Eating 5-6 small meals/snacks instead of 2-3 large meals

KennyA said:

I think those numbers might fall within the "normal" range - in that they predict an HbA1c in normal range . There's a calculator on the main website here.

It is of course possible for any of us to miss a high point, but the other thing is that a lower but longer rise can be problematic too. It's entirely normal for BGs to rise after eating - the real issue is how quickly they return to normal levels, because that shows how efficient your insulin is being at taking the glucose out of your blood.

So - I would expect if I was eating something flour-based to see a very rapid rise from around 5(ish) to maybe 8 after an hour and 11 or 12 after two, but dropping only slowly and maybe still at 6.5 or more the following morning. My system is good at making glucose out of flour and putting it into my blood, but rubbish at getting it out of my blood and into my cells.

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EllieM said:

Could you take a meter in your pocket.? I know you are supposed to wash hands before testing but in my experience as long as you wash them after eating it's usually not that critical.

I think you really need to know whether you are actually having hypos. (Reactive hypoglycemia is a thing and one of its possible causes is the carbs but other triggers are exercise and there are other causes for hypos as well). Also, I think you say in another thread that you haven't had an hba1c done yet?

A lot of the T2s here go very low carb because they need to in order to keep their levels down, and some do it because they find it easier to go very low rather than moderately low. Everyone makes their own choices to suit their own metabolism.

At the moment you don't really know whether you are prediabetic or whether you are having true hypos. Both those questions are very important.

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Lupf said:

Hi @Susan369 your profile says you are prediabetic, how high is your HbA1c?
Do you have any symptoms of diabetes, like thirsty, tingling feet, blurring vision?
If not you might only need small adjustments to what you eat.
There is a huge range on how many carbs T2 diabetics can tolerate,
so 150 g could be just fine for some where as for others, 20 g is the maximum.
You need to measure the impact of food.
As long as your BG numbers are around around 5 (possibly 6) before eating
and spikes 2 h after eating are less than 2 and don't continue to rise
you could be ok as you are never in the diabetic range.
It is normal that BG levels rise after eating.
I honestly think well-intentioned advice to go very low carb might be misplaced at this stage.
@Susan369 needs to find out for herself which part of her diet she can tolerate
and what is causing spikes.

Regarding your question on snacking. In my view there is no evidence
why eating often is better than eating up to 3 times a day and plenty to the contrary.
Basically snacking leads to more snacking and more total calories,
which could lead to gaining weight or too much carbs which could lead to diabetes.
Read the book Diabetes Code by Jason Fung if you want to know more.
In my experience stopping snacking was one of the low-hanging fruits
after my diagnosis. I was surprised how quickly I got used to it.
Consider switching to breakfast, lunch and dinner.
For intermittent fasting you can skip any of these.

When eating a whole meal one needs to make sure that
there is adequate fat and protein as fat is much more satiating,
than carbs, which will make you hungry again after two hours.
Compare eating an omelette with eating cornflakes for breakfast
if you want to do the experiment yourself

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HSSS said:

i think a lot of these are based on avoiding pigging out on rubbish at meal times because you’re hungry having not eaten satiating foods. its important to read the details of these claims and consider any limitations of the study. So many blog/articles give sweeping statements with little actual evidence.

The results and conclusions of 62 say “Increased eating frequency was associated with larger increases in HbA1c”. It’s also worth noting it’s mostly type 1 youths. The rest of the paper, including the bits you quote as discussion not evidence, show a myriad of conflicting opinions and results. Source 64 is also a study of type 1 who are typically not insulin resistant. In type 1 in particular hypo avoidance is an important consideration thus potentially higher overall levels are acceptable.

As ever what those meals consist of makes as much if not more difference than how frequent they are. There’s no reference to the content of the meals. Also a constant but high ish level is not as good as a Low ish level that varies a bit in Type 2.

I suspect you will continue frequent meals as that is what obviously is desirable and convenient for you. All I’d say is test as much as you can* and possibly spend a few weeks doing one method and a few doing fewer but more filing meals and compare your results before settling on a long term plan.

*why can’t you test on the way home when you get these funny turns. It’s guesswork without data. Find a quieter spot, turn your back on people for a little privacy etc. It only takes a minute or so. Most passers by wouldn’t even notice let alone care What’s more important, your health or a little awkwardness the first few times? Or a libre for a few weeks could solve that issue if you can stretch to funding one.

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HSSS said:

The cgm sounds ideal. It takes more than one day to build a picture and establish what is good and what are other factors (stress is probably the 2nd biggest factor for most of us). Also bear in mind which carbs can matter. Some of us react more significantly to certain types of carbs that we’d expect based on carb count alone. Eg some really spike on grains but not so much on potatoes and rice or vice versa. Legumes are a frequent tricky to predict item too. I’m guessing the way our personal microbiome breaks down and accesses the fibre and glucose in each item. So pay attention to that when monitoring too. Add a food diary to the figures to get the most useful information to base your decisions on.

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Lamont D said:

Every one of those, is telling you to eat more!
Eating so called healthy snacks is usually really unhealthy for those susceptible to prediabetics and T2s, and including those like me, that have issues with too much insulin circulating.

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