New and trying to use a mmol/L meter

[sandian]

Hi..Everyone
I've got Type2 diagosed about a year ago, and recently been trying testing with a meter that checks my mmol/l. I current am getting reading when I wake up of about 14.6. I understand this is not good, especially as I am taking Metaformin 500g twice a day.
I understand that this level can change during the day, depending on what you are doing. Can someone explain what events can move this value up and down during the day.. e.g. eating, testing 2 hours after eating, exercise, sleep, .....

 

[Kaylz]

Eating will generally push your levels up depending on amount of carbs eaten, if testing foods we'd test before we eat then 2 hours later, ideally you'd want no more than a 2-3 mmol rise after that 2 hours and hopefully you'd be relatively close to what you were pre meal after around 4 hours, exercise can be a tricky one, depending on the type of exercise it could make your readings lower or higher, no day is the same for any diabetic as basically anything can effect our levels, weather, illness, stress etc, is there anything else more specific you were looking for the answer for? xx

 

[Drummer]

Are you still eating lots of 'healthy' carbohydrates - have swapped to brown and wholemeal starches?
If so then that would be the reason for higher blood glucose.
Try eating lower carb foods - replacing grain and starchy fruit and veges with lower ones, then test, eat and test again, two hours after the first test, not after finishing the meal (that sometimes is not clear). If your readings are more than two whole numbers different, then consider your meal to have been too high carb and try to readjust - there are some great low carb options - steak with a stirfry along with a side salad, followed by a mixture of berries and cream is always something to look forward to.
I have non diabetic acquaintances who still remind me of the dish of steamed cauliflower, piled in a warm dish, coated with cream cheese and sprinkled with a few herbs and spices then covered in grated Leicester cheese which I made for several get togethers at Christmas - and the sugar free jelly, made double strength to support a whole bag of frozen blackcurrants, served with whipped cream - those would probably not increase blood glucose very much at all even for me, and I am so sensitive to carbs.

 

[Ljc]

Hello @sandian welcome to the forum . Have you been On Metformin long as you may need a higher dose at least for the time being .

We are all different in what types and how many carbohydrates we can tolerate Ie porridge, it’s really healthy right well some of us dare not touch it with a barge pole, maybe you have switched to wholemeal versions of pasta and bread etc your body may or may not be able to handle them , you also don’t want to cut out things that your body handles well this is where testing comes in very handy.

Have a read through these helpful threads and blogs
These two are rather long
maggie-daveys-letter-to-newly-diagnosed-type-2

test-test-test originally by Maggie Davey

Have you been prescribed a glucose meter and test strips or are you self funding your own if so which one as we know a perfectly good meter who’s test strips are around £8 for 50 , it’s the SD Codefree meter
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Codefree-G...&linkId=f39210144fdc26c27738e45b6d957003&th=1