I’ve just scheduled my annual glucose tolerance test – the one where you drink nasty glucose liquid then they see if you go into a diabetic coma (or at least if your blood sugar spikes). The results of my last one were very close to a diagnosis of diabetes so I’m hoping my efforts this year have improved my glucose tolerance.

I was used to eating lots of carbs for three days before the test, but at the last one they told me they don’t get people to do that any more (yay!). But since then I have moved into a different state (NSW Australia) and I’ve been told I need to carb-load again! I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with carbs!

Do other people still have to carb load where they live?

I’m supposed to do three days of carb loading but I got a bit over-excited about being given permission to eat lots of carbs and started two days early, so I’m now in the middle of day four. I enjoyed the first couple of days, especially bread smothered in butter and roast potatoes. But today I had to force myself to eat toast for breakfast and add a bread roll to my lunch. It wasn’t appealing at all. I feel heavy and tired and headachy. I had to have a nap after lunch while my son watched Big Hero Six. I’m still looking forward to crispy potatoes with dinner, but how am I supposed to fit in several other serves of carbs in what is left of the day?

I’ve been struggling with sticking to the BSD but I guess most days I did better than this. I can really feel the contrast. I am not a diabetic (hopefully, that is what the test is for) and I’ve been testing at home after meals and I still seem to be in the pre-diabetic range after carb-heavy meals. So it’s not only diabetics who are negatively affected by a carb-heavy diet. I can hardly think straight.

As a nurse in the UK I can only speak from my experience but I have never heard of the idea of carb loading prior to a GTT. We certainly wouldn’t suggest it! I’ll be interested to know how you get on, let us know. Good luck and hopefully you can get back on track afterwards.

That is really interesting that they don’t do it in the UK. Hopefully they get rid of it here, if it’s not necessary.

Ok I just had a poke around on the Net. The idea is that if you usually eat low carb then suddenly have the glucose liquid for the test, your body can’t deal with it and you are more likely to get a big spike and a “false positive” for diabetes. If you eat more carbs leading up to the test, you get a more normal result. But this belief is disputed and some now think the effect is minimal.

I see. There’s a vague logic to it, but I would have thought it would be more realistic if one continued on the diet one normally eats, low carbs, ‘normal’ carbs or high carbs.
Still, we all have to do what we all have to do! Greetings from a sunny South Wales morning, by the way!

I honestly thought my constant tiredness was solely due to poor sleep – I have sleep apnoea and sometimes night sweats so I don’t get the best rest. I’d been feeling a bit better lately, but since eating lots of carbs again I can barely keep my eyes open after lunch time. It’s nearly over, GTT tomorrow morning.

insulin resistance makes you deathly tired, when I had this in my mid 20’s I would sit at my desk after a carb-heavy meal and literally my head falling forward would keep waking me up! It was awful, I remember the feeling. So those carby meals are entirely responsible – I’ll bet you’ll be glad to get back on plan and start to feel better and more alive again!

I also didn’t know they recommended carb heavy meals before your GTT. WA here, and my endo just sent me for them, no instructions. I stopped seeing her a number of years ago (pointless to pay $$$ for a specialist to tell you ‘all looks fine, lose weight, see you next year’) as the resistance disappeared after a bout of weight loss and exercise in my 20’s and never really returned. Imagine what I would have achieved if I had been put on the BSD back then? Probably still not desperately trying to lose the last 20kg. and not crept into borderline and away from it a few times in the intervening 15 years… Oh well.

good luck for the morning!

Well, at least you know that it’s the carbs that make you feel like that, so hopefully it will spur you on to greater things post test! Good luck.

Hi Natalie
Good luck with the test tomorrow, let us know how you go.
I’m sure that once you get back on track with the BSD, you’ll start to feel better and won’t want to go through that again.
Are you in Sydney or the country?
I’m thinking of getting some Sydney siders together for some group walks over ‘The Bridge’ and through the Rocks.
Cheers
Linda

Ok, did the test this morning, maybe people can give me advice on what I should have done afterwards in case this happens again. During the two hour test, after drinking the glucose, I felt nauseated and tired but not too bad. When I was released I had two crackers with cheese (maybe 10 grams of each), then came home and had 100 grams of roast chicken and a small amount of leftover vegetable, not much because it seemed oily on my queasy stomach.

About two hours after that I started to feel very shaky and odd. I tested my blood sugar, trembling enough that I was having trouble holding the pen, and I was down to 3.9 mmol/L (70.2 mg/dl). I realise that this is not dangerously low – in fact borderline normal – but I certainly felt unwell. I wasn’t sure what to do to get my blood glucose back up. I had some dark chocolate but then remembered that the amount of fat makes chocolate slow release, so had a couple more crackers with cheese then half an apple. I am feeling a lot better now.

I assume this was a reaction to the GTT glucose, though it happened about four hours after drinking the stuff and with food in between. I am pre-diabetic (as of last test, don’t know about this one yet).

Morning Natalie. Sounds rotten, I’m sure it was a result of a high blood sugar level compared to what was becoming normal for you. If I get that, I over produce insulin and my blood sugar dips too low and I get a similar response. Shaking, sweating, trembling, blurred vision, confusion. I used to take comfort in the fact that my body would even it all out in a bit, but would lie down and eat some golden syrup! Not the best for a controlled BS level. However, this hasn’t happened to me once since starting the diet 19 days ago and I’m sure your bs will go back to ‘normal’ once you start the low carbs again.
Hopefully this was just something that had to be gone through and you will feel much better on the diet. It will be interesting to hear your results when you get them.
Best of luck

I have been prediabetic for 18 years and have had glucose tolerance tests in NSW, ACT and VIC and have never been told to carb load. That being said I was diagnosed yesterday with diabetes but having a progressive doctor she recommended that I lose weigh immediately and has given me 2-3 months to reverse my diabetes before putting me on medication.

Hi Jennsem, I wonder if it’s just one chain of pathology clinics that does the carb loading? Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but I think this is the right diet to reverse it.

I got my results today. Last year I was 10.8 mmol/L (11.0 is diabetes), this year I am down to 8.9 mmol/L. Still in the diabetic zone but much better. Looks like the BSD is working! I look forward to even better results next year.

I was happy with the reduction in my blood glucose in the recent GTT, but apparently it doesn’t mean I can go back to eating whatever I want! Since finishing my second round of BSD 800 I increased calories and carbs – I actually find that very low carb makes me miserable and can trigger depression (but I do lose weight) and I’m happier with a bit more. Anyway, the other morning I decided to have two slices of low GI toast with creamed corn on top. Corn is of course also high carb, probably a bad choice. I didn’t weigh the corn but I guess the total carbs for the meal were between 45 and 60 grams, which is a lot for one meal. An hour or so later I started to feel a bit odd and unwell. Although I am “only” pre-diabetic I am quite sensitive to swings in my blood glucose. I checked at the two hour mark and sure enough I was 10.5 mmol/L – that is considerably higher than at the GTT when I’m pretty sure I drank 75g of pure glucose! Even though it was low GI bread, and corn which I don’t generally think of as unhealthy. I mean, it wasn’t a packet of Burger Rings or a box of doughnuts.

Still working out what I can and can’t eat.