GD and Low Carb VERY ANGRY

Kathy2579 · 06-06-2008, 10:34 AM

I live a low - no carb life style and have for over 5 years to TTC. This while pregnancy I only take in a max of 50 carbs a day.

I took my one hour glucose screena and failed. They asked me to do a 3 hour screen and I failed. I am now off to the nutitionsist and nurse to start the GD diet.

This is so hard for me because most of my carbs come from Dairy or whole grain high fiber breads. I told my OBGYN I am no more than 50 carbs a day, he said with PCOS anything can happen.

How can I work so hard and STILL have GD.. I mean come on I crave McDonalds and eat green beans I want ice cream and instead I have 1/2 cup strawberries.

I am so angry and mad...Please help me.. I am really going nuts.

Celestial_Star_Gazer · 06-06-2008, 11:26 AM

Speaking from experience with my diabetes education specialist they will probably tell you that you are not getting enough carbs in your diet. I know it sounds silly but this is what I was told I need as far as carbs go for a healthy pregnancy.

0-2 carb servings for 2 snacks a day
2-4 carb servings for 3 meals a day
one carb serving is 15g of carbs.

Once again I am only relaying what I was told by my nutristionist and my diabetes educator. They said for some reason not getting enough carbs in your diet can also play havoc on your blood sugar levels (they did not go into detail about why or how).

Just thought I would share what I was told.

brianne1975 · 06-06-2008, 11:53 AM

My last OB told me that getting GD really doesn't have much to do with how you eat/ate, whether you are overweight, etc. It is more from hormones. He said skinny women get it, overweight women get it, women who eat totally healthy get it, as well as women who eat complete crap.

sarahgmac · 06-06-2008, 12:11 PM

GD has very little do do with your lifestyle. If you are IR before pregnancy you are more prone to get GD in pregnancy. I have had it 3x.

First off you are definitely not eating enough carbs. You are eating the right carbs, but with GD you need to eat a lot more carbs spread out thoughout the day. My diet has me eating 180 grams of carbs a day, but they are broken up.

I was doing something similar this pregnancy, and I wasn't eating enough. They have you check your ketones in the morning (it is a strip you use with your urine). My ketones were out of control. Basically, I wasn't eating enough for the baby and my body was breaking down fat and muscle to feed the baby. They don't want that.

The reason we get GD is that when you are pregnant your body produces hormones to keep the glucose in your bloodstream longer. So it gives you a bit of IR. It can work too well and keep too much sugar/glucose in your blood stream.

If you are IR to begin with (which I am) you are more prone for the pregnancy hormones to make you GD.

Now, sometimes you can control GD with diet, but GD does tend to get worse the further you go in pregnancy. If diet doesn't work they try glyburide (most times) and the next step is insulin. You need to keep your sugars under control to make sure too much glucose/sugar isn't passing through your placenta to the baby. It can make the baby big, and can actually eventually start to break down the placenta. It also can cause sugar problems when the baby is born. That being said, my GD was not controlled with my first pregnancy (the incompetent drs told me it was) and my daughter was fine. She was 8lbs (a little big for our family) and fuschia when she was born.

I know it sucks to have GD. This is my third time having it. But once you learn to control it, it isn't as scary.

Kathy2579 · 06-06-2008, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celestial_Star_Gazer
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Speaking from experience with my diabetes education specialist they will probably tell you that you are not getting enough carbs in your diet. I know it sounds silly but this is what I was told I need as far as carbs go for a healthy pregnancy.

0-2 carb servings for 2 snacks a day
2-4 carb servings for 3 meals a day
one carb serving is 15g of carbs.

Once again I am only relaying what I was told by my nutristionist and my diabetes educator. They said for some reason not getting enough carbs in your diet can also play havoc on your blood sugar levels (they did not go into detail about why or how).

Just thought I would share what I was told.

This would make sence and may be the cause. It just hurts me so much cause I bust my butt so hard to avoid this.
I will see how if feel after I talk to the sepcialist.. I am jsut SOOOO angry it just feels as if all my hard work has been for nothing.

I was boardline IR and that is why I went down to 50g carbs daily. Thinking this would help with weight loss and be better for me and the baby.
I just fear that after 5 losses this will then cause more issues.The "What if" factor is in place. I will take what ever is given to me. I will work with what ever the world presents. It just SUCKS...

PCOS SUCKS!!!!! I want to start over and screw PCOS from the bottom up..

I know GD can effect anyone and everyone no mater good diet shape size or even race. I can't exersize due to a bleeding at 18 week and again at 22 weeks. So even that won't help...
Can I ask to have the baby early at 36- 37 weeks to prevent worse things happening or harm the the baby?

Sorry ladies.. I just needed to vent.

nspear · 06-08-2008, 02:04 AM

Agreed with all the PP.. GD has nothing to do with how well you eat etc.. If you get it.. you do and if you don't .. hooray for you LOL! It's a PITA but is managable.. And you will be told to manage via starchy/non starchy carbs.. and so many per meal.. not so many per day.. so it is a bit of a different diet than our normal LC that us PCOS'rs are used to..

stephieannie · 06-08-2008, 11:48 AM

Like pp have said, GD has little to do with what you eat...but you are likely keeping it from exacerbating by eating well. There are factors that put you at higher risk for ending up with GD and IR is one of them. The placenta produces many hormones and some of them interfere with the body's usual responses to insulin. The pancreas in most prego women is able to pick up the slack, so to speak, and take care of the insulin needs. When it does not...glucose stays in the blood stream longer and this is when GD is diagnosed.

bowlwoman · 06-08-2008, 04:24 PM

Ditto on what everyone else has posted. I just wanted to chime in and say that since this is my 2nd time pg and 2nd time GD, it's not what you eat before you get diagnosed that makes the difference. It's all about your body and how it responds to the hormones. This is just how it is with your biochemistry, and it sucks that your body reacted this way. Since you've been doing low-carb thus far the regular GD diet shouldn't be a problem for you at all. It's all manageable, and it sounds like you'll do a great job.

Kathy2579 · 06-09-2008, 09:29 AM

Thanks ladies... just aggivating your support is helpful

LMG462 · 06-13-2008, 09:19 PM

I could be full of crap, but I have a theory on this. If someone is eating low carbs your body is maintaining a low blood sugar level therefore you do not have as much insulin circulating because it is not needed. That is the whole purpose of eating low carb, to lower the insulin levels. However, when someone is tested for GDD you are loaded with glucose and your body doesn't have much insulin circulating to bring the blood sugar down which will result in a positive test. I think it is advisable to carb load a day before your test to bring the insulin levels up to better combat the glucose from the test. This will not "cheat" the test because if you have GDD you will fail no matter what. Just my thoughts.

nspear · 06-14-2008, 02:42 PM

there is no way to trick the test.. the only way you can cheat is to eat during the fasting time..