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

Just after eating

Choosehappy

Choosehappy

Well-Known Member
Messages
169
Location
UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Hypos!
Hi guys
Newbie here
So I have never tested myself just after eating and today I decided to see what happens just after I’ve had my dinner. So I started eating at 7 and I tested at 7.35 and found my blood sugar was 11.3. Before dinner it had been 8.
My question is, is this normal or should it be under 9 constantly, so after food can our bg go up higher than 9? And is this okay or should it not be doing that and we should be constantly in range due to the rapid insulin

I’ll be honest I’m getting really frustrated with it all and positivity is waining

I guess my question is, is it okay to go up in the 11s around 30 minutes after eating and out insulin should kick in soon and get it back down or does it mean I’m doing something wrong if the bg is going to 11.3 after eating
 
The action profile of our fast acting insulin often isn't the same as the action profile of our foods. And many of us have referred to NovoRapid as NovoSluggish...

Some of us choose to take a relatively short after dinner spike as a given, others prefer to try to tackle it.
No-one knows how much, if any, damage comes from those spikes.

The ones trying to prevent those spikes have various possibilities to do so. Some choose to eat less carbs at one meal, so there simply aren't so many carbs to push BG up before the insulin kicking in.
Others religiously pre-bolus from 20 minute to up to an hour, depending on personal experience. (be careful experimenting with this one and test a lot! We don't want you going hypo before food kicks in!)
There's also Fiasp, NovoRapid's quicker sister. For some of us it proved very helpful, others found it didn't work well longer term.

In the end it comes down to quality of life: both lowering carbs and pre-bolusing have a pretty big impact on life, and for unknown benefits.
I found pre-bolusing made me feel the impact of diabetes in a close to unacceptable way. Very glad Fiasp works well for me, no more timing of food!
As for lowering carbs, perfectly acceptable for me, but for others this may be a real hardship!

It's all about finding the right balance between diabetes care and life. And I think many people are managing their diabetes in a very healthy way including those after food spikes, it may well be they are not very damaging!
 
Antje77 said:
The action profile of our fast acting insulin often isn't the same as the action profile of our foods. And many of us have referred to NovoRapid as NovoSluggish...

Some of us choose to take a relatively short after dinner spike as a given, others prefer to try to tackle it.
No-one knows how much, if any, damage comes from those spikes.

The ones trying to prevent those spikes have various possibilities to do so. Some choose to eat less carbs at one meal, so there simply aren't so many carbs to push BG up before the insulin kicking in.
Others religiously pre-bolus from 20 minute to up to an hour, depending on personal experience. (be careful experimenting with this one and test a lot! We don't want you going hypo before food kicks in!)
There's also Fiasp, NovoRapid's quicker sister. For some of us it proved very helpful, others found it didn't work well longer term.

In the end it comes down to quality of life: both lowering carbs and pre-bolusing have a pretty big impact on life, and for unknown benefits.
I found pre-bolusing made me feel the impact of diabetes in a close to unacceptable way. Very glad Fiasp works well for me, no more timing of food!
As for lowering carbs, perfectly acceptable for me, but for others this may be a real hardship!

It's all about finding the right balance between diabetes care and life. And I think many people are managing their diabetes in a very healthy way including those after food spikes, it may well be they are not very damaging!
Click to expand...
Thank you for your response ❤️ It’s been getting me abit fed up because I love my porridge in the morning! But I may have a chat with my nurse about fiasp and see what she thinks! I’m don’t think I will ever give up carbs but I can go low carb for lunch and dinner and have some carbs meals now and again to try and stop those spikes if fiasp is not helpful xx
 
You might also want to try to find out if your ratio's are very different over the day.
For myself, a high carb meal in the morning is sure to spike me high, so I avoid that. The more the day progresses, the easier I can dose for carbs, and the less insulin I need for the same amount of carbs. Talking a difference of 3 times as much insulin for the same amount of carbs in the morning as in the evening here, and that is ignoring the bolus I take just for getting out of bed.

This may be completely different for you of course, and I have a fair bit of insulin resistance to deal with as well, which you might not have, but it may be of use to keep in mind dosing and avoiding spikes may be very different at different times of day!
 
Choosehappy said:
Hi guys
Newbie here
So I have never tested myself just after eating and today I decided to see what happens just after I’ve had my dinner. So I started eating at 7 and I tested at 7.35 and found my blood sugar was 11.3. Before dinner it had been 8.
My question is, is this normal or should it be under 9 constantly, so after food can our bg go up higher than 9? And is this okay or should it not be doing that and we should be constantly in range due to the rapid insulin

I’ll be honest I’m getting really frustrated with it all and positivity is waining

I guess my question is, is it okay to go up in the 11s around 30 minutes after eating and out insulin should kick in soon and get it back down or does it mean I’m doing something wrong if the bg is going to 11.3 after eating
Click to expand...
Hi @Choosehappy, stay positive, it IS frustrating but don't let it take over. I was just wondering why you wanted to test yourself 35mins after eating, my tum would be too happy to bother. I sometimes check about 2hrs after, if I remember. Novoslug for me is very slooooooooooooooow and if after 2hrs or so and I'm over 9, I reckon I underestimated the carbs and try to remember that the next time I eat the same stuff. I often don't.
You're doing grand after just one month. Slowly slowly catchy monkey:couchpotato::couchpotato::couchpotato:
 
SueJB said:
Hi @Choosehappy, stay positive, it IS frustrating but don't let it take over. I was just wondering why you wanted to test yourself 35mins after eating, my tum would be too happy to bother. I sometimes check about 2hrs after, if I remember. Novoslug for me is very slooooooooooooooow and if after 2hrs or so and I'm over 9, I reckon I underestimated the carbs and try to remember that the next time I eat the same stuff. I often don't.
You're doing grand after just one month. Slowly slowly catchy monkey:couchpotato::couchpotato::couchpotato:
Click to expand...

Hi @SueJB

Bless you, thank you

I guess I have just been so positive since diagnosis and maybe my emotions have been abit delayed. Plus it hadn’t really occurred to me the affect of after meal spikes, so usually I check 2 hours after and I am generally happy with that number but I thought I wonder if I am going over 9 straight after meals and how that will affect me long term.

I eat a lot of carbs because I am enjoying my current weight since diagnosis, I had been looking gaunt before my diagnosis and didn’t really think how much better I’d feel with some weight on because I was just so poorly. I don’t want to quit carbs because they help me maintain my weight, but I also don’t want to have quite big spikes.

I might buy a libre in the next few months just to get a better idea of what goes on with my bg throughout the day consistently. I don’t want to become obsessive but I also want to ensure that if I can improve something I am doing. But yes I do need to relax a little and stop giving myself a hard time!
 
Antje77 said:
You might also want to try to find out if your ratio's are very different over the day.
For myself, a high carb meal in the morning is sure to spike me high, so I avoid that. The more the day progresses, the easier I can dose for carbs, and the less insulin I need for the same amount of carbs. Talking a difference of 3 times as much insulin for the same amount of carbs in the morning as in the evening here, and that is ignoring the bolus I take just for getting out of bed.

This may be completely different for you of course, and I have a fair bit of insulin resistance to deal with as well, which you might not have, but it may be of use to keep in mind dosing and avoiding spikes may be very different at different times of day!
Click to expand...
Thank you, yea I am currently working on this at the moment, so I find that I need less insulin in the morning otherwise I hypo around lunch, but then I need a lot more insulin with my night meal. I basal at 8pm every evening and tend to stay pretty steady overnight
 
Choosehappy said:
Hi @SueJB

Bless you, thank you

I guess I have just been so positive since diagnosis and maybe my emotions have been abit delayed. Plus it hadn’t really occurred to me the affect of after meal spikes, so usually I check 2 hours after and I am generally happy with that number but I thought I wonder if I am going over 9 straight after meals and how that will affect me long term.

I eat a lot of carbs because I am enjoying my current weight since diagnosis, I had been looking gaunt before my diagnosis and didn’t really think how much better I’d feel with some weight on because I was just so poorly. I don’t want to quit carbs because they help me maintain my weight, but I also don’t want to have quite big spikes.

I might buy a libre in the next few months just to get a better idea of what goes on with my bg throughout the day consistently. I don’t want to become obsessive but I also want to ensure that if I can improve something I am doing. But yes I do need to relax a little and stop giving myself a hard time!
Click to expand...
I think you have a very healthy approach to this whole diabetes thing!
Great to see you're not looking for perfection but for a healthy balance between managing diabetes and everything else in life!
 
Choosehappy said:
Hi guys
Newbie here
So I have never tested myself just after eating and today I decided to see what happens just after I’ve had my dinner. So I started eating at 7 and I tested at 7.35 and found my blood sugar was 11.3. Before dinner it had been 8.
My question is, is this normal or should it be under 9 constantly, so after food can our bg go up higher than 9? And is this okay or should it not be doing that and we should be constantly in range due to the rapid insulin

I’ll be honest I’m getting really frustrated with it all and positivity is waining

I guess my question is, is it okay to go up in the 11s around 30 minutes after eating and out insulin should kick in soon and get it back down or does it mean I’m doing something wrong if the bg is going to 11.3 after eating
Click to expand...
Hi @Choosehappy and welcome to the forum! I won't repeat what has already been said, but it might interest you to know that many years ago my mother-in-law watched me testing my blood and she had eaten about 30 minutes earlier, if I remember correctly, a large ice cream (in Italy). She asked me to test her and she was 10.6. She never was diagnosed with any form of diabetes. Hope you live long and prosper as they say!
 
Hi guys just wanted to update you

Been doing quite a lot of tests today, just to see how things go after eating, so testing every half hour after eating and I haven’t had anything above 9 today and I’ve eaten porridge for breakfast and prawn salad sandwiches on whole grain bread for lunch with a nice cuppa coffee and sweetner so think we are all good and yesterday may have just been a blip !
 
Prior to my previous update I have been running high all evening and this has been a pattern recently with my last meal of the day! It could be that I require a significantly higher insulin dosage with my evening meal as opposed to my breakfast! I will continue to test over the weekend!
 
Back
Top