• Guest, the forum is undergoing some upgrades and so the usual themes will be unavailable for a few days. In the meantime, you can use the forum like normal. We'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

How early before your meal do you inject?

H

hadisami8

Member
I'm having a bit of trouble with the timing of my boluses. I know it depends on what you're eating, but say if my meal contains rice or potatoes or any simple carb like that, should i inject about 5-10 mins earlier than when i eat?
Diabetic nurses always told me just do it immediately before you eat, but this is clearly wrong as sometimes when i test like 45 mins after my blood is at 9 because the food must've raised my blood sugar faster than the novarapid could lower it. How do you guys deal with the timing?
 
It varies for different meals. For breakfast I have to inject quite a bit in advance, whereas my other meals are ok. It also depends on what food the meal contains. I'm not putting any timings here as I use porcine insulin.

If you're spiking after meals, then you could try gradually and carefully moving the bolus forward a little.
 
All QA insulins take around 15mins to work, the advice about injecting immediately before seems like old advice as you have to give your insulin time to work before the food begins to digest.

I inject around 20mins before when eating a meal including potato's & rice, sometimes it can be a little longer if I get delayed, the only time I really inject just before (or split the bolus) is when the meal is high in fat.
 
between 20-30 minutes for me.......

if I walk to the train station in the morning instead of driving, I would dose up just before.....
 
Very timely post. I too was told immediately before you start eating. I have been playing around just this last week and for breakfast even though it high fat (guacamole and celery) I am having better luck 5 min ahead and am still backing it up slowly. I am VLC so just some veggies, P and fat but even at lunch and dinner 5 min is working better. I think in the morning we get a little more glucose from eating coming off a fast (sleep). I noticed that if I went up I stayed up and never came back down. I thought insulin would sop it up but I guess not. I also need high fat at all meals or I go up, stay up and feel funky. Keeping it VERY steady helps . Breakfast is always the hardest for me. Guac is the only BF that I can eat and feel steady. I also seem to gluconeogenesis rapidly. Not sure about that though. But if I do eat just P and fat, say chicken salad with mayo I still need to bolus right away. I don't understand that as I should go low 1st right?
 
novorapidboi26 said:
between 20-30 minutes for me.......

if I walk to the train station in the morning instead of driving, I would dose up just before.....
Click to expand...

Really? That long? are you eating lots of carbs? I only ask because this 'timing' is new to me. The weird thing is I stay steady with guac for 3 or 4 hours and then I pop up. I thought it might be delayed because it is fat, no P or carbs (1/2 avocado) but I tried other foods like egg salad and same thing. Then at lunch I will bolus a little early to let it get in there and I am back to lower at dinner. I Am not rising much, about 20 pts but I feel weird when BS is moving, even in small increments. Also if I eat animal P for BF (even just one small piece of deli turkey on a piece of romaine with mayo) I always go low 1st and then pop up fast never to come back down. Bolusing a few minutes before BF is helping but not perfect yet. I may try backing it up more
 
If my BS readings are good, I'll bolus half an hour before breakfast, 20 before other meals, if I'm having pasta or a low GI meal, I'll split my bolus, only had time to bolus 15 mins before breakfast this morning and it went 2 mmol/l higher after an hour than it normally would. Don't normally test after but wanted to see the difference it made this morning. Just have to try and test afterwards to see how things work for you.
 

Wow, 5 min makes that much difference? This is all very interesting to me.
Do you set timer? LOL. I feel like a prisoner, timing, weighing, measuring. It's all good. Just the cards I was dealt.
 
I tend to try for 30mins with carbs and about 20 mins with LC.

What you describe here sounds like your basal is not properly titrated with uplift on LC after four hours. Unlikely to be bolus.
 
Kristin251 said:
Wow, 5 min makes that much difference? This is all very interesting to me.
Do you set timer? LOL. I feel like a prisoner, timing, weighing, measuring. It's all good. Just the cards I was dealt.
Click to expand...
Aye, well 15 minutes. If I split the bolus and save some to take later, I'll set the alarm on my phone...just in case!
 
tim2000s said:
I tend to try for 30mins with carbs and about 20 mins with LC.

What you describe here sounds like your basal is not properly titrated with uplift on LC after four hours. Unlikely to be bolus.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree however the problem is I take 2 units Lantus at 10:15 (husbands phone is set) when I go to bed under 90 and I wake up almost exactly where I was and occasionally a little lower. Last night I was 104 before bed and took 3 units Lantus and woke up at 80 so I don't think I should take more or I will hypo. I take 1 unit Novolog with meals. I eat fairly small meals. About 2 oz P and some green beans/mushrooms and either guac or mayo lunch and dinner is 3 oz P with some fats and about a cup of asparagus, broccoli or some other veg or a small salad.. I snack on a few nuts or a few veg and flavored mayo. I think my insulin runs out all the time but if I eat more and bolus even 1.5 I always go down 1st and then pop up and stay up. Any ideas? I prefer not to split if I don't have to. When you do split, how far apart based on my menu?
 

I wouldnt say I eat alot but it may be to others, maybe between 60 -80g for lunch and the same for dinner.....

if there was less then yeah, you could potentially drop it down......15 minutes minimum.....

you just need to find out what lead in time suits you....
 
Thanks for the responses everyone, i'm glad that i'm not the only one who gets high sugars if i inject right before eating. I guess it's a matter of experimentation.It's a bit annoying though that the nurses seem to ,unknowingly i'm sure, spread so much misinformation.
 
Doesn't just chewing start the rise of BG?
This is especially interesting to me as I would like to drop a few pounds (5) and can't seem to get BS right without high fat meals so today for lunch I had some broccoli and mushrooms with a little EVOO and a piece of deli turkey with mustard a little mayo and injected 10 min before eating. I started at 100 so I will see where I go in an hour and 2. Maybe this will give me an opportunity to eat some lower fat meals. I would generally still eat some nuts and guac but I am passing on those today as a test. I always feel I have to keep all the same macros at every meal to stay steady. Crossing my fingers this helps.

How many points up or down after meals are people experiencing?
 
Kristin251 said:
Based on your screen name can I assume you eat lots of carbs?
Click to expand...
No I don't
Many people misread the screen name as carbs Rock where as it actually says carbs R OK

It doesn't matter what quantity of carbs I do ea,t I always bolus 30 mins before I eat unless it's a fatty meal.
 
CarbsRok said:
No I don't
Many people misread the screen name as carbs Rock where as it actually says carbs R OK

It doesn't matter what quantity of carbs I do ea,t I always bolus 30 mins before I eat unless it's a fatty meal.
Click to expand...

Great to know! This might be the ticket allowing me to reduce fat and not spike so I can lose a few pounds without compromising BS. . I only eat green veggies as carbs but I still spike faster and stay higher.
What do you do if you are on the low side? Today I woke up at 74 but I always pop up higher than usual when I am below 80 which doesn't happen often luckily. Do you still bolus 30 min before eating?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…