At my wits end with hypoglycemia

Hey all. I'm almost 3 years out and have been getting hypoglycemia for about a year a few times a week. I'm SO SICK OF IT. It's screwing with my diet as well. I have tried all sorts of things and I can't get a constant result. Some days I get it, some days I don't, even if my diet is consistent. I have seen an endocrinologist who says nothing can be done. We tried one medication and it didn't help. He says it's just a complication of the surgery.

In the past year, I have also gained 20 pounds. Coincidence? I am an emotional eater, and I feel sorry for myself when this happens, and then I have a treat. UGH. 

I am wondering if maybe it's hormone related. I just don't know what to do. I want to lose these 20 pounds, but I feel like dealing with this hypoglycemia is not helping me. 

I'm so frustrated. 

I get it myself sometimes - usually brought on by too many carbs - do you make sure you are eating protein with every meal?  

It's not from carbs. I get it, if I eat carbs, if I eat no carbs. Very unpredictable. 

Oh, yes and protein with every meal. 

sorry to hear that.  

I struggled a lot with this early out, and it took I while to reign it in. Here is what worked for me:

1. 30 net carbs at meals, 15 net carbs at snacks. 3 meals, 3 snacks. I had to eat right before bed or risk going low in the middle of the night. 
2. Pay attention to what you eat and establish if there is a connection to going low afterwards. For me, pasta. I found that if I eat a pasta meal of the typical pasta (not so much with the high fiber/proten type) I would crash later. 
3. Refined sugars/flour etc. would trigger if not carefully managed (eat protein with this stuff, but you are far better off to just avoid it).
4. Stick to foods that are low on the glycemic index.
5. I measured my blood sugar levels religiously for two weeks and kept a detailed log of what I ate so I could see the impact on my blood sugar. I ensured during this time period I ate food that I would commonly ate to get the most accurate data I could. Genius. Once I did that I was able to fine tune and now almost never go low now.
6. Your weight gain- I would venture to say that part of the problem is your insulin levels spiking, which in turn triggers hunger. If you can better manage your blood sugar levels to be slow and steady you may find that lessens, and you can reverse the tad bit of gain you have.
7. Please note that my carb targets in step 1 was what I needed at the time. I suspect carb levels needed vary a lot by person, and I am a tall lanky build (6'2''). Track yourself for two weeks carefully and you should see a pattern. 
8. I know it sucks to avoid processed food, bread, etc., but stabilizing your blood sugar levels is totally worth it. I do still eat a little bread, just not much. At most 1 slice of Great Harvest whole grain bread (thick, dense), Torano low carb wraps, etc. Gone are the days I would eat something like Wonder bread- you know the white trash bread stuff where when you eat it it sticks to the roof of your mouth.
9. Combine protein when eating carbs, always. 
10. Careful with protein shakes in the morning. I found that it actually lowered my blood sugar after drinking it if I didn't have anything else. You might find other things like that. 
11. I have to avoid juice first thing in the morning or anything else that can metabolize quickly and impact the blood sugar levels. Even my homemade 90% green leafy veggie juice 10% apple is dicey. Best to let your metabolism warm up slowly and gently for the day.

Good luck!!!!

Thank you SO much for your comments!!! I think I will start measuring my sugars throughout the day like you suggested and keep a log. Can you elaborate how you measured. Like what times? Did you keep a log of the carbs/protein/fat or just what you ate? 

Thank you for taking the time to write out all those points!

Sure. Your fingers will be  a bit sore, but honest to goodness it was worth it. Pretty simple regiment. When I first woke up I would talk a fasting level prior to eating/drinking. Immediately before a meal, I would test. I would then test 15 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours after eating. If I suspected something was affecting me kind of funky I would toss in a few more (like with pasta for me). I also tested immediately before bed. If I drank any beverage that coud increase blood sugar levels I would test, but not necessarily each time after I had a good pattern established. For example, I am a huge coffee drinker. After checking a couple of times, I stopped testing for the impact of the coffee. 

Just as importantly, I maintained a spreadsheet and entered everything in detail. Anytime my sugar levels spiked I highlighted it, or went low. I color coded. I also highlighted if the fasting level was above 100. By the time the two weeks were done the highlight was super easy to pick out and helped to make the pattern easier to spot. I also used the chart features to manipuate the data around to see if that made patterns a bit easier to see. 

When I logged the food, I entered protein, carbs, sugar, fat, and fiber. I also weighed/measured carefully- no eyeballing.   This helped me to get a better feel for what happens when I combined protein with carb, or if the carbs were higher in protein. I was shocked to find out the protein shakes dropped my levels. 

It takes a little committment, but the two weeks went by quickly. I hope it helps you figure out how to stabalize things a little more. Good luck-

Thank you! Do you still have your excel? if you do, would you mind emailing it to me? Might help as a starting template.. 

I had it in Drive (Google spreadsheet). Let me go see if I can still locate it. Do you use drive or would you need me to put it in a format that Excel can handle? If you have Drive, I can make a copy and get you access via a link. Otherwise, I copy the file, adjust and reformat, and email that. Either works on my end.