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Blood glucose query

S

Sharron1

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Good evening,

I hope someone can advise me. I keep to a low carb diet and as my Hba1c test is on the horizon ,I have been testing a little more often. It has always been between 5 or 6 . This isn't my worry, my query is for example tonight my pre meal bg was 5.5 and 2 hours later after supper my bg was 5.0.

Why is my bg higher when I haven't eaten for hours and 2 hours after I have eaten it is lower? This happens to me quite often. Is this another curiosity of Diabetes? It is weird
 
Sharron1 said:
Good evening,

I hope someone can advise me. I keep to a low carb diet and as my Hba1c test is on the horizon ,I have been testing a little more often. It has always been between 5 or 6 . This isn't my worry, my query is for example tonight my pre meal bg was 5.5 and 2 hours later after supper my bg was 5.0.

Why is my bg higher when I haven't eaten for hours and 2 hours after I have eaten it is lower? This happens to me quite often. Is this another curiosity of Diabetes? It is weird
Click to expand...
Those readings are essentially the same as they are within the range that the allowable 15% accuracy of monitor will display.
If you haven't eaten for hours then you liver will be releasing some glucose just as it might in the morning after a period of fasting
 
My fasting glucose in the morning is generally higher. A lot of us here recognise the dawn phenomenon or 'Foot on the Floor', where our liver pumps out glucose in preparation for the day ahead.

I sometimes have a CGM, even though I'm diet controlled, just to help me see the effects of different foods. I find low carb meals - especially ones with a significant fat content, do actually lower my blood glucose and at the 2 hour mark, my levels are back to where they were before I ate. My body didn't react like this when I was first diagnosed so I presume it's an effect of long-term low carb-ing where our bodies become fat adapted and efficient at managing the lower levels of glucose.
 
Those readings are both great Sharon. Well done.

The difference between your pre meal and post meal can be for a number of reasons, but such a small difference is negligible given the levels of accuracy of the meters. Our glucose levels will be changing all the time as our liver dribbles out glucose to keep us going.
 
SB2015 said:
Those readings are both great Sharon. Well done.

The difference between your pre meal and post meal can be for a number of reasons, but such a small difference is negligible given the levels of accuracy of the meters. Our glucose levels will be changing all the time as our liver dribbles out glucose to keep us going.
Click to expand...
Thank you.

I waslcurious, so many things to try and understand about Diabetes. But, it is a moveable (low carb) feast.
 
With some many things that can affect our BG, it never remains stationary, even for people without diabetes.
As others have said the difference between 5.5 and 5.0 could be error on your meter or it could be a slight drop because you are more relaxed after eating or because you ran around getting everyone to sit at the table for dinner if you have a family or because the skies cleared after a storm or ...
You could do the test again with exactly the same food at exactly the same time in exactly the same weather and get different results.
 
It's usually because of what firstly appear to be utterly random reasons - although there's usually a real scientific explanation of them, once the science is interrogated about it.

eg in Victorian times, one should never ever contemplate eating oysters, unless there was an R in the month unless you wanted to be ill. Why? Because tidal conditions during the autumn winter and spring were more violent so kept the sea in which they grew and thrived better oxygenated for greater periods thus keeping filter feeding creatures including oysters, healthier. Also once they were picked, they didn't have time to go 'off' as easily as they would when the weather was warm/hot - hence you wouldn't get food poisoning. So - it would now be a public health law, that all establishments selling them would need to follow, rather than the 'old wives tale' it became.
 
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