Mystery (Blood Sugar) Symptoms? Stumped!

So for about a year now I've been struggling with some really weird symptoms I'm trying to figure out. I'm hovering about 15lbs up from my LW and about 20lbs from my goal weight, but my care team seems to think I'm ok, weight wise. I'm experiencing:

-Bloating

-Headache

-Brain Fog

-Poor Satiety

-Fatigue

-Poor bowel motility

These symptoms generally peak in the late morning (but often start right when I wake up) and early afternoon and are less pronounced in the evening. They seem to go away when I eat, but return about thirty minutes after. For a while I thought I was carb dumping or hypo, but I've experienced that a few times and it doesn't come with the shakes or intense cold sweats. I have gradually reintroduced carbs into my diet over the last couple years, perhaps too many, and wonder if I've built some sort of insulin tolerance. I've tested my sugar with a portable glucometer and had no appreciable drop in blood sugar during these episodes.

What I can offer is that it seems to go away when I'm in an active environment and eating a LOT of carbs or drinking, paradoxically, like a camping trip with my buddies. On these trips I go to town with junk food, sugar, BBQ, you name it and suddenly I'm sleeping and pooping way better and have more energy in the morning. But when I'm at home trying to eat better I often feel like a catatonic slug :(

I thought it was stress or mood but these episodes happen whether I'm stressed or not, happy or sad, but tend to worsen if I am stressed.

I have a phone consult with my PCP tomorrow morning, but I would like to see if there's more info I can gather so we can look in the right direction. As always, advice is much appreciated! Thanks again in advance, Sleevers.

It wouldn't hurt to have your thyroid checked. Many of your symptoms mimick hypothyroidism, as completely unrelated as that sounds. Ask for a TSH, Free T3 & T4 blood test.

Ditto what Shannon said about getting your thyroid checked. And anything else the doc can think of. Those symptoms also go with fibromyalgia, but they have a checklist of things to rule out before fibro is considered since it's a diagnosis of exclusion.

In addition, get your B levels checked. B6 and B12.

How much protein do you consume each day? How much liquid are you getting? Are you actively adding sodium to your food with something like actual salt or a sports drink?

It could also be low electrolytes, as well. It could be quite a few things, so it's good you are checking with the doctor. :)

Do you eat foods that contain sugar alcohols? I get all those symptoms (well, not the last one) when I overdo sugar alcohols.

I was for a while, obviously sugar alcohols are the go-to when you're looking for treats with a low glycemic index.

I've had my thyroid and vitamin levels checked--all normal. I guess what I am wondering is if it is blood sugar related (it certainly seems to be) how long after carb-binging would it take for me to get back to baseline? I remember getting back on the wagon a couple months ago and still feeling like crap. But it was only a couple days before I erroneously thought it was some sort of allergy and went back to eating carbs.

I thought you said you checked your glucose? If it's not dropping (or going super high) during these episodes, then it's not likely the culprit.

I'm a medical anomaly, but I get very ill in ketosis. I have to maintain carbs more than the 50g or so a day to stay out of ketosis. For me, it's like the carb flu but incredibly worse, and it never goes away. It could be that your body doesn't like being in ketosis, especially since you say you feel better when you're eating carbs. Or it could be something like fibro, and it responds to your diet where the carbs give you more energy.

Are you able to maintain your weight with carbs in your diet? If so, I'd experiment with what kind of carbs and what amounts make you feel the best without causing weight gain. It could also be something like when you're not eating carbs, you're missing too much fiber and you get backed up... then when you eat carbs, especially if you're eating more healthy carbs like veggies and whole grains, you're getting the fiber you need and when you get more regular the symptoms go away.

Since posting this thread I've discovered a condition called "Adrenergic Postprandial Syndrome," where your sugar gets a big post-meal spike, then crashes super fast, but doesn't dip below the baseline to make you hypo. You get the surges of adrenaline, the headaches, the tingling lips, etc, but you're not actually hypo. This fits my symptoms to a T. It's the worst after breakfast but can last throughout the day.

My biggest worry is that this is permanent, since I didn't have these problems before two years ago, but that's when I started just throwing my post-op regimen out the window (was dating a vegetarian and at a good weight) and eating lots of carbs. It started with two episodes of atrial fibrillation and it's just been a roller coaster since then. Also wasn't conscientious about eating multiple small meals during the day, since I became a lot more active and went out more with my new partner. We would only eat three (usually large and carby) meals per day for a while.

Also realizing I'm probably not hypo because I've tried fasting completely a couple times and the symptoms either died down dramatically or went away altogether for that day. The only reason I can think of that I do well on these multi-day trips out with my friends is that I'm eating enough carbs all the time to keep my sugar up and that I'm often drinking so my CNS isn't getting rattled by all the adrenaline. But that's not sustainable, especially for my waistline, so what to do?

My PCP wants me on anti-anxiety meds, even though my symptoms really only manifest secondary to the physical discomfort and "fight or flight" sensation from meals, and he wants me to go in for a normal fasting glucose test in the morning, but I read that doesn't show anything for people who are doing low-carb? I am so confused at this point, and not to mention frustrated.

Glad you were able to get to the bottom of this.