Test reading trends

Hi @richf ..
I would suggest another look at the post you received earlier from @ daisy1 .. I don't think you have anything to worry about after your first couple of days testing and I'm sure you will find that your readings soon begin to settle into a regular pattern
Hope this helps

richf said:

Hi Good morning

I have just started my life style change journey and have only been testing my glucose levels since the weekend. Two of the days my test just after getting up is 7.1 and 2 hours after a meal the reading is 6.4. In my wisdom (or lack of it) I expected the first reading to be the lower one?

Click to expand...

Search the forum for the term 'liver dump' - you will find it interesting reading

Mine was 11.1 an hour after my evening meal which was just fried egg, battered chicken breast and baked beans.

I weigh 60kg and am 5'10..

Hi, to make sense of your readings you need to test immediately before you start eating your meal and then usually 2 hours afterwards; it may be useful to do a 1 hour post meal check as well. These figures will be a guide to how you are responding to certain foods -particularly those with higher carbohydrate content.

Basically the pre-meal test gives you a base level to work from, the 2 hours post meal will show how close back down to your pre-meal level again your glucose is, and a 1 hour check will generally be when you are likely to see a peak glucose reading (spike) for the carbs you've eaten in your meal. Random checks during the day are not particularly useful as glucose levels tend to be fluctuating all the time, so what you do need to do is use your meter to see how you respond to certain foods or combinations of foods (aka eating to your meter, so you can cut down on or avoid those that give the biggest and longest spikes - which is the best way to start managing your diabetes.

Liver dumps (also know as the dawn phenomenon - though they can happen whenever your liver thinks you need extra fuel) are common to both diabetics and non diabetics alike and are perfectly normal. You'll probably find that you early morning levels tend to be the highest as you need an energy boost to get you going for the day, and they'll be the last ones to reduce as your glucose control improves; when you have got the other figures down, the early morning ones eventually follow suit.