Reactive Hypoglycemia - HELP!

[Karinits]

Hi All - I've been intrigued about this program for a while. Recently, I have been diagnosed with reactive hypoglycemia and my DR recommended 5 to 6 small  meals a day with 25 to 30 grams of crabs on each meal. I have also been asked to include protein and good fats in all my meals as possible, to eat within an hour from waking up and to always eat before my workouts (I used to workout fasting).

I am 5'/120 pounds, I can only consume so many calories and having to have 5 to 6 meals a day with 25 to 30 grams of carbs is not easy, I feel like I am constantly eating and losing weight seems almost impossible.

I have always avoided carbs all together and, needless to say, but this has been an adjustment. I want to try whole30, but it restricts me from a lot of things that I am supposed to eat to maintain my sugars levels stable, like Greek yogurt, brown rice, bulgur, quinoa, whole wheat/grain bread, oatmeal, etc

 

Any hypoglycemic friends out there doing whole30 want to share their experience and menu samples? I really want to give this a try. I would truly appreciate your insight and recommendations.

 

[tmhampton1]

I would suggest discussing this with your Dr and maybe reaching out to a nutritionist who can help you compose some meals that are compliant. 

[SugarcubeOD]

I've moved this to Whole30 with Medical conditions and deleted the duplicate thread you posted in Join the Whole 30.  Please don't cross post to multiple threads, as per the forum rules.

 

You need to bring this program to your doctor to discuss it... you don't need wheat, greek yogurt or any other grains in order to keep level blood sugars... in fact those do more harm than good... the reason you would need to eat every couple hours is BECAUSE you're eating things like grains, dairy etc... that spike the blood sugar... 

[Karinits]

I was not eating any of the items I mentioned before I was diagnosed. My carb intake consisted in vegetables more than anything, very little starches or anything else and it was an average of 50 to 75 grams of carbs per day.

I have a dietitian now and she recommended adding oatmeal, brown rice, beans, etc.

At 25 to 30 grams per meal,  5/6 times a day, it just sounds like A WHOLE LOT of veggies per meal and wanted to get the perspective of others who might be going thru the same.

[SugarcubeOD]

well if you need to eat that much in carbs, then you can definitely add starchy carbs (yam, beets, rutabaga, potato) to your diet... they have more bioavailable nutrients than grains...

 

I've deleted the third topic of the same name and content that was posted.

[jmcbn]

Your dietician may well be offering advice based on the current mainstream recommendations - which would consider oats, yoghurt, quinoa and the like as healthy options.

Protein and fat will give the most sustained levels of energy - 50% of protein is converted to energy and it remains in the blood as sugar for 2-4hrs after consumption. Only 10% of fat is converted to energy, but it peaks in the blood as sugar 8-10hrs after consumption... 90-100% of Carbs are converted to sugar and peak within 30mins and are gone within the hour....

I'd suggest looking for a nutritionist/dietician who is more open to working with you based on more modern research.

[Karen_Suep]

I'm a diabetic and find that I do better with no or limited grains (I'm not currently w30). I do well with starchy veggies, some berries or apples and avoiding "sugar bombs" like dates, grapes and bananas. An increase of fats and veggies has helped a lot too. Fwiw, dairy like milk and yogurt are occasional friends too (not w30). I srsly do better with stability of blood sugar closer to w30.

ETA: I follow a similar carb rec to you currently because of pregnancy. Also, admins can delete my duplicate post. Sorry about that.

[praxisproject]

It's really important to eat enough, as those sugar lows can be serious for your body.

 

But there's lots of ways to keep blood sugar stable at sufficient levels. Be aware some posts about blood sugar on the forums may be more about keeping things down, which may not always be helpful to you. Higher GI fruits can bring immediate relief from a low, but can be followed by another low later, it very much depends on the person. Fats will help slow down absorption, but they're not good if you're having a serious low you need to break free from immediately.

 

For me, getting rid of grains and dairy gave me really good stability, as did the Meal Template. Don't worry about having more meals, try to stick to the template ratios and not worry too much about the number of meals, start with your doctors numbers. If you're feeling it's hard to make it through to the next meal without a snack, you either need more meals (smaller gaps) or bigger meals. 

 

Some starchy veg I now have regularly: sweet potato, plantains, white potato, carrots, etc

Some slightly lower starch veg: asparagus (the starchiest green veggie!), spaghetti squash, zucchini

 

I would strongly recommend keeping a food diary, including how you feel and blood levels if you take them.

I find magnesium helps with my stability too, if I skip it for a few days, I can tell from my blood sugar.