What on earth to make of these numbers?!?

[zauberflote]

Hello everyone! I had a really exciting FBG this morn of 100/5.5. Busy day, ate about 1/3 of a large donut with an otherwise good lunch, then ate a mostly good meal out with mom, but too much of it, and there were sweet potatoes involved (I have so missed them!). I have been not-enough hydrated all day due to circumstances. Got home about 2.5 hrs after that supper, BG 152/8.43!!!! Had been able to drink more water finally. Went for a short, not fast walk for my health, BG 89/4.94!!!! Are these numbers for real? Or does my meter need a new battery and hasn’t got round to telling me? If really 89, I am definitely on the right path. If really 152, that’s pretty scary... If really both, this is insane!

If anybody has seen this kind of behavior, I’d love to hear about it! Thanks

 

[zauberflote]

And in the time it took to type that, BG went to 100. Warmer inside. Dying battery? I’m going to bed!

 

[Goonergal]

@zauberflote am guessing that the sweet potatoes caused that higher reading and gentle walking may well have brought it down again.

Through regular testing you’ll get to know what to expect at certain times of the day/after eating particular foods/after exercise. That will help you to understand whether specific readings seem rogue.

I’m going through a period of odd readings but have over a year of very consistent numbers to judge against.

 

[Japes]

Sounds about right to me, @zauberflote . Half an hour of a gentle walk after a meal can drop me by those kinds of numbers almost every time. As can rehydrating when I've been drinking less than usual. The combination of the two always drops me by more than that!

 

[Member496333]

Seems normal glucose behaviour to me.

Try to focus less on the moment-to-moment readings in isolation. Instead use them as data points with which to draw the bigger picture. The bigger picture isn’t just getting by, meal-to-meal, it’s how much total glucose you’re ingesting (and making) over time, its effect on the total amount of sugar in your body, and the resultant level of insulin sensitivity.

 

[Brunneria]

Those numbers are perfectly 'normal'.
Non diabetics (and you are preD not officially D) can get higher numbers than that and stay within the 'normal' range.
Exercise, speed of digestion, stress and even activity levels such as going upstairs, or watching an exciting tv programme) will affect blood glucose.

If it was a large meal, then your digestion may have been significantly slowed, giving you a later peak than other, lighter meals would do.

For non diabetics the digestive timescale means that even if the blood glucose levels seem high (and yours were not particularly high), then the total 'high' time is shorter than for a diabetic. This means that less damage is done.

Try not to stress about these fluctuations.
If you felt that the high was too high, then just eat a smaller portion of carbs next time, or incorporate a bit more exercise earlier after eating.

This is a long game. You will get very tired of it if you stress over each reading.

 

[zauberflote]

@Goonergal I thank you for your expert input! I am so new to this-- only started LC and BG testing in late August, and didn't know exactly what I could and couldn't eat-- and still don't know what's "normal" for me; not enough numbers to work with yet. This forum has given me a wealth of new info to play with! So after another several months, I should have a database of my own readings that will tell me what to think of which, when.
@Japes (I love your avatar!!!) thank you! I am pre-D, but it's very good to know that you experience similar to me. The dehydration seems to be a huge factor in my own numbers. I've had two occasions of feeling like death warmed over, BG shooting up to, in one case, 180/9.99, and coming down by 70 points in a few hours simply by me resting and drinking lots of water. Almost-instant "cure" of numbers. The other occasion wasn't quite so high, but same treatment held.

@Jim Lahey I would have also "liked" your post but sadly, you can only pick one rating. Yes, I am actually taking the long view, even though I seemed a bit hysterical last night. I still don't have enough months of readings to draw long lines. Yesterday was "just another day at the office", but happened to include the lowest FBG and the 3rd highest ever BG in the same day. A little freaky after a fun but stressful day on way too little sleep lol. I am aiming for your numbers, but I only have until Valentine's Day to get there so I think I might not quite make it. (and all that assumes that my meter runs more towards smaller margins of error than large...so the numbers I see are actually apple to apples every time)

@Brunneria thanks for stopping by! Yeah, I have a long way to go to collect enough of a) my own data, and b) experienced members' input from here, before I can really know what's what, don't I. It was quite a large meal, and didn't have to be. But hubby, mom, and I were eating really good homecooked fresh food in a church fellowship hall, and I came in starving (bad idea but had no choice in the matter) so I did eat more of the veggie lentil soup and the sweet potato than was necessary. Allow me to feel virtuous about all the greens and broccoli I ate first-- and the roll I studiously ignored, along with the apples that came with that broccoli!!

 

[torchman2]

Hello everyone! I had a really exciting FBG this morn of 100/5.5. Busy day, ate about 1/3 of a large donut with an otherwise good lunch, then ate a mostly good meal out with mom, but too much of it, and there were sweet potatoes involved (I have so missed them!). I have been not-enough hydrated all day due to circumstances. Got home about 2.5 hrs after that supper, BG 152/8.43!!!! Had been able to drink more water finally. Went for a short, not fast walk for my health, BG 89/4.94!!!! Are these numbers for real? Or does my meter need a new battery and hasn’t got round to telling me? If really 89, I am definitely on the right path. If really 152, that’s pretty scary... If really both, this is insane!

If anybody has seen this kind of behavior, I’d love to hear about it! Thanks

This is what I posted about last week: crab restriction reduces insulin sensitivity, because you are not testing your insulin mechanism. If you avoid carbs, then eat them, you will see a big spike in BG..

@Jim Lahey took exception to what I wrote, but here is Chris Kresser and a guy called High Fat Nutrition writing about:

"One caveat here is that very low-carb diets will produce elevated fasting blood glucose levels. Why? Because low-carb diets induce insulin resistance. Restricting carbohydrates produces a natural drop in insulin levels, which in turn activates hormone sensitive lipase. " from https://chriskresser.com/when-your-“normal”-blood-sugar-isn’t-normal-part-2/

and the High Fat Nutrition post he links to https://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2007/10/physiological-insulin-resistance.html

"Well, the first thing is that LC eating rapidly induces insulin resistance. This is a completely and utterly normal physiological response to carbohydrate restriction. "

"So, I often walk around with a fasting blood glucose of 5.9mmol/l and in mild ketosis, yet have normal pancreatic and muscle function, provided I carb load before the test. BTW my FBG dropped to 4.3mmol/l after three days of carb loading."

 

[zauberflote]

@torchman2 man, talk about rabbit holes! I've just spent (too) long a time reading those posts and the comments on high-fat's blog. I love it when professionals get into the act and I can't understand a WORD of the discussion Something I think Chris Kessler avoids in his talks there on his site is, the rest of your variables surrounding this self-testing he advocates. Let's say on Day one I walked 3 miles fast before lunch in 50F weather. Day two I walked a mile fast before lunch in 85F weather (it happens here in central Virginia! Last January, to be precise.) Day three I have no time to walk before lunch, so I walk after supper. I bet you anything this would skew his figures. I think that his self-studies aren't quite well-enough designed to learn anything useful, and IMNSHO a person shouldn't put things like that up on the internet for all to decide is gospel truth in all cases. /rant.... I do think he makes sense, and I like to have more info about everything in general, health, astronomy, US politics, whatever lol.

I'd need to read everything a few more times to really make sense of your links, but I certainly ate more carbs yesterday than the days before. Many of them came associated with fiber, however, and my gut thanks me for that!