Your body converts the food you eat into a usable form of sugar called glucose, which is your body's primary source of energy. Insulin is the hormone that helps move glucose from your bloodstream into your cells for use. Because diabetes interferes with insulin production, or how effectively your body can use the insulin your pancreas does produce, glucose may be circulating in your bloodstream, unable to be moved into your cells. Without the energy you need you can feel sleepy, fatigued, dizzy or have a headache.
Insulin Resistance
Most people with type 2 diabetes start off with insulin resistance -- your pancreas produces insulin, but your cells are no longer sensitive to it, and the insulin isn't used properly. Your pancreas produces more and more insulin until it simply can't keep up with the demand, which leads to type 2 diabetes. This often leaves you with high levels of both insulin and glucose in your bloodstream at the same time. With no glucose reaching your cells, you have no energy.
Weight
When your cells don't have the energy they need your brain signals for more food to turn into energy -- triggering hunger. It's common to feel both tired and hungry after eating when you aren't using insulin properly. You eat more, often craving sweet foods that easily converted to glucose. This can lead to weight gain, especially abdominal weight gain, a classic sign of metabolic syndrome. Because excess body fat interferes with insulin sensitivity, the problem is compounded. This weight gain increases insulin resistance, leaving you sleepy, hungry and fat.
Increasing Insulin Sensitivity
Weight loss can help reduce insulin resistance, as can dietary changes that slow the production of glucose and lower the demand for insulin -- giving your body the chance to catch up. Limiting all added sugars and starches -- foods which have the biggest impact on blood sugar -- will ensure your body isn't flooded with glucose. Lowering glucose levels will lower insulin levels, over time, allowing your body to regain its sensitivity to insulin.
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is also known as insulin-dependent diabetes. Only 5 percent of people with diabetes in the U.S. have type 1 diabetes; where the pancreas does not produce any insulin. If you have type 1 diabetes and are sleepy after eating, it may be the result of not taking enough supplemental insulin, rather than a lack of sensitivity to insulin. Work with your doctor and dietitian to design an eating plan that includes the proper amount of calories, nutrients and insulin to give your body the energy it needs.
