Testing after meals

[HalfpipMarathon]

Unless you are type 1 or 2 on insulin and testing to know how much insulin to use does it really matter how long after food you test? Obviously less than 2hrs doesn't give your body chance to absorb the food but I have tested 3hrs later, usually because its not been convenient to test 2hrs afted, and have often got a better result; Everyone is different in how their blood glucose reacts to food and drink.

Even my Dr agrees that the 4-7 & below 8.5 is a very tight range at least that's what I think she said lol and is happy as long as my readings are in single digits under 10.0.

Loving my new meter (True Metrix Air) and my average is 6.7 currently. Like having it on an app but also keep a notebook with my readings in as back up.

 

[rebrascora]

Testing at the 2 hour point after eating tells you how effectively your body coped with the food you ate. You are not looking for the highest point in the food spike and you would very much hope that it will come down lower at 3 hours or more but the point is to see if your insulin production is able to deal with that meal in a timely manner. If that 2 hour reading is more that 2-3mmols more than your premeal reading then your over all levels are not likely to improve.... ie you will probably not improve your diabetes management long term and your HbA1c will stay the same or maybe increase.

Testing 2 hours after a meal helps you to figure out which meals/foods cause your body to have inflated BG levels for longer than is desirable. By using that information to tailor your diet to reduce or avoid those foods you can steadily day after day and week after week, reduce your average BG levels and bring your HbA1c down.

People on insulin don't need to test at 2 hours because unfortunately the mealtime insulin we have isn't as fast as home produced insulin and it usually takes about 5 hours to fully work.
The 2 hours post meal testing advice is specifically for people who are trying to manage their diabetes through diet.

 

[bulkbiker]

Even my Dr agrees that the 4-7 & below 8.5 is a very tight range at least that's what I think she said lol and is happy as long as my readings are in single digits under 10.0.

Hmmm does your doctor want you to get into remission or stay ill forever?
I'm very much of the opinion that I want my blood sugars to be as low as possible without meds most of the time to avoid any kind of complications.
If I go over 6.5 I usually look for a cause and take preventative action in the future.
The 2 hour marks is designed to look at your bodies reaction to the foods you ate.
When I started out I tested at 1 hour too as well as pre meal.
You'll soon start to see patterns of foods that cause spikes as well as how long it takes you to get back to the pre meal level.
After 3 hours if it weren't lower than at 2 hours then something would be wrong in most cases.

have often got a better result

Yep assuming you are producing insulin you should get a "better" result after 3 hours.

 

[Lucyr]

The time you test matters because you’re using the results to compare the impact of different foods. If you test one meal after 1hr, another after 2hrs, another after 3hrs you can’t compare the results. So pick a time after meals and stick to it whenever you test a new meal.

 

[Drummer]

After a few every half hour tests early on I settled on the two hours after starting to eat as a good indicator of both how I coped with the meal and if the foods I ate were suitable. Although there were many factors - type of food, when in the day I ate, portion size etc. that timing seemed to be a good indication of progress made, or not.
I did find that once my after meal tests were 8 or a bit less, by going on in the same way I saw the numbers go down - presumably my metabolism was recovering, and in 6 months I was at the top end of normal, not even prediabetic.

 

[RBZ5416]

keep a notebook with my readings in as back up.

There's a True Manager Air app to allow sending results to a mobile device via bluetooth. Don't know about that one but some also allow export of data to Excel/CSV.

 

[rebrascora]

Even my Dr agrees that the 4-7 & below 8.5 is a very tight range at least that's what I think she said lol and is happy as long as my readings are in single digits under 10.0.

The thing is that if you don't test till 3 hours after food or longer, it is much easier to keep your levels under 10 but you are not getting a true picture of your average BG because you are mostly taking your sample readings when they are at their lowest and never at their highest. This will not help your diabetes management and enable you to decide which foods are OK and which are not doing you any favours.