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How big a spike do you get testing 30mins after eating ?

B

Begonia

Well-Known Member
Messages
120
Location
Yorkshire
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
I know the advice is to test at 2hrs or 1hr after starting a meal. However I just did a test after 30 mins and got a much bigger reading. Is this what you would expect ? I thought the idea of testing at 1hr was to catch the peak reading (ie after giving the food time to get into the blood). Or is the 1hr measurement supposed to be checking that the level has come down quickly enough ?
 
Just to clarify. I'm barely prediabetic but have neuropathy. Trying to get my blood glucose to be normal by Dr Bernstein standards. I've read on another thread that you should keep even the spikes below 7.7.
Just wondering if the spikes are occurring before I take the 1hr post prandial reading so I'm missing them.
 
I have never ever tested 1/2 hour or 1 hour after eating as I see that as a total waist of test strips.

I have only ever tested before and 2 hours after eating which means 2 hours after you finish your meal, this was the advice given here originally when I joined and the purpose of it is to check that your bg levels have or are returning to there base level after 2 hours, just like a non diabetics bg levels do.

Whats the point in checking to see a peak, a peak is something that non diabetics get after eating.

The whole point of testing is to check that the amount of carbs you have eaten is only enough that your levels will be returning to there base level at 2 hours, just as a non diabetics do.There is no other reason to test and in IMHO testing at other times is a waist of strips that tells you nothing useful.
 
A person with normal insulin sensitivity and production, eating normally, should rarely spike and only very briefly. A healthy body has insulin ready-to-go to deal with food as it arrives and then has a second wave of insulin under production to mop up any leftovers.
The point after eating, when your sugar levels are highest, will depend on you, what you have eaten, what you are doing etc. If you are getting a serious spike at 15 minutes or half an hour, you might want to question what you are eating. It would suggest that your first phase insulin response isn't good.

Over the years, quite a number of people on here have said things on the line of "my wife, who isn't diabetic, spikes to 10 after chocolate cake, so that's normal, so I'm not bothered if I do the same". I would suggest that The Mrs is also on a road to diabetes, even though not officially diagnosed.

At first, it is very interesting to run a series of tests, say every 15 minutes, after a food such as porridge, to see what happens. After that, sticking to one hour (or two) enables comparisons. In the end, it's all about avoiding carbs. Do that and your levels should be low.
Sally
 
At your stage, as @sally and james suggested, it's informative to find out how you react to foods you think might unusually spike you and then moderate/delete them. Once you've got the hang of your foods it's good to monitor after 2 hours, to check nothing has changed.

I won't go into the "when two hours starts" as this has been quite a topic of discussion.....

Good luck

Hj
 
I think the guidelines of testing at 90 mins or 2 hours are for consistency - so you can compare foods and meals.

From my own testing, high carb low fat foods spike hard and fast, while protein and fat and fibre will slow things down and reduce the peak.

It all comes down to that, and our personal digestive and insulin responses.

so yes, most people spike higher in the first hour then drop. It is perfectly normal , although if the spike is too high, or lasts too long, then the carbs could be adjusted.

I aim for a rise of no more than 2mmol/l at 2 hours and agree with everything that @sally and james said.
 
Reactions: bkr
The 90 minute to 2 hour test is the only guideline we have. We don't have guidelines for anything less than 90 minutes.
Testing earlier than this can be interesting and may show us if our first insulin response is working OK or not. Testing at 2 hours and later tells us if our second insulin response is doing its job quickly enough because by 2 hours we should be on our way back down from the peak. It also tells us if we have over done the carbs. However, it all depends on the contents of the meal, amount of carbs, fast or slow release carbs, amount of fats and fibre.
A fast release carb such as a banana will spike very quickly.
 

Could you please help us all by saying what your numbers were before eating, when you had your spike and what you had eaten?

One man's spike can be another's just fine rise. Rises happen. Nobody will have an absolutely flat profile, it's assessing them in context, but I can't do that without the data to take a view.
 
Thank you all for your posts. I'm very new to this and experimenting to see what different foods do. I have neuropathy and after reading various threads on here I am on lchf and trying to get my blood sugar down to normal levels (as per dr Bernstein). trying to get my blood sugar down to normal levels with v low spikes
 
I've been on it for about 5 weeks and am generally going in the right direction. This morning I had almond porridge with just a tablespoon of oats. My bag went from 5.6 up to 7.8
 
Guess the oats maybe don't suit me. Thanks again for all your advice. I am tracking my progress and neuropathy symptoms quite closely and will post results in a few weeks. (I have also seen neurologist and will go back to gp if the lchf and supplements don't work)
 
Begonia said:
I've been on it for about 5 weeks and am generally going in the right direction. This morning I had almond porridge with just a tablespoon of oats. My bag went from 5.6 up to 7.8
Click to expand...

Begonia said:
Guess the oats maybe don't suit me.
Click to expand...

I guess your guess is right! That is a big rise for a small meal

This is all part of the learning process and you are doing the right thing to keep track of everything. It will all fall into place soon.
 
It will be very interesting to see what spike you get when you eat the same meal without the spoonful of oats?
Possibly worth trying tomorrow, and post the results back up to see if we can help you.
 
Thanks for your input. I took the advice to experiment without the oats.

So my breakfast was:
50g of ground almonds cooked in water
1 tablespoon of greek style yoghurt
6 walnut halves
large cup of coffee with single cream
This is same as yesterday but omitted the tablespoon of jumbo oats
BG reading went from 6.2 up to 6.3 after 30 mins !!

So maybe its the oats that cause me a problem. Will check again though as not wholly convinced and also the porridge is nowhere near as yummy without them.
 
None diabetics peak but don't get neuropathy. Long term high bgs cause damage.
So could you have been more than in the prediabetes range for a while, in the past?
I was experiencing numb small toes but since doing low carb (joining this forum)I no longer have numbness. I stopped r-ala supplements before xmas due to expense but low bgs are making a huge difference to me.
Seeing cardiologist in 2 weeks time regarding heart disease but no change with chest pains thou. No sign of neuropathy for me, any more.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't return.
Has yours got better or worse over the period you've had it?
I know your not the only prediabetic with neuropathy thou. It just goes to show how easy it can start.
 
Just as an example, 1 carb raises me 7-10 so I'm sure there was more than one carb in a tablespoon. Of course our levels and tolerances vary but it still seems crazy to me that one carb can do that. I went up 50 with just lettuce and zero carb dressing.
Great to be doing these experiments. Knowledge is power.

@ickihun , I hope you're feeling better and get good news at the cardiologist!
 

Kristin, when you use your American measurements in this way it is easy for newcomers to misunderstand - raising 7 to 10 in UK measurements would be to danger levels!
 
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