Has anyone ever done Blood Glucose Monitoring with themselves or their athletes?
For the past few years especially at meets I would warmup for my event and after the first even was over feel my blood sugar drop. This was an ongoing problem and I have fought it a bit by eating a bit more and drinking gatorade.
However this is an ongoing this for the past year at times during the day where I could feel it drop. Sometimes a few times throughout the day I would be lightheaded and spaced out. Sometimes even after eating.
I went to the Dr. today to find out the real deal with it and why I seem or am I imagining these Hypoglycemic bouts. Anyhow he thinks its mostly diet related and need to eat more carbs. He may be right. I do go long times without eating sometimes and although it does not seem to be affecting my performance I am probably used to it by now and perhaps could be at a higher level. Anyhow he decided to do a blood glucose test right then and there to see what we would get and it came out to 109!!! I wasn’t feeling great but not terrible either. This was at 1:00 and all I had to eat prior was 2 burritos an hour before.
Reason that is all I had is because I woke up at 10am and was planning to go get blood work done but decided not to. Anyhow, he told me to pick up a blood glucose monitor (which I did) use it every now and then and when I feel like shit and report back to him with data in 2 weeks.
I’m just wondering how my blood glucose should fluctuate throughout the day and if anyone has ever monitored this before and what #'s they have gotten?
under normal/fasting conditions, blood glucose should be around 80-85 or so
a fasting measurement over 100 is a sign of pending insulin resistance. which could be causing the OP to get rebound hypoglycemia
of course, if the measurement were taken non-fasting, it’s irrelevant. which looking at his post, he had. so it doesn’t mean anything and his doctor should have known better tahn to measure it under non-fasted conditions
Lyle thanx.
Yesterday at 4:30 40 mins after eating a Peanut butter jelly sandwhich I was at 131. I ate a clementine and I measured again and was 156. At 7:30 without eating anything since the clementime at 5:30 I was feeling like shit so measured and it was 102. I then ate 3 slices of pizza and drank a soda and 30 mins later I was at 202. An hour later at 9:00 I was back down to 107. This AM upon waking I was 93. Does this sound normal? Is it dropping so low because of my fast metabolism?
Incase you were wondering I am 24 years old, 5’7, 160 pounds and around 4-6% bodyfat.
I believe sometimes these blood monitors are not really accurate. I used one and some values did not make sense sometimes…
But two things: lylem is right. Most important is measuring in the morning BEFORE first meal. Do that for a few days. Anything above 100 is not normal for your age.
If you see these values (> 100), see your physician again and tell him.
Sidenote on your diet: You write about peanut butter, pizza, burritos and soda. Sorry, that’s very unhealthy diet - for a “normal person”, but even more for an athlete! Your BF is around 5%? That alone tells me something must be wrong. You said you don’t eat very often - but obviously only the wrong things.
The way you feel when your sugar drops sounds like you’re a “sugar-addict” (no insult intendend, I’ve seen a lot of young people showing these symptoms). Try to live for one week with food that contains NO sugar and no flour at all. Try a diet based on rice, low-fat meat and vegetables ONLY. Nothing else (except for prot. drinks and vitamins if you need them for training). If you feel bad it’s very likely you have a problem and you fucked up you metabolism with fast food…
Only thing that puzzles me is that you still have high muscle mass and very low body fat. If you do somethig unhealthy to reach this result see you physician and get medical supervision!
No insult intended, just sounds a little alarming.
Health and performance are not always the same. My best guys eat beer & cupcakes. Quik just PR’d in every event I don’t think his diet is ruining him. Victory or death, right?
Might apply for Junior or hobby athletes, but elite level pros do not live on fast food. Does not mean the never eat a burger, but surely not more often than once a week.
Talented guys might do with fast food - but especially when recovery comes into focus a better diet will simply lead to better values - even if you think the status quo is quite good already. Fredericks is one of the athletes who found out the difference very late in their career.
And besides performance - do you want to be one of the millions diabets victims? Only because sugar makes you happy? Anyhow - it’s ones individual choice. Just like smoking cigarrettes.
The human body is not made to run on sugar and flower. It’s a fact. So over a longer period of time it simply won’t run optimal this way or simply not very long. Diabetes II decreases you life expectancy 10-20 years
Donovan McNabb was on TV at the Syracuse game eating a giant cup of cheese fries. I believe the human body can be adapted to run well on sugar and flower especially if you have been eating like “crap” your entire life. I believe your diet throughout childhood influences what foods benefit you later in life performance wise.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a health freak or vegan or something, I love my fast food 2,3 times a month, too. But your arguments sound like the usual excuses of addicts trying to find an excuse for their lifestyles.
(I know people seen Maurice Green at McD, etc etc)
But what you saying means: “If mommy brought you up on fries and coke your body will perform best on eating crap?” No way. You’ll pay before you reach 60 (if you do).
But if you simply advocate “Live fast, die young” - no problem.
I appreciate all comments. I eat whatever I want (apparently not enough) and I am fortunate enuff to have a metabolism that is high that with my training keeps my bodyfat below 6%, you see my Avatar that is me. And mortac is right I pr’d in both sprints 6 times thiss season. The problem isn’t a matter of me being diabetic and having a high blood sugar its a matter of why my blood sugar drops all the time and what normal values should be. Upon waking this morning I was 93. I had a protein shake and a tangerine and 2 hours later had a protein bar and went to the track did my workout and post workout my blood sugar was 150. So where it should be. I just ate a roastbeef and mozzarella hero since I felt it dropping and I feel good. I live off of protein shakes, sandwhiches, pizza, and random dinners such as chicken dishes and red meat. My problem I believe is for my metabolism I do not enuff enough or frequent enough. The thing that is weird though is regardless I do not seem to lose or gain muscle mass and my weight stays the same.
Also a sidenote: Blood values (last tiem I checked (in Nov.)are all in range where they should be. I’m going in next week to check my thyroid, get a CBC and see where my tesosterone level is currently at. Last time I checked it was 892.
Ok, the answer to your question is: for your age, before breakfast:
60 - 100
after meal: 140-160 - anything higher usually indicates a problem.
up to 200: still no reason to worry too much.
Above 200: I’d say something must be wrong - real diabetes mellitus per definition.
You told about drop of blood sugar. If it goes down to 100 I wouldn’t call it “drop”. 100 should still allow you to exercise and not make you feel weak. I’m around 80 quite often and still feel well.
Below 50 you might feel funny and a further drop could cause nausea and such…but that won’t kill you as for example a diabetic person who blacks-out due to insulin overdose will awake when the liver starts to produce “sugar” and blood-level goes up again.
If you hit above 200 more frequently every Dr. will tell you that your diet causes you trouble and you need to change it - otherwise you’ll have to use the needle…
I would consider it unlikely that you are insulin resistant at 4-6% bodyfat. not impossible but unlikely
more likely is that you are so extremely insulin sensitive that this is causing your blood glucose to crash. that is, your body is so good at clearing glucose that it’s crashing out
dropping the fast food for slowering digesting carbs, making sure to get plenty of lean protein, moderate fat (10-14 g/meal) and fiber will go a long way towards keeping things stable
I’d still suggest you take a fasting blood glucose measurement to be 100% sure. I’ll be surprised as all hell if it’s in the insulin resistant range
In the past 5 AM’s my blood glucose has been in the 90’s. When I feel it crash is 20-40 mins. after I eat I see it drops down anywhere from as low as 84-115.
Anything else I should check?
I was thinking along the lines of what you said. Since my metabolism is so fast and I am so lean I am insulin sensitive so that after I eat with the surge of insulin and the clearing it is putting me in a hypoglycemic state.
When I feel it crash is 20-40 mins. after I eat I see it drops down anywhere from as low as 84-115.
Anything else I should check?
Short of having a true oral glucose tolerance test (bascially, a doc makes you drink 75 grams of pure glucose and then they measure blood glucose over several hours), I can’t think of anything really.
since you’re clearly not insulin resistant (based on morning fasted BG), I think the other explanation: high insulin sensitivity = good glucose clearance = crashing blood glucose is the logical one.
I think making some changes to your diet is how you’re going to have to approach it.
I agree, try changing your diet, I think you’ll be surprised how much better you’ll feel. I like AUT 71’s suggestions. You could also try the Zone by Barry Sears. It worked wonders for me when I was still sprinting.
not sure what you were eating while tracking blood glucose but an interesting experiment might be to try a meal containing
30-40 grams of lean protein (think tuna, chicken, turkey, lean red meat)
a moderate amount of carbohydrate with plenty of fiber. so pick one starch (potato, bagel, bread, whatever) and some veggies
about 10 grams of fat
and see what happens to blood sugar. especially to see if it doesn’t crash afterwards
I just tryed an experiment of my own. After my track workout I check my Blood Glucose Level.
It was 98. I drank a serving of Cytofuse. 52g carbs, 20g sugars, and 21 protein. Half hour later I was at 155. Another half hour later (1 hour) it shot back down to 110 and I can feel it crash a little. I am now going home to eat dinner. I would have checked it again in a half hour but im Certain it would be in the 90’s.
