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Morning readings go up and then plummet after breakfast - is this normal?

Smallbrit

Well-Known Member
Messages
284
Location
Cardiff, Wales
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
There's a similar thread just posted, so sorry for the repeat, but I'm not on meds and not having high carb breakfasts, so I didn't want answers to get confused.

I've had a meter for a week, but been following general low-ish carb diet for about a month (40-80g normally). Testing pre meal/2hrs after, morning fasting. Numbers are higher than I'd like, but I am keeping within the 2mmol/L range for 2-hr after meal testing for lunch/evenings. Mornings, however, readings are weird as they consistently go up between waking and breakfast (and I consistently have a large gap between both). For example, today:

Last reading yesterday around 10pm: 7.1
Immediately on waking, around 7:30am: 7.2 (so up by 0.1)
(Have coffee with cream and a handful of raspberries, shower, walk kids to school, come home, start work)
9:10am: 9.6 (then Spinach, egg, cheese omelette with Parma ham. Seecond cup of coffee with cream)
2hrs later: 6.9 (-2.5 post prandial difference)

Expecting numbers in 5/6 range by lunchtime at 1pm

Is a rise in numbers by 2.5 in two hours due to morning getting ready rush, one coffee with double cream and maybe 5 raspberries a normal thing? Everything stays in 5/6/7 range after lunchtime. Should I move my breakfast time earlier? Just keep experimenting till something works?

There was no difference between last night and this morning practically in readings, so I'm finding it hard to see this as Dawn Phenomenon. Unless my pancreas is just like me and has a more liberal view of "morning" and getting ready than most people! I work from home so would happily sleep until 9am if there weren't children to get ready for school!
 
I would save the berries for later in the day and have a more substantial breakfast - in the content not the amount - a couple of eggs with a bit of cheese and sliced tomato is my usual fast food.
The berries are only a small amount of food, but they are all sugar, which wouldn't work for me.
 
The dawn phenomenon isn't restricted to dawn. It happens at any time of the day. You are experiencing exactly the same problem I used to have in that my numbers were flat overnight, and sometimes had dropped by the time I got up. Within 10 minutes of getting up they started to rise and continued at the higher level until almost lunch time.

I think what is happening in your case is the coffee and cream would help, but the raspberries will make matters worse. My previous breakfasts used to involve raspberries or strawberries, and just made the liver dump worse as they added to the sugar already in my blood stream. If I were you I would discontinue with the fruit (have it later in the day) and stick to the coffee and cream. The fruit plus the liver dump seem to be making matters worse. Give this a try, and continue with your normal routine and breakfast. If it doesn't work, try adding a boiled egg or some cheese to your initial snack. It is all trial and error.
 
Thanks, all! I honestly hadn't considered raspberries as an issue, seeing as they don't have much effect later in the day, and are portable and easy, which fit my general morning 'leave getting up till as late as possible' philosophy.

I may be boiling lots of eggs this evening
 

Time of day is crucial with some foods. I cannot manage any at breakfast, but am OK with evening meal. Boiled eggs are brilliant, although when I was eating breakfasts I had mine soft boiled rather than hard boiled.
 
I would be interested to see what your numbers were like if you had waited until 2 hours after your breakfast.

Your rising reading and post breakfast are only c90-100 minutes apart, so could have been falling sharply at that point, not to mention you could have a fair amount of adrenalin coursing through your system from getting the kids ready for the school run, doing that, then getting home to start work.

So, for me, I'd like to have seen the numbers at 2 hours, and at the weekends when I am assuming no school run or getting back for work happens.
 
You could try adding butter to your cream and coffee - makes it a bit more substantial.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
You could try adding butter to your cream and coffee - makes it a bit more substantial.
Click to expand...
I’ve been drinking butter in broth in the morning and around 3. I swear it’s keeping bg lower. I don’t do much dairy and have yet to try just the broth. I love my small bf and would miss it. A piece of Boston lettuce wrapped around a thin slice of chicken / turkey with some avocado smashed in.
If I don’t eat I just keep rising so I keep bf small. But I’m T1
 

I think that if you are T1 or T2 you still have the same glucose stores, including in your liver.
This means that you can get a liver dump at any time if your BG goes too low for your body's comfort.
So I assume for both T1 and T2 a snack can tell your liver to stop dumping so your BG stops rising.
 
Mine always goes up the moment I get out of bed. Not dawn syndrome but feet on the floor effect. Happens to many of us. It doesn't make a difference what time it is or if I have breakfast. The only difference with your situation is that I can take insulin to counteract the effect.
 
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