how often to check

I've been told by my dsn that I only need to test before meals and bed.

Hi Israr. Depends what meds you're on. If you're on insulin or similar meds you need to check regularly to avoid hypos as well as general analysis. If you're just on metformin, or diet only, then you need to test a lot initially to work out how different foods affect you. After that you can just check when you try something new, and now and again to see if things are changing. I tested loads up front, but now I know what any food type in any quantity will do to
My levels so I might not test for weeks at a time

Hi,

I would keep in the routine of testing daily, this way you can be on top of your game with your diabetes. You can notice straight away if your tolerance to carbohydrates is changing. The quicker you pick that up the quicker you can make changes to keep your BG's at a good level!

I would recommend to anyone Type 1 or type 1 to test the following times;

When you wake up.
Before meals.
After meals if you are testing a new food or if you are trialling a new insulin dose.
Before bed.
When you feel ill.
If you feel like your BG is high or low.
Before and after exercise - you shouldn't exercise with a BG over 13mmol.

Many DN's don't recommend to test when you wake up. In my opinion this is a very important test. This way you can link your bedtime reading with your waking reading and see if there are any changes between the two. this is especially important for Type 1's as you can see if your basal insulin is working how it should overnight. You can also catch if you are experiencing the dawn phenomenon.

Hi Ebony, understand your point, but remember Israr is a type 2 on diet only, so some of the testing you mention won't really apply long term. For us T2 diet only's it's more about working things out, then occasional tests to make sure things aren't changing, or when we do new things.