Feeling Better With Elevated Blood Sugar

[stargazer1111]

Okay. I've been "Peating" for a few weeks now. My morning blood sugar has gone from being in the mid 70s to being in the mid to upper 90s, which concerns me a little bit because of all the stuff I hear about fasting glucose levels and how they need to be below 100 mg/dl.

However, I have noticed that I feel much better with the higher fasting blood sugar. When it is down in the 70s or even low 80s, I feel cold and fatigued. When it is in the mid to upper 90s, I feel like I have stamina and am warm all over.

I did a ketogenic diet for about 6 years and my glucose was routinely in the upper 60s or low 70s. I remember hearing all the time from the low carb people how great it was for the body to minimize glucose levels. I remember hearing people boast about how low they could get the numbers.

I'm starting to question this philosophy. Why do I feel so much better with numbers that border on "pre-diabetes" levels? Maybe the cut-off points for diabetes are more fluid than they think.

 

[WestCoaster]

Though mid 70's is kind of low (80-85 is better with energy), it kind of shows your body has little ability to burn fat. Blood sugar that low and not feeling good is a sign one is glucose dependent with no ability to burn fat. If you're cold and fatigued, it means your body has little to no energy source. Your cells are telling you to consume something so they can work to get energy going again. If decently fat adapted, this wouldn't happen.

You like many others (myself included), who did a form of a ketogenic diet, or paleo/primal or some sort of low carb diet, may have made the mistake of still unconsciously avoiding fat. This leads to higher protein creating big satiating factor ultimately leading to too big of a caloric restriction. This leads people to feel cold, tired, lethargic, and their sexual desire plummets. Caloric restriction sucks no matter which way you look at it. Eating a lot of fat on those actual diet alleviates this; normalizes blood glucose, body can now burn both fat and glucose, and should theoretically have energy levels whether the blood sugar is in the 70's or 90's.

With that said, blood glucose in the 90's I wouldn't even call pre-diabetic, a lot of people's sit in that range. Your actual fasting insulin number is better, that tells the story. I suspect yours might be on higher side of normal (or higher) given it takes more insulin to get your levels up (insulin has a warming effect). Excess glucose and insulin floating around isn't entirely ideal, it can lead to many brain diseases.

 

[stargazer1111]

I definitely did not avoid fat on the ketogenic diet. In fact, I made it a point to consume about 300 grams of fat every day. I usually got about 2700-3000 calories every day. Most of that fat came from ghee and beef tallow. I think my body just hates burning fat for its primary fuel source.

I haven't had my insulin levels checked since bringing the carbs back in. But, I know that it was below the bottom cut off of the normal range while I was eating the ketogenic diet, so it was actually too low during that time.

 

[Such_Saturation]

Excess glucose and insulin floating around isn't entirely ideal, it can lead to many brain diseases.

Here we go again

 

[tara]

blood glucose in the 90's I wouldn't even call pre-diabetic,

+1