Half way through week 3 and my sugars are going up! Normally in the mid 5’s they’re currently running high 7’s and won’t drop below 6. I’m not ill or stressed and this is starting to upset me, I don’t take any meds and obviously don’t want to. I’ve lost 12lbs but am not heavily overweight. Has anyone got any ideas as to why this is happening? I don’t cheat and haven’t actually eaten carbs for months now so just don’t understand this. Any help gratefully appreciated.

Hi Cdh1966
Are you testing fasting blood sugars. There is quite a lot of information on this forum about it which you can search for in the search box. Bill1954’s thread ‘this has to work for me’ has quite a lot of info on it. He found fasting blood sugars very unreliable and changed to testing after meals.

I found that my fasting blood sugars were all over the place and so were my daytime numbers right up to the day before I suddenly didn’t need insulin anymore. That was 3 weeks ago and my blood sugars have been remarkably stable since 4.8ish fasting and no mealtime spikes. I had been on insulin for 4 1/2 years.

Everyone is different – but for me I had to almost lose all my weight before blood sugars improved. My tummy and waist started to dramatically disappear this month then I was off insulin altogether.

Are you measuring your sugars at the same time of day? Same amount of time before and after meals … as well as meal content? Is the duration and type of exercise the same as before?

You say you are not stressed but stressing and being upset over this? That’s stress also.

P.S. Whenever i have a reading under 10 i am a happy camper.

——
What should your blood sugar levels be?

Once diagnosed with diabetes, your health care team will review your “target” blood sugar levels with you. You will likely be told to start checking your blood sugars at home using a meter. Normal blood sugar levels (i.e., people who have not been diagnosed with diabetes) are usually between 4.0 mmol/L and 8.0 mmol/L. If your blood sugars are at levels recommended by your physician or primary health care provider, then it is said that your blood sugars are “in control.”

For people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, the recommended target blood glucose levels are:

4.0 mmol/L to 7.0 mmol/L when measuring blood glucose fasting or before eating
5.0 mmol/L to 10.0 mmol/L when measuring blood glucose 2 hours after eating (your physician or primary health care provider may recommend a range of 5.0 mmol/L to 8.0 mmol/L if you are not at your A1C target – see below)

These are general recommendations – your health care provider may suggest different targets for you. In addition, pregnant women, the elderly, and children 12 years old and younger may have different targets.
————————–
http://bodyandhealth.canada.com/Channel/Diabetes/Managing-your-blood-sugar-levels/Blood-sugar-basics

Forgot to say that the hb1ac is the test that truly measures how you are doing with your blood sugars. Are you due for another test soon?

Shalimar – you are so right about all the things – like stress and exercise – that affect your blood sugars and that it is not just the food or how well your pancreas is working.

Fasting blood sugars were between 5.5 and 6.3, now 7.7 and higher. Have been testing for a couple of months now so I know they’ve increased. Am going to increase my exercise and am praying this is just a blip. The only thing I can think is that I’m due on and wonder if this could be having an effect? I’m not giving in, I just hope they start to go down again, highest reading last week was 5.7 and lowest 4.9 and before I started this diet they were generally always below 7 and always below 8 after eating – very very odd!

Cdh1966
You are so right about the hormones having an effect on your blood sugars.
Also – I found that if I increased my carbs that also had an effect on my fasting and daytime readings.

I am one of those people who had to keep carbs lower than 50g to lose weight and improve blood sugars.

Hba due end of November want it below 141 by then – last one was 144

KrysiaD – the only carbs I get are from green veg, don’t do chickpeas, beans etc so would think I’m under 50g a day. Haven’t eaten bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, veg below ground for over 6 months now.

That’s brilliant Cdh1966
You are doing everything right. I would think it is just a blip – maybe because of your hormones – and I would carry on as you are.

Cdh 1966, I know your mystified feeling on BGLs going up. Today towards the end of week 5, after 4.4 BGL first up, 1/2 an optifast, an hours gym then a latte (small) I took my bloods and for the first time since starting I had an 8 reading. Since day 2 I’ve had 4 and 5s in the morning and 5-high 6s 2 hours after evening meal. I have stuck strictly to the diet and have lost 8.5kgs. It’s mid afternoon here in Australia and the reading is back in the 5s now but like you I can think of no reason for this morning’s reading. One thing I now know I have not reversed T2.

Hi Jenni from the block
That is exactly what I believe. I am off all insulin and my BGLs are very similar to yours.

I now think of it as my diabetes is ‘in remission’. Eating carbs freely and a sugar addiction caused the weight gain and diabetes in the first place so I know that going back to the old way of eating will bring it back again together with the retinopathy and the threat of a whole host of other issues. If I think diabetes is reversed I know there is a danger that I will think myself cured of diabetes and just go back to the carbs.

Diabetes ‘in remission’ gets me into a totally different mindset. When I get to my ideal weight I will follow the lead of captainlynne and Igorasusul and all the other successful BSD graduates and find out bit by bit what level of carbs and calories my body will tolerate and not gain weight or mess up the blood sugars. I do love this way of eating now and with the support of this forum it really won’t be hard to do.

Doesn’t even a small latte have lots of carbs ….and not complex carbs … won’t the latte go very quickly into the blood stream and affect a blood sugar reading???

No Shalimar 150 grams of full cream milk which was in the latte has 7.5 grams of carbs. What I found was was that like Cdh1966 experienced, it hadn’t happened with latte over the last 4 and 1/2 weeks and my total carbs this morning were 11gms at 9 and then 7.5gms 2 hours later and yet I went outside the non T2 normal BGL. It was a lesson for me that as KrysiaD says above, T2 merely seems to go onto remission. Maybe after 8 weeks it will be different.

p.s. … 7.5 grams of carbs does seem like a lot of carbs to me 🙂 … when i try for carbs between 30 and 50

I was a bit surprised at my blood sugar reading of over 10 myself today. Yes i did have lots of calories and carbs for lunch … but only about 2/3 of my allowed limit …. and i got off my derriere and had done aquabics, shopping and a short walk …. ???? it’s really going to be difficult giving up or limiting my coffee and cream … or even limiting it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I have lots of fancy teas and such … but ….

ah well 🙂

7.9 now …. and i haven’t eaten for 15 hours … 2 coffees and 2 diet drinks and some plain tea

……. frankly it was difficult to get my readings under 20 a few months ago, even with metformin

Here’s to a long long long remission … 🙂

so i am relatively happy with that ….. hungry but happy!!

Dear All,

I have been reading this thread with interest and I hope my contribution helps. In two days I will have finished my 8 weeks (yay!) and am delighted to have got off 2 stone which puts me in the ‘overweight’ rather than ‘obese’ category for the first time in about 15 years! (Pre children)

I was initially very smug as my blood sugar levels dropped dramatically from 9 and 10 to low 5’s and even the odd 4.9 etc. Delighted with myself!

Unfortunately, in week 6 I fell off the wagon and much chocolate and wine was consumed. The next day by BG was 8 something! Horror! I was then really upset to find for the whole of the rest of the week my sugars were much higher, averaging in the high 6s and odd 7s (fasting blood sugars this is). I was convinced it was due to my food frenzy. I was really disheartened as I felt this meant my diabetes was as bad as ever and I would have to go on medication.

However, my husband (a mathematician) made me look closely at my charts and pointed out that even before my feeding frenzy my sugars were showing a climb and although it spiked at 8 something, if you took that out there was a clear curve upwards in my FBG. All of last week they kept higher than they should considering my carbs were under 50g and calories around 800 and I continued to lose weight.

Today – joy of joys – my FBS was 4.6!!! Hooray!!!!! To be fair, I did do a Davina exercise video yesterday and I wasn’t exercising much before then, and obviously I need to see what the readings are tomorrow, but I wonder if this is evidence of the fat draining from my liver initially, and now it’s my pancreas draining? Anyway, I was convinced I couldn’t control my sugars, but it seemed to resolve eventually. Just hang in there is you have an upward curve like I did – it should settle down!

Hi

One thing I’ve learned in my year on the BSD is that blood sugars, like so many other things, sometimes work to surprise us.

Bill1945 on his thread ‘this has to work for me’ talks about this, as well as his progress with reducing his diabetes medication. Well worth a read.