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Eating to the Meter - new to this

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I've finally come to terms with the fact that I need to try this in order to better educate myself on what spikes my sugar level.

Do people who do it, just take their sugar level 2 hours after eating?

What blood sugar range should I be aiming for (ie. isn't damaging) - given that my last six monthly check was 7.6?
 
Basically, take your blood reading immediately before eating and then 2 hours after your first bite (you can also do 1 hour after to get an even clearer picture)
You should be aiming for a rise of no more than 2 mmol/l from your before (pre-prandial) to your 2 hour after (post-prandial) - it's the rise more than the actual figures that will let you know if what you ate was good or bad :)
 
Hi,

As a type 2, you get to decide where you are happy running your blood glucose - within reason.

This chart may help.


The NHS suggests being below 7 before food, and no higher than 7.8 at 2 hours after food.
Personally, I have read some stuff (see the bloodsugar101 link in my signature) that makes me want to run lower than that. I am really not convinced that being that high won't cause long term complications, so I try to never go above 7 at any time. Don't always hit that, but it is a goal.

So really, it is best to test just before eating, and at 2 hours after. But you need to be fairly accurate with the timing, or you won't be able to make proper comparisons between different foods and meals.

When I started testing I did this
On waking
before and 2 hours after breafast
before and 2 hours after lunch
before and 2 hours after evening meal
before and 2 hours after any carby snacks

Sounds a lot, doesn't it?

But don't worry, if you test a food or meal several times, and you always get a fairly consistent result, then you can ease off on testing that. For that size portion.

You will learn very quickly that portion size is critical.

Nowadays, I only test my on waking bg (when I remember) and then strange or different food choices, to see the effect they have. I never test foods that I have confirmed are ok with me (like bacon and eggs for breakfast, or chicken and salad, or any old faithful like that).

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks very much for your replies - that's really helpful information.
 
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