Hi Chicks!

I had a question and I was hoping you could help me. My room mate is diabetic (insulin dependant) and her blood sugar has been sky rocketing. She is trying to lose weight by drinking the Atkins Slim Fast shakes. My first thought is the shakes are the problem has anyone else tried the shakes and had the same problem?

Thank you so much for any help!

Dee

I do not drink slim fast, so I am not sure how many carbs they contain, but she would be better off drinking a lo carb drink to keep her numbers from skyrocketing. I sometimes will drink an atkins drink (similar to slim fast, but lo carb) when I am late taking the kids to preschool and do not have time to cook and my numbers do not get high afterwards, so for me the Atkins ones are fine.

Also, it may not be the drink, but stress. If she is under some stress or even stressed about losing weight it can cause numbers to creep up. I know when I am upset my numbers can go up 30-40 points compared to eating the same foods when I am not upset.

Another thought is she may not be eating enough to keep her blood sugar even, so it is spiking up and down and she might just be checking it on the high spikes. Hopefully someone with some slim fast knowledge will be able to address your question better.

I've tried to go low-carb for a few days while on metformin, and I actually had the opposite reaction, I got woozy and seemed to have low blood sugar. I don't think it's a very good idea for a diabetic to be on Atkins. Something more balanced, like calorie cutting, south beach, etc, would help her get the carbs she needs but also lose weight.

Hi Dee,

A lot more information in this situation would be helpful:
What type of insulin is she using and how does she dose? Does she use the novolin combo or does she use NPH...and then cover herself with regular insulin several times daily? Does she take a standard dose/doses daily or does she adjust her insulin based on her accu-check blood sugar?
Is she ONLY using the shakes or is she also eating meals? What is she eating on a daily basis?

The Atkins diet is actually the model that's being used for more progressive medical management of diabetes.....the low carb/low glycemic index model rather than the 1200 cal. ADA diets used in the past. But this would not mean only drinking Atkins shakes for ones daily intake. It would be a healthy, low-carb menu of real food.

And yes, stress, infection, etc...can also raise blood sugar in a diabetic.

The two misconceptions would be that 1) the Atkins diet is based on drinking shakes every day and 2) the Atkins diet is not good for diabetics. Neither is true. Dr. Atkin's meal plan specifically for diabetes often improves the medical management of diabetes.....why many doctors have switched to recommending an Atkin's model rather than the restricted calorie ADA diets used in the past.

deena