Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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I was eating very low carb and high protein, high healthy fat and for the first time ever my fasting blood glucose was too high (98) and so was my insulin (9.0). I got some advice here and from my nutritionist and ND and added more sodium and a few more carbs to my diet.

I also got an at home blood glucose monitoring device (the one recommended by Cris Kresser) and so far I am totally and utterly confused.

All three of my two hour post-meal readings have been higher than my one hour post meal readings.

I cannot find any explanation of this. And Im unclear what Im supposed to do about it since I am eating more protein and fat then I am carbs and my total carbs are still well under 100grams a day

Any thoughts?

edited Jun 17 at 1:40

asked Jun 16 at 22:54

Crowlover
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How did you test your insulin? I'm not even sure what an insulin level of "9" means. – borofergie Aug 15 at 21:17

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You may be eating way too much protein. Over-consumption of protein can also boost your glucose level. Maybe dial down the protein down a bit and test again. – IfYouSaySo Aug 15 at 21:51

KA24 · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-17 00:04:28Z UTC

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I've had a similar experience. For a while, I was overweight and was a Type 1/2 Diabetic for 9 years, Insulin-dependent with a poor, high-carb diet for 6 years.

After of now, I'm in great shape and have been Paleo for almost 2 years, eating a very similar diet to what you posted. However, even after adding in carbohydrates and doing a Ketogenic + Carbohydrate cycling plan, I've still noticed some high fasting sugars and post-meal sugars.

A few things I've noticed...

It's obvious that Insulin sensitivity is definitely increased when carbohydrates are restricted over a long time. I've noticed this, but at the same time, it's NOT a bad thing, especially if your looking to improve body composition. In that case, meal timing can really be used as an advantage.

Regardless of these issues, I'm pretty sure I still have some Insulin resistance. Maybe not much, but I have a feeling that what I lost in that 9+ years may not have been 100% recoverable. Not sure it ever will be, 100%, but everyday I'm monitoring it and doing my best to keep trying to do it.

answered Jun 17 at 0:04

KA24
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Thank you KA24. You say "Its obvious that insulin sensitivity is increased when carbs are restricted over a long time." Do you mean insulin resistance rather than sensitivity? I might be more confused than I even know! Insulin sensitivity is a good thing, isn't it? and sort of the opposite of "resistance"> Helppppp – Crowlover Jun 17 at 0:17

Also, to clarify - were or are you two hour post-meal bg levels higher than your one hour post-meal? That is what is really weird to me and I cant find any explanations. Even my 3 hour post meal reading was high than my 1 hour. – Crowlover Jun 17 at 0:26

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Restricting carbohydrates is going to improve insulin sensitivity. This is a GOOD THING. This is why it makes too much sense for Type 2 Diabetics to restrict carbohydrates. It's also why someone who can train fasted, may see added benefits with a post-training meal, even if it's just protein. Insulin sensitivity is going to be higher and if you train the muscles this way, you can really see body composition changes quickly. – KA24 Jun 17 at 0:39

However, this may contribute to elevated insulin levels if you're getting that measured, which would be a negative if it was because that insulin was in abundance because of excess carbohydrate consumption (this would also occur in someone who is insulin-resistant because they would be consuming normal, but constant carbohydrates, and their body would need to produce more and more insulin each time to counteract this). Obviously it's more complicated, but this is one of the flaws in getting insulin levels measured. It can show elevation, but the cause is far more important. – KA24 Jun 17 at 0:41

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It's not at all uncommon for a 2-hr post meal BG to be higher than a 1-hr post meal BG, it just depends on the Glycemic Load of the meal you ate (high GL = high 1-hour post meal BG). Meals that are high in fat have lower GL and typically take longer to spike your BG. – Nasty Brutish and Short Jun 17 at 20:09

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marc · Answer 2 · 2012-08-15 21:03:39Z UTC

If you are on a ketogenic or very low carb (VLC) diet (e.g. with 50-100gr carb/day and/or eating ketone producing MCT oils such as coconut oil), you may have a dilemma of having high Blood Glucose (BG) despite eating LC: If you are keto adapted, that is, your body is using ketones and even though you have sufficient insulin (say >5 microU/ml) your body tries to keep your BG higher than necessary, e.g. above 100-110 mg/dl. That is your BG set-point is always high. If you try to lower the set-point to say 80s, by water Intermittent Fasting (IF), then your body starts to convert your muscles into glucose to keep its high BG set-point. So, you may have a slightly lower BG, but you lose some muscle mass. Having a high set-point has many other problems, e.g. if you eat something with a little bit more carb, say a small fruit, your BG shoots up to 130s and stays there for hours. This may be due to something called "Physiological Insulin Resistance (PhIR) ...

for the rest see: The High Blood Glucose Dilemma on Low Carb (LC) Diets

What would cause my post-prandial/post-meal blood glucose to rise after an hour?

2 Answers