I have been a type 2 diabetic for 18 years. I decided to do the blood sugar diet instead of go for weight loss surgery. I have been unable to lose weight in the past in a low calorie/low fat diet. I have been on the blood sugar diet for 8 weeks so far. I am doing well – I have lost 10kg – no longer taking my blood pressure tabs or short acting Insulin. But as recommended by my diabetic dietician, I have maintained a low dose of long acting insulin (20mg in the mornings) My blood sugar was still always elevated in a morning. I discovered I had Dawn Phenomena (by testing at early morning slots & reading info about this). I then started taking a low dose (10mg ) if long actibg insulin before bed to compensate for this problem. This has worked and I no longer get rises in the morning. All my blood sugar readings before meals and after for the past two weeks have been within normal range e.g 4-7. I want to stop taking insulin altogether but am worried that if I do my blood sugar levels will start to rise again! Would this be only a temporary rise til my body adjusted? What is the best way to do this? Is it better to just stop abruptly to allow my own resistance to kick in? Or do it gradually? Does anyone have similar experience and what did you do?

The Dawn Phenomenon does not need early morning testing, just your usual pre-breakfast test. I do mine as soon as I get up, around 8am. If you do it very early you will get false high readings like testing too soon after a meal. It is like my evening readings, I have a snack in the afternoon as I can get a bit shaky so I have some nuts or a piece of chicken. If I test at 6pm my readings will be normal to high but if I leave it until my normal time of 7pm they will have gone down quite a bit as my snack needed more time to dissipate through the blood.
Okay, the theory is that as you are eating a very low calorie diet and probably not eating between dinner (say 8pm) and breakfast (say 7pm) your liver detects that there isn’t enough glucose in the blood and thinks you are starving – it thinks you might die before you wake – remember we are still prehistoric in our bodily functions. You are not going to die as there will be a meal waiting for you when you get up. Your liver doesn’t know this and in order to keep you alive it pumps glycogen into the blood – hence a high reading in the morning. You can either ignore it as it is a false reading but it is still glucose your body will have to deal with. In order to cheat or trick the liver into thinking you are having plenty to eat you should eat a small BSD friendly snack just before or an hour before bed – whichever is more comfortable for you and your digestion. This should stop the high morning readings and give you a more true reading. That basically is it. Try it and see, it doesn’t work for everyone but a very high percentage see an improvement. You might start getting very low readings – mine run at around 3.8 to 4.3 in the morning but I am about to eat so I dont worry.

Thanks for your reply. So would you suggest I stop The insulin & just stuck to a snack at night? I have been having a small amount of nuts before bed at night – which for some reason has increased the slow weight loss I was having – but will this be enough to stop the dawn phenomena? – or could you suggest other snacks that might help?

Whoa there, I didn’t say stop the insulin, where did I say that. If you ditch the insulin you will get even higher readings. The Dawn Phenomenon is something that happens to everyone who is on a restricted diet. As for snacks the nuts are very high in calories and probably not easily digested at night. I have something like a slice of ham, a piece of chicken or a boiled egg, sometimes a bit of canned mashed tuna and my favourite is to save some frittata when I have had it for dinner and just have a small slice at night.

I reiterate, I didn’t tell you to stop the insulin, that has nothing to do with the Dawn effect.