Fasting blood test

[bobscdats]

Hi all, so following the excellent suggestion I measured my blood/sugar before breakfast (weetabix) and it was 10.0 mmol, after breakfast it came out at 14.1 mmol!!! So that's it weetabix is off the menu until after my op!

 

[Rachox]

Good move getting a meter, you will learn so much about what foods you can eat. However if you have been diagnosed with type 2 I’m puzzled why you say Weetabix is off the menu til after your op. I know you need to reduce your HbA1c to get your op done, but in my opinion you need to ditch the Weetabix for good if you want to keep your diabetes under control and avoid complications in the future

 

[KennyA]

You'll probably find that all the high-ticket items like weetabix, cereals, potatoes. rice, pasta, bread and sugars do the same thing. The choice is yours: reducing carb in the diet works really well for many of us in getting BG quickly back to normal, getting rid of diabetic/high blood glucose symptoms, and (incidentally) losing quite a bit of fat.

I've had to accept that I'm probably never going to eat any substantial quantity of those foods ever again. My choice was made because I'd much rather not have the diabetic symptoms.

 

[LonelyFatGuy]

Most mornings I wake up at 6 mmol. That would be 7 mmol if not for 2g of Metformin a day.

I have 100g of Cheerios and 300ml of semi-skimmed milk every day for breakfast, and a whey protein shake that gives me 42 grams of protein.

2 hours after that meal I would be at around 8.5 or 9 mmol. It would be 12 or more without the whey - I can prove this every time by not drinking the shake; it is saving me from a doubling where I'd go from 6 up to 12 (or more).

Now with the recent introduction of 100mg Sitagliptin, it might be 7 mmol, if that, 2 hours after breakfast. So, roughly a further 66% reduction. (an increase of only 1 mmol going from 6 to 7, instead of 6 to 9 - the 2 mmol saved / avoided being the 66%)

All this to say that you can have your cake (or Cheerios) and eat it / them, with a combintion of whey protein and Sitagliptin.

 

[bobscdats]

Good move getting a meter, you will learn so much about what foods you can eat. However if you have been diagnosed with type 2 I’m puzzled why you say Weetabix is off the menu til after your op. I know you need to reduce your HbA1c to get your op done, but in my opinion you need to ditch the Weetabix for good if you want to keep your diabetes under control and avoid complications in the future

problem is that I like Weetabix, but will defo give it some serious thought.

 

[lovinglife]

problem is that I like Weetabix, but will defo give it some serious thought.

You may find that once you change your mindset on what you can eat to keep your BG under control that your tastes will change. There’s lots of foods I like and would love to eat but I want to be healthy more, I love crisps, potatoes, pasta, pizza all kinds of fruit, but if I ate them just because I like them with no regard for what they do to my blood sugars I’d be in a right pickle and probably quite unwell with complications

 

[Helen H]

I loved most of those high carb foods, weetabix, bread, chips, pizza, pasta etc but I haven’t eaten any of them since being told I was pre-diabetic. My motivation - I do not want to go on to develop type 2 if I can help it and I certainly don’t want a lifetime of medication and more medication and insulin etc etc. The complications are also a massive motivation for me - i don’t want to lose my sight or have foot amputations etc. I know these don’t happen to everybody but if I am tempted I just think of all those things and the temptation quickly disappears. i appreciate everybody is different but I want to know I have done everything in my power to prevent all the above.
ps - I actually enjoy the low carb way of eating and it makes weight loss so much easier than the “low fat” diet that I have done in the past.

Have a good read of this forum as there are far more experienced and knowledgable people here than me - you will learn lots. Good luck with whatever method you decide is right for you.

 

[Paul_]

problem is that I like Weetabix, but will defo give it some serious thought.

Sometimes, despite very little being banned on my post-diagnosis diet, there are some things I've had to accept are extremely limited in how often and how much I can consume them. In these situations, where I can't substitute for a low carb alternative and a portion size that doesn't adversely impact my BG readings is ridiculously small, I've tried to set my mind to the fact it's about finding new things to like and love.

The flip side of "missing out" on these foods is a life with fewer/no diabetic symptoms and complications.

 

[Resurgam]

@Paul i never wanted to eat cereals, so to stay in normal numbers I have chops or steak and mushrooms or stirfry as my first meal.
Staying in normal numbers is - hopefully - all that is required to avoid returning to the sad state I was in at diagnosis.

 

[KeredG]

Most mornings I wake up at 6 mmol. That would be 7 mmol if not for 2g of Metformin a day.

I have 100g of Cheerios and 300ml of semi-skimmed milk every day for breakfast, and a whey protein shake that gives me 42 grams of protein.

2 hours after that meal I would be at around 8.5 or 9 mmol. It would be 12 or more without the whey - I can prove this every time by not drinking the shake; it is saving me from a doubling where I'd go from 6 up to 12 (or more).

Now with the recent introduction of 100mg Sitagliptin, it might be 7 mmol, if that, 2 hours after breakfast. So, roughly a further 66% reduction. (an increase of only 1 mmol going from 6 to 7, instead of 6 to 9 - the 2 mmol saved / avoided being the 66%)

All this to say that you can have your cake (or Cheerios) and eat it / them, with a combintion of whey protein and Sitagliptin.

I was like you taking readings before and 2 hours after each meal, thought I was fine only to get told of by my doctor when the blood test results came in.
I now have a Freestyle Libre 2 CGM(Constant Glucose Measurement or management)sensor and within less than half an hour(usually a lot less) of eating something No-No I get a massive spike but by 2 hours after the meal I'm on the before invisible downside of a massive spike and almost back to normal. Try taking a reading half an hour after instead of waiting 2 hours. I bet you will be surprised. Its the spikes that are the worst for your overall health.

 

[Paul_]

Try taking a reading half an hour after instead of waiting 2 hours. I bet you will be surprised. Its the spikes that are the worst for your overall health.

The above depends. Consuming carbs causes an insulin response and for blood glucose levels to rise. It's a normal response, even non-diabetics "spike", however the difference is that non-diabetics have lower insulin resistance than T2 diabetics, so can process the glucose from digested carbs more efficiently.

It also depends on what you consider to be a "spike". Leaving that debate for another day, it's the duration of any spike or rise in blood glucose levels that's key, along with how often you're causing blood glucose levels to rise. Time in range is the critical metric for T2s, however tracking that metric is difficult and prone to inaccuracy (even with a CGM). If your blood glucose levels are elevated above normal for you (even if not spiked) for a long duration, or if you're frequently eating and causing levels to rise/spike, your time in range will be less and that can be harmful. However, if you're eating 2 or 3 meals a day and are at elevated levels for between 30-60 minutes after first bite at each meal, that's somewhat irrelevant statistically, as long as you've returned to normal levels by 2 hours after first bite.

The 2 hour test result is important because that's the timescale on average a non-diabetic would take to return to their pre-meal blood glucose level. That's what diet controlled T2 diabetics are trying to emulate. Providing you're not just grazing throughout the day, constantly topping up carb intake and the resulting insulin response, the 30 minute point isn't as relevant.

 

[KeredG]

Maybe I didn't express myself properly, by checking 2 hours after you may not even see any spike and think all is flatline when actually its not. But there again what do I know, I'm new here.... but been Diabetic for over 12 years that we know of for certain.

 

[septua]

"Flatline" is not normal. Non-diabetic people experience a rise in blood glucose after eating.

 

[KennyA]

I was like you taking readings before and 2 hours after each meal, thought I was fine only to get told of by my doctor when the blood test results came in.
I now have a Freestyle Libre 2 CGM(Constant Glucose Measurement or management)sensor and within less than half an hour(usually a lot less) of eating something No-No I get a massive spike but by 2 hours after the meal I'm on the before invisible downside of a massive spike and almost back to normal. Try taking a reading half an hour after instead of waiting 2 hours. I bet you will be surprised. Its the spikes that are the worst for your overall health.

Everyone's blood glucose rises after digesting carbs. It's perfectly normal. If you look at a range of CGM graphs,with many of them you will be hard put to tell the difference between many of the T2 diabetic and the non-diabetic ones. Some will of course be obvious. Others less so. CGMs are really useful sources of information, but I've seen a lot of people (usually not diabetic) on the internet who wrongly think the graphs should be a flat line.

Have you been following the "at +2 hours, both within two points of the initial reading, and not above 7.8" pattern when looking at the results of testing? What sort of test figures are you getting, and what are your A1c results looking like?

So I'd suggest that you're looking at something (a BG rise after eating carbs) that's fairly normal, and may be thinking it's unusual? This is why the second test at +2 hours is done - you are not testing to see how high you go, but testing to see how well your system did in clearing the added glucose from your bloodstream quickly.

 

[LonelyFatGuy]

I was like you taking readings before and 2 hours after each meal, thought I was fine only to get told of by my doctor when the blood test results came in.
I now have a Freestyle Libre 2 CGM(Constant Glucose Measurement or management)sensor and within less than half an hour(usually a lot less) of eating something No-No I get a massive spike but by 2 hours after the meal I'm on the before invisible downside of a massive spike and almost back to normal. Try taking a reading half an hour after instead of waiting 2 hours. I bet you will be surprised. Its the spikes that are the worst for your overall health.

As others have already stated, a 'spike' is normal, which I fully expected to be the case.

I also didn't have the unrealistic expectation of a 'flat line' between the pre and post tests.

When you first found out about the 'spike', and regarded it to be a symptom of the disease, did you take any (futile) action to try and remedy it...?

 

[Melgar]

problem is that I like Weetabix, but will defo give it some serious thought.

Not sure why I have a reply box here bobscdats. Sorry I must have accidentally pressed the reply and not the like button.

 

[Antje77]

Not sure why I have a reply box here bobscdats. Sorry I must have accidentally pressed the reply and not the like button.

You can simply do the backspace thing on those reply things. Although they may reappear next time you open the thread, including any partial replies you may have written.

Still, as long as the 'Post Reply' button is there, you haven't posted and no-one will see your reply box.

 

[Melgar]

You can simply do the backspace thing on those reply things. Although they may reappear next time you open the thread, including any partial replies you may have written.

Still, as long as the 'Post Reply' button is there, you haven't posted and no-one will see your reply box.

Thanks Antje lol