I’ve been on a low carbohydrate diet for a while now and it’s working well for me. My company recently had a health fair so I got some blood work done. I was a little surprised that my glucose level (83) was smack dab in the middle of the average range. I thought that low carb diets produced low blood sugar. I thought that your body burned up the glucose in your body/blood and then went to fat stores (or protein) for its energy. Why is my glucose so high? I don’t cheat at all on my diet.
I googled around a bit. Now I’m really confused.
Things I think I think…
Your pancreas produces insulin
Insulin regulates blood sugar
If you restrict carbs till your body goes into ketosis, you should have low glucose levels
or does your pancreas kick up the insulin and draw glucose out of your fat/protein stores?
I don’t really go very heavy into ketosis. I use the strips once in a while and they barely turn color. I lose weight slowly but fairly steadily 1-2 lbs per week. My weight loss has stalled a bit lately. I don’t cheat but get most of my carbs from salad (not the dressing) and half and half in my coffee. Can somebody please explain the glucose basics to me?
The question here is why you think you have a problem because “my glucose level (83) was smack dab in the middle of the average range.” :dubious:
Your body wants to maintain an appropriate glucose level, and if capable will produce sufficient insulin to process and utilize “excess” glucose. Altering how much carbohydrates you intake will cause your pancreas to alter insulin production to maintain the appropriate range (blood level 70-100 mg/dl). If you get too far below that range you go hypoglycemic shock and pass out.
I’m not going to go into a criticism of the Atkins Diet, but the reason it “works” as far as weight loss is that it forces your body to shift over to breaking down fats and proteins to sythesize needed glucose via gluconeogenesis for glycosis and aerobic respiration; while burning up fats is desirable, using needed proteins for glycosis isn’t. The reactions are inefficient and produce waste products that have to be scavenged. In addition, with carbohydrates you get a number of compounds that contribute to the process of glycosis that may not be present in sufficient quantities of high protein or high fat foods, leading to incomplete digestion. Taken to an extreme, this results in fermentation (or anaerobic respiration) and the production or lactic acid as well as ketones from side reactions. This is neither desirable nor maintainable. In any case, you would not want to take any diet to the extent that your blood glucose level falls out of the appropriate range.
So, be happy that your glucose falls exactly where it should be. That means that the motor is ticking over nicely.
Your body uses glucose and only glucose – if you have horrendously low blood sugar, something is awry.
The difference between diets is where the glucose comes from. If you eat sugars, your body uses those preferentially and tucks away the fat. If you don’t eat sugars, your body starts converting fat into glucose.