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Lower BG after Eating

Grace04

Grace04

Well-Known Member
Messages
193
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi, I’m not overly concerned but just wondered if anyone could shed light on this.

I did my blood glucose before breakfast and it was 5.1 mmol/L. For breakfast I had low carb muesli, half soya milk half water on it, 5 raspberries and 4 small strawberries. Tested again an hour and a half later and BG was 4.8 mmol/L. The same thing happened yesterday evening. 5.4 mmol/L before my meal and 4.5 mmol/L after. I’d eaten about 8 carbs.

I guess it could just be down to margin of error on the meter?
 
Grace04 said:
Hi, I’m not overly concerned but just wondered if anyone could shed light on this.

I did my blood glucose before breakfast and it was 5.1 mmol/L. For breakfast I had low carb muesli, half soya milk half water on it, 5 raspberries and 4 small strawberries. Tested again an hour and a half later and BG was 4.8 mmol/L. The same thing happened yesterday evening. 5.4 mmol/L before my meal and 4.5 mmol/L after. I’d eaten about 8 carbs.

I guess it could just be down to margin of error on the meter?
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You're aiming for a rise of 2.0mmol/l after a meal, or less. This would fall under or less, methinks... A meter can be legally off by about 15%, so still close enough for government work. It just means you're doing well processing the few carbs you're having. In other words, you're doing a great job on the low carb diet.
 
Hi @Grace04 Yes, it certainly is within the error margin.
Also it 's quite possible for a low or zero carb meal to prompt the liver to stop dumping glucose into the bloodstream after a fast (such as overnight). I have a fairly strong Dawn Phenomenon and quite often had a BG of high 7's in the morning before breakfast ( back before 'fat adapted' - so I was still eating breakfast ). But a couple of boiled eggs or piece of cheese and 2hrs later my BG was either the same or lower, even without any exercise. The liver is a funny thing, it thinks we are still in the stone age and need energy to hunt/gather our Breakfast.
 
JoKalsbeek said:
You're aiming for a rise of 2.0mmol/l after a meal, or less. This would fall under or less, methinks... A meter can be legally off by about 15%, so still close enough for government work. It just means you're doing well processing the few carbs you're having. In other words, you're doing a great job on the low carb diet.
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Thanks Jo :)
 
ianf0ster said:
Hi @Grace04 Yes, it certainly is within the error margin.
Also it 's quite possible for a low or zero carb meal to prompt the liver to stop dumping glucose into the bloodstream after a fast (such as overnight). I have a fairly strong Dawn Phenomenon and quite often had a BG of high 7's in the morning before breakfast ( back before 'fat adapted' - so I was still eating breakfast ). But a couple of boiled eggs or piece of cheese and 2hrs later my BG was either the same or lower, even without any exercise. The liver is a funny thing, it thinks we are still in the stone age and need energy to hunt/gather our Breakfast.
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Interesting about the low carb and liver dumping. So much to learn…..

Thank you :)
 
I sometimes see a slight reduction post meal, and sometimes get the same level both pre and post. Since we're aiming for a max post meal increase of 2mmol/l, these results essentially indicate that I'm getting my carby balance more or less right. So it would appear that you're doing just fine managing your carbs .

It's also possible if we have too many carbs to get a higher than usual mid meal spikey rise which may result in our livers doing bit of overcompensation so there's a slight dip before glucose comes back to a more normal level. But I think that's a slightly different issue. I saw this happen a couple of times when I was wearing a Libre sensor.

(And similar to @ianf0ster's dawn phenimenon, mine tends to be the highest level of the day and reduces as time goes on.)
 
Robbity said:
I sometimes see a slight reduction post meal, and sometimes get the same level both pre and post. Since we're aiming for a max post meal increase of 2mmol/l, these results essentially indicate that I'm getting my carby balance more or less right. So it would appear that you're doing just fine managing your carbs .

It's also possible if we have too many carbs to get a higher than usual mid meal spikey rise which may result in our livers doing bit of overcompensation so there's a slight dip before glucose comes back to a more normal level. But I think that's a slightly different issue. I saw this happen a couple of times when I was wearing a Libre sensor.

(And similar to @ianf0ster's dawn phenimenon, mine tends to be the highest level of the day and reduces as time goes on.)
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Hi Robbity, thanks for coming back to me. It interesting to know how how the low carb works for others and the different ways ours livers react to different scenarios.
 
As a prediabetic, your first phase response or insulin resistance to carbs won't be that bad. Your system can tolerate more than a diabetic and more likely to be able to cope. So the low carb, will help with your BG levels, and quite often, the insulin response is higher and spikes are lower. Inbetween eating and two hours, the variance can go up or go down, depending on the amount of insulin/glucose already in the blood. And in the meantime your overall BG levels, hba1c levels should come down with a low carb diet.

There is a lot to understand, but from those readings, you are on the right track, well done, brilliant!
 
Lamont D said:
As a prediabetic, your first phase response or insulin resistance to carbs won't be that bad. Your system can tolerate more than a diabetic and more likely to be able to cope. So the low carb, will help with your BG levels, and quite often, the insulin response is higher and spikes are lower. Inbetween eating and two hours, the variance can go up or go down, depending on the amount of insulin/glucose already in the blood. And in the meantime your overall BG levels, hba1c levels should come down with a low carb diet.

There is a lot to understand, but from those readings, you are on the right track, well done, brilliant!
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Hi, thank you so much for the explanation and the encouragement. Both are very much appreciated.

I would love to stave off diabetes, at least for as long as I can with the low carb diet.
 
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