getting my glucose levels down -advice please

[scintilla]

I am wondering how long it's going to take me to get my glucose levels normal. A few days ago, I realized that there were a few things I was getting wrong on induction - e.g. too much cream, and I was having de-caf coffee with cream 3 x a day.

I had a blood test in February; My fasting glucose was 6.2 (normal is 3.9-6.0) and my fasting insulin was 16.1 (normal is 0.2-9.4). The encouraging thing was that since my last test in November, and since doing Atkins, all my other blood work came back normal - thyroid, hormones, uric acid, hdl levels, cholesterol etc. My blood pressure is also normal for the first time in years! I bought myself a glucometer to monitor my glucose levels. According to the instructions, I should not be over 5.9. I've been trying to walk 1 hour a day, and when I check my blood it's usually 2 hours after I've eaten. In the last week, my results have ranged from 5.6 -6.00. Today was a day when I was particularly disciplined and careful in measuring carbs and so on. I just took my blood test and it was 7.00!

Does anyone have experience with a glucometer and have any idea how this works? If my levels are high, does this mean I won't lose weight? What more can i do to bring these levels down? Okay, I know I've only had a few days since realizing that I was having too much cream, and also I didn't know that Sprite Zero was a no no - I had one of those a week ago. Is it just a matter of time, or is this particularly related to a food I ate today? Or do I just have to do more exercise? ( I walked for an hour today - mostly up a hill).

any advice?

[Conveyor Belt]

Re: getting my glucose levels down -advice please

Normal glucose is 70-105(110) mg/dl. I'm not sure what the units are for your reader, or how that translates out into milligrams per deciliter of blood.

My first thought is that you're taking readings too closely to consuming a meal. A fasting glucose is normally taken after fasting for 12 hours... not two hours after a meal. Two hours after a meal, your glucose may still be raised. This is why, when having bloodwork at the doctor, you're instructed to not eat or drink anything (except water) for 12 hours before the test. This is to ensure accuracy of the results.

Try a true fasting glucose in the morning after fasting for 12 hours. If you stop eating at 7pm, then you can run the test at 7am, then have breakfast. This will give you a truer sense of what your levels are.

Unless you are insulin dependent, there's really no reason to run your glucose more than once every few months, unless you're doing it for some other reason.

Also, decaf coffee still has caffine in it, and caffine will increase your insulin levels.

[kate58]

Re: getting my glucose levels down -advice please

The units used in the USA are different from those used in most of the rest of the world. We use mmol/l - basically to convert you divide the US units by 20.

I agree with what Conveyer Belt (hey, catchy name!!) says, though if your doctor has advised it, by all means monitor your glucose if you wish, but don't relate the results to losing weight. It just isn't as simple as that. To be honest if your glucose does not go up after a meal it's surprising - remember that even on Atkins we still have some glucose in our systems, it comes from the good carbs and the protein and is not a bad thing.

Probably a more accurate reading of how you are doing glucose wise is the "glycosylated hemoglobin" test. This measures the amount of glucose in the hemoglobin of red blood cells, and gives a very good measurement of average glucose levels over a period of time. Might be something to ask your doc about.

[scintilla]

Re: getting my glucose levels down -advice please

Thankyou for your response.
Yes we do use different measurements here. We use mmol/L (whatever that means). The blood test I took for the doctor was a 'fasting glucose' test where I didn't eat anything before 10pm at night and the test was taken the next day.

It helps me to know that I only need to know an average. I thought that it was something that I needed to check almost like the ketone strips as a guideline as to whether my body was burning fat or not.

I'm very encouraged at the moment because in the last few days my weight has begun to drop and I've lost about 2cm around my waist... so I am doing something right!