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BG readings?

C

Conor987

Newbie
Messages
4
Type of diabetes
HCP
Hi,

Sorry to post here. It may be the wrong forum but for some reason I can't post in the ask a question forum.

I have not been diagnosed with diabetes, however I have been getting light headed shortly after eating meals recently.

I thought the issue may be blood pressure related however my readings are not low. I have always been conscious of the fact that I have a sweet tooth and that I eat way too much chocolate, biscuits and cakes. I am overweight and carry my fat around my middle, so thought the light headedness could come from elevated blood sugars.

I joined the low carb programme thinking it wouldn't do me any harm to try it, especially if it helps me lose some weight. The programme assumes however that you are diabetic and encourages you to monitor BG. I thought I may as well.

Today I have monitored for the first time and am a bit confused. Upon waking this morning my fasted reading was 5.9. Due to having a lie in I pushed breakfast back and went for a walk with the family; about 3 miles. Got home had 2 sips of black tea and tested again as it would be 15 minutes before meal. So still in a fasted state my reading was 6.7. I was surprised it had gone up.

I had my breakfast of avocado, 2 scrambled eggs, olive oil and pepper washed down with another black tea. 2 hours later my reading was 4.5.

I was really confused as I expected BG to go up after a meal even though it was low carb.

I seem to have gone from prediabetes readings in a fasted state to normal readings post prandial.

I know the liver secretes glucose when fasting but that doesn't explain the normal reading post prandial.

Any ideas what might be going on? I don't want to get too bogged down in readings but I did think it might give some insight into my health, but now I'm just confused.

Thanks in advance.
 
I don't think your readings are that abnormal. Many things can effect them. Liver dumps in the night, exercise, weather too hot/cold as well as food and drink.
In this case I think you started with a slightly higher reading due to a liver dump this could have carried on rising or the walk sent your reading up. You could try the same thing again but without the exercise to see which it was.
It takes a few tests to start to see patterns, I wouldn't read too much into a singe reading. Breakfast usually brings my readings down or stops them rising anyway.
 
Hi @Conor987 ,

In my view that rise of .8 could also be down to a slight variation of the actual meter reading? Some folk have tested within 2 minutes & seen a simalar jump....

By the way. I can move this thread for you to ask a question if you wish?
 
I wouldn't worry about any of that, @Conor987 .

You're at 5.9 on waking, then you go for a 3 mile walk, your body realises you're doing a bit of exercise so releases some glucose from the liver to help you along with that, so you end up a bit higher at 6.7. Then you have breakfast and end up at 4.5 later.

But remember you had your 3 mile walk earlier and how your liver might have released some glucose to help out with that? It likes to keep stored up with glucose for future use, so it might have then taken some glucose back, dropping you back to 4.5. The liver both releases and takes back glucose.

There's a phenomenon called after-drop where sugars can drop substantially hours after exercise.

Of course, it might also just be that because you're not T, your body just did what it normally does and returns you to 4.5.

While we can measure carbs and bg quite easily, we can't really measure what the liver is up to. My DSN, who is T1 too, describes it as a, "sly wee f*ucker".

I'm looking at this from a T1 perspective but the basic biology holds true for non-T1s too.

On top of all that, agree absolutely with @Jaylee ,s point that meters aren't like finely tuned scales. They give an indication of roughly where you are. If you get 2 readings 0.8 out, those are basically the same number for all practical purposes.
 
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