Hi, I have been hovering in the grey area for years and my last blood results were 49, this was some months ago and I haven't done anything about it. My BP is raised and so is my cholesterol. I've been looking into reducing carbs but don't want to go keto so thought of sticking to 150g daily, would this work? Additionally I have ordered blood glucose monitor to see what sends my sugar levels up (kind of hoping to frighten myself into finally doing something about my diet) but I'm not sure how I should use it - do I take my sugar level in the morning first thing then after lunch and dinner and what should the reading be. I'm 60, 5'3", 11st 4. Any tips would be appreciated. Thank you.
Advice please
- Thread starter corwnlyn
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catinahat
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Welcome @corwnlyn
Good decision to get yourself a meter, without one it's impossible to know if the changes you make to your diet are effective.
Random Tests throughout the day will just give an idea of your levels but other than that no real useful information.
Test just before you eat, this is your base level. Eat your meal then test again around 2hrs later.
The difference in the two results will tell you how that meal has affected your sugar levels.
A non diabetic person would generally see their sugar levels return to around the base level within the 2hrs.
We generally allow ourselves a buffer of 2mmol, so if your post meal level is no more than 2mmol above your base level, you can consider that meal a keeper.
If however your 2nd test is more than the 2mmol above base line, then that meal had too many carbs for you to process efficiently. Armed with that knowledge you can rethink that meal, find a way to reduce the carbohydrate content, or if your level was way over the 2mmol maybe consider dropping that meal altogether.
Your 150g of carbs would be more than I had in 3 or 4 days, it's possible it could work for you, who knows, let your meter decide.
I didn't particularly want to do a keto diet either, but it just sort of happened. When we burn fat for energy, the fats are broken down into ketones and they are used to fuel your body. Anybody who has ever lost any weight has burned ketones to do it. And if you think about it if we are having trouble using glucose, it makes sense to burn the energy we can use
Good decision to get yourself a meter, without one it's impossible to know if the changes you make to your diet are effective.
Random Tests throughout the day will just give an idea of your levels but other than that no real useful information.
Test just before you eat, this is your base level. Eat your meal then test again around 2hrs later.
The difference in the two results will tell you how that meal has affected your sugar levels.
A non diabetic person would generally see their sugar levels return to around the base level within the 2hrs.
We generally allow ourselves a buffer of 2mmol, so if your post meal level is no more than 2mmol above your base level, you can consider that meal a keeper.
If however your 2nd test is more than the 2mmol above base line, then that meal had too many carbs for you to process efficiently. Armed with that knowledge you can rethink that meal, find a way to reduce the carbohydrate content, or if your level was way over the 2mmol maybe consider dropping that meal altogether.
Your 150g of carbs would be more than I had in 3 or 4 days, it's possible it could work for you, who knows, let your meter decide.
I didn't particularly want to do a keto diet either, but it just sort of happened. When we burn fat for energy, the fats are broken down into ketones and they are used to fuel your body. Anybody who has ever lost any weight has burned ketones to do it. And if you think about it if we are having trouble using glucose, it makes sense to burn the energy we can use
catinahat
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This gives some idea of blood sugar ranges
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/blood-sugar-level-ranges.html
But you don't need to worry too much about the actual numbers for now.
It is the difference between your before and after results that is important
The meters are not as accurate as we would like, +/-15%
So the just give an idea of where your levels are, if your result is say 6mmol
Your actual level could be anywhere between 5 and 7, that's why we allow ourselves a 2mmol buffer. The meters are just not accurate enough to do otherwise.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose-meters/blood-glucose-meter-accuracy.html
JoKalsbeek
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Not everyone needs to go keto... When I started out, I just gradually reduced carbs until I was at a point where I could call my blood sugars good. Keto worked for me, also because it was easier for me to just aim for "low" rather than calculate allowances all the time. I was quite thoroughly into the diabetic range though, you're just barely over the threshold, so it's quite likely you don't have to do anything as "drastic" as very, very low carb. There's moderately low carb, low carb, keto, carnivore... Just figure out, with the aid of your meter, which helps you most at this point. Do keep in mind that diabetes can change over the years, so keep an eye on things. See if anything changes, like how many carbs you can tolerate. But yeah, test before a meal and 2 hours after the first bite, aim for a rise of no more and preferably lower than 2.0 mmol/l. Keep that as a guideline and you should be fine.
JoKalsbeek thank you for your reply and advice.
I am starting today with a huge reduction of carbs and hope to keep it up in the coming weeks and months. I need to lose at least a stone so hopefully the weight loss will also spur me on. I'm looking forward to receiving the monitor (sad I know) so I can do some testing.
I am starting today with a huge reduction of carbs and hope to keep it up in the coming weeks and months. I need to lose at least a stone so hopefully the weight loss will also spur me on. I'm looking forward to receiving the monitor (sad I know) so I can do some testing.
