I almost never use finger prick tests any more since I started using a CGM on my arm that tells me almost in real-time what my sugar levels are. If that's not an option for you, what I was doing in the past and reasonably accurate (though costly when done so often) was:
It takes time & discipline. The first few weeks it may feel like nothing is changing because your body has stored too much glucose and when you first start taking it away from your food intake, it will dump from its stores thinking you might be on a nutrient deficit. Eventually that calms down and your blood sugar levels will more closely match your food intake choices.
Thanks so much for that encouragement. It's been so helpful in lifting my spirits and assisted with persistence at times of overwhelm. I've been using a 24hr monitor and starting to see the change already - so much more informative than the finger prick. I get a much better indication of how food, rest, exercise and even conversations and thoughts are affecting me. There have been a few ups and downs but all have been useful in helping me understand how my body is working. I went from high glucose levels to states of hypo where levels dropped alarmingly after exercise and during the night. Through internet searches, chats with my young adults and reading posts on the site I realised I wasn't taking in enough carbs, mainly as a result of fear of what I could eat. Things are improving gradually. I'm not yet at the 2 hour after eating mark, but readings are generally moving in that direction.
Thanks for that info. Pure gold.
Roughly the 2 hour mark after a meal is generally going to be the peak of where your blood sugar hits before starting to come down again.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
My diabetes service told me the same as @JayAmericanRoughly the 2 hour mark after a meal is generally going to be the peak of where your blood sugar hits before starting to come down again.
Sorry, this isn't true. The peak BG is generally around 45 minutes or so after eating.
The two hour point is where your BG levels should have been reduced (by your insulin response system) back to, or close to, where they were before eating, which is why you test at that point - it's a test of how efficient your system is at clearing excess glucose. The problem for T2 is that we are often not good at dealing with the excess glucose, so higher levels stay around for much longer.
Here is a link to a small bit of research demonstrating the rise and fall in BG after eating:
Continuous Glucose Profiles in Healthy Subjects under Everyday Life Conditions and after Different Meals - PMC
This study investigated continuous glucose profiles in nondiabetic subjects. Continuous interstitial glucose measurement was performed under everyday life conditions (2 days) and after ingestion of four meals with standardized carbohydrate content ...
There's a lot of misinformation about, some of it coming from people who should know better. Have a look at the CGM research posted earlier.
Sorry to butt in to someone else's post, but I'd appreciate your thoughts: I've been checking the trajectory on my CGM (Libre 2 plus - T2D) and my spike hits a peak maybe 50-60 minutes after I start eating, but doesn't go down to previous level for 3 or 4 hours, even if I have a low carb meal (say 10-20). A low carb meal mostly does just about stay in range, though. What might this mean? TIA.
At what point you start to drop after injecting insulin is rather complex, depending on type of meal, activity, insulin sensitivity, brand of insulin, and different for different people.
