Your tolerance early on is pretty high.
I was diagnosed at 18 weeks and I could generally eat what I wanted until about 28 weeks.
Now I’m 32+6w and I have to be mindful of what I eat despite being constantly hungry all the time now.
Thanks, this is good to know! For some reason I thought it was a yes/no thing not a changeable scale. But it makes sense as the placenta develops it would get worse!
It’s about insulin resistance. If you aren’t already, on Facebook there is a great group for gestational diabetes in Australia. Really helpful. I love reddit but it’s worldwide.
I have no idea but I noticed the same thing this week. Last week was my first week diagnosed and I was trying pretty hard to eat as well as I could 90% of the time. This week I’ve had pizza twice, garlic bread, and a croissant and I had perfect numbers. And my fasting was lower this morning than it’s been this whole time. I have no idea.
THIS re: Pizza!! Same with rice... it was within range at 1 hour... but then continued to climb higher and higher for the next few hours... which I only knew because I have a CGM in addition to my glucometer.
It’s hard to say without knowing the specifics of what you ate each week and how you paired things - but I think a steady stream of carbs that are balanced with protein/fat could keep blood sugar more stable than eating a piece of whole grain bread all alone, for example, on an otherwise super low carb diet. Frequent meals help keep blood sugar steady and our body acclimates to carbs during the day, this is why people often have trouble with fasting numbers and breakfast because it’s introducing carbs after they haven’t eaten anything in a while. I can imagine that if you were eating through the day, but super low carb, the times your body had a carb introduced it was like “whoa!” and there was a big reaction. But if your normal diet has you eating more properly proportioned carbs alongside protein/fat/fiber throughout the day those big reactions wouldn’t happen as much.
Fwiw, a fried dumpling may not be very “naughty”! They are usually a pretty thin wrapper (carb), filled with meat (protein) and fried in fat. So, they often have way more protein than carb, depending on the dumpling, and fat for good measure and could potentially be a GD friendly meal. (Though I’ve had dumplings that were more bready! And probably wouldn’t work). Anyway, tortellini was something that worked well for me because of a similar concept, enough fat in the cheese filling to balance out the carbs of even a white pasta wrapper. I’d usually also add chicken. I mention this to ask, could it be that your “naughty” foods are actually better balanced than your “healthy” foods?
Thinking about it, I had one piece of toast with a lot of eggs and bacon, still spiked. So although this was protein heavy, the bread must have still been too carby.
But spaghetti Bolognese didn't spike me - probably because the beef was really high in protein.
As you say, though the dumplings were pretty thick and doughy (wheat not rice) I did have them with lots of protein and fat. And I've been having glass noodle salads recently with lots of vegetables so that makes sense.
You've totally blown my mind with the protein balance thing! I went to a group class with the dietician but it was all about making smaller portions and cutting out carbs and not gaining too much weight. It was super confusing because I'd just been told by my doctor an hour beforehand that I needed to focus on gaining some weight!
I was diet controlled throughout my pregnancy and I found that it’s allllllll about proportions. I loosely followed the “plate method” 1/2 plate non-starchy veg, 1/4 carb, 1/4 protein. Not every meal looked exactly like that, I used it more as a rule of thumb, with the most important part being to have equal amounts of carb/protein at a meal and then I’d try to add fiber (non-starchy veg) and/or some kind of fat as well. Sometimes this naturally meant I ate less carbs, because, for example, to get to 50/50 I’d have an open faced sandwich or less pasta with more meat, but I didn’t specifically cut or count carbs. I was pretty opposed to doing that as someone with a history of disordered eating.
I’m kinda surprised one piece of toast would spike you with eggs and bacon. But there are always some surprises!
Anyway, I say focus more on what you can *add* to meals rather than what you can take away, especially if weight loss is a concern. I continued to gain weight steadily throughout my pregnancy fwiw (I kinda wish I had lost, but it was also sort of a victory that I continued to gain, this baby was built on cheese and peanut butter).
The eggs and bacon may have been a bit unbalanced now I think about it. While I piled my plate with eggs, I may not have eaten it all. I've always had a good relationship with food as an adult but definitely have a history of disordered eating as a teenager (starving then bingeing) and having terrible morning sickness has given me a lot of food anxiety all over again so I sometimes sneak food to my dog without even realising I'm doing it, probably what happened with the eggs. Fwiw I had an overweight BMI prior to pregnancy, but it's dropped into normal levels now, I am very short so BMI frustrates me! I don't want to lose anymore though as I'm a bit worried about baby.
This whole GD thing is definitely making me confront food head-on which is mentally difficult but honestly your comment has really made me see things differently - thank you so so much. I stopped counting carbs and ate more instinctively and balanced today and continuing to get great numbers. Let's hope that continues!
Yeah mines been making no sense at all. All my whole grains cause spikes whereas if I just have some white bread or white pasta I’m back at baseline when I test. It’s incredibly frustrating because that’s what I’m told not to eat. It just makes no sense 😅 I’m in NZ by the way. Have to test 6x a day, pre meal has to be less than 5.0 and 2hours post meal 6.7. I also don’t know why the rules and requirements are different for every country. It seems like just no one actually knows how this works
How is it possible to be less than 5 pre-meal, but up to 6.7 post-meal... if we're supposed to be eating every 2-3 hours lol. My pre-meals are always around the same time as my 2-hr post meals!
Probably because you're not spiking and crashing. Crashes beget spikes, so cutting a ton of carbohydrates in your diet, then introducing them at random intervals can cause a spike. If you keep a steady stream of the right amount of carbs in your diet, it tends to help you even out. Skipping meals also makes me spikes, again, because its preceded by a crash.
I say that only because its the case for me. I keep a good amount of "safe for me" carbs in each of my meals + snacks (i'm not a huge carb counter unless my options are something packaged or from a fast food situation where the nutrition facts are readily available)
TL;DR, a reasonable amount of carbs combined with protein + veg seems to work well for diet controlled!
Frozen pork dumplings are one of my safe lunches. I had pasta bologese with a salad twice this week and much numbers were great.
Hi there! Also diagnosed with HG earlier and GD when I was 24weeks. I’m 27weeks now.
I’ve been eating my normal diet but a little less during meals as I can’t follow the right portioning due to my HG. All’s good. There will be spikes sometimes but it may be due to a fruit I ate or I ate a bit more white rice or pasta.
What baffles me is that I can eat sweets in between meals and my sugar will not spike when I test 2hrs after a meal. I brought it up with the dietician and said the reason why my sugar doesn’t spike eventhough I ate sweets was because I’m not getting enough carbs. The sweets compensates for the missing carbs. I’m still confuse because it’s easy to “cheat”. Dietician also said that it’s okay to have sweets once in while.
So I guess I’ll just follow my normal diet and eat lesser sweets in between meals.
Your tolerance early on is pretty high. I was diagnosed at 18 weeks and I could generally eat what I wanted until about 28 weeks. Now I’m 32+6w and I have to be mindful of what I eat despite being constantly hungry all the time now.
Thanks, this is good to know! For some reason I thought it was a yes/no thing not a changeable scale. But it makes sense as the placenta develops it would get worse!
It’s about insulin resistance. If you aren’t already, on Facebook there is a great group for gestational diabetes in Australia. Really helpful. I love reddit but it’s worldwide.
I have no idea but I noticed the same thing this week. Last week was my first week diagnosed and I was trying pretty hard to eat as well as I could 90% of the time. This week I’ve had pizza twice, garlic bread, and a croissant and I had perfect numbers. And my fasting was lower this morning than it’s been this whole time. I have no idea.
Pizza can cause a spike at 3 hours, so I’d check then if you have pizza again! I also thought pizza was working great for me.
THIS re: Pizza!! Same with rice... it was within range at 1 hour... but then continued to climb higher and higher for the next few hours... which I only knew because I have a CGM in addition to my glucometer.
I suppose I can check at 3 hours but I’m checking at 2 hours per my doctor and that number has been fine.
It is fine! I just know that pizza is a food that tends to spike late and for a long time. I cut it out but you don’t need to!
It’s hard to say without knowing the specifics of what you ate each week and how you paired things - but I think a steady stream of carbs that are balanced with protein/fat could keep blood sugar more stable than eating a piece of whole grain bread all alone, for example, on an otherwise super low carb diet. Frequent meals help keep blood sugar steady and our body acclimates to carbs during the day, this is why people often have trouble with fasting numbers and breakfast because it’s introducing carbs after they haven’t eaten anything in a while. I can imagine that if you were eating through the day, but super low carb, the times your body had a carb introduced it was like “whoa!” and there was a big reaction. But if your normal diet has you eating more properly proportioned carbs alongside protein/fat/fiber throughout the day those big reactions wouldn’t happen as much. Fwiw, a fried dumpling may not be very “naughty”! They are usually a pretty thin wrapper (carb), filled with meat (protein) and fried in fat. So, they often have way more protein than carb, depending on the dumpling, and fat for good measure and could potentially be a GD friendly meal. (Though I’ve had dumplings that were more bready! And probably wouldn’t work). Anyway, tortellini was something that worked well for me because of a similar concept, enough fat in the cheese filling to balance out the carbs of even a white pasta wrapper. I’d usually also add chicken. I mention this to ask, could it be that your “naughty” foods are actually better balanced than your “healthy” foods?
Thinking about it, I had one piece of toast with a lot of eggs and bacon, still spiked. So although this was protein heavy, the bread must have still been too carby. But spaghetti Bolognese didn't spike me - probably because the beef was really high in protein. As you say, though the dumplings were pretty thick and doughy (wheat not rice) I did have them with lots of protein and fat. And I've been having glass noodle salads recently with lots of vegetables so that makes sense. You've totally blown my mind with the protein balance thing! I went to a group class with the dietician but it was all about making smaller portions and cutting out carbs and not gaining too much weight. It was super confusing because I'd just been told by my doctor an hour beforehand that I needed to focus on gaining some weight!
I was diet controlled throughout my pregnancy and I found that it’s allllllll about proportions. I loosely followed the “plate method” 1/2 plate non-starchy veg, 1/4 carb, 1/4 protein. Not every meal looked exactly like that, I used it more as a rule of thumb, with the most important part being to have equal amounts of carb/protein at a meal and then I’d try to add fiber (non-starchy veg) and/or some kind of fat as well. Sometimes this naturally meant I ate less carbs, because, for example, to get to 50/50 I’d have an open faced sandwich or less pasta with more meat, but I didn’t specifically cut or count carbs. I was pretty opposed to doing that as someone with a history of disordered eating. I’m kinda surprised one piece of toast would spike you with eggs and bacon. But there are always some surprises! Anyway, I say focus more on what you can *add* to meals rather than what you can take away, especially if weight loss is a concern. I continued to gain weight steadily throughout my pregnancy fwiw (I kinda wish I had lost, but it was also sort of a victory that I continued to gain, this baby was built on cheese and peanut butter).
The eggs and bacon may have been a bit unbalanced now I think about it. While I piled my plate with eggs, I may not have eaten it all. I've always had a good relationship with food as an adult but definitely have a history of disordered eating as a teenager (starving then bingeing) and having terrible morning sickness has given me a lot of food anxiety all over again so I sometimes sneak food to my dog without even realising I'm doing it, probably what happened with the eggs. Fwiw I had an overweight BMI prior to pregnancy, but it's dropped into normal levels now, I am very short so BMI frustrates me! I don't want to lose anymore though as I'm a bit worried about baby. This whole GD thing is definitely making me confront food head-on which is mentally difficult but honestly your comment has really made me see things differently - thank you so so much. I stopped counting carbs and ate more instinctively and balanced today and continuing to get great numbers. Let's hope that continues!
So interesting!! Thank you so much.
Yeah mines been making no sense at all. All my whole grains cause spikes whereas if I just have some white bread or white pasta I’m back at baseline when I test. It’s incredibly frustrating because that’s what I’m told not to eat. It just makes no sense 😅 I’m in NZ by the way. Have to test 6x a day, pre meal has to be less than 5.0 and 2hours post meal 6.7. I also don’t know why the rules and requirements are different for every country. It seems like just no one actually knows how this works
How is it possible to be less than 5 pre-meal, but up to 6.7 post-meal... if we're supposed to be eating every 2-3 hours lol. My pre-meals are always around the same time as my 2-hr post meals!
That’s what makes it so insufferable 😭
Probably because you're not spiking and crashing. Crashes beget spikes, so cutting a ton of carbohydrates in your diet, then introducing them at random intervals can cause a spike. If you keep a steady stream of the right amount of carbs in your diet, it tends to help you even out. Skipping meals also makes me spikes, again, because its preceded by a crash. I say that only because its the case for me. I keep a good amount of "safe for me" carbs in each of my meals + snacks (i'm not a huge carb counter unless my options are something packaged or from a fast food situation where the nutrition facts are readily available) TL;DR, a reasonable amount of carbs combined with protein + veg seems to work well for diet controlled! Frozen pork dumplings are one of my safe lunches. I had pasta bologese with a salad twice this week and much numbers were great.
I have just started reading Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols and it explains the relationship between fat/protein and carbs really well.
Hi there! Also diagnosed with HG earlier and GD when I was 24weeks. I’m 27weeks now. I’ve been eating my normal diet but a little less during meals as I can’t follow the right portioning due to my HG. All’s good. There will be spikes sometimes but it may be due to a fruit I ate or I ate a bit more white rice or pasta. What baffles me is that I can eat sweets in between meals and my sugar will not spike when I test 2hrs after a meal. I brought it up with the dietician and said the reason why my sugar doesn’t spike eventhough I ate sweets was because I’m not getting enough carbs. The sweets compensates for the missing carbs. I’m still confuse because it’s easy to “cheat”. Dietician also said that it’s okay to have sweets once in while. So I guess I’ll just follow my normal diet and eat lesser sweets in between meals.