When to inject humalog?

[Jenkyk89]

Hello all, I know everyone's body reacts differently, but just wondering what people have found the best time to inject humalog .. A certain time period before? Just as you're about to eat? Or after?

I usually do it straight after. But let's say I go to drive around 1.5hrs after injecting, I find im still high.
Is this simply because the insulin takes around 2 hours to kick in?

 

[urbanracer]

Hello all, I know everyone's body reacts differently, but just wondering what people have found the best time to inject humalog .. A certain time period before? Just as you're about to eat? Or after?

I usually do it straight after. But let's say I go to drive around 1.5hrs after injecting, I find im still high.
Is this simply because the insulin takes around 2 hours to kick in?

I try to inject my Humalog 15 to 20 minutes before eating. For myself, I can see on the Libre that my glucose levels are usually starting to fall around this time. Bearing in mind the Libre lag, actual blood glucose will have started to fall before this.

I am not sure what you mean by 'kick in' as the insulin starts working quite quickly and can last 4 to 5 hours. It does have an activity peak at around the 2 hr mark. Look online for 'Humalog insulin profile' to understand this better.
https://www.humalog.com/fast-acting-mealtime-insulin/

If you inject after eating, then you are behind the curve which will make it more difficult to keep levels down if you have eaten something carby.

 

[EllieM]

I usually inject 10 minutes before eating, but it really depends on the nature of what you're eating (fast or slow carbs). How high is high? Lots of people "pre-bolus" to control their levels, but it really depends on the individual and what they eat...

 

[Jenkyk89]

'kick in' was probably the wrong terminology to use, thanks for your reply urban racer! It's very much appreciated...

Ellie, I'm classing high as moving from 5 to 10mmol.. The carbs I eat are 90% slow release as I don't have a sweet tooth...

Think I will try to pre bolus and see how I get on, I've been carb counting maybes 6 weeks up to now so I'm still learning... I've had no hypos as of yet but a couple of high readings due to my poor calculations.

 

[SB.25]

Hello all, I know everyone's body reacts differently, but just wondering what people have found the best time to inject humalog .. A certain time period before? Just as you're about to eat? Or after?

I usually do it straight after. But let's say I go to drive around 1.5hrs after injecting, I find im still high.
Is this simply because the insulin takes around 2 hours to kick in?

hiya! I use humalog as my quick acting.

for me, it depends on the time of day as to how much I pre-bolus. I have managed to do this based on the libre monitor.

for breakfast I usually inject 40 minutes before (i suffer from dawn phenomenon so it takes a long time to kick in). For lunch I normally do 10-15 minutes. For dinner I can inject a few minutes before I eat.

it’s all trial and error but good luck