Ok, having a day of blood sugar testing today, because I have family history of type 1 &2 diabetes and if I am going to do LCHF I need to know where I am.
11 am BM was 6.1 after black coffee only, no sweeteners.
11.45, 2 x eggs, 24g coconut oil, piles of mushrooms, handfull of baby spinach and 50g of broccoli.
Felt hungry still, so I had 125g blueberries and raspberries (50% of each)
4 tbsp double cream.
I still felt hunger so took my BM again and it has gone down to 5.6 now, that was at 1 pm
I think I need some carbs don't I? I know that I am more on the low side normally rather than high. This is how I went in November when I began the headache. I have had salt on my food, which I don't usually have. Using pink himalayan salt, if that makes any difference to the price of bread.
Should I have some carbs, or is this BM acceptable if I am going to go low carb and force my body to burn fat? I just can't stand the thought of those headaches coming back again.
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BrynGlas
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You don't need any carbs, but if you're hungry, eat more. Have a bigger breakfast tomorrow if you know that today's didn't really hit the spot. Or have an early lunch. Basically, try not to nibble on snacks like fruit and cream. There's nothing wrong with these things as such, but don't treat them as a part of your routine. They can become a bad habit.
Apart from that, you made some good choices for your first meal.
I would try not to expect an unpleasant experience because the chances are it won't happen. Yes, some people have a bit of a rough ride, but try to cross that bridge when you come to it ... which hopefully you won't!
Yes, I realise that my vegetables are the only carbs that I have been having and the berries today of course as well.
That's why I thought I would ask how many net carbs a day I should aim for. For my breakfast today I didn't weigh anything except the coconut oil, so I have no idea how many carbs I had.
If I go to LCHF but don't track my macro's for everything - and the headache comes back again I won't know where I am/was whenbit started.
I need to treat this as an experiment and write it all down, work out net carbs, protein and track fat intake, though I won't restrict fats, just be able to see what I have taken in and when.
And yes I do take a pain killer for headache, the only thing I found about the pain I had in November was that paracetamol didn't touch it, I had to use co codamol and that only really took the edge off the headache.
I don't want to be taking co codamol daily, especially as it didn't take the pain away.
Am I coming over as strange, snacking right left and centre and driving you all mad?
You would not be the only ones, my family all think I am doo-lally anyway!
If you have a headache try caffeine, it's a vasoconstrictor so reduces the blood flow through your scone, also an ice pack.... Simple analgesia if need be, I use Aspirin for headache as opposed to paracetamol, unless it's contraindicated for you ... Do you eat meat for breakfast to help with satiation??
No, not driving us mad that’s what this board is for, information, reassurance or sounding off. Remember you’re not the only one to go through this and your posts and the replies could help others too.
As for snacking a lot, well that will probably slow right down once you are settled into this life and you have a handle on your BM. It’s a rare day now for me to eat outside of my meals (and no, it’s not one meal from 0700-0600. 😀).
Aussie64’s advice on caffeine could help, along with the ice packs and upping the salt. Trial and error on bad headaches (many years ago, nothing to do with this diet) showed me that my “bad heads” were helped by getting cold where possible (tiled bathroom floor came in useful) or drinking a coffee when out and about.
As for being doolally, even my 7yr old grandson occasionally looks at me and just shakes his head 😂
I have had about 5 crippling headaches over the decades and you are right - painkillers have had little to no effect. I have since realised that it's been because I was dehydrated. I have also been sick (no alcohol was involved previously!!) To get rid of a dehydration headache, I have to drink about 2 litres of water which is bloomin hard work but it does the trick. I can't drink cold water in bulk so I have it lukewarm. In fact I have a half litre insulated bottle - bought it in Waitrose as it was cheapest there. I keep this with me all the time and keep glugging away. It's especially important on a LCHF diet. I no longer need pills or stimulants for headaches.
Hi ChubbyChops, yes, I have tried extra water too. When trying low carb I always have a 1pt glass of water in my hand, plus I drink black coffee in a 1 pt mug, all day every day.
I have tried decaffeinated and that didn't make any difference, and although I use a 1 pint mug, I still have the same 1 teaspoon of coffee. I don't do real coffee because I prefer my instant and no messing about with that.
I found the Carb dodger on YouTube too, thank you. I am going through his videos, though I haven't found anything that I have been doing wrong yet. And he approves of black coffee!+
He also suggests 30g of net carbs a day or less and I will have to check my diary for last year, but I don't think that I was having too many carbs, but I might have been. I have been told over the years that 60g of carbs is a good level to start on though, so it was good to hear what he had to say.
To combat keto 'flu' I tried drinking half a stock cube (low salt so I had to add some salt!!!) dissolved in hot water as was suggested in the Diet Doctor. It did help with the headache (low level) and feeling a bit ropey but I could taste something sweet!! When I checked the ingredients, there was maize starch and caramelised sugar in it so there was 0.8 grams of carbs in what I was drinking!!! I know that isn't much, but it does add up and it was 0.8 grams that wasn't necessary apart from 'improving' the flavour after removing the salt! Grrrr. So I won't be buying them again
I did that yesterday when I thought I might be heading for a headache and I had some turmeric too, which I thought couldn't hurt as it is supposed to be anti inflammatory. All I can say is that I didn't develop that dreaded headache, but maybe it would never have gone that far anyway, who knows?
Hi you can find yourself an app to use as a diary for food intake which will help a lot with working out how many carbs you are having I think also if you own a Fitbit? the app incorporates macros measuring if you log food?
I really had a rough ride also during early days of trying to start... headaches, nausea, sleeping problems and nearly gave up after four days but it was suddenly like a switch and things started to work and I haven’t looked back. Please persevere you won’t regret it. I don’t think your blood sugars are too low think that’s a pretty good normal range so don’t worry about that unless you are taking Diabetes medications in which case you would need some medical advice most likely. The lower carb intake daily initially the quicker you will get into the ketogenic fat burning mode so aim for 20-25g and try and note everything to start off with.
Later it will all become second nature and you won’t need to be so fussy about writing it all down.
I’m about two months in apart from Xmas blip and feeling energetic sleeping very very well and losing approx 1lb a week. So please please stick with it you will soon feel better. The worst thing is do it half heartedly which will leave you feeling unwell for longer. I know I’ve been there!!!
Read up, arm yourself with information as much as you can and give it two weeks at least!!!! You won’t regret it.
Currently I’m on holiday but still losing my 1lb a week I’ve never had that happen before in my whole life usually a holiday meant weight gain always!!!!
I will stutengil, I don't do apps and stuff though. I do have a food diary and the carb/calorie macro books, so can find out most counts of food on there, but occasionally have to go online.
For instance I had 50g of cooked kale as part of my lunch today, but there was only info on raw kale in the book, which I find strange, but there, I will manage it.
Scroll down to the bottom to the video called 'Why can't I lose weight'. It's about 8 minutes long. There is a very interesting section about diabetes and insulin. Not being a diabetic, I don't feel I can answer your question but it might help explain it to you and reassure you
Are you actually diabetic or is it just that members of your family are?
It would be worth looking at the diabetes.co.uk/ website, there’s a lot about blood sugar levels on that. I found the link after I bought a book by Dr David Cavan on how to reverse my T2 diabetes and haven’t looked back.
Diet Doctor website also has lots of very useful dietary links.
I eat carbs but I get them from veg that grow above the ground rather than root vegetables and grains. Grains of any sort really increase my blood sugar. I like the book Carbs and Cals - it shows you portion sizes and is useful.
I wouldn’t go back to eating carbs. I know from experience that often if I feel weak how I think I would feel if my blood sugar was low, I test it and it definitely isn’t.
Stick with LCHF, it’s well worth it. I never had headaches and rightly or wrongly I never counted carbs - I just went by my blood sugar readings, once I worked out what spiked them I cut all of those foods out altogether - they were all things like grain based carbs and root vegetables - even things like what I thought was a nice healthy jacket potato and salad.
I don't believe that I am diabetic Fruitandnutcase, but my brother is type 1 diabetif, his son diagnosed type 1 aged 3, my grandson also at age 3, my dad was type 2 when he died, but was always as thin as a rake, my mother is type 2 as well and not overweight.
Type 1 is an auto immune disease.
But I also have a 1st cousin who is also coeliac, another auto immune disease.
This has raised concerns that as low thyroid patients apparently can also have an auto immune disease called Hashimoto's disease. So I have got to get that checked.
Waiting for my thyroid level results for the last 5 years minimum, to be sent to me, they should be here this next week. Up to now I have only ever been told that I had to have my meds increased or decreased, no mention of the levels.
I have also got to have any antibody levels checked for the Hashimoto's disease.
Now I am no expert but I believe I have only ever been checked for TSH, which is the bodies level of a hormone that tells the thyroid to produce thyroxine, or T4. T4 is converted by the body into mainly T3 (but apparently there is a T2 & a T1, but I am not worrying about those at present) Apparently the longer you have been on thyroxine and also lack of hormones post menopause, the less well the body tends to cope with artificial thyroxine.
I won't know whether any of these things are applicable to me until I get my blood tested.
One thing I can say is that my blood sugar is usually between 5 and 5.7 ish first thing in the morning, before I drink or eat anything, but this morning it was the highest I have ever known it to be. After my last meal at 6.30pm on Saturday, at 9.30 this morning (intermittant fasting 15 hours) my blood sugar was 6.8.
So that is something that I want to keep an eye on and ask the gp about.
I would pick my brother's brain about that too, but he isn't well at the moment, had his stomach removed before Christmas, so I haven't bothered him about it.
You must all think I am a hypochondriac, going on and on.
Hmm Annie, it's the first time my BM was so high in the morning, so I am not going to go off half cocked, but I looked online and it is very interesting. I will try to find out what my brother has to say about it. I have never heard about it until tonight, thanks.
All the dawn phenomenon! Such a nuisance, mine is often six or slightly more. Doesn’t seem to matter if I eat something before I go to bed or not. It’s very annoying. It’s weird how it can be higher before breakfast than it is an hour and a half after breakfast.
Yes, I feel the same, and it rose another .2 of a degree after I got back from a 45 minute walk too! It was really weird. I took it again after another hour and it was down to 5.9, had my lunch and it was 5.8 and 2 hours later it was 5.9 again. Very weird. I can't get my head around it, but I don't really want to start eating at bedtime, I have never liked late meals, unless I am really hungry, which would be different.
No I don’t think you’re a hypochondriac at all I think you’re taking an active interest in your health which is very sensible. I’m always amazed at people I know who feel ill and continue to believe unquestionably, everything the doctors tell them. They never read about or know anything about what they’ve got. Knowing about your condition does not make you a hypochondriac, or I don’t think it does.
So many of these autoimmune things go together and once you’ve got one autoimmune condition it seems they like to invite their ‘friends’ along to the party.
I do my own blood tests, Medichecks Thyroid 11 or something like that. It’s not cheap but it bypasses the doctor who doesn’t want to do them anyway, certainly not all the tests I get done and I know where I am. It does all the thyroid ones+ antibodies and vitamins and a couple of other things. My surgery will only ever test TSH these days which isn’t much good.
I tried all of this 'learning about lowthyroid' years ago when I was first diagnosed and put onto levothyroxine. I learned all I could, went to a private doctor etc etc, but I never got anything sorted out and I just gave up because I was driving myself mad, couldn't lose any weight, didn't feel good etc etc but I could not see how my obssessing about it was doing anything to help, so I buried it very deeply!
Joined Diabetes.co.uk as well this morning, because my BM, before I had even got out of bed, was 7.5 (is usually below 6 but yesterday was 6.8 after 15 hours of fasting) after last meal, 'chicken' and 1 tbsp full fat mayo at 7pm last night.
I sympathise with you about your under active thyroid. I’m a member of the thyroid uk group here on Healthunlocked, And so many underactive patients have a dreadful time trying to get their health sorted out, a lot of them do it in spite of their doctors. Interesting what you say about being a hypochondriac - I always say if a doctor seems to think a patient is a hypochondriac then he or she should start thinking seriously about their patients thyroid. Three months before I was on my knees and finally diagnosed with Graves’ disease I was fobbed off with being told ‘you’re needing your holiday’ I came out of that consultation almost in tears of fury and said to my husband that ‘that woman thinks I’m just a hypochondriac ‘. I was actually quite ill!
It might be worth getting hold of that book I mentioned earlier - diabetes.co.uk/in-depth/dav... It was my bible for a long time- basically LCHF
I have joined Diabetes.co.uk today and so I can ask on there now if I have a problem. Got signed up as a temporary patient here in Stoke. Dr there is going to organise fasting blood sugar appointment maybe Wednesday. So I might be getting organised a bit.
So you have been there and done that with the medics. Why on earth they think that it is all in our imagination I don't know. It is damned insulting, I know that.
Blood test sounds like a good place to start, wonder if your doctor will test your thyroid too, see if you can get a full thyroid panel plus antibodies, vitamin D and B12, ferritin and folates - that should give you a full picture of how things are with your thyroid.
I will be asking for whatever they will test for me here, as much as possible at any rate.
I have never seen this GP myself, so I just don't know what to expect from him. At any rate, he can't be any more unreasonable than the Welsh doc's have always been. And I hope that he will give me the steroid drops that I need for my itchy ears (excema I believe) as well
Some good news though fruitandnutcase, I actually slept all night for the first time for over a week.
My blood sugar was 6.0 after 16 hours over night fast.
I had a chicken salad for lunch after my walk yesterday, used only 50g of chicken (I started limiting meat poultry in November because I wondered whether unrestricted protein might be something that didn't suit me) and an egg and the usual salad including my own mayonnaise.
6 ish I didn't want meat, so had 100g of smoked tofu and stir fried it with kale, cauliflower, mushrooms, a little of my own chilli sauce .
So whether reducing the protein more has helped but yesterday I was 12 st 12 lbs and this morning I was 12st 10lbs.
I still don't know whether I am going to come down to earth again today, but I do feel a huge weight has lifted from my shoulders. Here's hoping my crossed fingers and toes work today.
One test you should definitely ask for (but I would hope you were getting already) is A1c. I believe it's the diagnostic test for T2DM.
If you aren't aware of it, it measures the glucose attached to your haemoglobin, and as haemoglobin last about 3 months, it's the average of your blood sugar 24 hours a day over the last 3 months.
My GP allows access to all our records online, so I perused a blood test I had last year. I looked up every number eventually, even though nothing was flagged. I was disturbed (once I had googled it!) to see my A1c was 38, but it had been 35 three years prior. 42 is the pre-diabetic (48 is defined as diabetes), so the way I was heading I regarded myself as pre-pre-diabetic.
I think it would be a really useful number for you to have.
Notes: the Mayo Clinic definition of pre-diabetes is 39, so I just squeaked under that. Oh, and all the units are mmol/mol. There is a different scale that you will see if you google that is percentages that is still used a lot in the US, but apparently the NHS moved to the mmol/mol some time ago.
And I have got to write down the list of what I would like testing ideally before I get to see this doc face to face. Makes sense that they should be testing me for that as I am worried about Type 2.
Is that the defining test then for type 2? I have never heard of that before, but never had a clue that I might be getting raised blood sugar either before.
Are you concerned that you might be heading for type 2 too?
My blood sugar today is doing nicely. Had a 40 minute walk to the hairdressers this am and just eaten, and BM is lower than it was this morning and no headache thank God, but I will keep monitoring it. It seemed to take an hour yesterday before my meal finally registered in my BM results.
No ketones yet - only 2nd day low carb properly as well - but no headache either so that's fine with me.
Well, at least you know where you are heading! If I hadn't bought my blood monitor I wouldn't have a clue that my bg was climbing, even if on a low level, climbing nonetheless.
I am pleased to say that it's lower tonight than it was when I woke this morning. YES!!!! She says as she punches the air!! I just have to keep it there now.
You have all saved my sanity since I joined ThyroidUk, thank you all so much.
How many times a day are you stabbing yourself? Have you thought about a continuous blood glucose monitor?
I have a bit of a needle phobia. That's one thing I like about Hba1c, just think happy thoughts for a few seconds and they get the average 300,000 lancet jabs.
I assumed that I would have to be dagnosed diabetic before I think about a continuous monitor, my brother, nephew and grandson have continuous monitoring, but they are type 1.
But I am not worried about pricking my fingers, or any sort of needles thankfully. LoL
I am only doing the tests now because I want to be absolutely certain of what is happening with my blood sugar. I want to see it go down!!!! I definately don't want anything implanted anywhere.
LoL!! The mind boggles! That reminds me of the 'yuppy' time in the 80's 90's where they apparently did all eorts of daft things!
If not that, it is like one of the crackpot schemes that Gwyneth Paltrow (spelling?) or Jane Fonda might decide to do. I won't be signing up for any implants of anything, not even silicone or saline ones !!!!!!!!
I can't stop laughing again now.
I am hoping one day to not be in any danger of Type 2, until then I will carry on with my finger prick tests.
I am also finding it very interesting seeing what sort of time it takes for my blood sugar to start rising after a low carb meal. Yesterday after lunch it took 4 hours to see a rise in my blood sugar, today it was only 2hrs 40 minutes! No appreciative difference between the carbs for each meal either. And both times I ate after a walk, today's was about 10 minutes longer, that was the only difference.
YES!!! Ketosis is positive, trace only but I am there. No headache yet, hope it stays away.
I am having celeriac chips for tea too, one of my favourite meals is chips with egg and beans, but I rarely have it for obvious reasons. So I have celeriac chips, less carbs in celeriac than there are in cauliflower, so that suits me fine.
I finally got the blood test forms from my temp GP. Can't do it today because I didn't get the form until 12.30, even though the receptionist said that I could have it done straight away. So I will go tomorrow hopefully.
This is what the Dr is asking for in my blood tests:-
So that is the basic thyroid that I have had yearly I assume and your blood glucose long term check at least Badger! So if I am type 2 that will tell them I assume. Is this the same test which will tell me if I am 'pre-diabetic'?
The liver side of things I don't understand, except that the 'Bil' I assume is checking for Bilirubin?
It has just dawned on me that he hasn't asked for Fasting Blood sugar has he?
No warnings on it to have nothing but water before the blood's taken on the form, that jogged my mind. So I could have had this done today after all. They close Thursday afternoons, so too late now.
Can't make an appointment with GP until these blood results are in either and my itchy ears are driving me mad today. I so want some eardrops.
These urine testing sticks that I am using are not the ones I used to buy in the chemist near me for about £10 and they don't contain that many sticks to be honest.
I have been buying these URS-1K off ebay and they seem to be fine and much cheaper.
Anyway, just had my shower and decided to test urine.
There are 5 'boxes' on the label ranging in colour from 0.5, 1.5, 4.0, 8.0, & 16.0 and I had the shock of my life to find that I am on 4.0, the middle of the scale! So I am very happy about that I must say, I didn't expect that today.
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