Confused about blood readings

I can't explain properly, I'm sure others will, but basically your liver will dump glucose into your blood stream to wake you up and get you going first thing in the morning - the dawn phenomenon. And as you're T2 your pancreas does provide some insulin and hence the slight drop after eating.

Well done on your best lowest score so far!

Your figures can go up over night as the liver will dump glucose to give the body energy for waking. It is also know as Dawn Phenomenon DP.

Snootybutnice said:

Last night I had my lowest reading ever at 10pm of 6.3 a few hours after eating. I was so excited I couldn't wait to see what it was this morning. So after eating nothing else I woke up this morning and took my reading at 7am. It was 7.1 ?? Higher!

Then I decided to have half a protein roll from Lidl with a teaspoon of peanut butter and coffee with cream (no sugar).
It was a late breakfast following a fasting for a blood test at the hospital. I took my reading before I sat down to eat my late breakfast at 11:20am. It was 7.9 - so up even higher from earlier this morning when I'd had half a cup of water only.

I then retook blood readings following my meal to see at what point I was spiking:
12:04 = 7.8
12:52 = 7.7
13.27 = 7.5

So...I was expecting to see a spike after eating but "nothing". My numbers are going down.
I'm really confused as to why my readings should go up after not eating and go down after eating?!! Help!

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I'll try to make it as simple as I can.

Early morning, running up to normal wake up times, many people find their blood numbers go up a bit. This happens when our livers release some stored glucose to provide a bit of energy for the getting up routine. For some folks, their numbers can continue to go up until they eat.

Whilst that might seem alarming, I don't view it as such, because as I say, the glucose in the blood at that time is from the body's natural stores in the liver. What then happens when we do eat is that our bodies replenish their stores first, so sometimes the rise when we do eat is minimal for a while, and as you notice, sometimes it can result in no rise at all.

In some ways it's a bit like dipping into an overdraft, then as soon as it's payday it pays that bit first.

Of course, that's hyper simplified, but it pretty much covers it, in my view.

In essence, it's nothing to be too concerned about.

There's nothing worse than getting multiple replies all saying something completely different - 3 reply posts and all 3 pretty much saying the same thing! Happy days!

Snootybutnice said:

But why is it that sometimes my levels go up a few points after food and for the first time today it's gone down after food. More specifically...does this mean that what I had for breakfast sat really well with my body since I had no spikes and I can happily have this as a good breakfast option in the future?

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I'd say yes, to use @AndBreathe's analogy: your body used your livers overdraft to fuel your body this morning, the food you ate later was used to pay that back, and as your BS went down (slightly) then it shows the carbs in that meal was slightly less that what the over-draft was.

EDIT: to add obviously nothing is set in stone with diabetes so you'll find things do vary from day to day

And don't forget that meters are not pin point accurate. The acceptable range is ±15%.

Snootybutnice said:

Given the DP, does that mean that when testing new foods it is better to do it in the afternoons once DP is out of the way? My bloods are now down to 7.1 and just had stilton & broccoli soup and the other half of the Lidl protein roll (another new thing!) so I'll see what that does!! :-D

Thanks everyone it's making a bit more sense now!!

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I would say, you test the food you've eaten when you eat it. There's no benefit in testing something you'll only eat at breakfast in the afternoon or evening. That tells you nothing ground breakingly important. If, however, you then go on to eat that same food as part of a meal, later in the day, then test it again then.

There are so many factors in blood testing. Results with the same foods eaten at the same time on different days can vary due to what you ate the meal before, how you slept, if you have any infection going on, whether you are stressed, different batches of strips, and so on it goes.

To be honest, we T2s are more concerned about our ranges rather than whether we are 6.3 or 6.5, say. For example, my fasting range generally runs between 3.5 and 4.5. When I test, provided I'm within that range, I just move on.

After almost 3 years, I have a decent handle on what I'm doing, for myself. It only comes with experience, reading and asking questions, so don't expect to know everything immediately. Life doesn't teach lessons that way.

Oh. And of course, as your results come down into range, your numbers may change a bit again. Mine lowered in notches, rather than a steady line.

You'll get there.

Snootybutnice said:

Given the DP, does that mean that when testing new foods it is better to do it in the afternoons once DP is out of the way? My bloods are now down to 7.1 and just had stilton & broccoli soup and the other half of the Lidl protein roll (another new thing!) so I'll see what that does!! :-D

Thanks everyone it's making a bit more sense now!!

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When you test new foods test immediately before eating and then at 1 and 2 hours after the first mouthful. You will then see how much your blood sugar has gone up due to you eating (what you have eaten). This is what is called the blood sugar spike caused by the food. If the before and after readings are the same within a few decimal points then great. If your bloods have gone up by more than 2.0 mmol/l after 2 hours then you probably shouldn't eat that food again. As you get used to low carb eating you should find that your bloods won't go up by more than 1-1.5 mmol/l after 2 hours which is good. Then again over time as your general blood glucose levels come down you should start to see lower lows and lower highs which is beneficial. this is very general for a beginner. Once you get more sure about what you can eat then you can fine tune even more.. although of course the variation in meter readings make that a bit more difficult. At the start though if you go as low carb as you can you should get more immediate benefits.

Snootybutnice said:

Last night I had my lowest reading ever at 10pm of 6.3 a few hours after eating. I was so excited I couldn't wait to see what it was this morning. So after eating nothing else I woke up this morning and took my reading at 7am. It was 7.1 ?? Higher!

Then I decided to have half a protein roll from Lidl with a teaspoon of peanut butter and coffee with cream (no sugar).
It was a late breakfast following a fasting for a blood test at the hospital. I took my reading before I sat down to eat my late breakfast at 11:20am. It was 7.9 - so up even higher from earlier this morning when I'd had half a cup of water only.

I then retook blood readings following my meal to see at what point I was spiking:
12:04 = 7.8
12:52 = 7.7
13.27 = 7.5

So...I was expecting to see a spike after eating but "nothing". My numbers are going down.
I'm really confused as to why my readings should go up after not eating and go down after eating?!! Help!

Click to expand...

I think it is as others say DP is probably the culprit. It improves as your average levels get lower, and the LC diet you seem to be following should also promote the liver supplies to gradually deplete so that the liver dumps become less obvious.

One thing to male sure of and that is that although the protein roll is recommended for LC diets, they still have some carb content. Similarly commercial peanut butter often has hidden sugars added such as malitol or fructose, and these are not innocent bystanders

Snootybutnice said:

Thanks Oldvatr - I wanted to try the rolls as I'd seen a lot of people talk about them so I bought one out of curiosity. It was lovely but I don't want this to be an everyday thing because of the carbs and because I don't want to rely on eating bread every day either. I think this was to be regarded as a 'treat'. As to the peanut butter it did have carbs as well - so I'll go easy on that too. Appreciate the heads up as I'm so new to all of this xx

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I had a protein roll this evening. I use them as a potato / pasta/ rice substitute rather than as a bread or toast substitute. I am lucky in that I find I can eat 1 slice of Aldi Batch seeded loaf as my breakfast, and still get good readings. 2 slices is tolerated too, but takes me out of ketosis. I use this as my primary control as a weight gain / loss switch. Works for me. I need breakfast to zap my morning liver dump, and also since my morning meds need to be taken with food.

Beware, some Lidl stores have halved the size of their rolls, and dropped the price. They are more manageable now at 85g, and have less carbs too. The price tag in the store should tell you what size they are, as does the price...... The rolls can sit quite nicely in the freezer till needed, and are a handy standby

Your numbers and reaction sound like exactly what happens to me and quite a few others. There are quite a few threads on here about how to shut DP down but there does not seem to be any consensus on what, if anything, works. Do a forum search and look for an older thread by @Brunneria where she used herself as a guinnea pig to try a bunch of different methods. It is quite interesting.