Pre Bolus Insulin Before Meal

[static192]

hi i dont really pre bolus insulin before meal but i see alot of people pre bolus for meals. i wanted to ask to people who prebolus insulin before meals is that. would they spike alot compared bolus just before they eat. and ultimately would there hba1c alot lower becuase of pre bolusing?.

 

[Diakat]

Pre bolusing helps me stay flatter after eating by reducing the spike, so I have to assume it helps lower my a1c. Not sure by how much though.

 

[Deleted Account]

I try to pre-bolus before all my meals.
Ideally, we would have a little table of what we are going to eat and how long before we should bolus as different foods take different times to affect our BG.
I know some people use Libre to create this table and know when to take their insulin if they are eating pasta or bread or ice cream or ...
As @Diakat mentions, this helps reduce the spike after eating when the carbs start raising your BG before your insulin takes affect.
As your hB1AC is an average, cutting out these spikes will reduce your hB1AC.

 

[Fairygodmother]

Bolusing before meals is also calculated according to current bs, plus the time it takes for insulin to bring down a high, or for a low to be raised. The timing of the bolus is also affected by the gap between injection and insulin becoming active, eg for Novorapid this can be 15 - 20 minutes.
An example, if my bs were 3 I’d bolus when eating.

 

[kitedoc]

When I was on MDI Novorapid/levemir I would take my Novorapid on average an hour before meals because that better corresponded the timing of my bsl peak and the insulin's peak action, and thus a lower spike. Doing that three times a day helped keep BSLS lower and reduce longer-term my HBA1Cs.
Of course that it what worked for me at the time but you would need to chck with your doctor about your case.
Also if the meal was one that I knew from experience took longer to reach a sugar peak ( Indian food take-away was most notorious in this regard) I would then take Novorapid just before the meal and test at the 2 1/2 to 3 hour mark. On the insulin pump I can vary the timing and percentage of Novorapid bolus dose.
Of course I was wary of doing a one hour before meal bolus at restaurants because the timing of the meal was not under my control. Sometimes I would order the dessert first so that I had some carb input earlier if there was some delay. I do not have experience of very low carb diets and would be interested in how TIDs manage their insulin boluses per-meal.