Blood Glucose Dropping Quickly

[JessG123]

Hi,

I need some advise, I'm going to speak to my GP tomorrow but they have been less than helpful in the past with my Diabetes. Because of this I would like to learn as much as I can before I go.

I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in December of 2022, I was on Metformin until December 2023 when it was decided I should come off to see if I was in remission (currently ongoing).

I've been testing my blood glucose level using a monitor at home and I've noticed that my sugars tend to drop quite quickly. Blood sugars rise as normal after eating, but then about 2+ hours after eating they suddenly drop.

Example:
Today at 2.40pm I was at 8.2mmol, at 2.50pm I was at 6.6mmol and by 3pm I was at 5mmol.

Am I right in thinking this is a very rapid decline? I ate at around 12.45pm so I was higher than I would like for quite a while and then suddenly had this drop. My meal wasn't very carb heavy either, which is strange!

Any advice highly appreciated.

 

[Lucyr]

That sounds great to me. Your body is supposed to produce insulin to drop your bg back to normal after meals.

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi,

I need some advise, I'm going to speak to my GP tomorrow but they have been less than helpful in the past with my Diabetes. Because of this I would like to learn as much as I can before I go.

I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in December of 2022, I was on Metformin until December 2023 when it was decided I should come off to see if I was in remission (currently ongoing).

I've been testing my blood glucose level using a monitor at home and I've noticed that my sugars tend to drop quite quickly. Blood sugars rise as normal after eating, but then about 2+ hours after eating they suddenly drop.

Example:
Today at 2.40pm I was at 8.2mmol, at 2.50pm I was at 6.6mmol and by 3pm I was at 5mmol.

Am I right in thinking this is a very rapid decline? I ate at around 12.45pm so I was higher than I would like for quite a while and then suddenly had this drop. My meal wasn't very carb heavy either, which is strange!

Any advice highly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum
Your result looks fairly normal. 8.2 2 hours post meal is the upper limit of what you want and then dropping so that you would be between 4-7 mmol/l before your next meal. Did you feel unwell which led you to test several times within such a short space of time?
What did you have for your meal?

 

[JessG123]

Welcome to the forum
Your result looks fairly normal. 8.2 2 hours post meal is the upper limit of what you want and then dropping so that you would be between 4-7 mmol/l before your next meal. Did you feel unwell which led you to test several times within such a short space of time?
What did you have for your meal?

Thank you!
I had 2 sandwiches on reduced carb bread and a pack of crisps (about 13g of carbs) so about 49g of carbs. I aim for under 50g of carbs per meal so that's fine for me (I understand some people shoot for less but this usually works out fine in my case).
I have been feeling a bit out of sorts today, like the feeling I get when my sugars are low. This is why I've been testing so frequently. When I saw my levels drop by 3mmol in 20 minutes it scared me a bit, so I thought I would seek some advice.
I know my levels should return to 4-7mmol before my next meal, I just thought it should be a gradual decline, not all at once.

 

[harbottle]

Hi,

I need some advise, I'm going to speak to my GP tomorrow but they have been less than helpful in the past with my Diabetes. Because of this I would like to learn as much as I can before I go.

I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in December of 2022, I was on Metformin until December 2023 when it was decided I should come off to see if I was in remission (currently ongoing).

I've been testing my blood glucose level using a monitor at home and I've noticed that my sugars tend to drop quite quickly. Blood sugars rise as normal after eating, but then about 2+ hours after eating they suddenly drop.

Example:
Today at 2.40pm I was at 8.2mmol, at 2.50pm I was at 6.6mmol and by 3pm I was at 5mmol.

Am I right in thinking this is a very rapid decline? I ate at around 12.45pm so I was higher than I would like for quite a while and then suddenly had this drop. My meal wasn't very carb heavy either, which is strange!

Any advice highly appreciated.

I've seen declines like when I eat something high in carbs. (A couple of Samosas last year saw a drop from the 8s to 5 quite quickly. I also once had a sausage roll (40g of carbs) from Caffe Nero and it did the same - dropped from the 8s to 4s very rapidly.

 

[rebrascora]

Think yourself lucky! I used to spike up to mid teens every morning after breakfast and then plummet down to the 5s in short order an hour later. I know it is different in some respects because I inject insulin, and it was a timing issue for me in that I needed to inject my insulin earlier to give it a head start to prevent levels spiking that high, but insulin is supposed to drop your levels and 4s and 5s are good numbers. I am always happy to see it coming down. I don't consider what you describe as being concerning. It is only 3mmols.
Sometimes you do feel it a bit if it is dropping fast, but you are not taking any medication which will drop you dangerously low. If it concerns you, reduce the carb intake, so you don't go so high ie cut the crisps and have some nuts or a chunk of cheese or a packet of pork scratchings instead.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thank you!
I had 2 sandwiches on reduced carb bread and a pack of crisps (about 13g of carbs) so about 49g of carbs. I aim for under 50g of carbs per meal so that's fine for me (I understand some people shoot for less but this usually works out fine in my case).
I have been feeling a bit out of sorts today, like the feeling I get when my sugars are low. This is why I've been testing so frequently. When I saw my levels drop by 3mmol in 20 minutes it scared me a bit, so I thought I would seek some advice.
I know my levels should return to 4-7mmol before my next meal, I just thought it should be a gradual decline, not all at once.

That is something that can happen when people have quite a high carb meal which is what many who manage their condition by diet only would consider 50g carb per meal to be.
What can happen is your pancreas over produces insulin in response to the carb load so drops your level quickly.
Many would be aiming at less carbs per meal and keeping any 2 hour post meal reading to below 8 -8.5 mmol/l.
You could perhaps have some salad with your sandwich instead of crisps.

 

[JessG123]

Thanks everyone, I have recently started having 'normal crisps' again instead of my lentil crisps and snacks which were much lower in carbs. I thought I could get away with it, but maybe that's what's causing the issue. I will go back to lentil and see if that helps!