• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

2 hour postprandial readings:- 2 hours from start or finish of meal????

Ricky

Well-Known Member
Messages
297
Location
Merseyside
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
When you take 2 hour after eating readings should it be 2 hours from when you begin your meal or when you end it?

My HbA1c has gone up a lot since last year and also many recent fasting tests have been over 6. However the last 10 days my fasting numbers have gone right down to 5.3, 5.4 since I started taking a product called Alflorex an expensive probiotic someone told me to try.

Since I have been called into the Drs to discuss this HbA1c I want to take in a load of recent tests as I have plenty of test strips at the moment. I suspect this will be crunch time when the doc finally realises that I have been getting strips on NHS for the last 10 years since they were prescribed by a doctor who has since retired!!!

So my question is - if i want to do the 2 hour test is it 2 hours from the time you start eating or the time you stop eating???
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Test two hours after the first bite. Lucky you getting strips does your doctor not read the screen? I Saw my GP a couple of weeks ago and he'd read my notes back to my previous visit in May and brought up the fact I haven't requested a repeat of the Statins he gave me. Why would I when I don't take them.....caught out by on the ball doctor
 
I've always gone by when I finish eating - I'm a pretty slow eater and quite often take 45 minutes or more to eat my main meal - if I was measuring at 1 hour and used the first bite method, it'd actually be 15 minutes after I finish eating. I've always worked on the last bite not the first because that's what made sense to me. I guess the main thing is to pick a system and stick to it if you want to work with consistent figures.
 
OK so we have 1 of each. What is the official answer to this? Anyone know???
 
I test just before I start eating and 2 hours after that. Immediately pre meal means i haven't eaten anything that I might possibly have started digesting if I tested after finishing my meal. Which I might have done if I first tested after I'd stopped. So doing it this way makes more sense to me.

But if you're in doubt and have plenty of free strips why not do both to see what difference it might make? When I first started testing I did actually do my initial test at the end of my meals for the reason that @Indy51 has given you, and then 2 hours after that and my levels were actually lower when I measured that way.

Robbity
 

From the Diabetes Self Management Site

"There is some common ground when it comes to blood sugar monitoring practices. For example, most people take a fasting reading before breakfast every morning. Some people also monitor before lunch, dinner, and bedtime; some monitor after each meal; and some monitor both before and after all meals.

However, when monitoring after meals, some people do it two hours after the first bite of the meal, while others prefer to check one hour after the start of a meal".

The San Fransico Childrens Hospital states :-

  • Two hours after the start of a meal, if results from before the meal don't matchHbA1c.
It appears the Jury is still out
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ricky said:
What is the official answer to this? Anyone know???
Click to expand...

There is no official answer, as nobody actually knows.

As with many things, Dr Google is very good at making up "facts" usually by it being read by people and then repeated over and over. The "2 Hours after 1st bite" idea is one of these.

Why 2 hours after your first bite, is any more relevant than 2 hours after your 5th bite, or your 20th bite is never mentioned.
 
Just be consistent. It doesn't really matter I don't think, so long as you are.
 
I am with @Indy. on this one Logic tells me that if you have a quick some thing on the run and test 2 hours after this then surely you would get a different result than if you had a 3 course meal chatting with friends which may take 1hour
CAROL
 
Thanks - all very interesting. With me it may be that I will do it when I remember!!! I always test in the morning when I get up before eating anything rarely any other time. I just want some readings for my doctor.
 
Surely what really matters is finding out when one spikes?
One needs to plot their BG response with time after starting meal.
Since I am a fast digester of high G.I. carbs I test at my peak of +1hour after starting to eat.
eg. After first bite +1hour

However, I try not to eat high G.I carbs now!
regards
Derek
 
Last edited by a moderator:
None of the UK literature seems to have an exact time for postpradial testing (that I've found), but I remember reading an American guideline that recommend timing it from your last bite.
 

For me the spike Is irrelevant. Non diabetics spike it's how quickly one returns to some kind of normal that is important to me. Two hours is the standard.
 
Some of us digest more quickly than others (and Reactive Hypoglycaemics often digest carbs VERY quickly indeed, and have huge spikes at around an hour).

So it probably makes sense to use the 2 hour as a guideline, and do a few exploratory tests to see how your body varies from the norm.

Once you know that, you can choose a pattern that allows you to catch the information you need. Just make sure it is consistent.

I am testing less and less often at the moment - nd have been steadily decreasing over the last year. I have tested most of my usual meals and responses to particular foods so often, that I can't see the point (as a diet controlled T2) in wasting strips to get the same results over and over again. This is a sharp contrast to when I was new to testing, and tested rigorously, in order to find out which foods did and did not suit me.

Worth noting that I still test carefully if I feel ill, am concerned I may have an infection, have eated different or unusual foods, or am stressed. I also do random checks, in order to make sure that my capacity to eat my usual foods has not deteriorated.
 
mikej1973 said:
For me the spike Is irrelevant. Non diabetics spike it's how quickly one returns to some kind of normal that is important to me. Two hours is the standard.
Click to expand...

Both @lindisfel and myself have reactive hypoglycaemia, and therefore spike quickly. It is important for us to know the height of the spike, and the speed of the drop, since that is often what causes the RH hypo.

Doesn't apply to everyone, but RH is one of the well trodden paths that can escalate to T2, so well worth identifying if it is happening. And, of course, of no interest at all to people who don't experience it.
 

Fair enough! Lots of people with old school T2 are very interested in minimising the spike too. Its all about what matters to individual.
 
As Brun says we are R.H if I have carbs I can hypo +2hours.
I and others have been misled by just checking at +2hours
D.
mikej1973 said:
Fair enough! Lots of people with old school T2 are very interested in minimising the spike too. Its all about what matters to individual.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Is 'old school' type two different to todays type two...just wondering
 
This is how I read it a couple of years ago when first testing and experimenting, trying my favourite foods and how much etc.
So, the reason it is first bite, is because of the same response as saliva, as soon as you bite into food your hormones respond with automatic response.

I'm not certain anyone can be so precise, but as Indy says, she can take a while eating and no one always clock watches.
Brunneria is right it's about trends and finding your spike and return around the two hour mark, to see if you're over the 2mmols limit.

But us RH ers it is mainly the spike and trying not to get one! That can be within half an hour or over an hour but not later than that, then it's all downhill unless we eat again.

The reason for testing is because we are all different and some of us can cope with certain foods and the only way you know is by testing!
You should always keep a food diary and record everything, so you can always look back and compare and see the trends.

Hope this clarifies everything!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…