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How long lasts the effect of sweets or carbs on BS

Kaha

Kaha

Well-Known Member
Messages
214
Location
Canada
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Hypocrite
If in case I take some extra carbs or sweets with dinner beyond the limit due to some unavoidable circumstances , the BS readings are most likely to be higher than usual after 1, 2 hours . My question is whether these food will have longer effect on BS say fasting BS tomorrow or even noon time BS readings? Can anybody explain how long the effect of bad food on BS readings last .
 
It depends what the food is. There's no one size fits all answer to this, you just have to test, maybe in more detail than normal, and see what happens.
 
I find in most times fasting BS high . I know there are some other reasons behind high fasting sugar . So, when I see high numbers I start remembering what I took last night in dinner , lunch or even consider what was taken the day before. My point is whether there is a need to consider so back?
 
High fasting readings (higher than expected based on the evening before) can also be due to Dawn Phenomenon, a natural process where the liver produces glucose before waking - to give you energy for a day's hunting and gathering ...
 
High fasting levels are very often to do with more glucose being made and released by the liver than normal.
We need a certain amount of glucose all the time, even when sleeping. In between meals everyone releases the glucose needed from either glucose that has been stored in the liver from earlier meals or if there isn't any there than the liver makes some from other sources including protein. Unfortunately, one of the things that goes wrong in diabetes is that the liver can make much more than is needs, sometimes up to 3X the amount of a non diabetes.
Metformin as a drug acts , in part to stop this, reducing the production of glucose by a third
explanation but not in simple terms (sorry first one I came to and don't have time to look for another)
.http://www.pharmacologyweekly.com/articles/metformin-hypoglycemia-mechanism-diabetes
 
I assume you're just asking "what happens if i eat more carbs then i thought i was at a meal?"

The ideal way insulin should work is like this -
-You test your sugars, and lets they are 5.5 before the meal, so you determine how many carbs you're going to eat and inject the appropriate amount of insulin. You should see a small increase up to around 7, 2 hours after the meal, and then they should fall back down to 5.5 ish 4 hours later.
-But oh no! you learned that the meal had carbs you didn't account for! What would typically happen is you would raise up, to say 8 or 9, after 2 hours, and then at 4 hours instead of falling back your pre meal measurement you may only fall down to, say - 7, or some higher number depending on the amount of carbs.

Now this is where you're basal rates come in. If you have set your basal spot on, perfectly balanced your BS will just stay high until the next you need to bolus, and at that time you will need to bolus extra to correct it back down, this could be hours later, and may or may not work as expected (like if you over eat carbs in this meal too lol)

If you basal a bit higher then you need to (which is what i prefer) it will slowly drop your BS as time goes on without you ever needing to do anything. I really like doing this, for this exact reason - if i over eat, i just need to wait an hour or two and my BS will go back to normal.. The trouble is if i wait to long i will go low. So i need a couple grams of carbs ever 5 or 6 hours to avoid dropping below 3.5, but i never have.. Its working well for me so far.

Essentially, your BS will likely stay high until you correct it with insulin, or exercise.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Kaha said:
If in case I take some extra carbs or sweets with dinner beyond the limit due to some unavoidable circumstances , the BS readings are most likely to be higher than usual after 1, 2 hours . My question is whether these food will have longer effect on BS say fasting BS tomorrow or even noon time BS readings? Can anybody explain how long the effect of bad food on BS readings last .
Click to expand...
When I increase my carb intake by a little bit my fasting blood glucose starts to go up. When I cut back on the carbs it goes back down. But that's me - may not apply to everyone.
 
My fasting sugar is about 5 to 6 no matter how much carbs i have eaten the night before but again as nocarbs4me said thats me. I do have high levels at 2 hours but in morning they are fine, but with diabetes you never know when they start going up
 
Interesting to read Brettsza that any quantity of carbs you take with dinner has no effect on fasting sugar level. Is it because of certain medication that works well to reduce your fasting BS level . So, at what range your after meal readings(2 hour) vary ?
 
Kaha said:
I find in most times fasting BS high . I know there are some other reasons behind high fasting sugar . So, when I see high numbers I start remembering what I took last night in dinner , lunch or even consider what was taken the day before. My point is whether there is a need to consider so back?
Click to expand...
Let's turn the question back to you: do you see a pattern? i.e. high fasting BG the next morning when you've had a high carb meal? Or maybe low fasting BG when you had a certain kind of snack the night before?
 
Kaha said:
Interesting to read Brettsza that any quantity of carbs you take with dinner has no effect on fasting sugar level. Is it because of certain medication that works well to reduce your fasting BS level . So, at what range your after meal readings(2 hour) vary ?
Click to expand...

I am on 2*500 metformin and 1 simvastatin, last night i sort of gave in and had 3 rotis I was absolutely starving and did not even had patience to make salad and my readings were 5.3 before dinner 5.1 after dinner and my fasting was 5.4
But I only had 3 rotis for first time since my diagnosis, I am normally eating 2 max 3 in a day but I had 4 yesterday but I only use wholemeal flour so may be that suits me I only have egg musrooms and bacon in morning and lots of veggies and salad in afternoon so normally only time I would have real carbs is in night.
 
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