how long should a reading stay after food

[dees]

ok to day reading before breakfast 12.8
cornflakes almond milk no more food till time 1.30 its up to 21.5 but did a small amount of bike ride ? can this make it jump
coffee protein bar 5pm reading 12.00
salmon veg tea came back o 10.3 8pm read
cuppa tea night time tea and sacorine jump up to 13.00 would this be normal to re jump up again a few hours later.

this morning read before any thing 13.9
thanks dee

 

[rebrascora]

Hi. The information you are giving us is not enough to know what is causing that huge rise.
What time was your breakfast. Was the 12.8 immediately before eating breakfast or did you test when you first got up and then eat breakfast half an hour or longer afterwards? Something called Dawn Phenomenon can raise your BG levels before you have breakfast, so in order to assess if your breakfast is working OK for your diabetes, it is important to test just before you start to eat and then 2 hours afterwards. You would also be well advised to weigh your portion of something like cornflakes which is a carbohydrate rich food. The exercise may have increased your levels initially depending upon the intensity. Low level exercise for a longer period (20+mins) will usually lower your levels but high intensity, exertive exercise, even in short bursts will increase your BG levels initially but decrease them later, often I find overnight.

I think most of us would suggest your breakfast of cornflakes is likely the problem. What about trying an omelette (with whatever fillings you fancy) and perhaps served with a salad and some coleslaw or some creamy Greek natural yoghurt with some berries and seeds if you prefer something quicker and lighter as an alternative, to see if that will improve your afternoon readings.
Having a rigorous testing system is really important though as there are many other factors which can affect BG, so testing immediately before and then 2 hours after each meal will best show you the effect that food had on your levels without other things like your bike ride also having an impact and therefore possibly distorting the breakfast reading data.

Hope that makes sense but if it doesn't, just ask and I will try to explain it better. It may of course be that you tested right before breakfast and 2 hours after but just haven't provided that information, but it is really relevant in understanding what may be going on.

 

[dees]

Hi. The information you are giving us is not enough to know what is causing that huge rise.
What time was your breakfast. Was the 12.8 immediately before eating breakfast or did you test when you first got up and then eat breakfast half an hour or longer afterwards? Something called Dawn Phenomenon can raise your BG levels before you have breakfast, so in order to assess if your breakfast is working OK for your diabetes, it is important to test just before you start to eat and then 2 hours afterwards. You would also be well advised to weigh your portion of something like cornflakes which is a carbohydrate rich food. The exercise may have increased your levels initially depending upon the intensity. Low level exercise for a longer period (20+mins) will usually lower your levels but high intensity, exertive exercise, even in short bursts will increase your BG levels initially but decrease them later, often I find overnight.

I think most of us would suggest your breakfast of cornflakes is likely the problem. What about trying an omelette (with whatever fillings you fancy) and perhaps served with a salad and some coleslaw or some creamy Greek natural yoghurt with some berries and seeds if you prefer something quicker and lighter as an alternative, to see if that will improve your afternoon readings.
Having a rigorous testing system is really important though as there are many other factors which can affect BG, so testing immediately before and then 2 hours after each meal will best show you the effect that food had on your levels without other things like your bike ride also having an impact and therefore possibly distorting the breakfast reading data.

Hope that makes sense but if it doesn't, just ask and I will try to explain it better. It may of course be that you tested right before breakfast and 2 hours after but just haven't provided that information, but it is really relevant in understanding what may be going on.

thanks for the reply my testing is aways just before I eat.. I have changed breakfast to day and small amount so will see wen i test i think bike ride made it rise yesterday. can i ask how long should a reading last say 8pm after meal do i test before bed which i do and its up again can't get my head around that part thanks dee

 

[Toucan]

Hello @dees
Here is a link to an article which suggest a testing plan that might be helpful test-review-adjust.

 

[rebrascora]

BG levels vary a lot throughout the day and night. Testing 2 hours after your meal is as important as testing just before, as that is when the food you ate will have maximum impact. You would hope to see it reducing after that 2 hour period unless you ate slow release carbs or a fatty meal which slowed the digestion of the carbs down in which case it might be bearer 3 or even 4hours depending upon your digestive system.
If your levels are remaining high for longer periods that the 2 hours without some other factor causing them to be raised, then to me that suggests that you may not be Type 2 but perhaps a late/slow onset Type 1. where your pancreas is struggling to produce enough insulin to remove the glucose or you are Type 2 but very insulin resistant perhaps due to being significantly overweight, so the insulin you are producing is being ignored. Metformin will help a little with insulin resistance but you rarely see a big impact from it.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @dees

Yes BG levels and all those numbers can be so confusing!

How long your levels stay high after food depends on lots of factors. And partly depends on how high they go up. The smaller you can make the rises from your meals, the more likely your body will be able to gradually bring your numbers down.

Cornflakes have a bit of a reputation for causing big rises in BG levels, so it seems more likely that they caused the rise than the bike ride (which would usually drop your levels). The carbohydrate in cornflakes, and most breakfast cereals, is very rapidly absorbed - even faster than table sugar for most people(!) so it can be a real struggle for a person with diabetes to cope with.

It is the total carbohydrate content of foods that you need to watch, not just the ‘of which sugars’, so some of those green traffic-light labels on packets can be a bit misleading if you have diabetes. There are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will have been cutting out straight away, but you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals, ‘healthy whole grains’, and many fruits.

You can use your BG meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the differences are, to identify any carbs that seem to be spiking your levels (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them).

Ideally you would aim for a rise of around 2-3mmol/L from the meal. If you see much bigger rises than that try cutting portion sizes of whatever carbs were involved (eg one slice of bread not two), or maybe swapping the type of carbs to see if that helps (eg trying a lower carb or seedy bread) to see if that helps.

Try not to worry about the numbers and get too stressed about them. Just use them as information to help you decide which foods suit you best, and which to cut down on or avoid altogether.