what are your standards for bg's?

the_anticarb

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Just interested to hear what target range people personally consider to be acceptable before they consider amending diet/medication as I know different people have different standards.

I aim for 4-7 before meals but can live with up to 8.5, after that I would start to think about whether or not I need to make changes.

After meals I can live with it being in the 9s, if it goes into double figures then the little red warning light inside my head starts flashing.

What do other people set as their standards, not their 'targets' so much but at what level does acceptable turn into not acceptable?
 

Celtic.Piskie

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Before meals, anything up to 7... anything over 6 consistently for, say, two weeks and i'd start to think.
After meals, anything under 10 is okay, and long as it goes down in 2 hours.

Actually, i think most things are acceptable, if i know why.
If i'm ill, i can live with them being a little higher, as when i'm ill my sugars tend to get very antsy, and i hate going low and being ill.

Generally, one higher reading doesn't bother me, especially if there's a readon. Consistently slightly higher readings bother me more, if i don't know why.
 

howie

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personally i aim for between 4-6 before meals and 5-7 after. if i go over i have a few extra shots. exercise seems to help out a lot in keeping those post meal readings down.

whenever i test friends and family after food it's always between 5-7, and dead on 5 with my partner (lucky b*tch!). so i aim to replicate that as much as possible. also i always feel weird when my level is above 8 so i don't go there if i can avoid it. i am a newbie but i tend to overestimate (on purpose), test my level and maybe have a mouthful of OJ to level out at 5. probably not what others would suggest though lol. i don't 'low carb' but i do 'lowish carb' and find i spike less after food.

honestly i don't really like going round at 6 unless i'm about to play tennis. i know 'normal' people don't so neither am i. but hey maybe i'll get fed up of being so strict cos i'm still pretty new to this.

all best,
howie
 

fergus

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I like to keep my bg's in the 4's pretty much most of the time. 5's are the upper limit I set myself, anything in the 6's isn't good enough because as a T1, I can't rely on endogenous insulin production to bring them down again. And correction doses really **** me off! Besides, numbers at those levels make me feel lethargic and thirsty.
I can go down into the 3's after exercise, but I know non-diabetics who drop even lower so that doesn't bother me, particularly since that's the one time I can eat 'free food' and not have to inject to cover it!
Averaging HbA1c at 4.7 over the past 3 years, which is what I'd expect if I were a healthy non-diabetic, so my long term goal is to stay in that zone.

All the best,

fergus
 

phoenix

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My pump target is set for 4-5.4mmol fasting and preprandial and 4.4mmol-6.6mmol post prandial, it does sometimes go above that but I wouldn't normally I correct with insulin, I have been known to get on the treadmill with the odd much higher than expected level.
Most of my problems are going below my targets rather than above.
Like Fergus I go into the 3s (and 2s) with exercise. I did have an Hb A1c of 4.9, but I have deliberately sought to raise it. Both my doc and I agreed that it was too low and that too many hypos. were reducing my awareness of them. I've had mixed sucess, a lot seems to depend on the temperature... wet, cold and heat all seem to make levels fall.
My doctor would prefer me to eat before exercise and start from a higher level but I hate eating to feed insulin. Having a pump I can reduce basal for exercise and if I remember to lower it in advance, then it works, particularly for medium effort over a longer period like a days cycling. Running is far less predictable and whatever I do my levels plummet after swimming.
 

belinda_b

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I try to keep fasting levels between 4.5 - 5.5 and no more than 7 one hour after a meal going back to 5 or under by two hours after.
 

OneDiabetic

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I regularly see 2 specific doctors at my clinic, one swears between 4-7, the other prefers 5-9

Personally i think 9 pre-food is too high, and id aim for around the 6's pre-food (mainly due to an unatural occurence of spikes and dips that ive learned to live with) post food id expect not to go over the 8.5 mark.

i'd start worrying if i got anything over 7-8 consistently.

I know alot of you, and alot of diabetics i know like to hang around the 4-5 mark, personally for me i feel thats to low, as im quite active and dips are common, not a chance would i go to bed on anything lower than 6-7. Just my own personal preference.
 

Spiral

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I don't want to go above 7 at any time, don't always manage it tho :roll:

I perfer to be below 5.5 before I have something to eat, don't always manage that either.

Although my average numbers have increased over the last couple of days I can see them going down again today. In the last couple of weeks I have even had some numbers in the 4s before food, that is ideally where I'd like to be.
 

howie

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mind if i add a question to this?

what do you guys aim for before and after sleep?

my diabetic nurse told me to make sure my BG is 6.5-8 before sleep (but providing i get my long acting correct why should i?). i go to sleep with 5 and wake up with 5 most days, providing i don't eat late.

but do you guys think we should aim to wake up with around 4 like most of our 'healthy' peers? or that it should at least be lower when we wake?

howie
 

hanadr

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I'm T2, relying MOstly on diet and exercise, with a little help from Metformin in a low dose. I set my own target as not over 6. I find I can keep in the 5s nearly all of the time. I would like 4s, but probably would need medication to get there. If I go above 6 I get VERY angry with myself for taking too many liberties. I hit 7 when I tried 3 days with no medication at all, but I didn't stick RIGIDLY to the eating plan, so no wonder :shock: That's about the only number above 6 in the last few months.
Hana
 

kegstore

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My target is 6 which I hit probably 75% of the time these days. For post-meal (2 hrs), I aim to be no more than 2 higher than pre-meal value, and I can normally maintain this tolerance even with very low GI carbs, which take much longer to raise bg levels with me.

I'm normally around 4 when I wake, but this quickly rises and I've never had the fortitude to determine whether is is down to the large amount of caffeine I drink in the morning (addicted? possibly...), or plain old boring dawn phenomenon.

I'm so glad I have the pump with CGM these days, makes it all much easier to manage, and now I can't blame anyone else if it all goes wrong!