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A bit confused

RosieDred

Well-Known Member
Messages
289
Location
South Wales
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Is it normal for my sugars go down 3 hours after eating but then go up by the time it gets to 5 hours after eating? I was 7.4 before food, 7.1 after 3 hours but then when I did them before my next meal (5 hours after previous meal) they were 8.4 ... Is this normal? Not eating anything in between the meals either


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A gap of five hours between meals puts you at risk of a liver rush and yes this will raise your blood sugars. Eating little and often is one way to get round this.
 
Your quick acting wears out around 5/6 hours, after that it's your background that keeps you stable. You may want to consider increasing your background by 1 unit, at a time


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Picci said:
Your quick acting wears out around 5/6 hours, after that it's your background that keeps you stable. You may want to consider increasing your background by 1 unit, at a time
Click to expand...

Have I made a booboo. I assumed the OP was type 2 since sugar levels were going down with time. I can't give opinions to type 1's since I have no experience.
 
I try and space my meals out and if I don't leave 5 hours between them I will be having tea so early i would be starving by bed time.

I'm currently taking fixed amounts of insulin before each meal, and I'm on 5 units before breakfast, 5 units before lunch and 8 units before tea. Surely that. means I can only eat 3 times a day?

Sorry if this is obvious, been diabetic since end of November and still feel confused a lot of the time


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I was on fixed bolus at each meal when first diagnosed. I was having to eat enough to cover the insulin. It becomes easier when you can vary your bolus to what you are eating rather than having to eat to match the insulin bolus.

There are foods you may be able to eat between meals that don't have an impact on your blood sugar like nuts, mini salamis. egg and cheeses. I make my own cheese crisps as an occasional snack. Today I have had a few nuts between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and the evening meal.

Soon you will learn how to vary your bolus for meals and snacks. Anyway, keep asking questions and some of the other T1s will be along to offer tips.
 
Thanks for the help. Would snacking in between meals keep my sugar levels down after 5 hours? I don't really feel the need to snack between meals but I will if it helps


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RosieDred said:
Thanks for the help. Would snacking in between meals keep my sugar levels down after 5 hours? I don't really feel the need to snack between meals but I will if it helps


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Click to expand...

I think further information in your insulin regime would be useful. If you snack your bgs would normally go up without insulin to cover them. But without much information I'm not sure how we can help.


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My insulin regime is as follows:

Before breakfast: 5 units
Before lunch: 5 units
Before dinner: 8 units
Basal: 8 units (9:30pm)

I take novorapid and levemir.

Most days I have breakfast between 6:30am and 7:00am, lunch between 12:30pm and 1:00pm and dinner between 5pm and 5:30pm. However this does change depending on my shifts. Sometimes I have breakfast at 9 or 10, lunch at 3ish and sometimes dinner at 7 or 8.

I have just been confused because 3 hours after eating my bg levels have been about 1 point lower than before eating but then 5 hours after eating they have been about 1 point higher. I thought that after 2 hours they drop, not rise?

Also if it's because I'm leaving too long between meals, how should I be spacing out my meals? For example, if I leave 4 hours then I would have breakfast at 6:30, lunch at 10:30 and dinner at 14:30 and then nothing for the rest of the day? I don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing or what is normal.

Thanks for everyone's help, I really appreciate it.


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One explanation could be (provided your basal insulin is OK) the fat in your previous meal, meals with a high fat content slows down the digestion of carbs and can lead to elevated bg many hours later.
 

I generally leave a gap of 5 to 6 hours before my next meal as by then you will have no quick acting left in your body. However, you CAN go much longer, the long acting covers you for that.
The only reason you have quick acting is to cover the food you are eating.
Most people will be higher 2 hours post meal as the food you've eaten has kicked, and this ideally will drop back down 5 hours later.
Perhaps don't worry about what the result is 2/3 hours after eating, and focus on getting a good result prior to your next meal-I think most folk aim to be between 4-7mmol pre meal, and correct me if I'm wrong, between 7-10mmol 2hours after eating. If you're really high before your next meal and its 5/6 hours after your last quick acting shot, this could be because you have miss calculated your carbs/insulin, or you need to increase your background insulin. Good luck
 
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