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Questions about my BG results 1 and 2 hours after my meal

sally and james said:
On the records I keep (own spreadsheet), of pre and post meal readings, I have a space for one, two and three hours after meals. I wouldn't normally fill them all in! Sometimes there are limited opportunities to test so that determines which column is completed, and different meals will peak at different times. For example, porridge (low GI) will peak late, but a glass of fruit juice will peak early. Anything eaten accompanied by fatty food, will be slowed down, so greasy roast spuds, will take longer than mashed ones.
So, the important point is that you compare like with like and know when tests were taken. Have your own limits for a particular time. The limits we work to are 7 and under for one hour, six and under for two hours. Five and under for fasting and three hours. This is very strict, but is achieved with a low carb diet and has resulted in consistently good, non-diabetc, HbA1c test results.
Concerning the OP's @Marieukxx M&S meal, I would consider the results to be a little bit too high and 40g of carbs to be a bit too much. But Rome wan't built in a day, and its not a bad start. I wonder what the meal was? Did it include mashed potato or pasta? Or had sugar been used to replace fat? Marie, do think about what was actually in the meal. You may be able to have something very similar, just tweaked a little to reduce quickly digested carbs.
Sally
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It was chicken in tomato and pepper saucfe with mashed potato. It was a diet meal from their range
 
Someone on here told me to try testing an hour and two hours after first bite as I might be missing my peak. I am a very slow eater I don't know if that makes a difference and also I never have dessert or coffee
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Was this your experiment to test out what a carby meal does to you, as mentioned on another thread?

I don't have to show my nurse my readings, but if I did I would show her both the 1 hour and 2 hour readings, and also the 3 hour readings if you have them. If you have a high rise at 1 hour but it is back to where you started at 2 hours, this is good. (in my opinion) if it is still high at 2 hours, above 7.8 or 8.5 depending which guidelines you use, it is not good. (in my opinion). If it is still above where you started at 3 hours, it is not good. You were coming down on that meal, but not by enough.

I also test before I eat, then at 1 hour and 2 hours after the first bite. If the 2 hour reading is higher, I will test again at 2.5 hours after first bite.

As for first bite, sometimes a meal might take half an hour to finish if you have 2 or more courses, but I still test an hour after first bite on the grounds that the food is being digested as soon as you take your first mouthful.

As others have said, the timing of the peak depends on the type of carbs in the meal plus the amount of fat. Fat slows down the digestive process. Very little fat, you will peak earlier, more fat you will peak later. High GI carbs will peak earlier, others will peak later etc etc. I keep a spread sheet record of all my readings alongside the meal I ate, so I know which meals will peak early and which will linger longer.
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Yes I wouldn't normally eat a ready meal anymore. I wanted to test it out
 
Avocado Sevenfold said:
I may have misled the OP on another thread by saying "after the first bite". What I meant was start timing at the meal kick-off as opposed to measuring 2 hours after the END of a meal which OP had been doing.

The meal on that thread was a takeaway eaten with family members. SocIal eating usually takes longer than eating on your own, in my experience, therefore it is more consistent to start timing from the start of a meal as the finishing times can vary.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/question-about-my-bg-tonight.62053/#post-597968
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I am always a slow eater regardless. I'm always sitting there still with half a plate when others have finished. Takeaway or not.
 
gorillamark said:
I can see the rationale for something like a large muliti-course meal in a restaurant which as you say tends to take a fair bit longer and also can have all sorts of ingredients that aren't a good idea. But not for "everyday" eating and particularly for eating and I quote:

a diet meal from marks and spencers count on us range​

I don't see the point at all. Meals of that type tend to be consumed fairly rapidly.
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I know exactly how long that ready meal took me to eat as I wrote it down. I ate fairly fast compared to how I would normally eat. It took 20 minutes to finish
 
sorry for the multple replies I was reading and replying as I went
 
Bluetit1802 said:
So what are your feelings about your experiment and how your body dealt with it?
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I don't know tbh if it's good or bad? I was shocked at the hour reading of 9, I don't really know about the others. I would think that meal isn't one to put on my list because it was 7.6 after two hours is that right?

I wrote down the 7.8 result after two hours for my book. Am I doing right testing after first bite?
 
Marieukxx said:
I don't know tbh if it's good or bad? I was shocked at the hour reading of 9, I don't really know about the others. I would think that meal isn't one to put on my list because it was 7.6 after two hours is that right?

I wrote down the 7.8 result after two hours for my book. Am I doing right testing after first bite?
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My advice would be sit down, test your blood, start eating, test 2 hours later.
 
It's a homemade meal tonight. I made a batch of chilli and froze it in portions. Surprisingly for me it actually tasted pretty good lol. I'm starting to enjoy cooking now.
 
For a diabetic it wasn't drastic but not good either. I wouldn't put it on my list of foods to eat. far to many carbs, and starchy ones at that.

The NICE guidelines say under 8.5 at 2 hours so it was within that. However, 8.5 is a bit generous. Many on here aim for under 7.8, and many more aim for a lot lower. We all have our personal targets. Your nurse will say it is a good reading because she will be following the NICE guidelines for diabetics.

Yes, you are doing right to test 1 hour and 2 hours after your first bite.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
For a diabetic it wasn't drastic but not good either. I wouldn't put it on my list of foods to eat. far to many carbs, and starchy ones at that.

The NICE guidelines say under 8.5 at 2 hours so it was within that. However, 8.5 is a bit generous. Many on here aim for under 7.8, and many more aim for a lot lower. We all have our personal targets. Your nurse will say it is a good reading because she will be following the NICE guidelines for diabetics.

Yes, you are doing right to test 1 hour and 2 hours after your first bite.
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Thank you Bluetite1802
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Was this your experiment to test out what a carby meal does to you, as mentioned on another thread?

I don't have to show my nurse my readings, but if I did I would show her both the 1 hour and 2 hour readings, and also the 3 hour readings if you have them. If you have a high rise at 1 hour but it is back to where you started at 2 hours, this is good. (in my opinion) if it is still high at 2 hours, above 7.8 or 8.5 depending which guidelines you use, it is not good. (in my opinion). If it is still above where you started at 3 hours, it is not good. You were coming down on that meal, but not by enough.

I also test before I eat, then at 1 hour and 2 hours after the first bite. If the 2 hour reading is higher, I will test again at 2.5 hours after first bite.

As for first bite, sometimes a meal might take half an hour to finish if you have 2 or more courses, but I still test an hour after first bite on the grounds that the food is being digested as soon as you take your first mouthful.

As others have said, the timing of the peak depends on the type of carbs in the meal plus the amount of fat. Fat slows down the digestive process. Very little fat, you will peak earlier, more fat you will peak later. High GI carbs will peak earlier, others will peak later etc etc. I keep a spread sheet record of all my readings alongside the meal I ate, so I know which meals will peak early and which will linger longer.
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For me to do all that testing and record keeping would make me really obsessive about it. I did get a bit like that when I was first testing..1 hour 2 hours 3 hours sometimes more after a meal if I did not get the results I thought I should...one reason some DN's and GP's don't like T2's testing.... so I stopped testing altogether for a while as it was taking over my life.
Now I have a very good idea of what I can eat so I don't test every day any more just sometimes to see how my levels are but I mostly do it if I have had something new to eat.
 
You are right of course, @AnnieC It is obsessive, and expensive, but right now it's the main thing helping me keep control of my weight and BS as I am learning so much from the meal testing in that I have learnt portion size. I am naughty in some people's eyes because I still eat bread and spuds. I now know how much bread and how many spuds I can have, plus what types of bread and spuds. My biggest lesson was one lunch time when I was eating in a café where I eat most weeks with friends. All I had was a tuna and mayo sandwich on 2 slices of thin granary bread. No tea or coffee, just water. 2 hours later I was 12.4. I now have the tuna mayo salad with no bread. Lesson learnt. I don't test every meal by any means now, but I do keep a daily eye on all my "befores" and bedtimes so I know what levels I am running at other than after meals. Eventually I'll stop this too, but not until my levels are where I want them.
 
It takes about an hour for any glucose entering the bloodstream to thoughly mix and even out. If you injected glucose directly into a vein, which could be fatal so don't do it, it's just an illustrative example, you would get different readings if you tested shortly after, depending on your sample points. It takes time to mix and get down to the capillaries.

The usually suggested targets are if 6 or below before the meal, then 7.8 2 hours after the meal.

As your meter is not that accurate anyway, all you want to see is a trend over time so, if you stick to a regime like before a meal and 2 hours after a meal every time, you will be comparing like with like and eventually see a trend. Also, early morning before you have breakfast is a nice little indicator on how you are doing.

Doing a one hour test will give you some sort of indication of how that particular food effects you, so it should, over time, help you to learn what to eat and what to avoid. The two hour test shows you how your body is coping with that food. A one hour test is mostly higher that the two hour test but how high depends on what you ate. Different foods have different glycaemic response curves:


Chart41.jpg
 
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Here's my figures this far today. Fasting at 6.30am 5.5, ate breakfast at 9am of 2 poached eggs, 3 rashers and a sausage lashed with brown sauce. 10am 6.2. 11am 5.7 13.30 5.2 post exercise of a 2 mile run. Probably skip dinner as playing football at 8pm


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AnnieC said:
l

So do you believe that the NHS really tell GP's and practise nurses to give advice to diabetics that they know is wrong just so GP's can prescribe pills to people that don't need them..I would not want to believe that.it goes aginst everything a docotor is supposed to do they are the only ones we can trust to give us the right treatment when we are sick. So would you trust your GP's advice when it comes to treatment for any other illness you may have.
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People often act with the best intentions - and unfortunate results.

I am quite convinced that most health care professionals act in ways that they think are in their patients' best interests.

Have you read the threads on here about statins? Numerous people have posted who have painful and debilitating side effects from a medication that new studies are showing has little or no benefit for many of them.

Statins certainly lower serum cholesterol.
What is now in doubt is whether lowered cholesterol is of benefit to the average person - especially to older women.

I won't talk about diet (that gets discussed enough around here!) but as an example:
A friend of my parents, 75+ yrs old, was on about 6 different prescription drugs - heart problems, water retention, dry skin and rashes, constipation... Those were only the ones I heard about. He felt dreadful. Couldn't walk far. Always breathless, tired and uncomfortable.

His old doctor retired, and the new one took one look, ripped up the prescription and reduced his heart tablets.

Instant transformation. He could go for walks, climb stairs, stay awake all day, go to the toilet with ease. 90% of his symptoms had been side effects of all that medication. Which took more medication to control.

Did his old doctor intend to harm him? Of course not. I'm sure he thought he was helping.
But the effect verged on ignorant malpractice.
 
On that note, I was prescribed Atenolol ' a beta blocker , for anxiety. It gave me terrible vivid dreams and really bad indigestion that kept me awake for hours. The duty GP prescribed another drug to counteract this which made me have other side effects. I stopped both and felt heaps better- even the anxiety improved as I wasn't half dead with sleep deprivation and worry about feeling so ill.
I think has become worse as NICE hand out all these recommendations and GPs are encouraged to prescribe preventative drugs. On paper such things sound great but once inside the body there can be unintended consequences. A friend was a senior pharmacist at Boots and often did the med reviews for patients on lots of drugs and she was horrified at some of the combinations being prescribed.
I trust my GP to offer help and advice and appreciate that they must feel the need to be seen to be helping but sometimes they get it wrong.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Your nurse will say it is a good reading because she will be following the NICE guidelines for diabetics.

Yes, you are doing right to test 1 hour and 2 hours after your first bite.
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And the nurse would be right it is a good reading for somebody starting out as Marieukxx is. As Marieukxx becomes ever better-informed as to what foods and activities affect her blood sugar levels they'll hopefully get better and better. But for somebody diagnosed just last week I'd say they were very encouraging results. I think we all need to bear in that the NICE guidelines and their equivalents throughout the world are just that guidelines and that because they represent the establishment consensus by definition they'll always be a bit out date or even very out date. For obvious reasons they also have a certain amount of margin of error built in. I take them as a handy reference point but no more than that. My goals for example are to consistently hit these levels:

  • Pre prandial 4.0 to 5.9 mmol/L
  • 2 hours post prandial ≤ 7.8 mmol/L
My goals used to be these:
  • pre prandial 4 to 7 mmol/L
  • 2 hours post prandial ≤ 8.5 mmol
I got more ambitious as my situation and my situational awareness improved so that the goals I have now are reasonable goals (according to the specialist at the Diabetes clinic)-for me as I am now. They're reasonable for me as I am now and I mostly hit those targets too but I have to work at it and I had to work very hard indeed at it to get there. There was a time when even my original goals were utterly unrealistic to give you some idea - at one point I was injecting a daily total of 44 units of insulin and still not hitting anything even close to ≤ 8.5 mmol post-prandial.

I haven't used insulin for months and on those occasions when I don't hit my 'new' targets I generally am well aware of what it was I did to cause the higher levels. I don't know Marieukxx's circumstances but it seems to me that those are really rather good figures for somebody diagnosed only a week ago. I'd be quite optimistic if I were her as she's starting from a pretty good point.
 
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