Blood sugar issues

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Plum
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Blood sugar issues

Post by Plum »

It has been a little while since I last posted... I was doing well with me eating and trying to regularly exercise. Lost 50 pounds so feeling better due to that. However, I have started testing my blood sugars on a few occasions and I am a bit concerned so thought I would ask for advice.

3 hours after lunch blood glucose was at 6.4 which seems a bit high to me? 5 hours after the same meal I was down to 5.4.

And then 2 hours after dinner they were at 6.6. I eat lowish carb, around 75g per DAY. But I do have a small bit of sweet potato with meals, around 60g which I am lead to believe is around 10g of carb.

Otherwise I have about 90g of oily fish, chicken or pork with meals and veges. I have a lot of chronic gut conditions and am unable to increase my fat from where I am at now as it slows my digestion too much and makes me ill. I eat moderate fat. Meals aren't huge and I'm on around 1300 to 1400 calories a day. I'm 5'9 and 41 years old.

What blood sugar levels should I be aiming for after meals? What is considered TOO high?

Many Thanks

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Tincup
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Re: Blood sugar issues

Post by Tincup »

Plum wrote: Fri Dec 31, 2021 5:59 pm What blood sugar levels should I be aiming for after meals? What is considered TOO high?
I'll convert to mg/dL for US readers. 6.6 mmol/L is 119 mg/dL, 6.4 is 115 & 5.4 is 97.

Those glucose elevations don't bother me. I'd like to see the 5.4 lower.

A couple of thoughts. I've found that 15-20 minutes of exercise at a Zone 2 (pure aerobic) level after a meal will drop blood sugar into the 4.5's mmol/L (81 mg/dL) or lower. If I do this after dinner, then it usually sets me up for a fasting blood sugar around this level. I will give links on this in a minute. More exercise in the Zone 2 level will also improve mitochondria (and mitochondrial density up to 4x), per University of Colorado Health Sciences researcher (including cancer, heart disease & diabetes), Iñigo San Millán (who also happens to be the head coach for the winning 2020 and 2021 Tour de France team).

Here a post with links to more info on Phil Maffetone's MAF heart rate, an approximation of Zone 2 and nominally 180-age.

Zone 2 Iñigo San Millán podcast with Peter Attia MD. This is excellent IMO! Second Attia/San Millán podcast March 2022

Another interviewer with San Millán on Zone 2.

Iñigo San Millán podcast on triathlete training - not listed for the training, but for more background

A second thought is meal timing, per my friend, Australian Engineer Mary Kendall. The following is an "elevator pitch" for his info & programs. He has good info.

Australian engineer, Marty Kendall, has developed systems to help people lose weight (fat) and optimize their metabolism. Helping his type 1 diabetic wife optimize her insulin use and control her glucose sent him down this path. Analyzing data from her closed loop continuous glucose monitor/insulin pump system led him to understand one flaw in common approaches to weight loss. It is assumed that carbs have the greatest insulin response, protein has about half of that of carbs and fat has virtually none. What Marty observed is that fat has a longer impact on basal insulin and a large intake of fat will raise insulin levels over the course of the day. Everyone knows that insulin needs to be low during a period of time of the day for the body to access stored body fat.

Marty knew that the order of fuel use in the body is alcohol, ketones, blood glucose, liver and muscle glycogen (glucose), fatty acids in the blood, then body fat. When the non-body fat fuels are elevated, insulin and glucose are too. So Marty developed a system using a glucometer (blood glucose meter) as a fuel gauge. This system could also be used for individualized hunger training. Hunger training allows a person to get feedback as to whether their hunger feeling is due to low fuel on board, or something else. Marty calls this system, Data Driven Fasting.

Marty also observed that when people optimized their nutrition with nutrient dense foods, to optimize the intake of the important amino acids, vitamins and minerals, they consumed less total calories. This is because the body has nutrient sensing pathways that signal a person to eat till these nutritional requirements have been met. So Marty also developed a course to teach people how to optimize their nutrition, no matter their way of eating (from carnivore to vegan and everything in between).

Here are a number of links where you can explore this in more detail:

Marty's book, "Big Fat Keto Lies"

Keto lies online

Data Driven Fasting

Hunger Training

The best way to measure your weight loss progress (without the scale)

Oxidative Priority: The SECRET to optimising WHEN and WHAT you eat (or the order in which fuels – foods – are used)

Want to lose fat? DON’T aim for stable blood sugars! (Why your CGM could be making you fat)

What is nutrient density?

You should eat more fat to burn more fat - Keto Lie #3

Type 1 diabetes management
Tincup
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