• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

I don't know what's spiking my blood sugars

D

Dan O Reilly

Member
Messages
9
Hey everyone. I'm a prediabetic from Ireland. I stopped checking my fasting blood sugar every day because a bad result was affecting my mood so I just do randomly. I realize I'm only burying my head in the sand with this approach

Woke up yesterday to a 6.3, hoping for under 6. So I decided I'd test at meal times and 2 hours after that. I'm doing 16:8 so my first meal is at 12pm. Test says 6.0, so I eat my soup, wings and veggie juice. Reading 2 hours later is 5.4.
After work I did some training so my test at 7pm is 4.8. 2 hours later and just before bed it's 4.9. Woke up to a fasting of 5.9. I just don't understand what's spiking it. Any advice will be much appreciated
 

Hi Dan,

The liver dumps glucose into the system. A kind of "fight or light" response.. Can happen just before waking up or just after the feet hit the bedroom floor..
Where you prepping to go to work? Yep, i get a jump too.

Oh, & welcome to the forum..
 
Dan O Reilly said:
Woke up to a fasting of 5.9. I just don't understand what's spiking it. Any advice will be much appreciated
Click to expand...

Yes, many T2s and T1s find that that is the highest pre meal reading of the day, and it also tends to be the last one to go down when people low carb to reduce their bg levels. Frustrating but I'd argue that 5.9 is by no means a bad result. I have to inject insulin for it even if I don't have any breakfast. I'm T1 so I inject insulin for all glucose dumps, whether they are from my oh so helpful liver (getting me ready to go out and chase mammoths ) or for my normal meals.
 
After several years of testing and tweaking my food, I have come to the conclusion that it is mainly stress that affects my fasting bgs. Not food (unless I eat something really I’ll-advised the night before).

By ‘stress’ I mean anything that gets the old adrenals simmering.

Memorable examples:
The fox/cat fight in the street in front of the house at 2 am. Sounded like banshees duelling.
That job interview.
The day I woke up to high winds and downpour, needing to get to a new location to give a training session.
Waking up onthe morning we go on hol, with a list of To Dos already written on the inside of my forehead...

Those aren’t necessarily ‘bad’ stresses. But they are enough that my overly helpful body decided that I needed to wake up raring to go and primed to take on the world with fbgs in the region of 8-11 mmol/l.

On a normal morning, just the action of putting my feet on the floor will raise my bg from 5s (sleeping) to around 7 (walking down the landing to the bathroom).
I tend to shower at night because a morning shower will raise me from that 7 to over 8.

Then I have something to eat, or a cup of bone broth, or a hot drink with cream in it, and within half an hour my bg has dropped back to the 6ish mark. Then it continues to drop, fluctuate and rise normally over the day (depending on food, activity and - you’ve guessed it - stress). My fbgs are invariably the readings that I have least control over.

It is what it is. And getting stressed about it just makes it worse.

In many, many ways I am extremely lucky - I get to have a great deal of control over my bgs the rest of the day by eating foods that suit me. But I think it is unwise to lay too much emphasis on fbgs, and it is VERY unwise to compare with others, or try to make sense of the daily fluctuations. That way lies more stress and a spiral into feeling inadequate, and life is just too short for that kind of aggro. Constantly testing and worriting would be a waste of test strips. And a waste of worry, too

Nowadays, I only monitor fbg when I am wearing a libre, and then I just casually observe it.
 
I'd agree with everyone else. Try googling Dawn Phenomena. I find any sort of stress raises my levels which is annoying- also if I'm coming down with a cold.

My view is I do what I can to control my levels- diet and some exercise and accept what I can't control- lack of sleep, stress, illness.

welcome to the site.
 
Thanks for getting back to me. At least i have an answer now. I had trouble sleeping last night, not stressed but my mind was working overtime so that was probably it. Does anyone think the 16:8 thing is a bad idea for me considering I want to get my hbac down?

Also I'm fine with a 5.9, it's the dreaded 6 I don't like
 
Try switching the 16:8 window, so you eat early then fast evening/overnight see if that makes any difference,
 

No meter is that accurate. Your reading of '6' could be anything between 5 and 7 in reality. I don't say that to alarm you but just to make you aware that a 5.9 V a 6 is immaterial. If your overall numbers are in that range then that is GOOD. That's why some people are told not to test regularly because every reading they are unhappy with gives them a jolt of depression or anger, etc and it becomes never ending, they end up happy, sad, happy, sad, happy sad. What was your initial hb1ac, as a pre diabetic I'm guessing it wasn't massively high. That tends to mean a few tweaks here and there may be enough for your overall levels to drop. Many people do the 16.8 or similar fasts but are you on any meds at all? What is a typical days diet/carbs for you?
 

You're right I probably shouldn't test every day. How often do you think I should test?

I had a hbac of 47. The only reason I wasn't diagnosed with type 2 was because I didn't fast for my first blood test. Been on low carb 2.5 months. No meds. I'd say I'm eating around 30g of carbs every day. I eat carrots and onions and take milk in my tea which is the one thing I'm finding hard to replace.

Thanks very much for the advice by the way. I've found this page super helpful
 
I eat every 12 hours as that seems to be the way to keep my levels from going high.
I have been having nightmares for some time now, and that seems to make it even more important to eat as soon as I get up, or my levels just go up and up. My levels begin to drop just a few minutes after eating - and the preparation of the food seems to help me to calm down.
 

Hi Dan, for the majority of people the testing would be first thing in the morning, before and 2 hours after food and then maybe before bed. BUT, only you can decide really because if that amount of testing is making you anxious you may need to re think. Testing every day is considered a good thing for people who have actually been diagnosed as it shows them how their body is reacting to what they eat and helps them to manage their condition. It's a bit different for you in that you are pre diabetic and are looking to make improvements. Sorry, it's hard for me to say how often you should test because it's a personal decision. I think if I was pre diabetic I would do a few experiments with the foods I was eating just to ascertain the effects, then maybe once a day first thing in the morning which would tell you your fasting levels. The fasting level (out of all the testing times) is probably the one that gives you better information on it's own when compared to the others. I initially thought about telling you to get a libre but again, the issue with that for some people is that the constant monitoring can be detrimental for certain personalities. Also, if you don't mind, can you give us an idea of your actual meals, ie, the precise ingredients. x
 
Why not stop testing your morning fasting for a period as this is making you anxious and really serves very little purpose. Instead you could concentrate on testing meals before and 2 hours after eating, and possibly before you get in bed. This will help you much more than testing your fasting if you record your levels alongside a food diary and watch for patterns.
 
Fasting levels will be the last ones of the day in type 2 to respond to dietary changes, so the least motivational. Most practical would be to use what testing you can manage to test the meals and make the necessary changes based on the results. So this could be one meal a day or a whole days worth of meals every few days. Maybe just do fasting once a week and look for a trend over time not absolute numbers (don’t forget the meters are not perfect so decimal places are a bit arbitrary)
 

Thanks for your reply. I think i just need to put on my big boy pants and start testing at meal times and mornings like you said. I'm sure I'll become desensitized after a period of time.
I've read lots of people speaking highly about the libre and I may consider it in the future.
I'll tell you what I ate today and at least 3 days of every week. Butternut squash soup, small amount of carrot and onion in it too. 5 chicken wings with hot sauce. 50g of blue berries, 100g of spinach and 80g of cucumber blended in a juice.
Handful of nuts as a snack.
Beef stew made with oxtail soup powder and carrots and aubergines.
And my favourite which is dessert of 3 strawberries and 120ml of double cream. Also 3 cups of tea with 40ml of whole milk in each. Hope I'm doing it right
 
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.…