My Client’s Story

During a nutrition consultation my client Lorraine, 28 years old complaint of nausea accompanied with a headache. She started a low carb diet, called keto to loose pregnancy weight. Myself being hypoglycemic in my teens, I questioned if she ever felt this way
before. I also asked if she skips meals often.

I knew that it may take up to 7-days for her blood sugar to stabilize when starting on a ketogenic diet. I didn’t want to scare her, but I wanted her not to suffer the way I had for so long while my hypoglycemia was left undiagnosed. As a Holistic Nutritionist I said please don’t listen to my opinion on the subject, to go and seek medical advice. That week she made an appointment with her Physician. It was confirmed her symptoms were in fact hypoglycemia.

People must be aware that the ketogenic diet may cause hypoglycemia. The brain needs fuel to function from glucose. A person’s blood sugar range tends to be lower on a ketogenic diet than it normally is. Anything below 70 mg/dL is typically considered hypoglycemic, but 55-75 mg/dL is typical on a 4:1 ketogenic diet.

When we for example go from consuming 2500 calories to restricting ourselves to only 1300 calories a day, you are putting your body into overdrive. If symptoms don’t appear than this plan may work, but always consult with your physician. Eating 1300 calories a day on this plan, would mean you would have to use 1000 calories from fat stores. Which is in itself risky. I am also not a believer in counting calories. If we are eating nutritious foods, moderate in protein – high in fat than most will naturally eat less.

My advice was to stop skipping meals effective today, and to eat meals every few hours. She agreed to commit to eating more frequent meals. We are meeting again next week and I will help her meal prep. Once her hypoglycemia is stabilized she will be on a track of proper nutrition. We will have an update for my readers next week.