Blood glucose levels during average day

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Charl said:
Thanks for that, didn't know you could get that, not that I understand it.
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Have you done the libre courses to help you understand the information it gives you? You can find them free online.
 
Evening everyone!

I’ve been reading the replies again and thank you so much for all the information!

I have been carefully experimenting with the timings of the insulin (although I’ve had a cold so I’m aware this might change responses too)

I’ve noticed two things: my body’s reaction to food/insulin is very different in the morning than in the evening. I had some toast for breakfast and think I needed more insulin because I stayed a little high. Then I had toast again for dinner (with different toppings so that might also be a reason) and I thought I had nailed the timing!

I was super steady for a good two hours, but then after 2 hours suddenly it shot up. This has been the case with a 10 min wait and with a 15 min wait.

Yesterday I had something similar with stir fry. I went up to 12 within the hour after eating then it crashed down to 6 within the half hour after that and then after 1.5/2hrs it bounced back up to 9. It’s like I can’t win.

Is this potentially still a timing thing or am I just reacting to foods very quickly and digesting it for a longer time than the insulin works? To be clear, none of these meals had a lot of fat in.

Apologies this has been way longer than I intended, but I’m baffled!
 
Have checked out my libre view regarding the graphs etc , for me I get the spike after eating usually between 13 and 18 but it can take something like 4 hours or more before it's back into the good numbers, is this because I'm not taking enough rapid insulin before eating or is it the timing of taking the insulin, any help as to which to try first.....Thanks
 
Does your bg return to the same level as it started at? If so, insulin dose is ok.
To stop the spikes, you could try prebolusing, having less spiky/lower gi or lower carb food, or having a walk after eating...i find if i walk until my bs starts heafing down (20 min) that helps
 
Tdm said:
Does your bg return to the same level as it started at? If so, insulin dose is ok.
To stop the spikes, you could try prebolusing, having less spiky/lower gi or lower carb food, or having a walk after eating...i find if i walk until my bs starts heafing down (20 min) that helps
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Sorry this reply might have been for @Charl instead of me, but I thought I’d answer it too.

Usually my levels do return to the level previously (not always though and I’m trying to work out when it does and when it doesn’t).

My concern at the moment is that I’ve had two very different reactions lately. One day a spike straight away and then plummeting down very soon after to then climb again after 2 hours. I don’t think I could have changed my ratio or I would have gone hypo I think. Last night I had some toast and levels were really stable for two hours then spiked up to 15! Again I thought of adjusting my ratio, but wouldn’t it have gone down over those first two hours?

I did do some exercise after that and brought it down to pretty good levels overnight luckily.
 
Evergreen said:
Sorry this reply might have been for @Charl instead of me, but I thought I’d answer it too.

Usually my levels do return to the level previously (not always though and I’m trying to work out when it does and when it doesn’t).

My concern at the moment is that I’ve had two very different reactions lately. One day a spike straight away and then plummeting down very soon after to then climb again after 2 hours. I don’t think I could have changed my ratio or I would have gone hypo I think. Last night I had some toast and levels were really stable for two hours then spiked up to 15! Again I thought of adjusting my ratio, but wouldn’t it have gone down over those first two hours?

I did do some exercise after that and brought it down to pretty good levels overnight luckily.
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I think there are two things going on, the initial spike is because there's not enough insulin in your system when the carbs start being absorbed. The liver can absorb quite significant quantities of glucose as it passes through the portal vein from the intestine, however, this requires insulin to be in the system (over and above basal).

This can either be dealt with my taking your insulin earlier than your meal, or by giving a small pre-bolus dose (e.g. 1 or 2 units, depending on your current blood glucose - you don't want to run low) well in advance of the meal (to be sure it's in your system and working)

The dip in the middle is caused by the insulin activity and total duration not matching the food absorption profile (i.e. food takes longer to absorb and present carbs to your body than your insulin is dealing with them). To deal with this you can split your dose and take part at the beginning and part later (where later depends on your blood glucose and how slowly the food is absorbed). The first of the split doses and the pre-bolus can then potentially be combined (i.e. remove the pre-bolus, and move the first of the split doses even earlier than the meal), though it's probably less effective than getting some insulin on board early unless the timing is perfect and you run the risk of running low before or shortly after starting to eat if you misjudge (as we all do as every day is different).

YMMV, this is my current thinking and what I'm attempting to do (every day is different though 🙂)

P.S. A spike up to 12 and then down to 6 isn't all that terrible imo, having eaten a stir-fry I'd be quite happy with that as the combo a sauce that often contains lots of sugar, oil/fat and high carb noodles is tricky.

P.P.S. When you hit the "low" in the middle, if you've not split your dose, or you have split and your blood sugar is staying level rather than going up, which is what I used to expect, it's very hard to not think that perhaps you've misjudged the quantity of carbs/your insulin sensitivity and to therefore eat something more because you think you'll shortly go low with so much insulin still on board. Err on the side of caution.
 
SimonP said:
I think there are two things going on, the initial spike is because there's not enough insulin in your system when the carbs start being absorbed. The liver can absorb quite significant quantities of glucose as it passes through the portal vein from the intestine, however, this requires insulin to be in the system (over and above basal).

This can either be dealt with my taking your insulin earlier than your meal, or by giving a small pre-bolus dose (e.g. 1 or 2 units, depending on your current blood glucose - you don't want to run low) well in advance of the meal (to be sure it's in your system and working)

The dip in the middle is caused by the insulin activity and total duration not matching the food absorption profile (i.e. food takes longer to absorb and present carbs to your body than your insulin is dealing with them). To deal with this you can split your dose and take part at the beginning and part later (where later depends on your blood glucose and how slowly the food is absorbed). The first of the split doses and the pre-bolus can then potentially be combined (i.e. remove the pre-bolus, and move the first of the split doses even earlier than the meal), though it's probably less effective than getting some insulin on board early unless the timing is perfect and you run the risk of running low before or shortly after starting to eat if you misjudge (as we all do as every day is different).

YMMV, this is my current thinking and what I'm attempting to do (every day is different though 🙂)

P.S. A spike up to 12 and then down to 6 isn't all that terrible imo, having eaten a stir-fry I'd be quite happy with that as the combo a sauce that often contains lots of sugar, oil/fat and high carb noodles is tricky.

P.P.S. When you hit the "low" in the middle, if you've not split your dose, or you have split and your blood sugar is staying level rather than going up, which is what I used to expect, it's very hard to not think that perhaps you've misjudged the quantity of carbs/your insulin sensitivity and to therefore eat something more because you think you'll shortly go low with so much insulin still on board. Err on the side of caution.
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Thank you, I understand that I think. I don’t eat stir fries very often, but I think the sauce was on the sugary side (although my husband tried to find the lowest sugar option/lowest carb noodle) I’ll try with a split dose.

Would you have any knowledge on what might have happened with my levels after I ate the bread? So for it to be stable for 2 hours and then suddenly shoot up? I was thinking split dose there too, but I’d be splitting insulin for each meal at that rate!

I wondered if my basal possibly isn’t quite right, but reluctant to change it as it’s stable overnight (albeit settling a little higher than I’d like)
 
First of all don't take my thinking as Gospel, see what other people have to say too! 🙂

No, I'm not sure about the toast, I'd expect bread/toast to be absorbed "normally", though I guess it depends on what you ate beforehand/afterwards (if anything, including protein and fat which can be converted to glucose too), do you think you might have misjudged the number of carbs? What was your blood glucose before eating and was it trending up/down? Could there be something else - stress, caffeine, illness.

Re adjusting basal, I think the general idea is to go for a stable overnight level, and then deal with what that brings during the day with additional short acting bolus injections/changing your carb ratio (or potentially by splitting the basal dose). If you're settling too high but then stable at that level, then you may need to change the starting point (with some more short acting for the previous meal, or even just a quick small dose pre-bed)
 
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