A diet for Reactive Hypoglycemia

[Motorama]

What's the most effective diet for Reactive Hypoglycemia?
I have tried Atkins but it was too strict, too expensive and shocked my body too much. Other diets seems just complex gimmicks where you have to count everything and such. Also I have problems with such severe appetite reduction on Atkins diet that I stop eating to the point I have no energy at all. I'm also very tired of very complex things as until I don't improve my reactive hypoglycemia I won't have enough mental focus to follow complex plans. I'm just tired of suffering and would like to find an eating regimen which has worked for others in reversing their reactive hypoglycemia.

Thanks

[CindyCRNA]

I have reactive hypoglycemia. My blood sugar was down to 32 on a glucose tolerance test at the doctors office. I do a higher protein version of Eat Fat Get Thin. EFGT resticts protein to about 70-75 grams tops for my 125 pound frame. I do better on about 100-120 grams of protein. I will have about 75-90 grams of fat and the rest low carb vegetables. Good carb choices are:
Spinach
Broccoli
Green beans
Lettuce (nice, green stuuf. Not that white Iceberg lettuce)
Cucumbers
Bell Peppers (I like red, orange or yellow)
Pumpkin (frozen makes great shakes)
Mushrooms
Cabbage
Well, you get the idea. No starches, berries but no high sugar fruit like bananas, ect. Really, a diabetic diet. Anything that cause any spike in blood sugar is going to give you difficulty.
Get on a program like Fitday and log your food to see where you are. Slowly lower carbs and up fat over the coarse of a month. EFGT is a higher fat lower protein version of Atkins. We have a thread over under the different plans if you would like to read more.

[karenann33]

I've not been officially diagnosed but I believe I have reactive hypoglycemia. Honestly what works for me is a moderate carb, balanced way of eating. I make sure I eat at least 25 grams of protein at each meal, have ONE serving of a brown carb with it (like brown rice or a slice of ezekial bread) and lots of veggies throughout the day. I eat fruit (not much) but only the low GI ones and I eat it with raw almonds or some other protein to slow the sugar down. I avoid trigger foods like banana's. Beans I limit to 1/2 cup per day. Potatoes don't seem to bother me so I still eat those. It's been trial and error to learn what I can can't handle.

[LCRose]

You might like the book Sugar Busters. I have reactive hypoglycemia and found that way of eating perfect.

[Motorama]

Originally Posted by LCRose

You might like the book Sugar Busters. I have reactive hypoglycemia and found that way of eating perfect.

Can you please tell me more or making specific examples?
I'd like to feel better a little even before whatever book I might order will be delivered to me.

I'm definitely overwhelmed by the amount of information, books, plans and contradictory information out there.

What I learned so far is that very low carb diets worsen my condition. I tried induction but couldn't see an improvement after three weeks. I tried to raise carbs to 40 grams but that didn't work either. I also realized that if I didn't want to spend a fortune I needed to buy low-quality food (i.e meat) which might not be so healthy.
I also realized complex rules of timing and combinations generates a lot of confusion for me and also that I'm tired of counting anything whether calories, carbs, fibers or what not. I also found out that too high fat diets don't agree with my digestion and make me feel sick (i.e. pouring the fat released from cooking from the pan to the plate) and also deliberately eating mostly high-fat foods (i.e cream, mascarpone, pork fat, egg yolks without whites, butter) don't work for me. I found out that in whatever plan I'm always at loss figuring out what to eat and how to keep things varied and exciting.

Morning is the worse moment of the day for me. I feel the most confused, tired and spacey and everything I eat (including just fat or protein) either seems to cause an hypoglycemia reaction or a lack of energy or stomachache.

Lately I feel better only after 10 pm which is where I get all my enthusiasm, creativity, mental focus back. This is causing insomnia since I feel alive and productive only at night. For example sunday afternoon I declined a friend request to spend the day together watching a movie or going out. But sunday night I started feeling like in that precise moment I could have really enjoyed my friend presence and a lot of other things that seemed tiring and boring during the day. Does this sound familiar to any of you?

I've been properly tested with a glucose tolerance test.
My glucose dropped to 36 and I fainted.

I'm not overweight, I just have lot of belly fat and a skinny body!

[xamier]

Try the maintenance phase of Atkins. It is good for people who want to stabilize blood sugar without losing weight. If you want to lose weight, you could jump into OWL as well. Look for the book, Atkins for life.

[LivinLoCarb]

Dear Motorama, your 10:41pm post has me confused. I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia about 20 years ago, and no longer remember the specifics of my diagnosis, but low carb pretty much solved my problem.

The thing that is confusing me is that everything that has helped me has been ruled out by your 10:41 post.

The doctor who did my diagnosis also gave me a diet to follow at the time. Did your doctor give you a diet? If it is not helping you, maybe it is time to get back in touch with him/her. Maybe you need further testing or perhaps an appointment with a nutritionist who can custom-design what you need.

Best of luck. Our hearts are with you.

[Motorama]

Originally Posted by LivinLoCarb

Dear Motorama, your 10:41pm post has me confused. I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia about 20 years ago, and no longer remember the specifics of my diagnosis, but low carb pretty much solved my problem.

The thing that is confusing me is that everything that has helped me has been ruled out by your 10:41 post.

The doctor who did my diagnosis also gave me a diet to follow at the time. Did your doctor give you a diet? If it is not helping you, maybe it is time to get back in touch with him/her. Maybe you need further testing or perhaps an appointment with a nutritionist who can custom-design what you need.

Best of luck. Our hearts are with you.

Thank you for your support
My doctor actually increased my complex carb intake and told me to decrease fats and eat 10 times a day. Of course such diet never worked. I'm afraid that my body is not good at creating glucose from protein and is extremely sensitive to glucose.

[karenann33]

This is what I'm doing.

Radiant Recovery

[LivinLoCarb]

Originally Posted by Motorama

Thank you for your support
My doctor actually increased my complex carb intake and told me to decrease fats and eat 10 times a day. Of course such diet never worked. I'm afraid that my body is not good at creating glucose from protein and is extremely sensitive to glucose.

Okay, so there is a doctor of a different philosophy involved. Thanks.

There have been times in my life when I could find no professional who could help me, despite spending thousands of dollars seeking and following such advice. (Caution, I'm about to switch into psychological/spiritual mode) Those were the times when I learned how to get alone and quiet and listen to what my subconscious was trying to tell me. I believe that, deep inside, we each know what we need.

To make this practical, it could be helpful to set aside an hour (or whatever time period seems good to you) to close your eyes and think of foods that seem like they would meet a need for you. Then experiment a little and see if these foods really do help. Or your answer could include different professionals or some other behavior change.

It may be time to ignore others and create your own answers. Just my 2 cents, but after quite a bit of trial and error, I have found that my inner self knows quite a lot about how to improve my life.

We're pulling for you.

[Madam De Leon]

Originally Posted by Motorama

Morning is the worse moment of the day for me. I feel the most confused, tired and spacey and everything I eat (including just fat or protein) either seems to cause an hypoglycemia reaction or a lack of energy or stomachache.

Lately I feel better only after 10 pm which is where I get all my enthusiasm, creativity, mental focus back. This is causing insomnia since I feel alive and productive only at night. For example sunday afternoon I declined a friend request to spend the day together watching a movie or going out. But sunday night I started feeling like in that precise moment I could have really enjoyed my friend presence and a lot of other things that seemed tiring and boring during the day. Does this sound familiar to any of you?

I've been properly tested with a glucose tolerance test.
My glucose dropped to 36 and I fainted.

I'm not overweight, I just have lot of belly fat and a skinny body!

You may have some kind of little hint of what will work for you in the two bolded statements.

I realize that when you wake up in the morning, you're coming from an overnight fast, and that's why your blood sugar is so low - but what's going on as you approach 10pm?

What are you eating, leading up to 10 pm? What's the last time you ate before 10pm? How often did you eat during the day, and what did you eat each time?

In other words, since you say that you finally feel alert and have focus only after 10pm, perhaps it would be helpful to have a typical day's menu - complete with portion sizes and exactly what time you eat each thing.

[Motorama]

Originally Posted by xamier

Try the maintenance phase of Atkins. It is good for people who want to stabilize blood sugar without losing weight. If you want to lose weight, you could jump into OWL as well. Look for the book, Atkins for life.

I have the Atkins New Diet Revolution
Is the maintenance phase in this book the same as the maintanance phase from the other book you mentioned?

[Wifey]

I have this too bad! I've been eating strick low carb for a week and I've felt like I don't have strength to move my head! I never thought about this!

[Motorama]

Originally Posted by Madam De Leon

In other words, since you say that you finally feel alert and have focus only after 10pm, perhaps it would be helpful to have a typical day's menu - complete with portion sizes and exactly what time you eat each thing.

It seems more related to some kind of internal stabilization of my blood glucose system rather than something I eat because I eat the same thing more or less. I mean I tend to have non cured fresh bacon in the morning with two or three eggs and a cup of spinach with butter. This is around 7 am. Lunch is usually bunless hamburgers with mayo, blue cheese, stir fried veggies, plain whole yogurt and nuts. This is 1 pm. Dinner is the same as lunch but I might have pork ribs steak or fish instead of hamburgers and also avocado or omelettes and few strawberries. This is 7 pm.
Right now I'm just eating randomly as I haven't found something that work for me or a plan to follow, but I need to eat anyway so I can't just follow a junk diet while I figure out what to do. I need more carbs than I can get from veggies and yogurt alone.

[Wifey]

I'm going back to Carbohydrate Addicts Diet. I felt awesome the entire time got to eat what I wanted for one meal and lost the most weight.

[Motorama]

Originally Posted by AmberNikki80

I have this too bad! I've been eating strick low carb for a week and I've felt like I don't have strength to move my head! I never thought about this!

What's your diet like right now?
I can't even afford a meat and veggies diet, is just too expensive.
Somewhere I need to reintroduce some cheap concentrated source of carbs in the mix.

[Motorama]

Originally Posted by LivinLoCarb

It may be time to ignore others and create your own answers. Just my 2 cents, but after quite a bit of trial and error, I have found that my inner self knows quite a lot about how to improve my life.

Thank you
I will make an attempt at more intuitive eating and see what happens.

[Wifey]

Well now it was meat and veggies only but when I was on CAD it was this:

EAS low carb shake or eggs nothing if I wasn't hungry

2 or 3 chicken thighs skin on

anything with in an hr.

I started right before I got pregnant and kept it up with drs permission and was 15 lbs less when I gave birth than before and had a perfect little girl. Then like a fool I stopped.

Here are some reviews and theres a thread on this site as well.

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet: The Lifelong Solution to Yo-Yo Dieting (Signet)

[Motorama]

I seem to need to spread my carbohydrate along the day.
Even more important than the total daily amount of carbohydrate (for keeping my blood sugar in check) is the total amount of carbohydrates at each meal.

Like maximum 30 grams of carbohydrates per meal or more or less.
Having a low carb meal followed by an high carb meal seems to bother my bg.

I'm realizing a big problem of mine is cooking and creativity in the kitchen.
I'm always at lost figuring out what to eat. I was reading about a cookbook that is criticized because the recipes in it are more "simple ideas" for meal preparations rather than recipe itself. But even "simple ideas" would work for me right now, even reading about putting a piece of ham between two lettuce leaves is eye-opening to me. It's like as if when in front of the fridge or at meal time I forget every recipe I know, every idea I have read about, every common sense meal making theory.

Any idea on where to find feasible (devoid of strange foods and prepackaged stuff) recipe and meals ideas which are compatible with an higher carb intake for maintenance or very slow and targeted weight loss?

I either seems to find only complex elbatorated recipes, recipes that require a lot of impossible to find strange sugar-free and refined products or ideas for Atkins induction. Nothing else.

[2big4mysize]

Yes the DANDR maintnenace is the same as the Atkins For Life maintnenace plan.
What happened to moving on with OWL since you were already at level 7 and your blood sugar issues were stabel back on the 28th?

why did you stop your eating at such low carb levels?yogurt, spinach, avacado, nuts, and stirfried veggies with a few strawberries seems to be way below 30 net grams of carbs and lacking the complex carbs you were eating from the legumes nuts seeds and the starchy veggies you were about to add?

why do you eat your breakfast so low carb since you know you are coming off an overnight fast. Your menus look like you increase your protein, fat, and carb consumption as the day goes on. Are you eating enough food to meet your cal needs?

Have you tried eating a high fat high protein snack before bed to see if it help your morning low blood sugar?

[Tammy2002]

I have a question about hypoglycemia and there are so many knowledgeable people in this thread.... Lately I've been feeling light-headed and dizzy and a bit queasy. I think it could be hypoglycemia but I've not been diagnosed as such. What I dont' understand from my reading on the internet is that hypogl. is caused by low blood sugar so how is doing low-carb a good thing? also, many sites say it is a precursor to diabetes.... that doesn't make sense to me either...i thought people with diabetes don't produce enough insulin, so wouldn't they therefore have MORE sugar in their blood as a result???? a little help understanding would be most appreciated.

[CindyCRNA]

Ms Moto, may I ask your age? Why I ask is while it sounds like you DO have reactive hypoglycemia, you may have something hormonal going on. Sometimes when we get a diagnosis, we blame everything on it and overlook anther cause. Why I ask is I too had debilitating exhaustion and went to have my hormone levels drawn. Come to find out, I was post-menopausal. I had no estrogen, no nothin!! Doc said no wonder I was tired. 4 days after bioidentical hormone replacement, I was fabulous! I'm not saying your in menopause but I kept blaming diet also. Oh, and I'm 47.

[MACXXX]

Originally Posted by Tammy2002

I have a question about hypoglycemia and there are so many knowledgeable people in this thread.... Lately I've been feeling light-headed and dizzy and a bit queasy. I think it could be hypoglycemia but I've not been diagnosed as such. What I dont' understand from my reading on the internet is that hypogl. is caused by low blood sugar so how is doing low-carb a good thing? also, many sites say it is a precursor to diabetes.... that doesn't make sense to me either...i thought people with diabetes don't produce enough insulin, so wouldn't they therefore have MORE sugar in their blood as a result???? a little help understanding would be most appreciated.

Light headed and dizzy and frequent occurrences is a good reason to see your doctor. My father got dizzy spells and was subsequently diagnosed with diabetes. It can be a lot of other things as well.

Doing low carb to cure hypoglycemia is a good thing as the hypo is caused by too much insulin. Lowering you carbs tells your body to reset how much insulin it puts out. Many diabetics put out too much insulin. It just doesn't bring down the blood glucose because they are insulin resistant.

[Tammy2002]

Originally Posted by MACXXX

Light headed and dizzy and frequent occurrences is a good reason to see your doctor. My father got dizzy spells and was subsequently diagnosed with diabetes. It can be a lot of other things as well.

Doing low carb to cure hypoglycemia is a good thing as the hypo is caused by too much insulin. Lowering you carbs tells your body to reset how much insulin it puts out. Many diabetics put out too much insulin. It just doesn't bring down the blood glucose because they are insulin resistant.

okay. So I've never eaten LOWER carbs in my life than I have for the last year and NOW I'm feeling this (which btw, may just be a virus, fingers-crossed becuz others in the office have mentioned the same vague symptoms that last for days)... I guess I just wonder if long-term low sugar in your bloodstream is a good thing? I'm lifting heavy weights 4-5 times/week and maybe I need a few more carbs.... Don't get me wrong, I've lost 27 lbs and never feel bloated, yucky , etc. (except for this latest).... just throwing it out there....

[MACXXX]

Originally Posted by Tammy2002

okay. So I've never eaten LOWER carbs in my life than I have for the last year and NOW I'm feeling this (which btw, may just be a virus, fingers-crossed becuz others in the office have mentioned the same vague symptoms that last for days)... I guess I just wonder if long-term low sugar in your bloodstream is a good thing? I'm lifting heavy weights 4-5 times/week and maybe I need a few more carbs.... Don't get me wrong, I've lost 27 lbs and never feel bloated, yucky , etc. (except for this latest).... just throwing it out there....

True hypoglycemic episodes are not a good thing. But stable, normal, blood sugar levels are good thing. Low blood sugar brings on the hypo feelings. The whole carbs are needed for weightlifting, exercise, is a controversial topic. I can point you to people who both run and do weightlifting and do well and consume very few carbs.

[Tammy2002]

Originally Posted by MACXXX

True hypoglycemic episodes are not a good thing. But stable, normal, blood sugar levels are good thing. Low blood sugar brings on the hypo feelings. The whole carbs are needed for weightlifting, exercise, is a controversial topic. I can point you to people who both run and do weightlifting and do well and consume very few carbs.

So, I guess what I'm hearing is that there is a difference between stable, long-term low sugar levels in the blood and a sudden low-sugar dip?

i have been able to up my weights consistently without eating a pre-workout carb but I think I do have more energy when I do. I guess it's an individual thing.

[fawn]

Are you testing? Do you know what your blood sugars are doing?

Waking up spacey tells me that you might also be dealing with other issues ie: thyroid or adrenals.

There's more going on here and a daily menu would be nice to see.

[jem51]

don't confuse these symptoms....the only way to know if you have low BG is to test.
tammy many peop w your symptoms have low blood pressure. since summer is upon us, it might help to add a bit more sodium and water. you can check your own BP.

for the hypoglycemia issue, try looking at the Stubborn Fat Fix. there's a thread on the 'other plans' forum. it's a new book an appears to address this problem, i think.

[MACXXX]

Originally Posted by Tammy2002

So, I guess what I'm hearing is that there is a difference between stable, long-term low sugar levels in the blood and a sudden low-sugar dip?.

Hypo episodes not due to insulin are a result of eating AFAIK and can be brought on by exercising also AFAIK. Normal fasting blood sugar is around 83 mg/dl on average. You really need to measure to know or be tested. I don't know if there is a thing such as long-term low sugar levels. Would need to know your definition of low.

[Tammy2002]

Originally Posted by jem51

don't confuse these symptoms....the only way to know if you have low BG is to test.
tammy many peop w your symptoms have low blood pressure. since summer is upon us, it might help to add a bit more sodium and water. you can check your own BP.

for the hypoglycemia issue, try looking at the Stubborn Fat Fix. there's a thread on the 'other plans' forum. it's a new book an appears to address this problem, i think.

I checked my bp twice at the machine at Shopper's Drug mart on Saturday and it was
101/59 and 102/62...

I'm usually lower but that was low even for me.

I'm feeling much better today, so maybe it was just a bug.