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Eating to your meter question.......

K

kazd63

Well-Known Member
Messages
61
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I read that when you are eating to you meter via low carb diet you should test before eating, then 1 hour after first bite to see an spike at it's height and then a further hr later it should be back down to pre-dinner measurement.

Tonight I had BG of 5.5, dinner of 817 cals, 38 carbs, 60g fat, 6g Sugar, 7g Fiber. One hour after eating it was 7, then went for a 45 minute walk, have done 12,824 steps today and overall carbs for the day are 47g. So why then is the BG reading after 2 hours 8.6.
 
Your dinner ... at 38 carbs ... sounds like the reason to me but perhaps I'm wrong?
 
HI, The idea isn't that after 2 hrs you are back down to pre-dinner. After 2 hours the increase from the pre-dinner reading should be less than 2mmol. Your increase was 3.1 so the number of carbs was too high I would guess.
 

Is your question why is the number greater after 2 hours than one, or something else?

Assuming that to be the case, the point at which any given foodstuff will peak, in terms of blood sugar levels, varies from person to person (how fast and efficient their digestive system is), and what you are actually eating. Carbs on their own tend to send the bloods up promptly, fat doesn't impact blood sugar, but eaten alongside carbs, slows the rate at which the carbs are digested.

Some people can find their bloods can still be going up at 2 hours, depending upon what they've eaten. Curry seems to be a bit of a culprit on that regard, sometimes.

In time, you'll learn how your own body works, I hope.

If I've answered a question you didn't ask, apologies!
 
You say 38g carbs and 6g sugar. Was your sugar included in the carb value or counted separately? Together they make your meal 44g of carbs, this may be fine for some of us but for me it would be considerably more than I could tolerate especially at one sitting.
Sugar is a carbohydrate so there is no need to count it separately. I really do not count fibre separately either.
I count the carbs, I consider the fats, I ignore the calorie count and the fibre.
 
I agree with @Guzzler , although you’ve had 47g carbs today you’ve had the majority in one meal. I spread mine out through out the day. I find from testing that I do tolerate more carbs in the evening, so have a very low carb breakfast and lunch and then a slightly more carby dinner but a maximum 30g
 
Eating to your meter means that you work on noting what you eat and the effect it has on your body. Some foods and food combinations are digested more quickly than others. Note what you had in that meal and try to isolate the culprit - you may be surprised. Whatever it was your body is having a problem with it at the moment so try to avoid that food for the foreseeable future. The exercise in the second hour after eating will tend to bring the reading down so you had something that was far too high in carbs.
 

I input the food into MFP, 1g of sugar was from the onion, 1g from the coleslaw and 4g from the burger. Don't know if it is included in the carb count.
 

Probably the potatoes, they were the highest carb count. It appears they are okay at lunch time in salad during the working week but not at dinner, admittedly I had a bit more at dinner.
 
Why eat potatoes?
 
lucylocket61 said:
why not? I eat to my meter, and my meter says i can tolerate potatoes, so why not? we are all different.
Click to expand...

I agree, my meter says I can eat the occasional small roast or hasselback potato.
 
As The @Guzzler mentioned carbs and sugars should be combined, all carbs are sugars in the end. That was quite a lot for one sitting, so the high levels are not too surprising after 2 hours. It's really a game of trail and error. Record what you eat, BG before and 2 hours afterwards and with time you'll see what the trends are between food eaten and BG responses. Then you can make an informed decision on what you can and what you maybe shouldn't eat.
 
kazd63 said:
I input the food into MFP, 1g of sugar was from the onion, 1g from the coleslaw and 4g from the burger. Don't know if it is included in the carb count.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I can't help with MFP. I put my readings down in the old fashioned way... which reminds me, I must stock up on quills
 
I went about it completely different when I was told no rice, potatoes, bread etc etc. I haven’t eaten them.
 
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