My BG goes up three-four hours after dinner. How fix?

[popit]

I have a problem lately when I eat.

I take my insulin and eat. Two hours later the BG is perfect, two and a half hours later it's perfect. But often it spikes three or four hours later, from like 5 to 8-9.

What is this about? I can't find any information about this. All info I found is just regarding spikes just after eating.

I've tried to come up with a solution myself but haven't been able to. If I take more bolus I go low 1-2 hours after eating, if I take more basal I go low after long periods of not eating (like during or after sleep).

I cook my own meals every day and they don't contain a large amount of fat. How can I fix this? I'm getting really tired of taking correction doses every day.

 

[debbiiee]

Do u take a high protein meal? Protein may cause a late rise, so its better to take ur short acting insulin after ur food rather than before eating. Check BG after meal & then take ur insulin, check ur levels till 4 hours. See if this has any positive effect on ur levels
Good luck

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[popit]

Do u take a high protein meal? Protein may cause a late rise, so its better to take ur short acting insulin after ur food rather than before eating. Check BG after meal & then take ur insulin, check ur levels till 4 hours. See if this has any positive effect on ur levels
Good luck

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

Yea it's pretty high on protein a lot of the time.

After some thinking and googling I realized I eat pasta pretty often, and pasta seems like a common "problem" food because of the low GI (My problem doesn't only happen with pasta though).

I'll try to take the bolus after my pasta dinners and high protein meals and look at the results. Maybe I'll try splitting the insulin dose in two for the pasta.

Thanks for the advice.

EDIT. It's kind of annoying that you constantly get advice about eating low GI food but when you do the insulin doesn't work as intended (too rapid-acting).

 

[noblehead]

There's two possible explanations. One could be if your meal is high in fat this will delay the absorption of your food and result in higher bg readings much later than normal, however the likely cause is your basal insulin needs increasing, try missing a meal together with your QA insulin and see how your bg levels behave, if it goes up then increase your basal insulin.

 

[Heathenlass]

Another explanation could be the type of fast acting insulin you are using, though this is not the case for everyone .

My meals tend to be high protein, low GI, vegetarian and invariably home cooked. On Novorapid I was experiencing more or less what you describe on a daily basis , sometimes going low at 2-3 hours, then a rise and it was driving me nuts! I struggled with this for years, altering the basal doses, bolusing then going hypo, and nothing changed. At my last appointment, my DSN suggested that the Novo peaked out of synch with my food choices, too soon because of the low GI content . .

I've now changed to HumulinS which peaks later than Novo, and it seems to have solved the problem

If after doing what @noblehead suggests and checking that it's not your basal that's wrong, perhaps a discussion with your HCP's about the type of insulin you are using may help ?

Signy

 

[Mosschops]

HI Popit

Other things that can help are:-

• Pay attention to the glycemic index (GI). Generally speaking, the higher a food scores on the glycemic index, the faster it will hit your blood sugar.

• Combine high GI foods with foods that can help slow your digestion. These include high fiber foods and foods that have a fair amount of fat. Also worth noting: cold foods absorb more slowly than hot foods, and solids absorb more slowly than liquids. (This makes intuitive sense: your body has to warm things up and break them down before absorbing the nutrients, so if it’s cold and solid, it’ll take more time.)

• Exercise. This does not have to be intense — a simple walk will do. Basically, anything that gets you moving will divert blood from your digestive system to your muscles. And the less blood you’re using to digest, the slower that digestion will be.

• Split your meal. In other words, take your full mealtime insulin dose, but only eat part of your meal. Wait fifteen minutes of so, and then eat the rest of it. Spacing it out like this (with your full bolus up front) will help give your insulin a chance to catch up.