Eat to your meter

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StickyWicket

Member
Messages
9
Hello Everyone :wave:
I'm getting on quite well with a low carb diet (losing weight and HbA1C levels have dropped a little) and have now managed to obtain two prescriptions for meter strips in the last 6 months from the diabetic nurses at my surgery - they took some persuading but I got there! As the test strips are such a precious resource, I want to make the best of them. I keep seeing people posting that they eat to their meter, but I'm not quite sure what this means. Can anyone tell me the most efficient way to use my meter? What sort of frequency? Best time of day - before and after meals? I've got a Bayer Contour Next so it keeps a log of my readings, but should I be logging carbs too? (I'm not on insulin, so can't log that obviously.) What do people do with the information from their meters, and how do you interpret it and use it to modify your diet? I'd be really grateful for any pointers.
Good health to us all!
 
gally

gally

Well-Known Member
Messages
76
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
HI i use this -http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ it helps me a lot and i can log my bg readings , put in your food that you eat at every meal it counts your carbs for you i found it reallt helpful
 
D

Daibell

Master
Messages
12,652
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi. I virtually always just test 2 hours after a typical meal and only do this perhaps once a week when I want to check aparticualr mix of carbs and meal size. It lets me know what foods affect me most and also shows whether on average my sugars are rising which currently they are! My One Touch meter stores my readings so I have about 8 years worth of these readings which I can print out (there have been periods of months where I didn't bother to measure). Eating to the meter means reducing carbs or seeking out further meds if the 2 hour readings are regularly above NICE guideline limits. You can of course measure more freqently but this has a big cost in strips and also you can become a bit obsessive about it; something GPs worry about. Don't measure first thing in the morning as overnight liver dumps can give misleading results. Ideally you would measure just before and 2 hours after a meal to see the difference but at the end of the day the 2 hour result is what you care about.
 
K

KennyS

Well-Known Member
Messages
114
I have pretty much passed the stage where I needed to test before and after every meal. I know what my body will accept within a group of foods. Now I test when I want to try to alter what I eat or add something questionable to a meal. I tend to graze. That is, I eat three meals and three snack in a day. It levels out my blood sugar and by doing this, allows me to group tests if I want to try out new foods. For instance. If I wanted to try an unknown ... say .... soup and I also wanted to test a dessert. I would test before the soup meal, 2 hours after the meal, then have the desert very shortly after and then test 2 hours after that. .... 2 solid results with 3 tests....

Hope it helps
Kenny :thumbup:
 
izzzi

izzzi

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,207
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi, StickyWicket :)

I to wondered what "eat your meter" was all about until I Goggled it, It is just another forum site. I was not impressed.


Roy, :)
 
F

Fraddycat

Well-Known Member
Messages
709
izzzi said:
Hi, StickyWicket :)

I to wondered what "eat your meter" was all about until I Goggled it, It is just another forum site. I was not impressed.


Roy, :)
Click to expand...


Hi Izzy, the other forum you mentioned, is recently started, full of friendly, helpful people, and is not sponsored so does not need to compromise or moderate its message to accommodate sponsors. But anyone wanting to come and join can make their own minds up. Just Google 'Eat to your meter' and you'll find us! :thumbup:
 
izzzi

izzzi

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,207
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Sorry Fraddycat I did jump the gun a little without looking properly.

Roy. :)
 
M

meerbrook

Newbie
Messages
1
Hi Sticky wicket,i am on insulin & i use my meter before meals or sometimes i test 2 hours after a meal.I then take my meter every time i see my diabetic nurse at my Dr's or see my specialist & they work out whether i have to ajust my insulin or other medication.I hope this is some help to you. :) :clap:
 
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