Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

[mitzimarie]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

We don't know what he means by blood sugar swings (perceived or documented) we don't know what his blood pressure readings are....we don't even know if he lives in the US.

I'm wondering about his self-diagnosis of "blood sugar swings", too. He has stated several times that all of his tests show excellent results and also states that his doctor isn't willing to do more tests.

* How do you know it's "blood sugar swings"?

* And if your doctor is not willing to treat you, it's time for a new doc.

[chgomom]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

How tall are you...and what is your weight in lbs? If I man or woman were 5'9 and 122 lbs that would make their BMI 18.....and while it would be on the thing side for a woman....it would be entirely different for an average male to be 122 lbs that it would for a woman with a small frame to be 122 lbs.

[liv]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

He did say his BMI was 18.8.
I think this is a case for someone professional.

[Riverj]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

See I think this is kind of moot now. We don't know what he means by blood sugar swings (perceived or documented) we don't know what his blood pressure readings are....we don't even know if he lives in the US.

Beans, handfuls of cashews....but depending on where you live...

What area of the world are you from?

I live in europe and even though we pay our free health with our taxes, doctors still feel as if they are the ones paying just because we don't directly pay for an health insurance. Going to the doctor for a flu is considered a waste of resource and you feel not confortable with asking an appointment at least is something very important.

My blood sugar swings are "anecdotally documented"
First there the old episode where after fainting my blood sugar was measured very low in the hospital. Then my aunt is diabetic and she convinced me to test with her glucometer when when right on schedule I feel spacey, confused, lethargic and tired several times a day. My sugar is always low when I feel like that and it's always high after an high carb meal. So it goes up and down all the time.
I did the test in the Atkins book and I scored very high for unstable blood sugar. Also before understand anything about this I could feel they well energy swings, from energetic to tired rollercoasters, and to me that could only mean blood sugar. Induction indeed remove the swings.

My blood pressure reading is 59-96 (min/max)

I'm afraid of adding carbohydrates back because I don't want unstable blood sugar to reapper, I'm very cautious. Beans sounds like they could be triggers, but I'm not sure.

[Riverj]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

How tall are you...and what is your weight in lbs? If I man or woman were 5'9 and 122 lbs that would make their BMI 18.....and while it would be on the thing side for a woman....it would be entirely different for an average male to be 122 lbs that it would for a woman with a small frame to be 122 lbs.

I'm 5.8 feet and 124 pounds
I have a small frame as my wrist circumference is smaller than that of my mother. I have the same body type I had at 14 except I'm slightly taller and developed a bit of tummy. I have never been buff nor I have ever been interested in being so.

[Riverj]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

I'm wondering about his self-diagnosis of "blood sugar swings", too. He has stated several times that all of his tests show excellent results and also states that his doctor isn't willing to do more tests.

My fasting glycemia is 89 so I guess fasting glycemia can't tell you anything about what happens to your blood sugar during the day. I remember reading somewhere Dr. Atkins saying that unstable blood sugar and all the symptoms it causes is not something your physician would observe in a routine blood test. I saw my blood sugar was unstable testing with my diabetic aunt glucometer two hours after eating carbs, which is when symptoms of low blood sugar appears. The symptoms decreased during induction, so my instinct was right in believing it was a blood sugar issue.

By the way; my aunt is diabetic type 2 diagnosed with a fasting glycemia of 300, but has been thin and lean all her life. She has always exercised and professionally played tennis most of her life. She has always had low cholesterol levels and no risk factors. She was diagnosed late because she didn't look like someone who was sick. I'm not surprised my doctor don't know I suffer from unstable blood sugar, I wouldn't be surprised is he doesn't know what unstable blood sugar is and that you can suffer from it even if you're not overweight and diabetic.

[boonie stomper]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

Just out of curiosity, how many times per day do you eat? Are you drinking plenty of water? Do you smoke, drink alcohol or take chemicals? There may be some clues in when and what you normally take in.

Could you perhaps list a typical day's intake (including liquids and non-food substances) in terms of:

time - what eaten - how prepared - quantity/volume

[Riverj]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

Just out of curiosity, how many times per day do you eat? Are you drinking plenty of water? Do you smoke, drink alcohol or take chemicals? There may be some clues in when and what you normally take in.

I eat three times a day, since I started this diet I'm never hungry I could as well forget to eat for a couple of days. I often forget to drink water then I have days I eat like a liter in a sitting. I'm yo-yoing with my water intake. I have never smoked, never drunk alcohol and I take a generic multi.

Could you perhaps list a typical day's intake (including liquids and non-food substances) in terms of:

time - what eaten - how prepared - quantity/volume

I have been rather instictive and have not measured anything, so I might start tomorrow listing what I eat more specifically.

[boonie stomper]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

You should try to eat frequently, as it will help prevent swings in blood sugar to eat smaller more frequent meals. Of course, you don't want to get a huge carb load at once - what goes up must come down. I used to get lethargic (pre-Atkins) almost predictable within 3 hours after a typical high carb lunch.
By eating when you are hungry and/or have not eaten for a few hours, even if only a little, you will even out the peaks and valleys in your energy and blood sugar levels. The more complex the carbs, the better, too.

Think of it like a coal in a fire pit - you want a steady fire, not too big or too small - that burns steadily. A big pile of fast burning fuel once in a long while won't work.

[boonie stomper]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

WATER is extremely important! You MUST drink water. On Atkins, especially, to prevent dehydration, headaches, dizziness, etc., you need lots of water and replacement of vitamins/electrolytes/minerals which are lost especially during induction, when certain normal sources are not being consumed.

[ziggy]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

first off il say i dont know whats wrong but il just give my guesses and suggestions

the Atkins diet is supposed to bring you to your healthy weight

50-80 carbohydrates a day is all i eat and also 95% of the time i never go past Rung 4 you dont have to climb the Rungs if you feel crappy like i do when i reach a higher one

carbohydrates in larges amounts cause toxic blood sugar spikes that force your body to make insulin to bring them down

if you have lost past your healthy weight something is very wrong

hormones and such regulate your natural weight is there something wrong with your hormones?

also when loseing lots of fat off your body you should drink extra extra water to flush the toxins out

maybe your kidneys are permanently damaged from old high carb eating habits and now when you eat protein they cant handle it and or cant turn 57% of it into glucose which is needed for your brain and muscles and thats maybe why you got brain fog and or are loseing muscle mass

Creatinine Blood Levels – Complete medical explanation regarding the production of this chemical waste molecule on MedicineNet.com

that test could help maybe or did you get it done already?

do you lift weights at all? you need to lift heavy things for your muscles to grow


also type 1 diabetes people have the same problems as far as unable to gain weight and wasteing away maybe some awnsers can be found with that subject?

also dont eat any
polyunsaturated omega 3 vegetable oils
aspartame
soy

also assuming your an O-blood type go to this website and dont eat any of the food in the
* Food Not Allowed * Section
Blood Type Diet

dont bother following anything els at the O blood type website just the Food Not Allowed dont eat any of it
sept for eggs you only cant eat eggs if your african american for some reason



and also this website

Diabetes - The Cause, Prevention, Treatment and Control of Hypoglycemia and Types 1 & 2 Diabetes.

read everything there maybe you can find hints to what your illness is? also that website has many links to much more info


also keep trying to find a good doctor remember doctors are just people so you need to find a good doctor a good person that actually cares

if doctors are rude to you or act like they dont care then find a different one cause that one will just follow the average tests and such and not bother to do anything els

if you can find a doctor that cares then he or she should eventually beable to find the problem

remember to present yourself well and treat the doctor with respect so they dont think your one of the annoying people who keep crying for the newest antibiotix and or pain pills

remember and wright down every problem your body has had and everything you have experienced and felt and talk to a doctor about it nicely there may be many clues that a doctor who cares could find from it

[not2late]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

I didn't do Atkins to lose weight to begin weight. I was trying to stop my energy and blood sugar swings. So I did what was necessary to feel better in that sense, in spite of what happened to my weight. I have been two months and half on Atkins diet and I had three weeks of induction and 7 levels of OWL.

Atkins MAINTENENCE phase could be done for people who do not want to lose weight, but want the health benefits of a low carb diet.

I really don't see the logic in going on a weight loss diet, when weight loss isn't the primary reason for the diet. Also I really don't see the logic in staying on the most restrictive phase of a weight loss diet for 2 1/2 months. As you can see, this was clearly the inappropriate thing for you to do.

I wanted to reintroduce carbohydrates back as slow as possible to avoid sabotaging the results I had in balancing my sugar.

Then you should have moved to OWL phase on Day 15 of the Diet or started on Maintenance Phase, as outlined in ATkins For Life.

In a forum I read people who are forever on induction in order to control their blood sugar swings. I don't want to limit myself to 20 grams of carb per day forever, so I needed to be very careful with each phase, since during induction blood sugar swings disappeared completely.

But you were losing weight and that wasn't something you wanted. WEight loss for a person who is overweight is one thing, but weight loss in a person who is normal weight or underweight may constitute serious health risks.

My advice is for you to see your doctor. By the way, Dr. Atkins wrote in the book that if you have to do an oral glucose tolerance test, you will have to eat at a non-ketogenic carbohydrate level for several days. Otherwise, the test will be inaccurate. So see your doctor. Please.

[Riverj]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

Atkins MAINTENENCE phase could be done for people who do not want to lose weight, but want the health benefits of a low carb diet.

I really don't see the logic in going on a weight loss diet, when weight loss isn't the primary reason for the diet. Also I really don't see the logic in staying on the most restrictive phase of a weight loss diet for 2 1/2 months. As you can see, this was clearly the inappropriate thing for you to do.

I just thought my glucose metabolism was so damaged by years of high carb eating that I needed an extreme reduction of carbs to stop the roller coaster immediately. Also I think I have been misled my people telling that carbohydrates are not essential and if it wasn't for missing vitamins you could live on zero carbs.

[chgomom]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

Ok, this has been going on and on for days now. We have someone who says they have hypotension base don their reading. We have someone, who regardless of not wanting to be buff is approaching a critical break point and is only 2 lbs or so away from being underweight. River....if everything you say is true you need to see a doctor bottom line. If your physician will not see you, you need to speak to you local health office and explain what is going on and see if they can help you get the proper referral.

[Riverj]

Re: Losing too much weight and getting emaciated

My doctor won't help me.
He simply said that since I'm complaining of these problems after trying a dangerous fad diet from america, the fad diet is the cause and I will feel better with a good plate of pasta. End of story for him.
I can't change doctor, where I live public health care means that you are assigned a doctor according to your city zone.