Good/bad levels

Bear in mind people without diabetes can experience levels in the 9s when they eat a high carb meal. That said, their levels come down quickly. Prolonged highs are the biggest issue.
The advice to test after 2 hours is based on the “average” time the carbs are absorbed by our bodies. However different foods are absorbed at different rates. The fat in a kebab will slow down the carb absorption.
The only way to find out when your blood sugars peaked, how long they stayed there and how far they fell is multiple tests which could be via a CGM or Libre.

Madilew said:

Hi all
Being relatively new to all this, and at the moment trying to control T2 with diet alone, I have been hankering for a takeaway for a while, and after the week I've had at work, threw caution to the wind and ordered a chicken kebab. Took a reading before, that was 4.9, 2 hours later after kebab, a bit of the pitta and a handful of chips, it read 8.6. I know its over the limit but is this a good bad reading? How do you all measure what's ok for you to eat and what to steer clear of?

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Could be better, could be worse.
Just keep measuring as you are and you will soon see what suits your body best, and what doesn't
Just think how much worse it would have been if you had eaten all the chips and all the pitta!

I had a small chicken kebab a while back but only ate the meat, i also asked them to cook the meat abit longer after they cut it off to dry it out some more and my bloods were fine in the morning the next day . Like MrsA2 said just use your meter and find what works for you as we all different

Madilew said:

Took a reading before, that was 4.9, 2 hours later after kebab, a bit of the pitta and a handful of chips, it read 8.6.

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At first glance your kebab experiment seems not too bad, a 3.7 rise over 2hr but how much is a bit of pitta and how many chips can you fit in a hand ? And at 2hr was your reading of 8.6 on its way down or still rising.
So it's difficult to learn anything significant from your results because you don't know how many carbs were in the pitta/chips or how high your blood sugar eventually got, even more importantly you have no idea how long it took for your levels to get back to their starting point.
To really understand how a meal affects you, test at regular intervals of an hour or even 30min until your bloods are back to around the same level you started from.
Personally I would have just had the kebab meat and salad in a tray, a lot less hassle.

If I’m eating something with a lot of carbs I tend to test at both the 1 and 2 hour point to see whether my BS is still rising. If it is I test at the 3 hour point and if it hasn’t come down to normal levels for me I know it’s one to either avoid or have smaller portions of.

Madilew said:

Took a reading before, that was 4.9, 2 hours later after kebab, a bit of the pitta and a handful of chips, it read 8.6. I know its over the limit but is this a good bad reading

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Perfectly fine, you ate a large meal with carbs, protein & fats galore.
The <7.8 @ 2 hours adage come from the 75g OGTT which is pure glucose with no protein or fats.
A large meal pulses through your gut over hours releasing glucose at various random intervals.
I could show you plenty of CGM profiles of non-diabetics that clearly display the pizza effect hours after eating.
I'd enjoy that kebab again if I were you, perhaps just once a week like all things in moderation.