After meal testing

[mum2westiesGill]

Should this be done from when you have finished eating?

Gill 🙂

 

[MeanMom]

I have always assumed timing starts as soon as you start eating?

 

[FM001]

Don't know about others but I commence the testing after the food has finished.

 

[Robster65]

Do you mean the 1-2 hour timing WM ?

If so, then I would say from when you start, but I generally wolf my food down in 10 minutes flat, so it doesn't make much difference !

There's no golden rule for the timing. Some people have faster metabolisms than others and the food makes a big difference. To find the peak, you'd need to test several times after each meal to get a feel for when it's hit the high spot. So, I'd just go for an approximate time after you start or finish your meals and stick with it so you're comparing like with like for you.🙂

If that isn't what you meant, disregard everything I've said ! 😱

Rob

 

[Northerner]

I've always done a one hour test an hour after injecting as this is when my insulin is starting to peak and will hopefully therefore counteract the glucose over the subsequent hour, keeping levels decent. So with me it's the injection time that I take as my start point. 🙂 If I'm too high at one hour after injecting then I either need to avoid that meal in future or move the timing of my injection.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Do you mean the 1-2 hour timing WM ?


Rob

Yes this is what i was meaning

Gill 🙂

 

[dmarshall]

why do you test after meals ? I always test before and then count etc , if not sure got it spot on will test about 2 hrs after but only if not sure . 🙂

 

[Northerner]

why do you test after meals ? I always test before and then count etc , if not sure got it spot on will test about 2 hrs after but only if not sure . 🙂

Food can hit your blood sugars at different speeds, so it is helpful to determine what foods cause a spike and which don't so that you can adjust, for ecample, portion size or insulin timing. Originally, I only used to test prior to meals and was always in range, but when I started testing at one and two hours I discovered that my levels were shooting up from 5 to 12 after an hour - I wouldn't have known if I hadn't tested at one hour. With this knowledge I would inject earlier before eating such meals so that the peak of my insulin would be able to reduce this spike to a more reasonable 8. 🙂

 

[dmarshall]

Thanks will try that 🙂

 

[heasandford]

Food can hit your blood sugars at different speeds, so it is helpful to determine what foods cause a spike and which don't so that you can adjust, for ecample, portion size or insulin timing. Originally, I only used to test prior to meals and was always in range, but when I started testing at one and two hours I discovered that my levels were shooting up from 5 to 12 after an hour - I wouldn't have known if I hadn't tested at one hour. With this knowledge I would inject earlier before eating such meals so that the peak of my insulin would be able to reduce this spike to a more reasonable 8. 🙂

the only problem with this is that the insulin can reduce yout BG too much before the food - I think I might have to stop eating any carbs at all these days! Either hypo or spike - my current balance is 'minimum spike!'

 

[novorapidboi26]

the only problem with this is that the insulin can reduce yout BG too much before the food - I think I might have to stop eating any carbs at all these days! Either hypo or spike - my current balance is 'minimum spike!'

This is true, but that's why the testing is important, so you can work out an accurate time before to inject............

Problems arise if your hypo though before the meal, but none of us plan to be below target before meals.......

I used to be 45 minutes before lunch, but now its 15 minutes throughout the whole day..........

 

[Nyadach]

Personally couldn't give a monkeys about 1hr after a meal testing as I find it safer it's high. Tried the inject a while before a meal but it always landed me in trouble...get stuck in a queue for lunch, or what you've injected for isn't available and you're either face down in a supermarket, or you suddenly get caught with a client and poof goes another hour, or at best busy looking for correctives (had all these things occur far too regularly). So it jumps up after a meal? a few hours later it's steady again so frankly don't really care about the spike...it's a statistical peak that's ignorable over the days average.

Guess part of this is also my personal thing of pretty much living bouncing off hypo's for the last ten years and as such, spikes I don't give a monkeys about (nor do any of the medical lot it seems who I've ever talked too). These days find it much safer now just do the usual test, go get food, come back, maybe test again, inject, feed...let things work out themselves over the next couple of hours. But again, much of this is about what makes you feel comfortable, and in control of the situation how each of us see's fit.

 

[Copepod]

I use the same approach as Nyadach when working or outside home. As he says, it can be risky injecting before you are absolutely sure that (a) you have your meal in front of you, and (b) there is no risk of delay in starting eating.

In a medical research setting, I either waited until all research subjects were off the premises until injecting then eating, or if there was no break between morning and afternoon attendances, I ate then injected. At two of the three locations, there were good canteens and morning only research slots, so I preferred to have hot good value food later (had to leave home by 0630 for one and 0715 for other, and couldn't eat until after 1315).

When living in a student hostel during my MSc, I never injected until I got my tray of food, having once had a fire alarm and ended up in the street after joining the queue.

When marshalling on adventure races, mountain marathons etc, there are 2 ways to guarantee that a team will appear - (a) prepare to inject insulin and (b) have a wee!

In such settings, I don't have the chance to test post meals - testing before meals is hard enough to fit in!

However, for some meals at home, with no rush to to get out to work / sport etc, I can inject a few minutes before starting to eat.