Charon - I'm wondering why you have been eating so little? Is this because of the diabetes or because you generally have a very small appetite? What's the thing with only having two meals a day, one of which is two weetabix?
Just personally, I think you are going about it the wrong way (sorry, that sounds a bit harsh!). You don't need to semi-starve yourself (you're not even particularly overweight). But the things that you are eating are virtually guaranteed to cause your blood sugar to go up while not really providing you with much useful nutrition. Bread (white, brown, whole meal, whatever) and weetabix are both shockingly high in carbs. I wouldn't eat either of them, or only as a very special treat - certainly not every day, as pretty much my sole food intake.
Search on the forum for "Viv's modified Atkins diet" to see an alternative which means that you can eat normal amounts without (hopefully) causing your blood sugar to rise so much. 15.8, I'm afraid, is very high for two hours after a meal, but not surprising given that the meal consisted mostly of bread.
Some more general advice on blood testing (there's no point going more into diet, because it will be easier to learn from Viv's thread). I know you're slightly rationed on strips, but its good that your GP is prescribing them. I would focus as much as you can now on pre-meal plus 2 hour post meal tests. I think it's less helpful to think in terms of "15 hours since I ate xx" or "9 hours since I ate yy". No matter what it was you ate (even bread
) the sugar level that long afterwards would be unrelated. Our livers produce sugar whenever needed (eg if we have not eaten for a while). You going for long periods without eating (by definition, if you are only eating one or two meals a day) just means your liver is pumping out sugar, which your pancreas is then not dealing well with, as a Type 2 diabetic. So knowing what your sugar is after a 15 hour fast is not actually very useful. You need to know what it is two hours after eating (this is generally accepted as the most useful time to test - much before that, *everybody's* sugar would be raised - that's normal) and much after that, it becomes unrelated to what you have eaten. And therefore isn't much help in deciding whether you can eat that thing again. Initially, it's useful to know what it is immediately before eating as well. This is to be able to compare - if you don't know what it was before, then you can't put the after figure into context.
You are aiming, at least initially, for a rise of no more than 2mmol between the two figures. You are also aiming for the second figure to be less than 7.8mmol. But again, in some ways the rise of less than 2mmol is *more* important. If your fasting is 10mmol, and you only rise to 11mmol, that was a good meal. You should eat that type of meal again. The fact that you rose to 11mmol is not really within your control, given where you started. But if you started at 6mmol, and rose to 10.5mmol, that was not a good meal, and should be avoided in future, even though the end result was lower.
If you follow a low carb diet like Viv's modified Atkins, then the pre and post meal levels should start coming down by themselves. If your doctor prescribes medication that may help somewhat as well (although diet is probably more important). Exercise can also help.
Lastly (I can't sleep lol) - I think all of us do this, I know I certainly do - try not to be over-focused on individual readings. I think in the thread above you've reached some conclusions ("this shows that I xyz..."). I think it's much too soon, on the minimal amount of data you have, to reach meaningful conclusions. Sugar readings are often very unpredictable, especially early on, and for some people, always. It's very natural to latch on to one particular reading and try to extrapolate all sorts of conclusions from it. For now, take a step back. Measure before and after each meal (if strips allow. If not then maybe concentrate on one meal in each day). Write down *exactly* what you ate and what the results were. If you can, try to also calculate the carbs you had in each meal (most products have the carbs on the nutritional info. NB it is total carbohydrate that you need to note down, not the "of which sugars ..." figure. ALL carbohydrates are turned into sugars by our body). Aim for a daily limit (I think Viv tries to stick to under 50g. I, at least initially, stuck to under 30g, but by doing that I have pretty much reversed/controlled my Type 2 diabetes in four months, and can now eat pretty much what I want, within reason, without it raising my blood sugar. I don't, though, because I am still trying to lose weight and low carbing has been the best way for me to do that. I am fairly sure that, even on the minimal amount you are eating, you are having over 100g of carbs a day. I definitely could not have eaten like that in the beginning without it having a bad effect on my levels.
Try (if you're not vegetarian) substituting your Weetabix breakfast for bacon and eggs tomorrow. Essentially a zero carb breakfast. I would be very surprised if you didn't see some improvement in your post-meal levels.
Type 2 on Metformin, diagnosed Jan 2013, ultra low carber, Hba1C at diagnosis 8% (11mmol), now between 4.5 and 5.5 mmol. 20kg lost so far
