Skinny, pre diabetic -- what can be done?

[dishealthful]

Ate low-carb in the past (15-25 percent of calories).. I'm quite skinny and have trouble putting on weight. Any meal with more than 25g of carbs often spikes my blood sugar to a prediabetic range. Blood sugar is often high (100-115 mg/dl) when I'm asleep as well.

The typical advice I see here is to greatly reduce fat intake (I never touch PUFAs, so just talking about sat fat here), but there's no way to get enough calories without spiking my blood sugar to unhealthy levels.I've also tried slowly transitioning to higher carb intake over the course of months, but I can never get past a certain point without raising my blood sugar to bad levels.

Starting to wonder if I'm simply built for a lower carb diet

 

[Truth]

Ate low-carb in the past (15-25 percent of calories).. I'm quite skinny and have trouble putting on weight. Any meal with more than 25g of carbs often spikes my blood sugar to a prediabetic range. Blood sugar is often high (100-115 mg/dl) when I'm asleep as well.

The typical advice I see here is to greatly reduce fat intake (I never touch PUFAs, so just talking about sat fat here), but there's no way to get enough calories without spiking my blood sugar to unhealthy levels.I've also tried slowly transitioning to higher carb intake over the course of months, but I can never get past a certain point without raising my blood sugar to bad levels.

Starting to wonder if I'm simply built for a lower carb diet

Hi, what do you eat mainly, which sweet foods do you eat more of?

 

[mostlylurking]

Ate low-carb in the past (15-25 percent of calories).. I'm quite skinny and have trouble putting on weight. Any meal with more than 25g of carbs often spikes my blood sugar to a prediabetic range. Blood sugar is often high (100-115 mg/dl) when I'm asleep as well.

The typical advice I see here is to greatly reduce fat intake (I never touch PUFAs, so just talking about sat fat here), but there's no way to get enough calories without spiking my blood sugar to unhealthy levels.I've also tried slowly transitioning to higher carb intake over the course of months, but I can never get past a certain point without raising my blood sugar to bad levels.

Starting to wonder if I'm simply built for a lower carb diet

You might want to look into thiamine supplementation. Thiamine is required (as a coenzyme) for oxidative metabolism to happen which burns sugar (blood glucose) as fuel (thus lowering blood sugar). High blood sugar happens when oxidative metabolism is blocked which can happen if thiamine or thyroid hormones are lacking. If you are thiamine deficient, eating carbs exacerbates the problem.

How Can Something As Simple as Thiamine Cause So Many Problems? - Hormones Matter

Is thiamine deficiency too simple to explain the devastating nature of the systemic adverse reactions to some vaccines and medications?

www.hormonesmatter.com

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5GSI-8fKrk

 

[dishealthful]

Hi, what do you eat mainly, which sweet foods do you eat more of?

What fruit is in season! And white rice/pseudograins occasionally

You might want to look into thiamine supplementation. Thiamine is required (as a coenzyme) for oxidative metabolism to happen which burns sugar (blood glucose) as fuel (thus lowering blood sugar). High blood sugar happens when oxidative metabolism is blocked which can happen if thiamine or thyroid hormones are lacking. If you are thiamine deficient, eating carbs exacerbates the problem.

How Can Something As Simple as Thiamine Cause So Many Problems? - Hormones Matter

Is thiamine deficiency too simple to explain the devastating nature of the systemic adverse reactions to some vaccines and medications?

www.hormonesmatter.com

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5GSI-8fKrk

I recently did a month of benfotiamine... do you think it's worth trying TTFD or HCL insteade?

 

[Truth]

@dishealthful what else do you eat overall and when you are low carb?

 

[dishealthful]

@dishealthful what else do you eat overall and when you are low carb?

mostly butter, grass fed red meat, lean chicken/fish, and various types of dairy. I define low carb as <100g a day, but I had periods where I'd have under 70g a day. I tend to go into ketosis very easily

 

[mostlylurking]

I recently did a month of benfotiamine... do you think it's worth trying TTFD or HCL insteade?

Benfotiamine is supposed to be good, but I have not tried it. Do you know what dose you took? I am more familiar with thiamine hcl; I take 1 gram, 2Xday. My husband takes TTFD, 200mg/day and I've seen positive improvement in him with that dose of TTFD.

 

[Overton]

Another thing to look into is protein restriction, particularly bcaa's. Check out brad marshall and his recent posts on fireinabottle.net experimenting with this. There are studies showing it can help glucose metabolism and he saw success dropping from pre diabetic blood sugar with bcaa restriction (still ok to do heavy glycine)

 

[LucH]

I've also tried slowly transitioning to higher carb intake

Hi,
If the liver is surrounded by fat, it's less sensitive to insulin. More insulin is needed. The cat bites its queue..
See Jessie Inschauspé to manage the order of your food and specially to understand how to dress your carbohydrates.
Jason Fung: Code diabetes (book).
Jessie Inschauspé: « glucose revolution » (book)
Example: 1. light reactional hypoglycemia when eating carbs at first (red arrow). 2. weak spike when eating mixed. 3. normal range with meat at first.
And the spike would still be better if you begin the meal with fibers (vegetables).

Note: The first meal of the day will condition how much insulin you'll secrete the whole day long and how you're going to response to insulin (sensibility).
=> Eat first fibers. Carbs in the last position. Dress your carbs (fats, apple vinegar).

 

[Peatful]

Ate low-carb in the past (15-25 percent of calories).. I'm quite skinny and have trouble putting on weight. Any meal with more than 25g of carbs often spikes my blood sugar to a prediabetic range. Blood sugar is often high (100-115 mg/dl) when I'm asleep as well.

The typical advice I see here is to greatly reduce fat intake (I never touch PUFAs, so just talking about sat fat here), but there's no way to get enough calories without spiking my blood sugar to unhealthy levels.I've also tried slowly transitioning to higher carb intake over the course of months, but I can never get past a certain point without raising my blood sugar to bad levels.

Starting to wonder if I'm simply built for a lower carb diet

This is very common for those on a previous low carb carnivore or keto diet
Or even a restrictive one

Returning to a LC diet would not solve anything and compound your problem

——————————————————-

“Stress hormones will desensitize the insulin receptor. From birth to now, most of us have had some sort of stress that has shaped our experience of our health. With chronic stress comes many things, all of which desensitizes the insulin receptor.”



“…when you (reintroduce or up your carbohydrates) your body is essentially already in an insulin-resistant state. The stress hormones flooding your system over time, have desensitized the insulin receptor so, insulin cannot drive glucose into the cell anymore”

 

[sunny]

Your statement of being skinny and not putting on weight reminds me of Ray Peat talking about himself and several people like him that he knew - in interviews he talks about that and his high metabolic rate - and that it kept him from thinking he could have a thyroid issue. But once he tried thyroid, he and several others like him resolved the issue.

 

[dishealthful]

Your statement of being skinny and not putting on weight reminds me of Ray Peat talking about himself and several people like him that he knew - in interviews he talks about that and his high metabolic rate - and that it kept him from thinking he could have a thyroid issue. But once he tried thyroid, he and several others like him resolved the issue.

Is there anything that can be done aside from taking thyroid hormone directly? It doesn't seem correct that one should have to supplement synthetic hormones to get their thyroid in order, but I don't know much about this

 

[mostlylurking]

Is there anything that can be done aside from taking thyroid hormone directly? It doesn't seem correct that one should have to supplement synthetic hormones to get their thyroid in order, but I don't know much about this

You can focus on improving your oxidative metabolism which is how the mitochondria inside the cells make energy. Improving oxidative metabolism improves how every cell in your body functions. Good thyroid function helps. Other things help too. The thyroid gland itself needs good oxidative metabolism function to do its job. However, if your thyroid is damaged (multiple causes, including heavy metal poisoning and radiation from x-rays), then thyroid hormone supplementation is warranted. I like prescription desiccated thyroid medication and that is what I take myself.

You can investigate how the deiodinases work. These are responsible for converting T4 into T3 which is the active thyroid hormone. They require certain things like selenium and thiamine to work. It's an interesting and complex subject.

You can improve your diet: increase your protein intake including dairy, eggs, gelatin (low in muscle meat), banish polyunsaturated fats, consume orange juice and soft ripe juicy fruit, consume dairy and eggs, banish highly processed food, consume nutrient dense real food.

Improving your overall health is a massive subject. Here are some handy links that will help your journey:

Search engine for Ray Peat's written work (use the search cell that excludes the forum): PeatSearch: a Ray Peat-specific search engine - Toxinless
Search engine for Ray Peat's interviews: bioenergetic search

additional suggested reading:

Derrick Lonsdale, MD

www.hormonesmatter.com

How Can Something As Simple as Thiamine Cause So Many Problems? - Hormones Matter

Is thiamine deficiency too simple to explain the devastating nature of the systemic adverse reactions to some vaccines and medications?

www.hormonesmatter.com

You specifically mention "pre-diabetic": From a Ray Peat perspective, focus should be on banishing polyunsaturated fats and lowering free fatty acids in the blood - read up on niacinamide. I take 100mg, 4Xday. From a Dr. Lonsdale perspective, focus should be on thiamine. Some links are provided above from hormonesmatter.com.

 

[ecstatichamster]

everybody's blood sugar spikes when they eat carbs. It's supposed to spike. Wear a CGM for 2 weeks and you'll see. So what.

Pre-diabetic is a bogus diagnosis because only maybe 5% of pre-diabetics ever become diabetic.

You have blood sugar problems if you eat a lot of fat due to the Randle Cycle.

Eat a high carb low fat diet, and you'll be on your way to restoring your health after low carbing for years.