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Confused by BG readings after blowout!

Birch59

Member
Messages
14
I was diagnosed T2 in May this year (Hba1c=50). Switched to reduced carb/Mediterranean diet and 30mins exercise per day and managed to lose 17Kg over 3 months and reduce HBA1c to 35, which I'm told is remission. Over the last 3 months, my weight is stable at 75Kg and I have been slowly reintroducing some carbs into the diet occasionally to see my body's response. Fasting BG lately has been around 5.7 mmol/l. Last night I went out for a meal with some old friends and went a bit mad, smoked salmon/prawns with Marie rose sauce with half a bread roll for starters, followed by gammon, fries and salad washed down with 2 pints of lager and a Cappuccino. On arriving home at about midnight (2hrs later) I took a BG reading. I was expecting to see something above 7mmol/l. To my amazement, it read 4.8. I was quite pleased with myself until this morning when I took a fasting BG at around 9 am and found it was now 6.3 mmol/l. This seems illogical but as I'm fairly new to this subject, I was wondering if anyone else had experienced anything similar.
 
Birch59 said:
This seems illogical
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T2D can be like that sometimes, and as we often repeat, everyone is different and respond differently.

It is possible that the spike caused by what you consumed occurred later in the evening, an hour or so after you tested, and then led to the higher fasting reading.
 
Hello Britishpub, Since my diagnosis, my alcoholic drink selection tends to be Red wine or a G&T, but I have noticed previously that having had a couple of beers, the BG reading obtained was lower than expected. As I don't drink beer very often now I didn't give it much thought, but perhaps there is some strange link.
 
I don’t drink alcohol myself but I believe that may have kept your blood sugars down. Your liver can’t multi task so deals with the alcohol first and forgets to chuck out any glucose while it’s doing that.
 
It could be random factor- delayed spikes etc: having fat with your carbs can give you a later spike. However, I expect it's the alcohol. If you have alcohol with your meals, you can post very low-readings after. OK for a one off, but the glucose is still going into your body, so probably not good as a regular thing.
 
For me personally on the couple of occasions I have tested bread in some form I actually don’t see a rise in my BG till around 3 hours after eating. It does come down slightly after that but stays above my pre-meal reading for a good 5-6 hours after I’ve eaten. Perhaps I digest bread more slowly? I don’t have the answer, but certain carbs may have delayed reactions on your readings
 
Rachox said:
I don’t drink alcohol myself but I believe that may have kept your blood sugars down. Your liver can’t multi task so deals with the alcohol first and forgets to chuck out any glucose while it’s doing that.
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Yup! They're all male
 
@ OP I have the same issue. If I have a drink or 2...3 my immediate readings are low as my liver deals with 'alcohol poisoning'
Once it has done that and I am fast asleep it catches up on the glucose dumping. More often than not I get much higher readings in the morning when I end the day relatively low
 

Sounds like the answer is to keep topped up with alcohol then!
 
Alcohol tends to lower blood glucose. Until later when it’s been processed and the beverage takes over.

There’s also an elastic effect from eating carbs when you think you can reintroduce them. Even if there’s no immediate spike, you’re giving your body the tools it needs to manufacture glucose in the morning.
 

I am similar to you as to having lost some weight and my hba1c diagnosis level. I have found my BG doesn't really do much when I eat a large amount of carbs on occasion. e.g. 5.4 before eating half a pizza a 'spike' to 7 after an hour and down to 5.2 at two hours and then into the 4s overnight.

I am still <50g most days but will eat carby things on occasion now and I don't stress over it which is nice but I'm not going to push my luck!

The normal advice here is that you need to always stay really low carb and I am sure that is really good advice for some but we are all different and you need to find what works for you.
 
Alcohol delaying spike - liver will deal with this before any glucose.
 
Thanks to all that responded. The wealth of experience on this forum is excellent.

I would really like to buy a Freestyle Libre to get a better insight into my BG variations throughout the day and after differing meals to understand better what is actually happening.

What do people think about the Freestyle Libre device versus a standard BG tester? As CL_in_NZ says we are all different in the way we respond to different Carbs.
 
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