+ 3 Hypoglycemia
I hope this is in the right section.
Who else is Hypo? I’ve been dealing with this for about 8 years now and I’ll tell you it can really fuck up your workout. Ever since I started GH I haven’t had the first problem, but after I decided to stop 3 days ago the hypo has returned with a vengeance. Last night was leg day and I didn’t make it 20 min. I did 10 min on the treadmill, felt fine, started to warm up on leg press and I stood up to add more weight and immediately got the usual cold sweat feeling. My wife was next to me on the leg extension and she happened to glance my way and noticed my face was off. When my sugar drops it fuckin DROPS. I’ve been 33 before, that should have been a hospital ride for sure. Anyway, she started scrambling looking for some candy or something, of course she left her purse at home she always keeps some glucose tabs or emergency glucose liquids. The whole gym was hearing the commotion, my wife called the manager asking where the key was to the fridge and of course she didn’t answer. Thankfully my buddy saw what was going on and he ran out to his truck and found some snickers bars and that brought me back up. In a perfect world there would be a pattern to someone’s hypo but with me there is zero pattern, my pancreas has a mind of its own and it does as it pleases. I’ve had every kind of blood work done and nobody can find out what’s wrong, my A1C is fine, my liver and kidneys are functioning properly. I had blood work done 2 days ago, my doc wanted to look at one more thing before we throw our hands up so hopefully she’ll give me an answer in the next few days. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy for sure.
End of my story lol. If anybody else has a story or any input let’s hear it.
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I've had this for a number of years. A lot worse on gear. I have to make sure I've eaten before I train or it's guaranteed
Doing anything whatsoever will bring it on, it doesn't have to be physically difficult, walking to the local shop even. If I don't have any carbs inside me it's just a matter of time.
Horrible feeling, sweat enough to the point I could ring my t-shirt out it's that wet, the weak feeling is terrible, I wouldn't even be a to defend myself from a kid attacking me.
It's far worse if I'm using either tren or dbol.
When I get one coming on I always start sweating right in the centre of my back and I can feel it running down my lower back lol
I also have this issue, but noticed it only happens to me if I miss a meal. These days I always keep candy and protein bars stashed everywhere. I have a big bag of Peanut M&M’s in all my cars. I never touch them unless I feel a spell coming on. It is as easy as eating three of them to shut it down, as long as I catch it quick enough. If I don’t catch it, the only way I will feel better is by taking a nap. I’ve noticed it happened more frequently on Sustanon. I can’t explain why, but know that the bad episodes always ran concurrently. All my blood tested well too, so I attribute it all to being on gear. When I come off everything besides a small TRT dose of test, all this shit goes away.
A friend was helped by low doses of semaglutide.
Also happens a lot in hormonal disorders, such as hypothyroidism, low GH, low cortisol, and low leptin levels. Low leptin levels is often overlooked. What is your body fat % (correlates with leptin levels)?
I can definitely relate. I have to have intra workout carbs bc pre workout carbs only don't cut it regardless of what it is. I generally use karbolyn intra workout but in a pinch l will grab a Gatorade. i suggest buying Gatorade powder bc u can carry it in your gym bag and mix it up whenever needed. This obviously isn't ideal bc its straght suger but if you're going hypo then at least you got it with you.
Once you get use to not working out unless you have a carb source readily available then it just becomes habit so I'd tell my self that you absolutely can't workout unless you have carbs with you. It sucks but it is what it is.
P.S. Thank you for your service sir --
I used to get it bad sometimes. I’m talking pouring sweet, seconds from passing out. Everything I read about controlling it did the exact opposite for me. Oatmeal, one of the lowest glycemic carbs, nearly kills me 45 min later. Same with sugar free plain Greek yogurt. Go figure. Eliminated a bunch of food groups that were supposed to be good for that, just have a scoop of peanut butter and coffee before my workout and it’s been pretty good for years. Also, Tren and GH really messes with it as well for me.
Man that’s crazy. All of what you said backs up the argument that everyone is different and may not respond the same as the next guy. Tren and Superdrol make my hypo worse but those two are pretty much even across the board for everybody hence why you have to up carbs while using them. I haven’t eaten oatmeal in a long time, I’ll experiment with that one this winter during my bulk.
I very often have hypoglycemia after a few hours of sweets. I love sweets very much. This usually happens if I don't have time to eat. For example, at 8 in the morning I have breakfast with oatmeal with nuts, drink coffee and a portion of protein. Then in training from 9 to 10.30 I drink isotonic + magnesium potassium and I pour a spoonful of sugar into it. After a workout, if I do not eat, I will be shaken by dizziness and heart palpitations. Therefore, where half an hour after a workout, I always eat carbohydrates, such as pizza.
In your case it sounds like you’re not eating enough before the workout. I’d have the exact same problem if I hit the gym in the am vs pm. I like to have at least 6 meals before I lift. As I mentioned I STILL go hypo but it would be even worse if I only ate once.
Personal question, apologies for that, but do you drink much alcohol?
Any stomach surgery?
How long before exercise to you eat, and what would that typically be?
Any family history of similar / other endocrine issues?
Your mind went where mine did, I’d say, I’m not a doctor, the fact that it’s only happening under certain circumstances makes me think an anxiety issue. Been there before myself, there’s no shame in it, but sometimes requires treatment. It runs in my family as well.
I do have anxiety so maybe there’s some truth to that. Mine is from ptsd, even though I can function and pretty much live my life how I used to I still find myself anxious at times
Don’t call me gay, but bro my eyes just watered a little. I suffered from it bad for a while, it’s worth looking into it. Just do your own research on any drugs they give before taking them, they work, you’ll feel top of the world, but in the long run they’re bad news. Hope it works out for you buddy, I really do. It sucks when we don’t feel well.
We’re all brothers here bud, thank you. Believe me when I came home the 2nd time I was an emotional fuckin wreck, I finally had to ask for help. We’re all humans with feelings. I appreciate everybody’s input and I’m still open to hear others experiences or remedies.
My wife and I will grab a drink maybe once a month and it’s a margarita. My stomach has never been able to tolerate alcohol very well. No stomach surgeries only an appendectomy almost 20 years ago. I mentioned my diet plan in another post, my preworkout meal is chicken and brown rice or sweet potato about an hour before. No family history of anything.
Definitely a bit of a mystery. Think the reality is you’re going to need to take a blood measurement right before starting your workout and try and position your blood sugar to the point where you’re at the upper end of the range, but not over, (200 ish), then titrating with simple sugars as required as for some reason your body is using up blood sugar real quick). You can also try making sure 2 1/2 hours prior to workout your getting starchy carbs in. I’d be looking at fibrous vegetable etc here.
Hopefully some of that will help, but there’s definitely a bigger conundrum for a medic to solve here. Hope things improve fella, sounds like an utter pain in the arse for you :(
I’ve checked my glucose pretty regularly before the gym for example, yesterday I was at 97 about 10-15 min after my preworkout meal. That’s a pretty consistent number for me, so I eat a banana as I’m walking into the gym mainly out of habit and because I like them lol. If it wasn’t summertime and me trying to slim up the best I can I’d eat blueberry pop tarts before the gym LOL. But yeah it’s a pain in the ass for sure, but unlike diabetes hypo people just have to embrace the suck and keep sugar close by.
In the short term you might just have to suck it up and eat more sugary crap pre workout. Not ideal for you I know, but at least you may be able to get through a workout. Keep bottoming out like that isn’t going to do you any good.
No doubt about that,
Have you tried sipping on some cyclic dextrin throughout your workouts?
I’ve never heard of it, I’ll definitely track some down. This has always prevented me from cutting like I want to, if my carbs get any lower than about 125 this starts happening 10 fold, so basically all I’m able to do is cut out cheat meals, clean my carbs up and time them around the gym.
If you are going to order some Cyclic Dextrin I would also order some Dextrose powder just to be safe, Dextrin is still a starch and not a simple sugar as such. Some I have spoken to in the past found that Dextrin wasn't effective for treating a hypo where as dextrose always will be. I tried Waxy maize, Cyclic Dextrin, Maltodextrin etc and still found dextrose to be the most effective and tastiest. Only issue some guys is they find dextrose is too heavy/sweet for them.
Perfect, thanks for the info. Sounds like dextrose may be the answer but I’ll still experiment with both. Obviously I process sugar extremely quick so dextrose may be the winner.
Yeah pretty much straight glucose.
I use both the Myprotein one and Bulkpowders version - both are very cheap and taste great.
Even better. Thank you
I think a lot of it has to do with how fast your general metabolism is and how much you tend to crave carbs, some people seem to be able to go all day without them. Even without training I would quickly notice if I hadn't had a carb source within a few hours and would easily lose concentration and energy. I know for me steroids have definitely played a part in my blood sugar levels rising over the years, certain ones like Tren and Dianabol make you crave more sugar and simple carbs, you then also put on weight which too makes you eat more of them and then coming off the gear you tend to keep a lot of the natural eating habits. Many years ago now I would wake up in a morning when on heavy doses and sit on the edge of the bed not knowing who's house I was in or how to get out of the hypo, in fact my mind was that out of it I didn't recognise I was in a hypo. Type 2 Diabetes is a well documented long term side effect of steroids if you don't keep an eye on blood sugar levels.
Yeah I never got hypo before I started using gh. When I’m on gh I need to be more careful about over exercising and not eating enough. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about I think we just underestimate how much growth hormone speeds up our metabolism and when you add like a heavy leg day in and don’t have time to eat it ends up biting you in the ass.
Whenever I’ve gone back and looked at hypo events (they’re scary as hell when they really hit hard) it’s always been my fault. I didn’t hydrate well enough (which is essential for insulin to do its job) or I didn’t pre prep enough food that day or I didn’t eat post workout. If I’ve followed my food plan to a t six meals a day and intra shakes it’s never happened.
Find what was missing in your routine and patch it up, won’t happen again.
Your experience is exactly what I mentioned, I’m the complete opposite. When I went hypo the very first time it was in 2015 and I was completely natural, no TRT, nothing. Hell I wasn’t even lifting, I may have been 160 lbs soaking wet. It did it one day out of the blue and I’ve been cursed with it ever since. Do I think AAS makes it worse? Eh maybe, maybe not. The fact that I was just a normal skinny dude when it first started is what’s leading me to believe I’ve got something internal off. It doesn’t matter what I eat or what time I eat, however like I said white rice will drop it within 30 min, but I remedied that many moons ago and will never eat it again. I’m tellin you there is no pattern, I’ve tried and tried to get a hold of when it does. There have been times when I thought I had it figured out, just to have it do a 180.
So I have something similar happen to me, I don’t go like full hypo but if I don’t eat for about three hours I’ll get super weak and shaky and kinda lightheaded. I think it’s from eating like every two hours day after day after day for so long my body is expecting that food and by hour three or four it’s getting impatient lol. For me it’s either from that or eating like 500+ grams of carbs every day or it’s some combination of the carbs and meal frequency. But it doesn’t just happen randomly it only happens when I get stuck out at kids soccer games and dance recitals for the day and I forget to pack my cooler of meals and shakes and shit. Every time it’s happened it’s been at one of my kids event things. I also think zero carb energy drinks affect blood sugar in someway. I’m always sipping on them if I’m not eating and it kind of seems to keep the hypo away but on the times it’s happened I had absolutely nothing to eat or drink, so I think somehow my body manages to pull glucose from it or at least is tricked into thinking it did idk
That sounds like a normal occurrence, I wish mine was that simple lol.
Shit, sorry man. Have you tried any otc glucose disposal agents or otc insulin mimics or whatever they're called, or maybe even metformin, or one of those medicines for diabetics besides insulin?
Naw, when it comes to this kind of thing I let my doctor determine what’s the best approach. I do get asked if I’m diabetic all the time, I can’t figure out why because when I say my sugar drops for some reason people think I’m diabetic. I’m like no, my sugar goes the other way. Diabetes doesn’t run in my family anyways, hopefully this won’t turn in to it.
As long as your bloodwork isn't showing anything into the Pre-diabetic range in HBa1c I would have thought you will be fine mate.
I’m with you on that, so far so good. Next time I go in I’m going to ask my doc for one of those patches that connects to your phone showing your glucose.
I looked at those about a year ago as I figured it would be really useful to know in general and also to keep an eye on it too keep things moderate and not high, it can be difficult to know where you are sometimes. Certain meds can make you feel like you are low when in reality you aren't! Pretty expensive though unless you can manage to get it on insurance I remember. Alec Baldwin has been pictured recently wearing one! Lol Beats pricking your finger constantly.
I’ve heard the same thing, but there’s one that seems to be getting the best reviews I can’t remember what it was. Finger pricking is no fun for sure. My healthcare and medicine is free, so cost isn’t an issue.
Was it the Freestyle Libre? Thats the one I was looking at, main charge is the annual subscription to it thats a bit of a pain.
Don’t get me lying, a guy in my gym was telling me about it because he had one. It wasn’t the best one because he was saying his isn’t always accurate, it’ll beep notifying him his number is high and he’ll double check with the manual finger prick and his number will be fine. So that’s definitely an issue
RustyhookerGoing hypo off the gh sounds odd. Tren and hgh make me pay attn to carbs. Will be wstching here to learn whats found.
Interesting read
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5642081/
Thanks for the link, that’s an extensive study. From what I’ve learned over the years is my body is an exception to every rule, if most people’s bodies acts a certain way you can guarantee mine will be the complete opposite. I’ll add that I eat 8x a day, the same meals at the exact same time every single day. White rice is the only thing that will make my sugar plummet, so I avoid it like the plague.
RustyhookerDaaaaamn. Okay....im gonna take notes when the results come back. The endocrinology reports used to get posted in tge old bodybuilding mags. Super dry and boring but the smallest lil piece outta place upset the system. Here we just think test, e2, dht...food....but its not even the surface scratched by running gear. Interesting stuff really.
I’ll definitely let you know what my doc says. Tonight’s gym session went the exact same, treadmill I was fine, 10 min into decline bench I stand up to add weight and boom hypo. I’ll never not be prepared again so I popped 3 glucose tabs and waited for it to come up. I ate 2 or 3 more awhile later but the workout went fine. I’ll also add that I eat a banana as I’m walking into the gym, clearly it goes straight through me. Lol
RustyhookerYa....weights burns just carbs so i hear ya. Complex carbs hour pre help at all keeping ya stable?
Sometimes and sometimes not. If I ate something like a pop tart it wouldn’t, but brown rice, sweet potato, russet potato, etc it would be a roll of the dice.