I'm a type II diabetic and have been on atkins 10 weeks with success in lowering my blood sugar and weight loss during the first 6 weeks. It's been 4 weeks since the scale has moved and it has been during the last four weeks that I have seen my bs flucuate.

I have a paper journal with my daily food intake and I've been staying in the 20-50 carb range. My carbs mainly come from veggies, hidden carbs (which I carefully track), pumpkin seeds, eggs, cheese. I have not cheated in 10 weeks (which I'm very proud to say).

For instance, for the first 8 weeks, my fasting bs was 90-105 and the highest reading I ever got during the day was 125. Now, my fasting bs is around 120 and my daytime bs is around 130-140.

I'm going to start taking more readings to see how I react to different foods and maybe it will help me figure out how to change my eating to get the weight loss going again.

I'm not sure if the fluctuations are the cause, but I do know that I've always had problems with even vegetable carbs before lc eating making my blood sugar rise.

Jbee

Check blood sugar two hours after you finish eating your meal. A blood sugar of less than 140 is considered normal for that time.

GinaDee:

Thanks for replying to my post. I've been doing lc since June 1, 2002 losing the first 15lbs of the highest weight on my stats at Weight Watchers. My scale weight hasn't changed since July 20, but I am down another pant size. I'm asking the question in my post as I have been looking at my bs numbers for the time period beginning July 20.

The highest I have seen is 136 2 hours after a meal; however, if I check my bs before bed, it is usually the same when I wake up. For instance, if I eat dinner and do not exercise, my bs is 118. I'll check my bs right before bed and it is 118 and it is still 118 when I awake.

If I exercise, the fbs is usually below 100, but not much.

I'm wondering if after each meal my bs stays at 118-136, is that affecting my weight loss?

Most days I exercise 2 to 3 hours after dinner and it makes my fbs go below 100, but somedays it is not possible and I live with the overnight higher bs.

I take a glucophage (metformin) 500mg at breakfast and 500mg at dinner (the doc said I could stop the am one, but it was my choice).

I'm wondering if after each meal my bs stays at 118-136, is that affecting my weight loss?

Ok, im trying to think of some things here.

How many carbs a day are you eating?

Are you figuring your carbs each day by something like fit day. www.fitday.com That is a free site. you put what you eat in and it tells you how much carb, protein , fat and calories you had.

Are you measuring your food? We tend to get into problems when we eye ball food and not measure it.

Are you having a snack after your last meal of the day and if you are, what is that snack?

Whenever we eat, we experience a spike in insulin if you get too much carb in your system. The insulin spikes make the PCOS worse. If you dont continue to eat after your allowed snack or the meal, i dont see how a blood sugar of 118 all night long would adversely affect your weight loss.

I dont know that having a blood sugar of 118 most of the night is causing you to spike insulin all night long. Have you thought about moving the morning glucophage to maybe noon? They make a long acting glucophage that you just have to take once a day. You might talk to your doctor about that and just do it one time a day for better coverage. I take the long acting form of glucophage.

Gina

My glucometer reads my bg in terms of mmol/L. I don't know how to convert my numbers to the terms you're referring to. What is a normal level in mmol/L two hours after eating. (sorry...I'll learn to convert it on my own next time)

I've always suffered from low blood sugar, but have found that my body has done some sort of flip flop. Now I'm running high. Probably not high for you, but very high for me. I've been testing myself for the last few days and have seen that it takes at least three hours for my bg to start going down after a meal. My numbers are not scary, but I feel just utterly horrible a lot of the time.

Thanks for showing me some latitude on the protocol.

iwantmore

Iwantmore:

I'm as clueless about mmol/L as you are about my glucometer numbering system. Here's the reference range for my type of glucometer that I go by based on my docs numbers

fbs less than 130 is good
Best is 70 to 90

2hrs after eating less than 125

I was eating on average 20-40 carbs post indicution without problems, but then noticed the fluctuations and a stall for 6 weeks. I went on the Atkins Fat Fast for 2 days (Sunday and Monday) and my bs readings are in my journal. I learned that I am extremely carb sensitive, even with 500mg metformin breakfast/500mg metformin dinner. The doc told me I could stop or take 1 or take both, whatever I was comfortable with since my last hba1c was so good (HBA1c of 5.8 down from 7.2 the previous 2 months.

Although my bs are in "normal" range, I just wonder if the fact that they go up after eating and tend to stay if that makes me loose weight slower? I can test my blood before I go to sleep and wake up with the exact same number. I know that elevated bs causes damage to the body, but what does it do to weight loss efforts?

JBee (Jill)

Hi,

I'm sorry I don't have the time to dive into this post, but I wanted to let you know that the factor is 18; ie mmol/L of 5 = 90 in the USA. or 140/18 = 7.8

I'll try to get back to this thread tomorrow, time to get ready for zzzzzz's

I am eating between 100g protein a day to about 130g a day. Trying to keep my calories below 1800 although Im not really fixated on that.

I know on the low carb you are not supposed to think about calories, but i dont see how you can lose weight if you are eating over 3,000 a day.

Gina

my blood sugars were 200-300 most of the time,and when i do low carb (10-20) carbs my blood sugar is 55-75,if i add more carbs say 10 my sugar is 100 if i add 10 more 150.The higher the carbs the higher my blood sugar,also for me more carbs=stalls and sleepy.just my 2 cents.

Well don't forget that the more insulin floating around in the bloodstream the less the body is inclined to release fat for burning. It's not really a matter of how high the BG reading, but how much insulin you've released. As a diabetic, we're not going to lose weight like 'normal' folks. I have noticed, however, that when my BG is running high I'm less inclined to drop weight. I am currently on a 4 month 'stall' but I'm not concerned as I'm not gaining any weight (and being female my weight tends to fluctuate by a few pounds anyway due to cycles) and since I'm going to be eating this way for the rest of my life I'm just not putting any 'worry points' toward being concerned about weight. Oh, I still have about 50 more pounds to lose, but I'm confident it will come off, eventually. I've lost 30 so far....