Testing - Before/After Meals

[mum2westiesGill]

Before Meals
What does this tell us?

After Meals
What does this tell us?
Why do people test at 1 hour - 1 1/2 hrs - 2 hours.....?

 

[Northerner]

You need to test before a meal for a couple of reasons:

1. You need to know if you need to include a correction in your insulin dose for your meal if you are on the high side before eating.

2. You need to know what your level is before eating so that you can see the effect of what you have eaten afterwards - if you only tested afterwards it wouldn't really be useful as you might have risen 2 mmol/l or 10 mmol/l, you wouldn't know.

You test after meals to try and determine the peak of your blood sugar levels. Again, you need to know the levels before eating, but then you test at 1 or two hours to see what is the highest your levels reach. Ideally, you would test at both 1 and 2 hours as your levels may still be climbing after 1 hour - this would be shown by an even higher level at 2 hours. If, however, you tested at 2 hours and your level was lower than at 1 hour, you would know that you had passed the peak (usually! 🙂)

 

[trophywench]

And then, you'll know what time pasta (or whatever) spikes you so if that happens at 90 minutes, if you wanted to try less or more (of that food) you could test before, and then at 90 minutes rather than having to test every hour on the hour or whatever.

Different foods spike at different times, so that's how you find out 'when to test'. (rice might be 2 hours, spuds might be an hour and 15 mins ...... or the other way round, whatever)

I always say the pre-meal test is 'to determine my insulin dose for the meal' - because if you tested low you'd need to know that before lobbing your bolus in and guaranteeing a hypo 20 mins later even though you've eaten.

 

[lauraw1983]

I don't routinely test after any meals now-I was getting too obsessed by it all and quite honestly that's not healthy either. I trust my boluses (and that my basal is right) much more now and only when driving if obviously feeling hypo do I test in between meals. I always test before a meal though.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Thanks for the replies Northerner, trophywench & lauraw1983,

One more thing

I presume the after meal testing is done asap after the last mouthful of food is eaten.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Thanks for the replies Northerner, trophywench & lauraw1983,

One more thing

I presume the after meal testing is done asap after the last mouthful of food is eaten.

Well generally we eat pretty quickly so start of meal/end of meal wouldn't take much odds, but yes, strictly speaking I guess time your 1hr/2hr etc from the end of the meal.

 

[Vicsetter]

I'm sure I read somewhere that it takes 15 minutes from eating for sugar to get to your fingers, so no rush.

 

[Tezzz]

I'm not on insulin but usually test before eating. I do this because I then know how many carbs to eat.

I set my meter to remind me in 2 hours. Testing after meals has helped me to get portion sizes right.

If I'm too high I go for a walk. If it's OK I might treat myself to a square or two of chocolate, a bit of fruit, digestive biscuit etc.

I've now got a mental list of foods to watch out for quantity wise and those that I can have without worrying about.

I hope that helps.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I wish every GP who thinks T2s don't need to test could read that Tez. A perfect, simple explanation of the value of SMBG for those *not* on insulin etc

 

[trophywench]

Laura???? you get in the car and drive it wihout testing? 😱