Long, low rises - should I care?

eggs11

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638
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Diet only
Just as my thread title says really - If a 2 hour post-meal rise is less than 2 but remains around 1 higher for longer than 2 hours, does this matter?

eg. pre-meal 5.2 - at 1 hour 7.2 - at 2 hours 6.5 - at 2 and a half hours 6.1 then sometimes remaining at 6 for 3-4hours post-meal.

My meals are LCHF and I feel this helps avoid a spike but then continues the rise for longer. Does it matter if my bloods are taking a while to drop to pre-meal levels again?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm just curious, as I know non-diabetics can have their bs return to a pre-meal level after 2 hours. I don't expect this for me, as I'm only 3 months into my change in diet, and have no idea if I'll ever achieve a non-diabetic insulin response - but would like to know if it matters if bloods are not actually spiking but remaining slightly higher for hours at a time.

Thanks for reading.
 

DCUKMod

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14,298
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I reversed my Type 2
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Just as my thread title says really - If a 2 hour post-meal rise is less than 2 but remains around 1 higher for longer than 2 hours, does this matter?

eg. pre-meal 5.2 - at 1 hour 7.2 - at 2 hours 6.5 - at 2 and a half hours 6.1 then sometimes remaining at 6 for 3-4hours post-meal.

My meals are LCHF and I feel this helps avoid a spike but then continues the rise for longer. Does it matter if my bloods are taking a while to drop to pre-meal levels again?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm just curious, as I know non-diabetics can have their bs return to a pre-meal level after 2 hours. I don't expect this for me, as I'm only 3 months into my change in diet, and have no idea if I'll ever achieve a non-diabetic insulin response - but would like to know if it matters if bloods are not actually spiking but remaining slightly higher for hours at a time.

Thanks for reading.

Hi Eggs - I guess it depends where the slow rise takes you to, and how long it actually stays there, and what you ate. For me, pasta and pizza were the things doing that to me. No ginagerous spike, but just lingering and lingering.

Many people find that a fatty meal will result in a different shaped trace if the use a Libre.

If I enjoyed my meal and it resulted in the response you had, I'd want to continue testing to see how long it actually took to revert to the pre-meal number, but then, I am a real data monster. I see you already do that, which is good.

Your rise isn't to a scary number so I'd tend to be relaxed about it. If the slow rise meandered to a bigger number, I'd think differently.

I'm sure others will have different ideas.
 
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eggs11

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638
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Hi Eggs - I guess it depends where the slow rise takes you to, and how long it actually stays there, and what you ate. For me, pasta and pizza were the things doing that to me. No ginagerous spike, but just lingering and lingering.

Many people find that a fatty meal will result in a different shaped trace if the use a Libre.

If I enjoyed my meal and it resulted in the response you had, I'd want to continue testing to see how long it actually took to revert to the pre-meal number, but then, I am a real data monster. I see you already do that, which is good.

Your rise isn't to a scary number so I'd tend to be relaxed about it. If the slow rise meandered to a bigger number, I'd think differently.

I'm sure others will have different ideas.
Thanks - I am testing a bit more at the moment and therefore discovering this pattern sometimes - had I finished testing at 2 hours post-meal I'd be happy with my number and the rise - the fact it can remain at that level for 3-4 hours is curious. Like you say it's not a scary number so I'm not really too worried, just curious as to the cause. I'll keep testing like this over the next couple of days to see how different meals compare.
 

Crocodile

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Hi Eggs, mine does that if I have a good bit of fat in the meal. I'm having pasta tonight ( only a half serve of low GI semolina ) but I'll have plenty of meat and fat with it. I know from the past that I'll go up to about high sevens and take about 4 hours to get under 6. Only eat like this sometimes. Mostly keep carbs under 20 gms per meal or 30 if low GI.
Glenn
 

DanisV

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Diabetes, both type 1 and type 2 !!!
Hi to all. I didn't want to open a new question since this one already seems appropriate. So my son is eating avocado for the dinner and drinks some baby-milk 100-150ml (7.3 g CH). Afterward the BG remains almost the same for the next few hours and then starts to sink. the BG values are almost constant over the night but almost low 6---5---4,5 etc (even he drink again 100-120 ml at 3am). This makes us worried. My son is 6 months old and he has MiniMed 640g and uses CGM, this helps a lot. Is the fat from avocados cause of this, is that ok?
 

Goonergal

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Hi to all. I didn't want to open a new question since this one already seems appropriate. So my son is eating avocado for the dinner and drinks some baby-milk 100-150ml (7.3 g CH). Afterward the BG remains almost the same for the next few hours and then starts to sink. the BG values are almost constant over the night but almost low 6---5---4,5 etc (even he drink again 100-120 ml at 3am). This makes us worried. My son is 6 months old and he has MiniMed 640g and uses CGM, this helps a lot. Is the fat from avocados cause of this, is that ok?

Hi @DanisV I think you’d get better responses by starting your own thread. @eggs11 is a diet controlled type 2 trying to minimise the time spent at higher levels.

Your question is about dropping blood glucose for a type 1 infant - advice will be very different. Afraid I can’t help as I have no relevant experience.
 
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eggs11

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638
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Type 2
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Hi Eggs, mine does that if I have a good bit of fat in the meal. I'm having pasta tonight ( only a half serve of low GI semolina ) but I'll have plenty of meat and fat with it. I know from the past that I'll go up to about high sevens and take about 4 hours to get under 6. Only eat like this sometimes. Mostly keep carbs under 20 gms per meal or 30 if low GI.
Glenn
Thanks Glenn. My meals do have a reasonable amount of fat in them - I'll take extra care to log my meals today and see if fat content is having this effect.
 

rom35

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431
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Diet only
What I have read in various books, there are two main riscs in diabetes:
1. Be long time over 5.6
2. A lot of cycles.
Each of them leads to diabetes typical problems: legs, eyes, heart/coronary attack.
So my personal targets to remove these riscs are:
1. eat only 3x times a day (but full meals!!) - limit the number of the cycles
2. be over 5.6 as short time as possible

I remember (but cannot provide the link now), that about 10 000 of cycles over 7.7 leads to serious health problems.
One year has 365 days with 5/6 cycles in uncontrolled T2D - it leads to cca 2000 cycles. It means 5 years to serious problems.

So my answer: Long, low rises - should I care?
YES.

I have possibility to walk to stairs in my work and at home. So in case I'm over 7.7 after 1h, I immediately go for 8 floors walk. The same if I'm over 5.6 after 2h. This short walk by my experimenting can lower my BG for 0.4 points, normally enough to get to my personal target.

Just my personal tip.
 

eggs11

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Messages
638
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
What I have read in various books, there are two main riscs in diabetes:
1. Be long time over 5.6
2. A lot of cycles.
Each of them leads to diabetes typical problems: legs, eyes, heart/coronary attack.
So my personal targets to remove these riscs are:
1. eat only 3x times a day (but full meals!!) - limit the number of the cycles
2. be over 5.6 as short time as possible

I remember (but cannot provide the link now), that about 10 000 of cycles over 7.7 leads to serious health problems.
One year has 365 days with 5/6 cycles in uncontrolled T2D - it leads to cca 2000 cycles. It means 5 years to serious problems.

So my answer: Long, low rises - should I care?
YES.

I have possibility to walk to stairs in my work and at home. So in case I'm over 7.7 after 1h, I immediately go for 8 floors walk. The same if I'm over 5.6 after 2h. This short walk by my experimenting can lower my BG for 0.4 points, normally enough to get to my personal target.

Just my personal tip.
Thanks @rom35 that is very helpful and confirms my suspicions that I need to address it. I have let a bit of snacking enter my diet in the last month, so although still LCHF - they will be the first things to eliminate. I will look into adjusting the fat content of my meals and see if this helps.
 

bulkbiker

BANNED
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19,576
Type of diabetes
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Just as my thread title says really - If a 2 hour post-meal rise is less than 2 but remains around 1 higher for longer than 2 hours, does this matter?

eg. pre-meal 5.2 - at 1 hour 7.2 - at 2 hours 6.5 - at 2 and a half hours 6.1 then sometimes remaining at 6 for 3-4hours post-meal.

My meals are LCHF and I feel this helps avoid a spike but then continues the rise for longer. Does it matter if my bloods are taking a while to drop to pre-meal levels again?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm just curious, as I know non-diabetics can have their bs return to a pre-meal level after 2 hours. I don't expect this for me, as I'm only 3 months into my change in diet, and have no idea if I'll ever achieve a non-diabetic insulin response - but would like to know if it matters if bloods are not actually spiking but remaining slightly higher for hours at a time.

Thanks for reading.
What was the meal? It might be that you could do with reducing your carb levels a bit more?
 
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eggs11

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638
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What was the meal? It might be that you could do with reducing your carb levels a bit more?
Hi @bulkbiker - I guess on reflection it was relatively high in carbs - it was 1/2 an M&S stuffed pepper which does have a bit of rice in - something I don't usually eat - but mainly cheese, its says on myfitness pal that is 18g (My rushed calculations in my head before eating had it at more like 14g) - plus a dollop of houmous, then a large amount of green leaf salad with apple cider vinegar dressing. I thought my response to it was good in that I was back down to the 6s after 2 hours - I didn't realise carbs could affect me in this way too and just keep bs slightly raised for ages. I will go back through my food logs to see if when this has happened before involves slightly more carbs. Generally I don't eat any starches other than the odd oatcake - 1 oatcake at a time is fine, 2 is not. This has taught me not to get complacent and think a 'healthy' stuffed pepper will be ok!
edited to add - looks also like I need to check all meals at 3 hours post-meal for a while
 

rom35

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431
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Diet only
myfitness pal that is 18g
I use method "eat to your glucometer". By experimenting (doing kind of OGTT at home) I measured, that I can eat max 3g of carbs in the morning and about 7g of the carbs in the evening to not pass 7,7 limit 1h after meal (without body activity).

So 18g of carbs is way over my limit :) As each normal person, sometimes I "fail" and eat more carbs (mainly cannot stand up to fresh bread!), I compensate it with 30m of quick walk.
 

eggs11

Well-Known Member
Messages
638
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I use method "eat to your glucometer". By experimenting (doing kind of OGTT at home) I measured, that I can eat max 3g of carbs in the morning and about 7g of the carbs in the evening to not pass 7,7 limit 1h after meal (without body activity).

So 18g of carbs is way over my limit :) As each normal person, sometimes I "fail" and eat more carbs (mainly cannot stand up to fresh bread!), I compensate it with 30m of quick walk.
Thanks @rom35 - I try to eat to my meter but have not been paying enough attention to what happens after 2 hours it seems - generally I stick to 15g carbs a meal - and don't normally eat rice, so hopefully this long sustained rise hasn't been happening too often without me knowing.
 

lovinglife

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4,539
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Type 2
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Diet only
You say you don't normally eat rice but what about the hummus? I only ask as I can cope with a little rice but even a sniff of a chickpea or hummus sends me high - a lot can eat pulses but for me they are worse than any bit of potato, rice or bread. I may be totally off the mark but thought it was worth a mention- you could try the peppers without the hummus see what happens. :)
 

eggs11

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638
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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You say you don't normally eat rice but what about the hummus? I only ask as I can cope with a little rice but even a sniff of a chickpea or hummus sends me high - a lot can eat pulses but for me they are worse than any bit of potato, rice or bread. I may be totally off the mark but thought it was worth a mention- you could try the peppers without the hummus see what happens. :)
Thanks, luckily houmous is normally absolutely fine for me - can't eat lentils or chickpeas in stews, soups etc but houmous is a 'safe' staple. I do have the other half of the pepper in the fridge - so can experiment without the houmous - I suspect that the rise will be higher (which I don't really want) but shorter lasting without the fat in the houmous. I might split it and have a quarter of it at lunch with maybe some eggs or tofu and the other quarter at dinner!
 

Bluetit1802

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25,216
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@eggs11

I flat line from 2 hours to 2.5 hours. Both readings are normally the same, but am back down at the 3 hour mark. I am not worried about this because the levels are acceptable to me (average is just over 6 for both) and I keep my post meal rise between 0.5mmol/l and 1.5mmol/l, average for evening meals is 1 mmol/l, but less for lunch. I did a home GTT a while ago, and found almost the same flat line pattern after pure glucose with no fat or protein getting in the way. I guess that is the way my body works. I do get a bit concerned if I find the 2.5 hour reading is higher, which happens occasionally.
 
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eggs11

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638
Type of diabetes
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@eggs11

I flat line from 2 hours to 2.5 hours. Both readings are normally the same, but am back down at the 3 hour mark. I am not worried about this because the levels are acceptable to me (average is just over 6 for both) and I keep my post meal rise between 0.5mmol/l and 1.5mmol/l, average for evening meals is 1 mmol/l, but less for lunch. I did a home GTT a while ago, and found almost the same flat line pattern after pure glucose with no fat or protein getting in the way. I guess that is the way my body works. I do get a bit concerned if I find the 2.5 hour reading is higher, which happens occasionally.
Thanks @Bluetit1802 I'm going to keep a closer eye on my post-meal readings to see what happens after 2 hours each time.
 
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