testing machines UUURRRGGGG

Hi,
This link may help explain why your meters give different readings.

http://www.diabetesmine.com/2012/09/why ... evels.html

The link provided has been discussed here.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32762

Different meters tend to give different results, and to be honest, meters are only there as a general guide to BG level, the manufacturers themselves say they're not 100% accurate. I went through the same thing as you when I was first diagnosed, and when I bought a second meter (because the strips were cheaper), I was getting much lower readings than I had been getting on my old meter.

The best thing to do is to choose one meter and stick with those readings, I stayed with my Accu-Chek Aviva Nano, as I'd read in Bernstains book that Accu-Chek meters tend to read slightly higher than most others, so I thought I'd rather err on the side of caution, rather than risk a meter than was underestimating my BG levels. Comparing readings between meters can drive you mad, so I'd just stick with one of them from now on.

Good luck

The MyLife Pura is supposedly the most accurate. Here's the brochure.

http://www.mylife-diabetescare.co.uk/tl ... int-en.pdf

It's also got a comparison with the performance of the Contour. The MyLife Pura strips are also cheap (about £9 compared to Contour's £15), but are fiddly to use if you like to test with the machine in its carry case.

Most machines are accurate to about 10%. So that means the higher your reading the more variation you will see between results. Those readings that you gave (9.0 6.6 7.5 and 8.4) are roughly accurate to within 10% of 8.2ish. From a statistics point of view (I've a PhD that involved statistics) is that you would expect most, but not all of the readings to be within 10% of the correct result.

I use the contour and had a problem when it was telling me I was at 2.2, when I felt fine and my other machine (a One Touch Ultra) was telling me 5.0. I contacted Beyer and they said that large variations are usually because of a faulty strip or pot of strips. If you contact them they will send out a new pot if you return the supposed faulty one.

It's safer to just keep to one machine. If you also have levels well into the safe zone, that helps.
Hana

Hi jo. I'll leave it to others to post about meters, I agree with whats been said already. However I note that you are trying to low carb and low fat, and say that this is because you have high cholesterol.
You are at the point where you have to take the giant leap of faith , and understand that dietry fat does not cause cholesterol, it's the carbhydrate the is metabolised by your body that is transformd into cholesterol.
You will find that by keeping your protien intake to about 1gramme per kg of ideal body wgt eg if your ideal wgt is 100kg you will need to eat 100 grammes of protien per day to maintain your lean body mass, adjust your fat intake to achieve the calorific untake you need to give your daily requirements.
by keeping your carbs low, you will get better bm control and you will soon see your cholesterol drop. You can adust your fat types when you get more used to the regime, but don't worry about type of fat too much to start with, just get used to the protien / fat / carb balance.
My average daily intake is 100g protien/ 145g fat / 20g carb the only element that changes is the fat portion . Thats unless I have a treat. but not to often.
Best of luck, its alot easier than it sounds. If I can manage my diet then anyone can.

I can only give you my cholesterol experience:

I found it was the type of fat I was eating which affected my cholesterol. I have switched from spreads and vegetable oils to butter, lard and cold-pressed olive oil and my cholesterol levels have improved.

I also keep to 80g of carbs a day, and only have wholemeal carbs, no white rice or white bread and stuff.

Well, 1g fat has 9 kcals and 1g protein has 4 kcal, so based on the average 2000 kcal daily allowance that would mean 60g protein and 200g fat.

you have to take the giant leap of faith , and understand that dietry fat does not cause cholesterol, it's the carbhydrate the is metabolised by your body that is transformd into cholesterol.

Click to expand...

Sophistry: That's not what a "leap of faith" means. If I can understand it, I do not need faith.

Wikipedia says...
A leap of faith, in its most commonly used meaning, is the act of believing in or accepting something intangible or unprovable, or without empirical evidence

Click to expand...

Try eating olives, cheese, avocados (which are fab for the good fat). Eggs for protein, oily fish. Low fat is not good no wonder you are hungry, get some good grub inside you my lovely.

paragliderpete said:

understand that dietry fat does not cause cholesterol, it's the carbhydrate the is metabolised by your body that is transformd into cholesterol.

Click to expand...

I've read that loads of times. Don't understand though why I eat 230g carbs per day on average and my cholesterol has gone down and is now 2.5mmol (used to be 3.2mmol). Can someone please explain how this works?

Hi can't say I'm an expert on cholesterol. I make my comments in line with the explantions found in the books :- Endocronology and diabetes, and handbook of Diabetes . I'm reading these at the moment and trying to get my head round them. I understand that they are both current medical text books .
circulating cholesterol ( what we measure ) is derived from two sources : de novo synthesis in the liver approx 900mg / day : and intestinal absorbtion of dietary cholesterol 300 - 700mg / day and bilary cholesterol 1000mg per day. However the body is capable of discharging approx 750mg per day, predominantly the dietry cholesterol. I transpose that most dietry cholesterol is disposed of via faecal loss and free cholesterol in circulation deriving from the de novo synthesis. the primary metabolism by the liver being adipose tissue (fat ) which origanally derived from dietary carbohydrate. The metabolism of glucose into glycerol with NEFA and insulin producing triglcerides

I must admit that I'm still learning , and not being from a medical background i am finding the books heavy going. However I hope this help explain a little better my earlier post

123Jo123 said:

Wow - so my high levels before being diagnosed caused this. So at the moment i am 58 kg but would like to be about 62 kg so that is the protein sorted but how do i work out the fat ??? Does everyones cholesterol improve then as their levels get lower ???

Click to expand...

Hi Jo,

You need a full lipid profile to determine your levels of LDL, HDL and Triglycerides.

http://www.labtestsonline.org.uk/unders ... tes/lipid/

This link will explain about the role of cholesterol in your body.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/ ... sterol.htm

This article will explain the risks of high triglycerides and some of the contributory factors that may have a bearing on their reading.
http://www.hormone.org/Resources/upload ... ia-web.pdf

There are members on this forum who have good cholesterol levels using a high fat/low carb approach and there are members with equally good levels who follow a moderate approach to fat. You have to research and decide which is the best approach for you.

The other point I would like to raise is that there is often a genetic element which can often determine your levels and although statins are frowned upon by many, they do have a part to play for some of us. Some here can take statins with no ill effects but others have found that the side effects are intolerable. There are foods that can lower cholesterol and some of us find that this approach is effective. Here is a link to the Portfolio diet which seems to be better than a low fat approach.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/port ... 1108263248

The decision has to be yours and you will find that cholesterol is a very emotive subject on this forum. Nobody can tell you what is best for you, only what is best for them.