I was a bit hesitant to post this but here it goes. Backstory. Two years ago I was doing really well, physically and mentally. Got my weight down to 204lbs from 250lbs, I was walking or running everyday (sometimes I would run in the morning and walk at night). I was running up to a 10k on the weekends. Feeling great, loving life and everything that goes with it. Any problems that happened rolled off me like water on a duck. Then it happened. I over did and hurt my knee. Nothing major, just tried a different style of shoe and my knees did not like that. I was laid up for about 2 weeks to recover and in that 2 weeks everything fell apart. Fast forward about a year and I go in for my annual Endocrinologist appointment. My weight was up to 230lbs, so the Dr. mentioned your weight spiked, what happened. I explain, though I thought I was still "eating good". Guess what, I was not. Blood work comes back. My A1C is up to 6.4 from 5.2 over the last year. This was June of last year. I'm like, well, studies have shown those eating a "Proper human diet" have a naturally higher A1C because the red blood cells live longer". So on I go. In the mean time I'm increasing my carbs and increasing my alcohol. And for context, my wife and I drink the sweet wines (blueberry, blackberry, strawberry and the like) and I drink beers, well because for the most part I love the taste of them. I started checking my blood sugar with my keto-mojo glucose monitor around December. And to my shock, it's staying 140+. With occasional spikes near 200. WTH "I'm not eating THAT badly" I think to my self and go through the holidays. As I continue to monitor in Jan, my blood sugar is not going down and I start to get worried. Really focus on what I'm eating and no change in blood sugar. This has a negative impact on me and I start thinking "Oh well, it is what it is." Around the end of Jan I started using the Stelo Continuous Glucose Monitor, and this just confirms what I was seeing. My glucose is high, all the time. I know, in the back of my mind that this is not good and will not end well for me. On Feb 19th, I snapped. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE! I went full on BBBE (Beef, Butter, Bacon and Eggs). That's all I ate. For days after staring that, my blood sugar remained high, I can only surmise that this was an indication of how messed up my insulin and metabolism was. It's taken some time. I've started doing daily kettle ball exercises, walking (with an occasional run/sprint) and sticking to my BBBE diet, which in reality is more carnivore than anything else. No veggies of any kind. Using the CGM I can see when I started my lifestyle. These graphs are 2 different 2 week periods, Feb 1 - Feb14 and Feb 15 - Feb 28. While I didn't feel like the first few days of BBBE made much of a difference, the graphs show otherwise. I am only down about 5lbs since the 19th. I figure 90% of what I have done so far has gone to correcting my metabolism and getting my insulin in check. Now when I wake up my glucose spike stays below 125. My current 7 day glucose average is reading at 99. I'm feeling better and motivated to keep this up. I know I still have a long ways to go but my family is supporting me 100% and don't complain when I "forget" to make a veggie with a meal or decide to make something totally different when they have pizza. If you are interested in a CGM, check out Stelo Wearable Glucose Biosensor | Stelo by Dexcom You do not need an Rx to get one and you can use a HSA if you have one. I find that after a couple of days of use the sensor typically reads within 5pts of a finger prick. Here is my latest 7 day average graph: Thanks for reading my story of failing and getting back up.
Great stuff, and good job making the changes you need. I tried the Stelo for a month to see what my blood sugar was doing. Fortunately for me, it stayed pretty steady with a small spike when on the treadmill and in the sauna, maybe 5 points or so. I think it could be a great tool for someone looking into making dietary changes!
Great work! My Ketovore-ish diet works for me but the BBBE is an option if I need it. I hate to say it, but I don't want to get burned out on my favorite foods like I did in the 1900s on the Atkins diet.
@kckndrgn what I don't understand is 'why'. Why did out of the blue this spike in blood sugar? What caused it? Did they give you any reason(s)? I mean, in the past, you did not have a problem with high blood sugar so why now? Sounds like you diet didn't change drastically. Okay, you weren't exercising as much but...doesn't make sense. I was laid up from knee surgery for 3 months on the couch, barely walking, etc. and yes, I put on weight, but blood sugar didn't go berserk.
I think, can't confirm, that I added enough carbs to my diet that it caused my blood sugar to stay elevated. I was also drinking more, a lot more. And what I drink are the sweet wines so they are loaded with sugar. The ONLY diet advise my doctor gives it "watch what you eat and eat a low fat diet". Nothing very helpful and low fat typically means loaded with sugar or other carbs to make up for the flavor. I also don't think this was really an "out of the blue", but rather a year long increase. Also, lots of snacking and thinking "I've been good, I can eat..." Since about Oct I also started eating a lot of freeze dried fruit (bananas, strawberries, pineapple (my fav)). I intend on staying BBBE for at least 30 days, no alcohol as well.
I thought that was a good idea, but the Sugars concentrate and you can load up carbs unbelievably fast. I love that stuff, but eat it in small doses and thinly mixed into pecans and othe mixed nuts.
There are doctors, and there are actual professionals who understand keto and carnivore and won't try to tell you that your A1C levels are too high and recommend no fat. But, I'm not in the business of trying to give health advice, I just know what works for me and in general based on the people I've helped around me. It's amazing to see how many people (myself included) who were caught up in the bad food cycle not knowing what can be done. But it takes discipline, commitment, and consistency. Hard to do when you are working every day, and much harder when you are doing it alone. A married couple could get by easier because they could inspire each other and take turns cooking and preparing meals. I won't get into all the details here, we've got threads on it, but no matter what you've got to accept the fact that modern day medicine is not always the best route, and this means the food pyramid traditional advice that got us all here in the first place. After 8 months to a year I'd guess when I was fully keto, I was in the adaptive glucose sparing (AGS) phase. My blood sugar would remain constant right around 100. It would spike for about an hour or two after eating, but all day even while fasting it would still be higher than one might expect. This is normal with ketosis, it's not a detriment. And because my body is burning fat for fuel, it's going to make traditional doctors gasp. But is it something to fear? I'd check into it as much as possible because if any doctor is trying to recommend prescriptions to lower cholesterol or anything like that, I'd tell them to take a flying leap. I migrated over to carnivore a while back, but that's because I had already lost the weight I needed and got healthy again. And nobody is more right than another, as long as you are feeling better and truly are healthy, that's the sweet spot to aim for. Zero sugar. Absolutely no processed foods with seed oils. No carbs like potato chips, no mystery fast foods. Zero alcohol...absolutely none. The cleaner you eat, the healthier you will be. The trick is to get your body to stop storing fat and to stop burning sugar for fuel. Sugar is bad, and excess carbs are bad because that also becomes sugar and will also be stored as fat. Since you don't burn fat, you get fat. Simple. So, you starve your body of sugars of any kind. Once you have a good pattern going, you can add some carbs as you need for energy, especially if you work out. But don't overdo it. When I first started, I would make a shake in the mid day start/noon time frame and skip breakfast. I'd eat a meal in the early evening and that's it. My meal was a big salad with balsamic and olive oil and a steak or salmon portion or lamb shank or whatever protein. As a carnivore now, I eat a single meal like before, but I will add in some brown rice or a low carb pasta. I don't feel hungry because I'm eating the protein I need and the fat I need for fuel. I wish you the best, and I really hope you can reach your goals! I still watch Dr. Berg on Youtube, his videos are helpful.
