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Hunger & Blood Glucose Reading

finsit

Well-Known Member
Messages
331
Location
UK
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi, i was just experimenting to guess what would be my BG if i start feeling hungry (not cravings) and if i wait for 30-60 minutes and i feel very hungry. I have noticed that when my BG is above 6.5, i don't feel the hunger at all. When my BGs are <6, i start feeling hungry (as if i could eat something). Close to 5, i would really feel hungry. So in an effort to reduce my BG checking, I am now counting on my hunger signals and checking to make sure they match my hunger and they mostly do.

What's your experience? Eating to hunger has regulated my BGs even better FYI.

Thanks.
 
Interesting. I'm hungry at midday. That's 18 hours after I've last eaten. I try to wait until 3 pm and I'm starving. But if I do this 3 days in a row, 3 pm is the new time I first feel hungry. My blood sugars sit around 5 mmol/l after waking until I first eat.
 
I understand that it will make perfect sense eating to your meter, but i want to get rid of constantly pricking my fingers to understand that, so i am trying to leave it to hunger signals and that is why need to understand from the fellows here how their BG behaves when they are really hungry.
 
I eat when I am hungry, and when I am hungry I eat and have been doing this for most of my life.

My meal times are not set set to a rigid time, but they are flexible. I have worked through my lunch break and felt more hungrier later when I had dinner.
 
Most days, my meals are so low carb that they have very little affect on my BG. I eat regular small meals throughout the day as I’m trying to get an even protein distribution, mostly to support my training.
 
Libre?
 
Thanks @ert . I think the most useful tool to regulate BG is the 18:6 window eating but for me its still hard to do it all the time. I do it couple of days a week with good results. My question for you or anyone else who does two-meals a day, how do you compensate for your macronutrients, particularly proteins? do you increase protein quantity in both meals ? I also remember seeing a video that explains that when autophagy happens, the old mitochondria are converted into protein so even if you are eating less protein but doing fasting, your protein utilisation goes up? Any thoughts? In general, the less frequent i eat and smaller amounts i eat, i feel much better and so does my BG.
 
When I get up I am looking forward to my breakfast and starting to feel hungry. Due to dawn phenomenon this is also the time of relatively high BG. I think that hunger in the generally well fed is at least partly linked to regular mealtimes. Even my dog waits by his bowl at 1pm which is when we always have lunch.
 
@Mr_Pot that's absolutely right and i remember the school days when they said if you ring the bell on food time, dog will start drooling . That is what i wish to break. I don't want to feel hungry because of my meal times. I am trying to break into this since a couple of months with some success. I am interested to know how it works for you guys or if you can try to experiment it. I have always heard and read the diabetics should have fixed meal timings, but i started to believe that is not true. I think we should be eating (even non-diabetics) when we are really hungry. From evolution viewpoint, i would think that when our ancestors got hungry, they didn't have quick access to food, so it probably took them some time to hunt or prepare food. So, i am thinking that once you get hungry, you just don't reach out to your fridge, but rather wait (i guess 1-2 hrs) and then eat? Its interesting how well you can manage your health if you just go back to how it was thousands years ago with mother nature.
 
LaoDan said:
Most days, my meals are so low carb that they have very little affect on my BG. I eat regular small meals throughout the day as I’m trying to get an even protein distribution, mostly to support my training.
Click to expand...
How much carb do you eat a meal and in a day?
 
millenium said:
How much carb do you eat a meal and in a day?
Click to expand...
Breakfast is zero
post exercise lunch is about 30grams
Dinner is probably less than 10.
I usually have a protein shake and a tub of cottage cheese as a snack. So currently less than 50 ish per day. If I don’t exercise, I don’t have carbs for lunch.
 

Eating like that your blood glucose will surely pass with flying colours.
 
I think many of us 'imagine' that we are hungry at a standard breakfast time because of conditioning.
I have certainly found with myself that if I routinely go straight into my kitchen when I get up, then I think of my breakfast and feel hungry for it, but if ... like this morning ... my mind is on a job that I wish to do (I transplanted my Lavender plants to a new border that gets more sun) then I don't feel in the slightest bit deprived of food. I didn't go into my kitchen until 11am after coming in from the garden.
 
I think that the 'fixed mealtimes' for Diabetics is only/mainly for Type 1's. A friend who is Type 1 makes sure he carries small snacks to keep his BG up when his mealtime is delayed. For example when we all saw a film which started before lunchtime.
Life for a Type 1 is more complicated because of the reaction times and doses of the basal and bolus insulins they take.

The OP who doesn't like finger pricking, only needs to test occasionally (if at all) for meals that have a constant predictable reaction. For me that description fits all my meals, so I haven't had the need to test more than 4 or 5 times in the last 6 months. And then just to check my predicted BG (reality BG was either correct or lower in every case).
 
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zand said:
Am I the only one whose BGs start to rise when I am hungry because my liver is helping out?
Click to expand...
No, not the only one, I've noticed that phenomenon as well.
 
zand said:
Am I the only one whose BGs start to rise when I am hungry because my liver is helping out?
Click to expand...
Not the only one. My insulin response is very predictable- I know how long it’ll take to come down based on what I’ve eaten and even how much or little it will rise.

My liver however... dawn phenomenon, rise with more than gentle stroll, stress, rollercoasters, if I skip both breakfast and lunch it just goes up and up, and if I drop below 5 which my liver seems to think is the cut off for low blood sugar. I can feel it when I get to about 5 and stop it with small non carby food.

I suppose I’d guess I have decent secondary insulin response and poor primary as well as an insulin resistant liver. But at least knowing that I know the solution and why it will help; reduce fat in liver and insulin resistance through low carb to break down stored glycogen which will be replaced through breakdown of fat...
 
9 times out of 10 when I’m feeling very hungry my blood sugars are low. Not always.

if my blood sugars are high from my previous meal, I’ll delay eating until later unless horrendously hungry. I try to eat only one meal a day but usually two
 
Agree for hunger = low (for me) on my meter. This is 3 meals for me though usually!
 
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