First week with meter and low carb diet

[harryowler]

Hello,
I bought a Codefree meter, as suggested on these forums last week, and have been on low carb for seven days now. I have been walking vigorously and enjoying it. My readings do seem high though, this morning 9 am it read 11 then two hours later after scrambled eggs and bacon it read 12.7.

 

[Hobs]

Hmmm .. was that just scrambled eggs and bacon, or was there just a hint of toast or any other carbs?

6.8 is out of the danger zone for fasting, but that 12.8 after 2hrs is certainly on the high side and should be around the 8 for good control. However as you are not taking any meds you will have to give your system time to adjust.
If control by diet alone still sees you running high then I think its back to the doc's for you. Although pills are an imposition, pills are always preferable to organ damage.

 

[catza]

It does take a while to get your test results lower but as Hobs says maybe it would be a good idea to consider something such as Metformin if your results don't come down.

Make sure that you aren't just replacing the carbohydrates with protein as these will just be converted into sugars so defeating the object. Aim to replace some of the missing carbs with fats instead.

The first reading of the day should always be when you first wake and it's possible the 12 could have been as a result of the Dawn Phenomenon (DP). The 12.7 reading after such a low carb breakfast is too high but if the 12 was just before you ate then getting 12.7 2 hours later could be explained, I don't know whether the DP takes that long to work through your system though so I may be talking through my hat.

The current batch of Codefree strips do read a little high but no where near as high as to double a previous fasting reading of 6.8. Oh and all meters seem to give out the occasional unexplained rogue reading so don't panic as I did when, after getting readings of 4/6, I suddenly got a 14.5 after a boiled egg. :shock: :crazy:

 

[xyzzy]

Sometimes even on a low carb diet it can takes weeks for your levels to reduce into safety. It took me around 6 weeks before I consistently got all reading lower than 8 on around 60g of carbs a day. Look for a gradual day by day improvement. You may well find that your wake up level is very high. This is caused by a thing called dawn phenomenon (DP) where all peoples livers dump glucose into the blood stream in the early hours to give you energy for the new day. In non diabetics it isn't a problem as any excess is soon mopped up but for diabetics with a weak insulin response your wake up level may well be double digit for a while. So long as you stick to your new healthy diet it will normally reduce naturally over a period of weeks. Some people (like myself) find that actually eating a small amount of something quite sugary for breakfast (like some "berries" in plain yoghurt) seems to make the levels drop quicker than if you ate no or just a close to zero carb breakfast. For me small amount was say 3 strawberries or 6 raspberries in around 50g of plain Greek yoghurt but test it out with your meter. Another thing I use to find very helpful was just doing a brisk 5 to 10 minute walk after breakfast.