rye toast with water.

Numbers this morning were 190. So tired I did not test the blood last night.

Before the ninnies start digging at my choices, this stop I usually buy their chicken bacon ranch stuffed bread roll and awesome brownies that i just walked right by.

I could get a salad from the cooler but sometimes when you are on the road like I am you just need a hot sit down meal.
Click to expand...
That sounds delicious!
 
Well it has been a little over a week now and my fasting blood sugar has dropped to 177 this morning.

I was wrong about my starting point in the first post. I went back through the history on the glucose meter and found that my first reading was 398. Very happy with the results so far.

Not sticking with the keto amount of 20 grams a day but have cut out processed foods. Had a little scare yesterday as I was rolling up my straps and putting chains away after being unloaded.

I got short of breath but it got better as I came down out of the hills from where I dropped the load. It was then that I got to thinking about what elevation I was at. As far as I can figure, I was somewhere close to 7500 feet in elevation.

Dropped back down to 5000 and feel much better.
 
Cutting your BS by more than half! That is really good!

Cabin pressure on a commercial jet is kept at 8000 feet elevation, that is why you feel like crud after a flight. Good for you for figuring it out.
 
Caribou said:
Cutting your BS by more than half! That is really good!

Cabin pressure on a commercial jet is kept at 8000 feet elevation, that is why you feel like crud after a flight. Good for you for figuring it out.
Click to expand...
You are also not unloading a 48 foot flatbed trailer on the plane...lol
 
Well, apparently things were not as they seemed. Finally went to the doc who sent me for blood work. She told me not to go anywhere before talking to her after the tests.

Within an hour I was loaded on a helicopter and flown to another hospital.

My heart was out of rhythm and thus not pumping properly. This caused the kidneys and liver to start shutting down. They had to shock the heart twice before it started to behave again.

Was in the hospital for three weeks with one week being on constant dialysis. Man does that make you cold.

Lesson learned, if you can't breathe then get your ass to a hospital. Quit trying to self diagnose, it almost killed me because of that.
 
Cnsper, glad you got some help when you needed it.

You had quite the scare. Hope things are turned around for you and you are able to get on a path to healing.

I wasn't sure from you post whether you had actually started keto or were in just the first few weeks of it. Either way, I don't think keto was responsible for what happened to you. That was setting up to happen for a very long time and would have likely happened just the same or even sooner. You are and example of why people like to use the phrase "see your doctor before starting on a new diet or exercise program". Most people never have a whisper of difficulty. A fraction, like yourself, were a ticking time bomb.

I wasn't to diabetic status yet when I started. A few random blood sugar readings were in the 160's, which I didn't like, but no one got too excited about them at the time. (I had broken a leg and was in the hospital getting that pinned and plated and such and they took several readings just to see. Maybe since I wasn't there for that, they didn't say much, don't know.) There were other things going on before and after but I won't get into those here. Suffice it to say that about 15 months into keto, I'm doing better than I've been in around 20 years. Weight isn't quite normal yet but close, another 20 pounds to go. I'm able to get out and work, and go hiking in places many "normal" people my age don't want to climb into or out of. That says something as I remember being the guy left behind a few years ago because I was too obese to be able to take the hike.

Good luck! Not sure what comes next for you but I hope you can find a good place for your health, whether that's keto, paleo, or something else.
 
Cnsper said:
Well, apparently things were not as they seemed. Finally went to the doc who sent me for blood work. She told me not to go anywhere before talking to her after the tests.

Within an hour I was loaded on a helicopter and flown to another hospital.

My heart was out of rhythm and thus not pumping properly. This caused the kidneys and liver to start shutting down. They had to shock the heart twice before it started to behave again.

Was in the hospital for three weeks with one week being on constant dialysis. Man does that make you cold.

Lesson learned, if you can't breathe then get your ass to a hospital. Quit trying to self diagnose, it almost killed me because of that.
Click to expand...

Glad you're doing better.
Self diagnosis is like free internet advice.
Worth about what you paid for it.

I had an EKG last week and it was abnormal.
I have a cardiac ultrasound and a stress test scheduled for next Thursday.

As far as KETO I have decided it's not a plan I can stick with long term.
I have gone back to eating what I normally ate but just less of it.
I do watch my carbs and eliminate them as much as I can but not out completely.
Down 40 pounds and my glucose numbers are also way down.
Now I have problems with low sugar, in the 60s or 70s if I don't eat breakfast.
My A1C number is down so things are improving.
 
Cnsper - glad to hear your condition was caught in time!

If you like Dr. Fung, you should get the book The Obesity Code. I read it once and I should re-read it b/c it is packed with good information. Sometimes I just skim through it and learn something new. Keto Clarity is another one he wrote that might be helpful to you. He also has an intermittent fasting book that I like as well. Of all of them, Obesity Code was the best.

I don't do keto, but I do intermittent fasting. IF just becomes second nature after doing it for a while. I almost always do a 24 hour fast starting Sun night and eat dinner on Monday. My Mondays are busy, so I rarely even feel hungry during that fast. I'm not a breakfast eater so I typically do a 14 hour fast just b/c that's the way I'm wired. Then on Wednesdays I do a 18 hour fast and sometimes extend to a 24 hour if I feel like it. It really hasn't changed my body a whole lot, but I don't find myself inching up in weight like I used to. That said, I've had a heck of a sweet tooth lately that I need to get a grip on, especially with the holidays coming up!
 
Not bad. They went in through an artery in my wrist and did not find any blockage around the heart. So no stints required. Still working on regaining my strength/stamina. Getting better every day.
 
I have been diabetic, Type 1, for 31 years. My treatments have always been based around counting the carbs I eat. I can tell y'all a few things about what you're eating and what it's doing inside your body...Please bear with me, this could be a long post...

First off, when you're diabetic, anything bread is bad. Period. If your body is struggling to make the insulin or is resistant to it, you'll get a spike from even one piece. Same goes for any pasta, baked goods, pancakes or waffles. Fruit will do it too. Fruit has a surprising amount of carbohydrates in it, and it generally is easily absorbed. It is a healthier sugar than processed breads though.

The worst culprit for me, however, is potatoes. They will blow my BS sky high. Especially now that I'm middle aged and 60 pounds heavier than I was at 18 years old. Keep your potato consumption to a minimum.

I mentioned my weight. Keeping weight down is critical. My last A1c was 6.9, which is good for a Type 1. However for several years (2003-2006) it was 5.5-5.9, that is basically a non diabetic reading. My weight went back and forth from 195 to 220 during that time. I'm at 245 now and I have to use much more insulin to keep good control.

Excersise plays a role too. I'm talking 45-60 minutes of cardio daily. That excersise uses up the glucose in your system. It also keeps your muscles burning that glucose up long after you quit that excersise every day. This is something I'm not good at...

One last thing. Some of you say you have high BS in the morning. You may be suffering from the dawn phenomenon, where your liver releases stored glucose in the early morning hours. This happens to me, and the best way to combat it for me is to wake up at 4am and check BS, before the liver has a chance to let much glucose out. if it's high, I adjust accordingly then proceed as normal.

Hope you all can use any of the info here. This is a good place to share info on something that affects so many of us. I look forward to hearing about your successes in combating diabetes...
 
We have been eating primarily keto for 6+ yrs now. It began with a trial of 1 month of no sugars, grains, or chemicals. Hubby wanted to try because in early 40's was walking like an 85 yr old man his joints hurt so bad. I said if we were going to try it, it had to be August when there was plenty of produce available. I essentially had to relearn how to cook. We didn't try replacing food items (like pasta and breads) which can be very expensive. We just did without. We are both a "healthy weight" though he is in better condition. I have a desk job and lost 8 lbs in the month. Actually by week 3, he was riding the 60 mile dirt bike trail without pain. About this time he began adding just some organic oatmeal back into his diet as he'd lost about 15 lbs and was loosing too much - his job is very laborious so he needed the calories. He did fine with oatmeal. At the end of the month, he said he didn't want to go back to eating like we did before because he enjoyed not hurting. We will eat potatoes or corn at times and fruit as a treat or while in season and even occasional grains. So we are not hard core. There are some things I've figured out to make so we can have certain dishes, but it's taken some time. Ex- grain free cheesy bread for sloppy joes, and homemade pita pockets for pizza crust. There are novels about diabetes and most of what we were taught in school about nutrition is incorrect. One of the easiest ways to figure out if something is healthy is to ask if its government subsidized. If so it's not healthy (wheat, soy, corn, cotton.) I won't expand as to why cotton is in that list, but I could. Your system can make sugar, protein or fat from fat (animal,) it can make protein or sugar out of protein, and sugars can only be used as sugars (which is stored as fat in our bodies.). The Inuits lived 9 mo out of the year on whale blubber with no heart disease or diabetes- until they were introduced to the English diet. Sorry, this is long. Tons of research over the past several years.
 
I also read a study from China that linked higher instances of AFIB to keto eating. AFib is what put me in the hospital.

Meds have been changed and I not longer completely avoid carbs, just refined crap and low amounts of other carbs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top