First day blood glucose testing

[Stuart7152]

This is my first day of testing at home, still got to test before bed. I'm surprised by the range is this normal?

5.7 at 14:12 pre meal
5.5 at 15:12 post meal
6.0 at 18:00 after gym session and pre meal
9.1 at 21:08 post meal

176g of total carbs and this has been the same for the last few months.

Once I've tested my current diet for a few days will start to reduce carbs and see if any improvement in readings.

I'm very alarmed by the 9.1 as I've already lost approx. 40kg and already smashing the gym 6 days a week, so can't really improve this.

Should I be alarmed by this reading or the range of readings

 

[Bluetit1802]

Those readings are excellent apart from the 9.1 after evening meal. I can only assume you had a lot of carbs in that meal, and possibly too many for your body to cope with all at once. What did you have to eat?

I have just noticed your post lunch reading was only an hour after eating. When first starting this game it is best to test at 2 hours after first bite. Once you are well in the swing of things you can experiment with testing at other times. Depending on what you ate and the combination of foods, it is possible you hadn't reached your peak by an hour.

 

[Stuart7152]

Pre and post gym I tend to eat my main meal and the majority of my carbs for the day, so had 95g of carbs which was beef and mixed veg with then Greek yogurt with various nuts and seeds with summer fruit and banana. The majority of my other meals for the day are low carbs with high protein/ fats

 

[Freema]

Those readings are excellent apart from the 9.1 after evening meal. I can only assume you had a lot of carbs in that meal, and possibly too many for your body to cope with all at once. What did you have to eat?

I have just noticed your post lunch reading was only an hour after eating. When first starting this game it is best to test at 2 hours after first bite. Once you are well in the swing of things you can experiment with testing at other times. Depending on what you ate and the combination of foods, it is possible you hadn't reached your peak by an hour.

could also be because of stress from the gym combined with maybe eating too little for the excercise....
my blood glucose has started to raise after doing excercise instead of getting lower... I think maybe it is because I eat that little a I do, maybe Stuart do that too... but yes the most obvious would be to much carb in the dinner meal

 

[Freema]

it is best to divide ones carbs more all over the day so you never spike over 7.8mmols, and preferably less

95 grams of carbs ? I hope that was for the whole day then ?

 

[Bluetit1802]

Maybe you could try your main meal again minus the summer fruit and banana. Many of us find most fruits are off the menu. Fructose is not a good choice for diabetics and that could well have been the problem. Raspberries have the least amount of sugar. What veggies did you have?

 

[Stuart7152]

176g carbs for the whole day @Freema

Sweet potatoes, sweet corn and broccoli @Bluetit1802

I've been following doctors advice of balanced diet / low fat since T2 and only just joined this forum as was becoming concerned with no macro limits. My progress has been good even with 200g of carbs per day for the last 10months, but today's testing is a wake up call that the HA1c test is misleading and doesn't highlight any issues. Hence Doctor say no need to change my diet! Luckily I've found this forum and with the home testing can challenge him with factual test results

 

[Freema]

Well Yes But sometimes the doctors advice is NOT adequate for being able to get Real normal low blood glucose . From that High carb intake you will maybe never get a low HbA1c But okay thats the official guidelines that is NOT as strict on carbs as are most successful persons in This forum

 

[Resurgam]

sweet corn is a grain, and sweet potatoes are even higher in carbs than ordinary ones - bananas don't usually feature in a low carb diet, but neither is low fat considered a healthy combination, so it is probably a good thing that you are not eating low carb.

 

[SWUSA_]

I think you are on the right path by testing and finding out what the foods you eat are actually doing to your blood glucose. 95 carbs in one meal is a lot by anyone's standards. 60 carbs per meal is the most I have ever seen advised even by standard diabetic diets and that would be for a large, fairly active man. As for the rise from 6.0 to 9.1: that is better than my glucose reading would have been with that many carbohydrates in one meal.

You are doing well already and I think you will see much improvement with a few tweaks.

Also you asked if your range was normal-I will tag @daisy1 for you. She will send you some information we give all newcomers that contains the blood glucose ranges we aim for and some diet information.

 

[Stuart7152]

Last test of the evening 5.2. I've a new diet plan for tomorrow and will keep every meal to under 30g of carbs each and see what happens. This is 110g for the whole day which is a good reduction for day 1 of the LCHF, but just watched Week 1 of their 10 week programme and quoted 100-150g as a first target.

 

[SWUSA_]

@Stuart7152 Plan sounds good to me. I just want to mention that it is possible to get low blood glucose while taking metformin and reducing your carbohydrate intake-especially when you reduce the intake suddenly. A low is defined as anything under 4.0 and lows in the low 3's and below can be dangerous-you eat some fast acting carbohydrates like jelly babies to bring it back up-about 15 to 20 carbs worth then retest and treat again every 15 minutes until you get back up to 5.0 at least.

I do not expect that you will have this complication-I just want to make sure that you have the knowledge to deal with it if it happens.

 

[Kristin251]

Try some avocado instead of fruit. The fat and fiber slow everything

 

[Mep]

Those readings aren't bad at all considering you're newly diagnosed. I think the 9.1 was probably from the extra carbs you ate and the gym workout you did. A lot of people advocate low carb, high fat diet on this forum and it's worth a try to see if it suits you. It isn't a diet that suits everyone though for various reasons, I don't. But I gave it a go though for about a year and I just decided it was not the diet that worked for me based on test results, etc. These days I have a restricted diet also. I tend to have on average about 30g of carbs per meal.

By the way, congratulations on your weight loss to date. It looks like you've done very well.

I wish you the best.

 

[Bluetit1802]

You have the right attitude, and you are being proactive, so you will get there. You are already doing well. You just need a few tweaks to your carbs. Reducing your HbA1c from 71 to 44 is excellent, and the weight loss is stupendous.

You are right that the HbA1c is not an ideal way of measuring, but it is all doctors have at the moment. It will never show the highs (or lows), just the averages. We can catch the highs by experimenting with testing at different times post meal. People that use the Libre continuous sensor discover all kinds of interesting things. I know I do.

If you try to avoid the starchy carbs (including sweet potato) and grains (including sweet corn), you will see a difference. There are 2 ways of reducing carbs. We can either go cold turkey and do it all at once, or take it slowly, reducing them bit by bit over a period of time. I did the latter. By organised testing before and after I found my personal threshold, which is around 30g a day with none at breakfast, some at lunch, and the rest at evening meal. You may find you are different because you do gym exercise. I just walk the dog.

 

[bulkbiker]

We can either go cold turkey and do it all at once, or take it slowly, reducing them bit by bit over a period of time. I did the latter. By organised testing before and after I found my personal threshold, which is around 30g a day with none at breakfast, some at lunch, and the rest at evening meal. You may find you are different because you do gym exercise. I just walk the dog.

For my tuppence I did the cold turkey route intending to re-introduce carbs later once I had reached my goal weight. Not quite there yet so still less than 20g per day but the end is in sight. However after a year and a bit I no longer want to eat carbs even if the person sitting next to me is. Tastes and desires have changed completely. For me that was easier and greatly reduced the hunger pangs while fasting once I was fat adapted

 

[Resurgam]

Cutting out the grains and starchy veges is the easiest option for most people, I have to exclude most but not all legumes, but it leaves me a lot to eat - and it makes losing weight very easy. I have gone off low carb on doctors orders a couple of times, never with good results, and then had to lose weight all over again. I gain really fast. In the past I have lost 2Kg a week eating 60 to 80 gm of carb a day, and full of energy. Now I have to factor in the fact that I am 65 years old, but the weight is dropping nicely, and my average BG is falling too.

 

[callyandy]

This is my first day of testing at home, still got to test before bed. I'm surprised by the range is this normal?

5.7 at 14:12 pre meal
5.5 at 15:12 post meal
6.0 at 18:00 after gym session and pre meal
9.1 at 21:08 post meal

176g of total carbs and this has been the same for the last few months.

Once I've tested my current diet for a few days will start to reduce carbs and see if any improvement in readings.

I'm very alarmed by the 9.1 as I've already lost approx. 40kg and already smashing the gym 6 days a week, so can't really improve this.

Should I be alarmed by this reading or the range of readings

Excellent numbers, congratulations on your success, progress so far.

 

[KevinPotts]

Maybe you could try your main meal again minus the summer fruit and banana. Many of us find most fruits are off the menu. Fructose is not a good choice for diabetics and that could well have been the problem. Raspberries have the least amount of sugar. What veggies did you have?

I agree about the banana....it would send my BG skyrocketing!!

 

[callyandy]

I agree about the banana....it would send my BG skyrocketing!!

Sorry, I know off topic, but I hope you're enjoying the product of your labour and your garden is settling down.