I started on the 8 week BSD about three weeks ago. Bought myself a monitor recently but I’m worried that my BS levels are now reading low all the time, should I seek advice?

Hi POPPET, That depends on how low and how you are feeling. Word of warning, before this diet I was swimming 3 times daily and late afternoon (around 4pm) i was almost in a state of hypo. I sought advice to stop me from turning to the old advice of quick carbs – think honey on bread – or some other sweet carb laden remedy to bring me back quickly. I was scared of these episodes. I saw a nutritionist and she put me on a high carb 6 times daily i.e. cereal for breakfast, oat cakes mid morning, rice with lunch, plain biscuit in the afternoon and pasta or potatoes with dinner, not forgetting some toast before bed. This, she said, would keep my BG steady thoughout the day. 3 months later my BG was way out of control 190 (10.5) and one day 230 (12.7). For someone who normally ran at 100 to 120 this was more scary than a pre-hypo. Also in 3 months I gained 5kgs. At that time I had a HbA1c test and was 11.2 which was a disaster as my previous one was 5.9. At that point I cut out most of those carbs by myself and got my BG down around 145 with a HbA1c of 8.4. Then I found this diet and I now run under 100 (5.5) usually around 80 to 90. Even when I go really low i.e 60 or 65 I get the symptoms of weakness, shakes, blurred vision, so know straight away that I need food. Simple as that. Instead of bread and honey etc I now have 2 large spoonsful of full fat Greek yoghurt, leave it a while and retest, if it is still low I have a couple of prunes and if it is still low, a slice of ham or chicken. Slowly does it, give the food time to reach your blood, you dont need to bombard it with sugar.

By the way, my doctor was horrified when he saw my high results and when I showed him my diet sheet (from the nutritionist) he was even more horrified and said it was more than he ate in a day. Another point, I have only ever had one true hypo where I have lost consciousness and that was whilst on the high carb diet and I had just eaten a sugar laden cereal breakfast when it happened. My doctor said my body probably reacted to the high sugar and sent it haywire.

Now, my advice to you is to know your own body and reactions and learn how to look after yourself. For goodness sake, if you are truly hungry or going too low, eat something. Just make sure it is BSD friendly. Hope that helps.

P.S. home monitors are very inaccurate (even the medical ones) so you could be higher than you think as they are set to run on the side of caution.