Thread: Low blood sugar help!

After feeling weird, anxious and shaky I decided to test my blood sugars. 3.1 when I felt ill, 2 hours after dinner it was 3.2. I know this is pretty low and I'm unsure what to do.
I'm not diabetic and all the advice I've got from google is to eat a high carb food when it gets low which defeats of the object of low carbing.

Is this normal for Low carbing/ketosis? Any suggestions of what I can eat or drink when I get a hypo to get my sugar level normal? I've had a few hypos at work and was sent home. I'm eating regularly but despite that I still get a random hypo attack! I think the correct term for it is hypoglycemia.
Thanks for any advice

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anyone??
my blood sugar today is still quite low but better than yesterday (reading around 3.1 and 3.5)

im trying to think of a carby food i could carry around with me thats not too high in carbs as i dont want my blood sugar to have a massive spike as i know that wont do me any good.

Hi there. This could be blood presuure and mineral problem rather than sugar - well known on low carb diets in the first month or so. So shaky moments and dizzy when stand up fast
I would recommend chicken stock as a hot drink to get your salt up (check the label for carbs). My dh also suffered - his problem was actually not enough water so just needed to get glugging.

Might be your transition to burning fats as well - search on mark sissions website for suggestions how to get fat adapted for more ideas

I suffer from this problem too. I also find its very easy to break the diet when feeling like this. Make sure your eating regularly too

thanks for the replies. I did buy some glucotabs from the chemist for when my blood sugar drops. since im low carbing rather than strict atkins, should i start adding whole grain pasta and whole grain bread? i love egg sandwiches or tuna mayo so that would be ideal if i could. i dont want to drop out of ketosis and i want to stick to low carbs and high protein.
ive started adding more salt to my veg, and i make a mince meat with tomatos combo thing with cheese on top (lovely btw) to boost my carb intake.

since im not on atkins, whats the most amount of carbs i can have?
breakfast has got to be quick and easy so i have got some atkin shakes and also some sensato hot cereal. snack wise i have pork scratchings or cheese. lunch i usually have a greek salad with some tuna mayo or if i could maybe a tuna sandwhich with tuna mayo or egg mayo. dinner is usally meat and broccoli or minced meat with tomatos with some chilli thrown in. does this sound ok to keep my blood normal and stay in ketosis and maintain my weight?

Ketosis is a very individual thing. That's why Atkins has the rungs of owl - you add in certain carbs in a certain order, one new thing per week, to see how it affects you. And you increase your carb intake by 5g carbs per week to find your personal critical carb level - the level at which you personally stay in ketosis and keep losing weight.

Some people have problems with anything over 25g carbs. Some people can eat 50g carbs and be ok. It's very personal. If you're only trying to maintain then you may be able to eat more but it's still best to test it gradually.

I will say that on just about every low carb diet, wheat is among the very last things you're told to add back in. It's the food most often responsible for bloating, cravings etc. Your tuna sandwich would likely have between 30-40g carbs on its own and would quite probably cause problems with ketosis.

If you're having blood sugar issues you don't really want to be eating one thing that causes a blood sugar spike then crash, you want to try to keep it constant through the day. The standard advice for diabetics i believe is to include things like you suggested - bread, pasta - in small amounts over several small meals eaten over the day to try and prevent causing blood sugar spikes. However theres an increasing resistance to this advice among diabetics (I also think its bad advice) and I know many who regulate their blood sugar much much better by staying low carb.

Why not try adding nuts and berries first, then a few other fruits and some starcher vegetables like parsnips and squashes, and increase your carb levels gradually until you feel happier? Nuts would be a good snack to eat between meals to keep your sugars up. Trying to make sure you eat regularly - every couple of hours - will help you a lot, I think.

You're not hypoglycemic (below 2.5) so I probably wouldn't be too worried.