Do you count calories from glucose used in hypoglycemic episodes?

[Julzdanceruns]

Hi,

I'm new to all of this, but very consiencous of my caloric intake. I was wondering if you guys count the glucose tabs/carbohydrates used to RAISE blood sugar during a hypoglycemic episode toward your daily intake? Like I don't know what to do about that because I'm unsure whether or not the 15 grams of carbs ingested to raise bg levels are burned off getting the sugar back up, or if they could lead to weight gain...

I apologize if this sounds really stupid or anything, but it's just something I'm unsure about. Thankyou for any input, and take care.

[sarahspins]

They count, and too many hypos/treatment can lead to weight gain... the so-called "feeding the insulin" cycle. It's not a trap you want to get stuck in.

You want to treat hypos with as few carbs/calories as is safe for you. Knowing just how much a certain amount of juice/sugar/glucose will raise you is very beneficial.. because you can fine tune how much you take, rather than "just" relying on the 15/15 rule. I rarely treat any hypo with more than 6-8g of glucose unless I am severely low (<40) and won't be eating soon.

[soso]

Not a stupid question at all and a matter I have put a lot of thought into over the years.

I now only use glucose tabs to raise my bg in a hypo, because I realized how many extra calories I was ending up consuming using things like sweeties and various other foods..for one thing it is easy to limit the glucose tabs even when hypo as it does not taste good..take something tasty add a hypo and it is a perfect recipe for over treating and over eating.

My opinion is if you stick to the tabs 15g=60 calories and try to get your regime so that you don't have too many hypos it won't be a major detriment to your weight.. If you are having a lot of hypo's you need to treat those calories are going to count..never heard of the calories being burned by bg raising and considering exercise/energy burning charts I doubt the shaking involved would take too much energy.

[Joeprep4820]

I count them personally. They would count towards your daily caloric intake and I believe people not counting the attributes to the number of overweight T1s in the world. If I had a low and drank a certain amount of orange juice (I prefer this since it shoots the BG up nice and fast AND provides some sort of nutritional value, unlike soda or those tablets) I would subtract those calories from my next meal. Another good way to lose weight, and it is tricky, is to schedule hypoglycemic or slightly hypoglycemic episodes around meal times. I try to wake up on the mornings in the 60s, and I work out after work which leads to a drop into the 60s-70s by dinner time.

[jenb]

"Like I don't know what to do about that because I'm unsure whether or not the 15 grams of carbs ingested to raise bg levels are burned off getting the sugar back up, or if they could lead to weight gain"

They do count...calories in mean weight gain unless you have comparable calories out. One way to minimize the effect of eating for hypos is to know how much one gram of carb raises your BG. Then calculate how much you need to eat in order to get yourself into your target range but no higher.

As an example, one gram of carb increases my BG by 6 to 9 points. I woke up at 2:30 this morning with a little low of 47. I ate 5 grapes (about 5.6 net carbs) and was at 91 by the time I got up at 6:00 a.m.. As you can see, 15 grams of carb would have taken me too high - somewhere between 137 and 182!

This is one of the least-well communicated "tricks of the trade", and I think one of the most important.

Jen

[lorilei]

sorry..yes agreed with all of the above..and in a low..i am like a forager..sometimes well past the caloric and/or carb intake it would need to get my bg back up to a functioning level...i agree with soso above regarding glucotabs or anything that you can exhibit control over and is in a measured amount for combatting a low..it takes surprisingly little to come back up...learn what works for you.