Tim Lundeen‘s sister Miriam wrote this:
Tim and I have been having conversations about health, diet and blood sugars for several years and I figured I was insulin-resistant with mild blood sugar dysregulation, but never was more than interested. About two months ago after a move cross-country with the accompanying stresses, I became more acutely concerned about my metabolic damage and was in a place where I could pay attention and do something about it. At Tim’s recommendation, I read Dr.Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution and Jenny Ruhl’s Blood Sugar 101 and started monitoring my blood sugar with a glucometer. Initially, my morning readings were usually 91-94. Not too bad but not the 83-85 that is “normal” [i.e., optimal]. I started waiting till I was hungry or when I would normally eat and then take my blood sugar again. If it was 85 or below I would eat a normal meal with an awareness of the carb content and eat smaller portions of these foods. Then I would monitor my postprandial (post-meal) blood sugars about every hour and see when and how high my spike was. If it was too high (over 140 for sure, and in the 130′s probably) I would adjust the amount of carbs downward. If my blood sugar was over 86 and I wasn’t famished I would distract myself with some engaging activity and check my sugar again when I noticed I was hungry. If I became really famished but my sugar was still not under 86, I would have a no-to-low carb snack like almonds, walnuts, left-over meat or a salad. Then I’d wait till I was hungry again. After a few weeks of doing this my morning sugar was consistently 81-85. If I ate off-plan and had an occasional 94, that was fine by me. I was happy about my blood sugars, but the pleasant surprise came when I had a physical exam at my doctor’s. I had lost 20 pounds without even noticing! [She is 5 feet 5 inches tall. After losing 20 pounds her weight was 155.] I was amazed since I had tried to diet a number of times over the last 10 years and my weight just kept creeping up. This has been the most fun and healthy weight loss program I could imagine. I am hoping my carbohydrate metaboliism will eventually recover and I will again be able to eat more carbs without weight gain and metabolic damage.
I am doing something similar for a few days, too soon to tell the results. About six months ago, to help write a chapter in my self-experimentation book about diabetes, I got a glucometer and started testing myself regularly. I was displeased to find that my morning readings were about 91, like Muriel’s, and further displeased to find that eating less carbs didn’t help.
Blood sugar testing isn’t cheap, but it’s easy and painless. The glucometer I use is Abbott’s Freestyle Lite (which is free). It’s painless if you get the blood from your arm. The test strips cost about 60 cents each.
I think this boils down to: Tim went on a low carb diet and lost weight. You don’t need to measure your blood sugar to do this, but it does sound like it might be fun.
Very interesting results. Seem similar to the benefits of intermittent fasting (eating same daily calories, but in a smaller window of time each day), which seems to lower blood sugar on average.
Seth,
I am really glad that you are looking at diabetes and blood glucose regulation. Let me remind you that current glucose monitors are at best, highly inaccurate and unreliable. I believe that this is because the strips are not individually sealed. When I was first diagnosed, I used the Glucometer Elite (Bayer) recommended by Richard Bernstein. The strips were individually sealed. I now use the Bayer Contour (25 strips in a bottle). I have several monitors all over the house and ordered a free one (I liked the color:-) Here are the readings I got from the same finger on three different monitors during the same ten second period: 104, 122, and 98. Here are the results of the control solution provided by the company to test the meter. Same solution in four different Contour meters: 125, 117, 110, 134. There are NO government standards for accuracy and reliability. If you test at 100, you could be anywhere between 80 and 120. The Freestyle is just as bad if not worse. Dr. Bernstein now recommends the Accucheck Aviva. I doubt that it is any better.
The best way to test is using the same meter and at the same site on your body. At least you can see trends because you are certainly not seeing actual glucose levels.
Andrea — did you try testing the same meter at the same site? Wondering if there is variability within the same product as well.
Andrea, early on I did 10 duplicate tests: measured my blood sugar twice (keeping everything the same). The average difference between the two readings was about 6, if I remember correctly. That gave me a good indication of the accuracy (variability). Now that you bring it up, I have two Freestyle Lite meters and should probably use both of them to see if they are calibrated accurately. Whether they are calibrated identically is a test of that. What your assessment leaves out is that Miriam (a) actually got her morning blood sugar to go down and (b) she lost weight. So whatever the measurement problems, they didn’t get in the way of her glucometer being really useful.
I think the real lesson is, measure! I can easily picture someone who tried the same diet but because things were bouncing around and they didn’t “notice” their weight drop, to cheat every once in a while, and then to forget it altogether. Putting numbers to the test really makes a diet mean more than just self-regulation practice. Weight takes a while to move, but blood sugar measurements make the effects of the diet almost instantaneous.
Even if “wait until your blood sugar is low” wouldn’t help some people, if they were rigorous about what’s actually going on in their body, maybe that in and of itself would help diet commitment and further the original goal, weight loss.
When my blood sugar gets well within normal range, if I don’t eat it begins to rise anyway. What’s going on. This happens over night also, so my “fasting” reading is usually hi, sometimes as high as 130′s. Doctors don’t give me an explanation, but they want to medicate me on the basis of the hi morning readings. Anybody got any clues?
In my view this is a bad idea, or more precisely, a case of the cure being worse than the disease.
It seems that effects that come with low blood sugar – delayed onset grumpiness, slower reaction times, etc., (to say nothing of less visible effects) are so overwhelming that it is simply nuts to do this.
mmmmm……nuts…..mmmmm
Mary Lee said:
According to Bernstein, it’s called the “dawn phenomenon.” He experiences it himself:
Ordinarily, the liver is constantly removing some insulin from the bloodstream, but during the first few hours after waking, it clears insulin at an accelerated rate.
[…]
Because of it, my blood glucose can rise even though I haven’t eaten.”
Does this have anything to do with catabolic foods at all? I read on that and it seems to be very interesting when you can eat more and lose weight. Any opinions on that?