Confused why can't get BG under 7

@Snorks The banana & protein shake are doing you no favours. They are very high in carbohydrates.

What type of diet are you on? How tall are you? Are you live in U.K.? The way your doctor’s treatment and my doctor’s treatment are very different. I reside in US. My doctor will not provided any prescription until all blood work is done. I got 4 weeks of diabetes’s classes, glucose meter and stripes are all free with insurance.
I check my BG 3 times a day: fasting, 2 hour after meal and before bed.
My goal is to reverse the diabetes, I take 10mg Glipizide once day and trying to get rid of it. I’ve a Japanese diabetes cook book but unfortunately I can’t eat. Rice yet.
Everyone is different so you need to try the foods you like to eat and see which one does not spike your BG.
Sorry for many questions.

7.2 is not too high for someone newly diagnosed. If you want to reduce blood glucose then avoid high carb foods such as breakfast cereals, bread, potatoes rice and pasta. Also avoid fruit juice and fruit such as bananas and grapes.

You can’t execise your way out of a poor diet.

Snorks said:

I've been trying to be lowish carbs but I will have a banana for breakfast and an apple after lunch.

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HI Snorks, i would definitely recommend cutting out the banana and substituting a handful of berries or an apple, and then seeing what your bg levels are - it may be that your body is fine with bananas, but until you test without them you won't know whether or not they're contributing to your spikes. personally, i have to be really careful with fruit, it's one of the things that can really push up my levels. if i want to eat before exercising i tend to go for an avocado and handful of peanuts. as far as i know, there's no point in monitoring levels until 2 hrs after eating. i was told that it's a good idea to leave at least 5 hours between meals, with minimal/no snacking, as our bodies need time to reset before eating again. i've also learned on this forum that, if your bg levels are on the lowish side (for you) before your start exercising, your body may sometimes decide it needs to compensate by dumping glucose into your bloodstream in order to get back up to what it considers 'normal'.

You need to wait a full 2hrs after eating to test. Keeping a food log along with your test numbers will let you know which carbs are ok for you and which make you spike. Its different for everybody. I would suspect its the banana that is keeping your blood glucose high in this case. Imo, its not necessary to limit your protein to just chicken and fish. The fats in beef and pork should help you to feel satisfied and will do nothing to elevate your bg levels. Nuts do have carbs so eating some is ok just don't over due them. The best advice I've gotten is to count every carb you ingest and try to stay below 25 g at any one meal or snack.https://www.diabetesdaily.com/blog/obesity-doctor-on-what-she-tells-her-patients-to-eat-492111/. This is a link to a TED talk you may find useful. Its long but very informative. Good luck on reducing your bg! It may take some trial and error but you CAN do it!

Hi Snorks

There's a thread here about spikes after sport. Maybe that may shed some light?
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/spikes-after-sport.127758/#post-1596776

Here is a site that gives you an idea of carbs / 100 grams / ml. You'll see for example that banana is comparatively high.
http://www.low-carbdiet.co.uk/carbcount.asp?id=1

Hi from BC. Maybe try having a couple hard boiled eggs first thing if you are looking for grab and go food. Often we are more sensitive to carbs first thing in the morning and a banana is very carb dense. Another thing to keep in mind is that peanuts and cashews are not nuts but legumes and higher in carbs than tree nuts such as walnuts, almonds or pecans. What worked for me was to cut carbs to 20 grams until my sugars were in range then experiment with different foods to see how they affected me. This way you can figure out your own eating plan. When testing to see how a food affects me I will test before first bite for baseline, at 1 hour to see how high the spike goes, and at 2 hours to see how well my body has coped with the spike. I try to keep things between 4 and 7 most of the time. It will take time for everything to settle down and the fasting will be the last to come down but you have made an excellent start. Welcome to the forum. @daisy1 will send you some very good reading material.

Great work on the weight loss. As has been commented above, your diet needs a little tweaking to acheive better levels but you are going in the right direction, well done.

@Snorks

Hello Snorks and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 250,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.

There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a free 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. They're all free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.

I used to go running every morning & used to eat a lot of carbs & have protein drink after training runs. Know over the last few weeks I have been eating a low carb diet have lost weight feel good all round, Perhaps try a berry yoghurt in the mornings you exercise & try a low card recovery drink. Your body can use fat for energy just as easy as using carbs that athlete have & still are in many circles advised to consume for max effort. It is unfortunate when as a diabetic you need to find other ways of fuelling your body but the low carb high fat diet is very good.
Unfortunately injured at the moment & unsure if I will run again but cannot complain as at 71 have enjoyed my last 3/4 years of running but I can still go out for 150 mins a week walking

You are off to a good start! Couple thoughts. I was diagnosed about 3 months ago and similar to what you are describing in a lot of ways with BG levels early on. Fruit can be fairly high in carbs so I dropped it after seeing what it did to me. Exercise makes me spike too. I would go from a 6 to a 15 (no food) when running intensively but much less if I kept my HR under 140. You need to find a routine that you can live with and stick with it for a while. It will take your body some time to adjust. Good news is it can pay off. My second hba1c had me at a 38. My levels didn't plummet with LCHF but dropped gradually over time so don't get discouraged if you don't see results straight away.

Snorks said:

I was diagnosed Type 2 about a month ago. I have been steadily getting back into shape and have lost 46 pounds to date (271-226). I currently take 1000mg of metformin. I'm really trying to figure out how to control my BG with diet and exercise to eventually get off the meds.

Which brings me to my question. Woke up with a BG of 7.8 this morning. Ate a banana and went to the gym. Had a good 2 hour workout of weight training including 30 minutes of cardio. Came home and had a protein shake. Checked my BG about 5 min after the shake and it was now 8.6. Maybe I should of checked before the shake? Not sure.

All this to say no matter when I test I am always 7.2 or higher. Sorry, no A1c value yet as my doctor wanted me to try the Metformin for a month before have a blood test. Anyway, going to keep reading but if anyone has any quick advice it would be much appreciated.

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I suggest you check the carb content of the protein shake you took, which will be declared on the packaging. Some contain quite a lot of carbs, and I think probably none contain zero carbs. Nowadays my strategy is to check my bg straight after exercising. If it should be high, no need to add to that by re-fuelling. I am currently experimenting with walnuts and cheese as an after gym snack, as they both are fairly low carb.