feeling ill but blood sugars look good
 

Hello All,

I am a newbie to this forum. I've been doing the LC thing for about a month now and stuck to it pretty faithfully. I feel very sick when I eat beans including soy, corn, rice, gluten, and pretty much all grains. It also aggravates my fibromyalgia.

This last week I have been struggling with feeling like my blood sugars are low. I feel shaky, dizzy, nauseated, and fatigued. I have a CBG machine at home even though I am not diabetic. I have found that when I feel this way I tend to have a blood glucose level of 81-89, which is considered normal. I am never high in the morning and never too high after a meal, yet I feel like crap anyway. Taking some glucose tabs helps, but it will just come back again later. I don't get it and am confused about what to do. I don't want to up my carbs too much (which I don't track, but keep around 30-40) because I know my carb cravings will come back.

Ideas?

Please post about 2 days' worth of menus, so the community can troubleshoot your problem. Without knowing exactly what and how much you're eating, we're flying blind.

Taking a shot in the dark anyway, you might be low or out of balance on electrolyte minerals (the ones that make your body's electrical functions work): calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium. The early stages of a LC diet are extremely dehydrating, and minerals leave with the water. Dr. Mike Eades wrote an informative post about counteracting this effect.

Also, read through the these threads and see if any advice fits your situation:

• Advice for the Newbies
• Low-Carb Newbie Basics! Check Here First!

When you are not doing LC, do you track your blood sugars?

I'm wondering if you're feeling ill because your body is used to a higher blood glucose level than when you LC.

That's most like a false hypo. When your body is used to much higher numbers it gets a bit panicky when they start getting more normal.

You don't mention whether your diabetic or not, but if you have glucose tablets it seems likely.

http://diabetesupdate.blogspot.com/...alse-hypos.html

Going to try replying one more time every time I post something it shows up for about 5 seconds then it disappears why is that??

My first thought was the balance in minerals is causing the shakes. SOmetimes it is better to slow down on the weight loss too, no need to feel shaky. Supplement with Ca, potassium and magnisium. DOn't over do it with the POtassium-- I start at 99mg and if that doesn't work, then two 99 mg tablets.

YOu may need to look at other ways to stabilize your blood sugars. Do you have ATkins old books the tomes? Has all that info in there.

Hello All and thank you for the thoughtful replies. After several days of monitoring my blood glucose levels and increasing my carbs I foudn then when I eat carbs I no longer go under 100. This was very surprising to me as I have never had a problem with my blood surgars! I liked to check them from time to time anyway. I am not diabetic and it does not run in my family. Or I wasn't. Anyway I saw my doc and they ran some tests. It looks like I have pre-diabetes and so I am doing what I can to slowly back down on the carbs so that I don't have to feel so sick in the process. Of course now I am struggling to keep my carb count reasonable! Once I start with the grains it is easy to go overboard.

I feel like locking myself in a cabin in the woods to detox from carbs where no one can tempt me or have to deal with my extreme crankiness while I make the transition!

I am working on increasing my fat intake and electrolytes to make this all easier on me.

I do not have the old Atikins book, but will look into it! I do have the newer version.

Holly

You might want to read "Wheat Belly", a really good book. Anyway, you can probably blame a lot of your glucose issues on those grains, so best to stay far away from them.

If you're going to back down gradually I recommend using non-grain sources of carbs, like vegetables, sweet potato, and fruit. The sooner you get grains out of your diet, the better!

Many people get withdrawal symptoms from going off gluten grains, even if they don't go low carb!