Test result

[Beancounter298]

Newly diagnosed, I've been testing after meals for 4 days now - first few days were between 8.7 and 9.7 but today's result after lunch was 12.2. Should the result vary so much? I'm on metaformin 500mg twice a day, but took the first one today with the meal I've just had

 

[Inka]

How soon after lunch did you test @Beancounter298 ? Yes, the result can vary depending on what you eat.

 

[Beancounter298]

2 hours after main part, which was a small sandwich and a scotch egg, and 1.5 hours after 2 satsumas. 37g of Carbs in the meal

 

[Inka]

Perhaps you just had a little more carbs than your body can currently cope with. What was your blood sugar before your lunch?

 

[Beancounter298]

Didn't test before lunch, I'm still not sure how often to test - should it be before and every meal?

 

[Leadinglights]

Paired reading are much more useful as you can then tell how well you have tolerated the carbs in the meal. If the increase is more than 2-3mmol/l after 2 hours then that indicates rather too many carbs. You are aiming at no more than 8-8.5mmol/l post meal test.

 

[Inka]

Didn't test before lunch, I'm still not sure how often to test - should it be before and every meal?

To start with you might find that useful. It would show your start and end point. If you were, say, 11 before lunch then you’ve only gone up just over 1mmol, which is good (ideally you’d not go up by more than 3mmols) but if you were, say, 6 before your meal, you’d have shot up more than 6mmol, showing your meal had too many carbs for your body to cope with.

 

[Leadinglights]

Didn't test before lunch, I'm still not sure how often to test - should it be before and every meal?

Initially you will likely do quite a bit of testing but once you are comfortable that you are tolerating the carbs in a particular meal then no real need to test again unless something changes. You will quickly establish a repertoire of meals which are OK.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Didn't test before lunch, I'm still not sure how often to test - should it be before and every meal?

It might help to adjust the content of the lunch slightly and re-check it? Eg try an open sandwich with only one slice instead of two? Or skip the scotch egg (which can have quite a lot of cereal/rusk in the sausage meat, as well as the breadcrumbs)