I had a weird day when both my CGM was acting a little squirrely and my blood sugar response to exercise was different than normal. I had a low carb dinner, but then some desserts came out. I decided to see how well I could handle them given that my levels had been so consistent for several days running. At first I couldn’t believe how steady and low they remained (150’s) despite some sugary goodness. Then I started getting suspicious. I decided to calibrate and discovered that I was reading at least 30 points too low. Now I was in “high glucose” alert range. When I exercised for 30 minutes later that evening which would normally bring me right down, I was surprised to watch my levels not drop as much as normal. They stayed stuck around 120’s even though I’d been at it pretty hard for a full 30 minutes.
When I checked in the morning, my levels were higher than I like for an overnight read. The CGM said 150’s! Drat. “I should have used some basal insulin last night!” I thought to myself. But then I decided to check, and discovered that the CGM was again off, but this time in the opposite direction. It was reading 30 units too high, rather than 30 units too low. When I adjusted back to correct that number, I was in the 120’s overnight. That was fine, as far as I am concerned.
Suffice it to say that there was something odd going on.
I stand by my belief that adhering to a low carb diet makes it easier for the body to keep things in balance. Piling on a bunch of sugar, even though you have insulin to help you out, will make it hard for the body to adjust and level out at a good spot.
Later that day, I appeared to have cleared out whatever gunk was clogging my endocrine system. After a breakfast of nuts, seeds and yogurt that would typically have required 5 units to keep balanced, I tried bolusing 4 units only to have my levels drop farther than I expected. Some more food and a little more exercise afterward balanced it all out.
