• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Blood Sugar Drops After Eating (Type 1)

B

Beery

Member
Messages
12
So the past week I’ve noticed that whenever I eat a meal my blood glucose levels drop quite rapidly sometimes sending me into a hypo, I know for a fact that I have correctly counted the carbs etc so I know that’s not the problem as this has only recently started happening. I’ve also recently been given the freestyle libre and noticed that during the night after I have fallen asleep my blood glucose levels can rise to 18 before slowly dropping back down to about 11-13 even if I’ve went to bed without eating and my blood glucose levels around 7.
I’m on novorapid and levemir and I’ve only been diagnosed since March this year if that’s any help.
 
Hi there. Glad to hear you have FSL.
Hypos after meals may happen for a few reasons so here goes (forgive me if you have thought of all of these already):
1 Incorrect bolus to carb ratio (have you recently become more insulin sensitive e.g. lost weight, gone to the gym more and built extra muscles) or recovered from an infection, become less stressed? If female do you get a week o f insulin resistance before your cycle starts?
2 (more likely) Injecting to early before a meal. We are all different so the standard 20 minutes may not work for you right now.
3 (related to 2) Not taking into account different rates of absorption from what your carb is being eaten with otherwise known as The Pizza Phenomenom (fat really slows things down so take a split bolus dose
4 Doing exercise earlier in the day can result in a drop a few hours later so that is worth considering too.

It sounds as if at night time you are eating something which is getting absorbed slowly during the night or possibly if the spike is towards dawn then that 's a thing too (natural physiological response to the overnight fast is for your liver to release glucose into your blood).

Its a pain but type 1 is so complicated and much more than a set of carb to bolus ratios and fixed basal doses!
 
NicoleC1971 said:
Hi there. Glad to hear you have FSL.
Hypos after meals may happen for a few reasons so here goes (forgive me if you have thought of all of these already):
1 Incorrect bolus to carb ratio (have you recently become more insulin sensitive e.g. lost weight, gone to the gym more and built extra muscles) or recovered from an infection, become less stressed? If female do you get a week o f insulin resistance before your cycle starts?
2 (more likely) Injecting to early before a meal. We are all different so the standard 20 minutes may not work for you right now.
3 (related to 2) Not taking into account different rates of absorption from what your carb is being eaten with otherwise known as The Pizza Phenomenom (fat really slows things down so take a split bolus dose
4 Doing exercise earlier in the day can result in a drop a few hours later so that is worth considering too.

It sounds as if at night time you are eating something which is getting absorbed slowly during the night or possibly if the spike is towards dawn then that 's a thing too (natural physiological response to the overnight fast is for your liver to release glucose into your blood).

Its a pain but type 1 is so complicated and much more than a set of carb to bolus ratios and fixed basal doses!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the quick reply, my last meal for the last week or so was around 8 o’clock and I have not eaten till around 10 oclock the next day, I notice that from when I get up till when I eat my blood sugar will drop anywhere between 2 and 4 mmol depending on how I was when I woke up. As for the hypos I have been changing my basal doses and my bolus doses so I guess it will just take time for me to get the correct dose for the time of I day I eat at.
Thanks again
 
Beery said:
Thanks for the quick reply, my last meal for the last week or so was around 8 o’clock and I have not eaten till around 10 oclock the next day, I notice that from when I get up till when I eat my blood sugar will drop anywhere between 2 and 4 mmol depending on how I was when I woke up. As for the hypos I have been changing my basal doses and my bolus doses so I guess it will just take time for me to get the correct dose for the time of I day I eat at.
Thanks again
Click to expand...
You are right about times of day! Having a pump lets me change bolus ratios to reflect activity levels or hormonal stuff . When I took levemir I noticed that it was also a lot more active at the front end of the dose. You may also still have some functioning insulin production going on being so recently diagnosed. Good luck with figuring it all out.
 
Beery said:
As for the hypos I have been changing my basal doses and my bolus doses so I guess it will just take time for me to get the correct dose for the time of I day I eat at.
Click to expand...

It's a balancing act. Most people say that the most important thing is to get your basal right first? Having said all that, your needs may be changing because your honeymoon period (when your body still produces some insulin after diagnosis) is finally ending....
 
Back
Top