I’m into my fourth week now and I’m becoming a bit dejected. I haven’t had any ‘bad’ carbs and I managed to lose 7kg and my blood sugars stabilised. Tonight I had beef stew for my dinner . Including carrots, parsnips and swede. I have just taken my blood sugar readings and they have risen to 11.2 !!!!!!! I’m confused and to be honest miserable. Please help .

Hi Darren, could you maybe be coming down with something as infection can cause an increase in bg levels. What was your last reading and what else have you eaten since then? Or it could possibly be a faulty test strip or some residue of something on your hand (I once forgot I had recently put on hand cream and then tested). Have you calibrated your equipment? Don’t let it get you down. Stress can also increase your levels. You’ve obviously been doing well for 4 weeks so I’m sure there will be a reasonable explanation for the higher reading. Let us know how your next test goes

Hi Darren,
I agree with Scottishgal, it could be for any of the reasons she mentions. Mine went up the other evening to over 8 for no reason which I could work out. Rogue numbers just do happen. I use my readings to look at the trend over time. I also take them immediately before and 2 hours after meals – nowadays, I only do that with new foods – but if you’re doing that you’ll fairly quickly get to know what foods affect your bgls.

What does strike me is that your meal might have just had too many carbohydrates in one sitting for you. What I learnt is that it’s not always about how many carbs you have in total for the day, it’s also about how many in a meal and the portion size. Parsnips are quite high in carbs, e.g. 13g per 100g, carrots 7g and swede 6g per 100g. Do you know what your bgls where before you ate? With food, it’s really about the difference between before and after. If your post-meal reading is over 2 mmol/l higher than your pre- reading then there were too many carbs in that meal for your body to handle.
When I tried the beetroot falafel recipe in the back of the original BSD 800 book, even a quarter of a single portion raised my blood sugars – I think mine went up to 11 or 12 then. Also, some good carbs have the same effect on me as bad carbs.

Please don’t worry – it’s natural to get a bit down about it all, I think we’ve all been there. It’s a lot to take in, but you do get the hang of it. If you keep track of how many carbs you are eating per day (I use the food tracker fatsecret.co.uk but lots use MyFitnessPal), and if your bgls stop trending downwards, try to reduce your daily carb intake bit by bit and you should get to a level of carbs that works for you. Meanwhile, if you test before and after meals for now, you’ll soon see which foods are good for you. Well, that’s what worked for me.xx

It sounds like you’ve made a brilliant start, 7kg weight loss and stabilising your blood sugars is great. If you need any other support on anything just shout out – or you can join in any of the threads.

Btw, don’t know if you have found the diet doctor site. It has lots of good free info (no need to use the paying part). I found the visual guides on carbs in veg etc really helpful.
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/vegetables

Jennie xx

Edited:
I don’t think this is what’s happened here, but just to let you know a few people on here (including me) suddenly found our blood sugars going up and staying up for 1 or 2 weeks before coming down again – and then pretty much staying down. This seemed to happen around weeks 4 to 6 or 7. Forewarned and everything….!

Darren – sorry, an afterthought. Are you taking any meds? Metformin? etc. If you are, these will have to be managed downwards with your GP or nurse as your blood sugars reduce. I’ve no experience of meds but others on here have.

I agree with Jenny, that was quite a carby meal. The stew would have been fine with carrot or swede or parsnips but not all at the same time. Yes, this is a hard learning curve but you will get the hang of it and you are doing so well. Maybe next time have beef stew with carrots and some leafy greens like broccoli, kale, cabbage or even cauliflower. Did you calculate all the carbs in that meal, you will be surprised how many carbs you had, maybe the whole days allowance in one meal. You do need to check with your doctor if you are reducing meds but dont be tempted to reduce too quickly, this is not a magic bullet but something that should be done slowly i.e. if you are on say 200mg of a tablet dont just ditch them but try cutting one in half and having 150mg to see how you react. I was on 90mg of glycazide and managed to cut to 60mg mainly because they gave my hypos but recently I have had to add back half a tab so I am taking 75mg. Doctor was okay with me cutting in the first place but also okay with me increasing again when I think my BG’s are going a bit higher than I would like. It is such a delicate balance between food intake, exercise output and medical intervention you have to learn to listen to your body. Dont be disheartened – I have just gone 14 days with no weight loss and yesterday a 1lb gain, yes it is difficult.

Dr David Unwin from the UK has made teaspoon equivalent of sugar charts to help people understand how much glucose your body makes from different foods, to help his patients and people everywhere.

Might be worth having a look, print out…
https://phcuk.org/sugar/