Type 2 Ups & Downs - what should I be looking for?

So I’ve been giving the Freestyle Libre 2 a test run, and collecting data on what effect different foods & various activities have on my blood glucose levels. It’s fascinating getting live bio feedback but I’d like to understand what I’m seeing and figure out how to improve the situation.

I’m not so bothered about the exact numbers, more the pattern. The only number that matters from the doctor’s point of view is the Hb1AC, and my objective is to bring this down to pre- diagnosis level. In February he didn’t tell me what it was (yes, really helpful) but the diabetic nurse said it was only just diabetic - from that I am guessing it was around 48 or 6.5%.

My questions-

On the daily graphs, for some meals I’m seeing sharp rises and equally sharp falls. Always it returns to the level it was before within 2hours, sometimes less than 2 hours. Sometimes it overshoots and goes way below the pre meal level, like tonight it was 6.6 before meal (it’s been bumping around that all day), shot up to 8.3, then fell to 5.5.

- does it matter how high the spike goes so long as it comes down again quickly?

- is the overshoot a problem? Does it mean I’ve overproduced insulin for the meal and what does that tell me?

- is it better to have steep spikes and falls, or less rises & falls around a middling level? I’m thinking that both will give similar averages.

In the example from yesterday, I was fasting until 12.30, the rises are due to exercise & work; the evening meal is the sharp spike & fall.

There is an interesting correlation between the carb (not calorie content) of the meals which I am conscious of and am beginning to exploit.

Any thoughts or observations gratefully received.

Thanks very much for the response. Obviously everyone’s body calibration is different but I’m finding it difficult to gauge what is ‘normal’ and what is not in BG terms. I wasn’t given any assistance by the HCP, just told ‘you’re diabetic, here’s medication, come back in 6 months’ and my 10 mins were up before I could think of all the questions I needed to ask. I’m now trying to understand where I can improve the numbers, because clearly that is why I now have a label on my forehead saying diabetic!

I’ve experimented with skipping breakfast whilst I had the Libre because I used to do that for years and I wondered whether actually having something to eat was causing the rise. Clearly not, so I’ll give the protein snack a go as well. Generally the 0 carb or high protein meals produce little movement either way, although it does seem my body reacts differently to similar carb loads depending on the time of day.

Good to know there is nothing out of the way with the spikes, I’m happy enough that they come down every time, so clearly the bod is producing enough insulin to metabolise the food.

I’m coming to the end of the Libre trial and I probably won’t do it all the time, but may just get a couple of sensors in to provide further information as I progress. I have my review in about 6 weeks time, although I can just see that even if the outcome of the Hb1AC is much improved, the GP is simply going to say ‘its come down, see I told you, you need medication!’