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how do i know my pre and post meal numbers are on track ?

It is normal. Why are you confused? You were more or less the same before you ate and 2 hours after eating. This is excellent. Remember, the higher you start before a meal the higher you will be at the 2 hour mark. It is the amount of any rise that is important.
 
Postprandial can sometimes be lower than preprandial. Particularly if you catch gluconeogenesis on the swing.
 
These are the NICE guidelines for pre and post prandial readings. Yours are fine.

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Bluetit1802 said:
It is normal. Why are you confused? You were more or less the same before you ate and 2 hours after eating. This is excellent. Remember, the higher you start before a meal the higher you will be at the 2 hour mark. It is the amount of any rise that is important.
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yesterday my blood reading was 6.7 then after food it was 7.5 so this is too high isn't it ?
 
Charis1213 said:
yesterday my blood reading was 6.7 then after food it was 7.5 so this is too high isn't it ?
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The rise is fine. Irrespective of the food you ate, your liver could still be dumping glucose. To be honest, you have zero idea how much of that very small rise was due to the food or to your liver. You are better testing before and after lunch and dinner to get a better idea.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
The rise is fine. Irrespective of the food you ate, your liver could still be dumping glucose. To be honest, you have zero idea how much of that very small rise was due to the food or to your liver. You are better testing before and after lunch and dinner to get a better idea.
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I do test before meals and then after .
 
The early day tests were the ones I stopped first, as there was nothing more to learn from them as the increase was small or becoming a decrease.
Later in the day when there was more variation I tested less and less as I learned what I cold do - the last tests I did were all after eating in the evenings, and when they were under 7 or even under 6 I stopped those too.
 
Charis1213 said:
yesterday my blood reading was 6.7 then after food it was 7.5 so this is too high isn't it ?
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I actually believe that the preprandial number is more important than the post. If you’re elevated before a meal then your body is still working hard to clear glucose from the last one - to me this is a better indicator of metabolic health. The postprandial number is just confirming how many carbs were in the meal.

Only my views and opinions formed over the course of my journey. To me, fasting and preparndial are a better indicator of my level of insulin sensitivity. Others are free to disagree and I know that many will take a very different view :)
 
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Charis1213 said:
I do test before meals and then after .
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Sorry, I should have said concentrate on those rather than the morning levels. The number I look for above all others is the one before evening meal, which is always, always my lowest (I haven't eaten for 5 or 6 hours as I don't snack at all). I find this number is more indicative of how well I am managing. Morning levels are far too unpredictable, especially when you are first starting on this journey because your liver will be working overtime until such time as your insulin resistance improves. In my view they teach you very little at your stage in the journey.
 
Charis1213 said:
yesterday my blood reading was 6.7 then after food it was 7.5 so this is too high isn't it ?
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It's ok. For T2s should be between 4-7 before eating, it shouldn't have risen by more than 2.5 two hours later, and shouldn't be more than 8.5.
Your rise of 0.8 is low.
 
Jim Lahey said:
If you’re elevated before a meal then your body is still working hard to clear glucose from the last one
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Sometimes, but my bg, and I believe that of some others, can also rise if I fast for too long, in which case eating something may be the best tactic. It's a tightrope! In my experience nothing in diabetes is straight forward or predictable.
 
Charis1213 said:
so before my tea it was 6.5 two hours later its 6.8 . Normal ?
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Sometimes, inconveniently, it takes more than 2 hours for bg to peak and come down. If you can bear to use the strips, it is worthwhile testing at 1 hour, 2 hours, and even 3 and maybe even 4 if your bg has not settled back down at 3. In my case, I normally only start testing at 1hr30m because my bg is very slow to rise and can even fall for quite a while after meals. Once you get to know your patterns you can be more economical with strips (and time! and finger tips!)
 
Alexandra100 said:
Sometimes, but my bg, and I believe that of some others, can also rise if I fast for too long, in which case eating something may be the best tactic. It's a tightrope! In my experience nothing in diabetes is straight forward or predictable.
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Yes indeed. Fair comment. That’s gluconeogenesis - a real pain when your liver is insulin resistant. The measurable effect on blood glucose will be negligible when insulin sensitivity improves :)
 
Out of interest how long can it take to improve insulin sensitivity? Probably a how long is a piece of string type question.

I only started testing after going low carb so have no idea of what my numbers were on diagnosis/without low carb. They fairly quickly dropped from mostly 7 (with some 6 and 8’s) to a lot of 6’s (a reasonable number of high 5’s later in the day and some 7’s in the mornings). Hb1ac dropped from an initial 54 to 44 in the first 3 months and weight by 2.5 stone. Since then any changes in any of the above measures are very minimal. Nothing is really improving anymore. A good holding pattern but I’m not quite where I want to get to yet. Maybe I now need to do something differently to further improve insulin sensitivity, or wait it out as I’m already doing what’s needed other than more time.
 
HSSS said:
Out of interest how long can it take to improve insulin sensitivity? Probably a how long is a piece of string type question.

I only started testing after going low carb so have no idea of what my numbers were on diagnosis/without low carb. They fairly quickly dropped from mostly 7 (with some 6 and 8’s) to a lot of 6’s (a reasonable number of high 5’s later in the day and some 7’s in the mornings). Hb1ac dropped from an initial 54 to 44 in the first 3 months and weight by 2.5 stone. Since then any changes in any of the above measures are very minimal. Nothing is really improving anymore. A good holding pattern but I’m not quite where I want to get to yet. Maybe I now need to do something differently to further improve insulin sensitivity, or wait it out as I’m already doing what’s needed other than more time.
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I also get some afternoon readings of 5 and late evenings of 7, strange really this is why i asked as it confuses me .
 
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