Hypoglycemia in first week (Induction)
 

Hi, so, my quick back story is that I have always struggled with hypoglycemia (even though I don't test for it in standard blood tests). And huge carb cravings. Which is the main reason that I wanted to start the Atkins diet, yes, to loose some weight, but mostly to get off sugar completely and to stop the roller coaster of sugar highs and crashes.

I started Atkins 5 days ago. (although I am not following induction exactly 100%. I have had a few dried cherries in salad and some pumpkin seeds)

Most of the time I am ok, not hungry, but twice now I've gone for
a bike ride and had huge low blood sugar issues (shaky, feel faint, foggy thinking). It was so bad that the first time I had to cave in and eat half a banana and some Skippy peanut butter. Yesterday I had to stop my bike at the grocery store (halfway through my ride) and buy (and eat) some oatmeal cookies because I thought I was going to crash my bike! Ugh.

My bike rides have been 60 minutes in length, nothing new for me.
And both times I had breakfast before I went out. (Although now I think
that I need to eat sooner when I get up in the morning, even if I am not that hungry.)
Any ideas?

Do you know what your actual blood sugar is during these episodes? I've had similar things like you described happen... But when I actually tested my blood sugar during these events it was normal... Turned out I just wasn't eating enough and running on empty so to speak... But if I were you I'd see my PCP and tell them what's going on and take it from there...

Hi Trip Switch, I don't know what my blood sugar levels are. I was thinking of buying a blood sugar monitor to keep track of this. hmm.
What I did find though was this afternoon, after getting shaky AGAIN, after my bike ride (even though I ate right when I woke up, and snacked after 2 hours; AND had an Atkins meal bar right after my bike ride) was that when I took an extra 25mcg Chromium Picolinate that the shaky feeling and light headed fogginess disappeared.

I have a friend who follows the Paleo diet tell me that she had lots of low blood sugar issues the first week or so on the low carb diet, but they resolved themselves. hmm.