Has anyone experienced hypoglycemic symptoms upon & shortly after eating?
 

Hello everyone,
I've been tinkering with my carb levels lately as I am transitioning into maintaining. I've not had much problems with my experiments, thankfully. I have slowly raised my carbs and tolerated it fine. However, it seems when I attempt to cut back a bit I experience crazy blood sugar disturbances. Symptoms (which I believe are all symptomatic of a "hypoglycemic episode") include poor ability to concentrate, irritability symptoms (impatience/intolerance for others especially), emotional disturbances/moodiness, a feeling of anxiousness/nervousness, and a physical jitteriness/shakes/tremors. Additional symptoms which follow the aforementioned cluster of hypoglycemic symptoms are digestive troubles, headaches, sleep disturbances (trouble falling asleep, excessive sleeping once asleep), and a profound feeling of fatigue/muscle weakness. The most troubling symptom is the cluster of hypoglycemia symptoms during and shortly after my meal. Let me give you an example of what I am talking about.

I will be on 50 carbs average for a week, and be pretty much fine. Then I'll have a few days where my carbs are high, say 65 or 60 grams. Then when I cut back from this to say, 45 grams, I experience crazy crazy crazy blood sugar! Initiating of eating, irregardless of frequency (several small meals or 3 or 4 well rounded, it doesn't matter), size (gum or a small snack can sometimes do it), or carb composition of meals (15 grams messes me up just as much as steak and broccoli) I will experience hypoglycemic symptoms shortly after or during eating.

Hypoglycemia in response to eating sounds totally contradictory, doesn't it?

The only theory I can come up with is an excessive phase one insulin response caused by exposing my body to higher carb levels for a couple of days. Due to being on so low carb for so many months, my phase 1 insulin response has become smaller to adapt. By slowly raising carbs, my body learns it needs to produce a larger phase one response to deal with it (a sign of insulin resistance). Fortunately my phase one insulin response is still good (I am not diabetic), so when I expose my body to higher carb levels it "learns" that it needs to make the phase one response bigger next time. However, should I go back down to low carbohydrate meals later on, I still release the insulin which my body "expects" is needed. This then causes the perception of falling blood sugar and the hypoglycemic symptoms upon eating.

If this theory is correct, then dropping my carbs a bit and keeping the levels stable day to day should avoid the problem. Also it means something good and bad. The good news is I probably am not close to developing diabetes yet, as my phase one is obviously in good working order, meaning I don't run high sugars post-prandial (a feature of diabetes is very poor/weak phase 1 insulin response relative to the cellular resistance resulting in high post-prandial sugars). The bad news is that I probably have relatively bad insulin resistance, as a disproportionately high amount of insulin release is needed to deal with relatively small increments of additional dietary carbs (which is why such a small change in carb levels produced big changes in insulin production & sugar metabolism regularity).

Like I said, all this is just theory... if anyone else has experienced or heard of symptoms like mine and found a concrete causative origin, I would *really* appreciate your feedback! I've been searching usenet groups & the internet, I can't find any information about expression of hypoglycemic symptoms related to meal initiation. Most of the info seems to deal with reactive/relative hypoglycemia in response to a high carb meal which forces a high phase two response, or absolute hypoglycemia as is seen in IDDM patients. Neither of these situations seem to fit what I am experiencing.

My suggestion is to eat frequently if you arent' already. Also, I'd carefully measure carbs and not do so much up & down, since your system is obviously having issues with it. Keep carbs on an even keel for a week or so, then perhaps raise them by a few the following week, till you get to your point of comfort. Could be what you're eating rather than the carb level also, sounds like some experimenting is in order.

I'm no doctor, but maybe you should go get some bloodwork done too, people have contracted diabetes without any previous symptoms, but finding out through a glucose test what your body does could help. The glycemic level could also be affecting you, higher glycemic foods (forgetting for a moment about carbs) tend to wreak havoc on your blood sugar level.

Hope this helps, and I hope you feel better soon! Funny, about an hour after I eat, I'm starving again, stomach growling & everything, haven't figured that one out yet :)

LL :)

Maybe if you did alternate but daily, not weekly, the body wouldn't have the time to adapt to a certain level of carbs? One day 45, one day 65, something like that.

It could be a reaction to additional carbs or a certain type of carbs. What you described almost seems more of a "sugar rush" or reaction to a stimulent then a hypoglycemic resonse.

Are you watching what kind of carbs you are eaitng as well as the amounts? Also is thre any particular food that seems to trigger these more then others?

ItsTheWooo, I know exactly what you are talking about! I have been diagnosed hypoglycemic - Since I've started the lc wol I have not had any episodes - although there are times when I eat too many carbs I do feel some of the symptoms, mostly the same ones that several others have talked about: tired, sluggish, headache, need a nap.... Before this wol if I ate something a simple as cereal for breakfast within an hour I would be experiencing what you described and then eating whatever food I could find to counteract it.
I agree with LucyLucy - see your doctor just to make sure since this is something you weren't experiencing before. Maybe try spreading your carbs out across the day so you don't get the carb rush. Good Luck and great job on the fabulous loss!!

ItsTheWoo, I would say that it may be the type of carbs that you are taking in. Are you eating more carbs in the form of grains or are you eating more vegetables/fruits? If I were you I would try experimenting to see what the problem is. Also, maybe there is an allergy there to something that manifests itself in the symptoms you described? Can you post some of your menus?

LucyLucy, I used to have the same thing and I realized that it wasn't hunger, it was thirst! We tend to eat more "dry" foods like meats on this WOE so we definitely need to up our water intake. Whenever I feel hungry again like that I instantly chug at least 16 oz of water and then I feel much better. And if that doesn't work, vegetables (especially a few cherry tomatoes) always does the trick for me.

Jen, my days consist of filling the ol-water bottle, drinking it, running to the bathroom, re-filling the water bottle, repeat, repeat............as you can see I lead an exciting life :), I'd simply live in the bathroom, but I'd miss out on all that exercise!

LL :)

It's all your fault! I read your post and then after I ate my meal at 9 am I did!

I really did but I'm just kidding about it being your fault :)

Debbie

ItsTheWoo, I have experianced the same. I really need to keep a grazing schedule (5-6 mini meals during the day) to stay on an even keel. I have felt woozey driving and, it comes on fast. I may not be really hungry, so I don't eat and the dizzy's start. We aren't feeding our brains well (no quality carbs) and it will not send the signals if it isn't fed right. I would up healthy whole grains since you have reached goal weight. :)