I would like to seek your suggestions if it's better to take my daily metformin, 1000mg total, based on how many meals I have per day, also take into account on light/heavy meal, etc.
My recent H1bAc was too high, > 10, so I would like to be very careful on my BG level, and want to make sure to take my metformin in right ways.
Mostly I have two meals per day, so I took 500mg for each meal, then if I have three meals per day, how should I take the 1000mg?
Or if I have a big meal for lunch, should I take 750mg?
Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences.
I have not posted in a long time, but I would share my experience with you.
First diagnosed with diabetes type 2 in 2006, on 2x500mg metformin.
Fast forward...From 2009 to 2011, I was put on metformin 4x500mg metformin, 4x80mg gliclazide and 1 sitagliptin, at the time my blood sugars were very high, despite following the lighter life diet and doing regular exercise, unbeknownst to me at the time I had end stage liver disease, cirrhosis, which causes insulin resistance and problems with metabolism - particularly medication not working properly, lot of other things I won't bore you with.
In 2011 to 2012, I moved jobs, moved GPs, my blood sugars suddenly started to tank, right down to 1.5%, the opposite way to what they had been, finally I thought my diet is working, regular exercise, super fit etc. but struggled to stay awake while driving, barely keeping awake in meetings etc. shaking with what I thought was the low calorie diet of 600 calories per day, my GP kept telling me my blood readings were perfectly normal HBA1C was averaging out from the former high level plus the low level finger readings were normal said my GP at 1.5% (idiot).In the back of my mind I remembered my old GP telling me that ideal was 6.6 not 1.5.
After that job ended I moved again, ended up with the GP surgery who originally diagnosed me with diabetes, probably saved my life, 1.5 is too low, 6.6 is the ideal, diabetic nurse first recommended reducing medication and then only having it when I had meals, so there is definitely some truth to limiting medication with meals, that said, metformin does affect insulin resistance, allowing your insulin to work, the problem with most type 2 diabetics is that they produce too much insulin and they have insulin resistance.
I would definitely suggest getting a second opinion from your GP and diabetic nurse if you are dieting, that said if your bs level is still high like 10 instead of 6.6 then you still need to take your medication. In my opinion, you should also take regular readings to ensure it does not drop too low though.