testing

[Nayshiftin]

I do read posts. Read one that says the morning reading is irrelevant to type 2.
I thought it would get me to a point where it would be within normal range and why most like the HS.
Maybe I am doing this all wrong.
I can not say I know what foods really set me off as sometimes my bs is higher or lower throughout the day for no real reason .
As I've noticed my blood sugar goes up in the morning before I have breakfast and can go down after I have eaten.
I am pleased though I seem to have it better controlled due to eating a lower carb diet.
So I am doing something good.
Just dont know whether Type 1 and those on meds and insulin are testing first thing for a real reason .

 

[Catbanj]

Everyone can have their own reasons for testing. I test every morning before eating to get an idea of my starting point for the day.

I am T2 and know through testing that my body increases my BG on a morning without me eating anything- I did a 2 week trial of a Libre sensor to see how things changes over the day.

The early morning increase worried me so I read up on it and found out it's just my body getting ready for the day ahead .... some people call it the Dawn Phenonmenon.

I have the same breakfast every day and my BG usually drops by at least 1 from the before breakfast reading two hours after eating and my liver stops dumping glucose into my bloodstream as I now have food on board.

My understanding is that a lot of T1s have a continuous monitor like Libre so don't need to fingerprick test routinely. They do fingerprick when they are very low or high to check their BG as CGMs are not always accurate for very low or high levels. And of course, some people prefer to fingerprick test rather than having a CGM.

Would it be worth you having a free Libre trial is you haven't already?

 

[rebrascora]

Your target is to be between 4 and 7 in the morning. The HS is just a bit of fun and really quite irrelevant now that those of us on insulin have Libre, so don't get so focused on it. Yes getting consistent readings in the 4s, 5s and 6s means that your diabetes is well managed but you have only been trying low carb for 2 weeks and it takes much longer for waking readings to come down into range. You are doing really well, so stop doubting yourself and stick at it and eventually your levels will come down some more, but it takes months not a couple of weeks!
For some reason, you seem to be trying to talk yourself out of continuing with the great success you are having. Every day I worry that you are going to throw the towel in, because your BG is 0.5 higher that day. Mine was 5mmols higher than it should be the other day. Don't you think that is frustrating and makes me feel dejected. Diabetes doesn't play ball every day, you have to ride the rough spots and celebrate the achievements.

You are doing really, really well. Keep going. We all battle with our dietary restrictions at times, it isn't just you. We all find it challenging. I have lost it today, but I absolutely know that I have to get myself pulled together and get back on track tomorrow, because my health and wellbeing is more important than those 2 chocolate ginger biscuits that I succumbed to in a moment of weakness and those potatoes I ate in that turkey stew, that were supposed to be for Ian. Tomorrow and the day after I will be extra focused to make up for it. I have had 2 stressful days away at shows when I hardly had chance to eat and drink so my mealtimes and choices have been restricted and I had 5 hypos to contend with on Saturday. It isn't easy for any of us, but if we want to stay as healthy as we can be, we need to manage it well and that takes a bit of discipline and persistence.

 

[Nayshiftin]

Everyone can have their own reasons for testing. I test every morning before eating to get an idea of my starting point for the day.

I am T2 and know through testing that my body increases my BG on a morning without me eating anything- I did a 2 week trial of a Libre sensor to see how things changes over the day.

The early morning increase worried me so I read up on it and found out it's just my body getting ready for the day ahead .... some people call it the Dawn Phenonmenon.

I have the same breakfast every day and my BG usually drops by at least 1 from the before breakfast reading two hours after eating and my liver stops dumping glucose into my bloodstream as I now have food on board.

My understanding is that a lot of T1s have a continuous monitor like Libre so don't need to fingerprick test routinely. They do fingerprick when they are very low or high to check their BG as CGMs are not always accurate for very low or high levels. And of course, some people prefer to fingerprick test rather than having a CGM.

Would it be worth you having a free Libre trial is you haven't already?

Thank you so much i think it might give me more an understanding of what my body is doing with sugar dumps.
it might give me a greater idea if it routinely goes up and down.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience.

 

[Nayshiftin]

Your target is to be between 4 and 7 in the morning. The HS is just a bit of fun and really quite irrelevant now that those of us on insulin have Libre, so don't get so focused on it. Yes getting consistent readings in the 4s, 5s and 6s means that your diabetes is well managed but you have only been trying low carb for 2 weeks and it takes much longer for waking readings to come down into range. You are doing really well, so stop doubting yourself and stick at it and eventually your levels will come down some more, but it takes months not a couple of weeks!
For some reason, you seem to be trying to talk yourself out of continuing with the great success you are having. Every day I worry that you are going to throw the towel in, because your BG is 0.5 higher that day. Mine was 5mmols higher than it should be the other day. Don't you think that is frustrating and makes me feel dejected. Diabetes doesn't play ball every day, you have to ride the rough spots and celebrate the achievements.

You are doing really, really well. Keep going. We all battle with our dietary restrictions at times, it isn't just you. We all find it challenging. I have lost it today, but I absolutely know that I have to get myself pulled together and get back on track tomorrow, because my health and wellbeing is more important than those 2 chocolate ginger biscuits that I succumbed to in a moment of weakness and those potatoes I ate in that turkey stew, that were supposed to be for Ian. Tomorrow and the day after I will be extra focused to make up for it. I have had 2 stressful days away at shows when I hardly had chance to eat and drink so my mealtimes and choices have been restricted and I had 5 hypos to contend with on Saturday. It isn't easy for any of us, but if we want to stay as healthy as we can be, we need to manage it well and that takes a bit of discipline and persistence.

wow 5 Hypos .
No i will not throw in the towel . ( Hold me to this)
I am keen and holding onto everything i can to get it down.
i am just thinking that testing might set the day for whether you take medication.
i dont do anything whether its high or low so testing is not doing anything other than pleasing or disappointing me.
I am actually now on week 6 of my twelve week plan snd its good so far. But really week 4 as two weeks I ignored it. I was in shock. Did not want to do it but I have managed four weeks and as you say i am improving.

 

[jacki11]

I do read posts. Read one that says the morning reading is irrelevant to type 2.
I thought it would get me to a point where it would be within normal range and why most like the HS.
Maybe I am doing this all wrong.
I can not say I know what foods really set me off as sometimes my bs is higher or lower throughout the day for no real reason .
As I've noticed my blood sugar goes up in the morning before I have breakfast and can go down after I have eaten.
I am pleased though I seem to have it better controlled due to eating a lower carb diet.
So I am doing something good.
Just dont know whether Type 1 and those on meds and insulin are testing first thing for a real reason .

I am type 2 and I am testing in the morning before breakfast it's like any other meal, good to know how it's affected me. I can't know if I haven't tested.

 

[Nayshiftin]

so if you went up 4 points two hours after a liw carb meal what would you do ? not have that again ?

 

[rebrascora]

so if you went up 4 points two hours after a liw carb meal what would you do ? not have that again ?

I would put a question mark against that meal and test it another time to see if that first result was rogue and something else was interfering with the result or if the food consistently gives a bigger spike than you would like or expect, in which case you would then whittle down the carbs in it a bit more and test again or discard that meal as unsuitable..... depends how much you like it.
There are a lot more things than food which can raise our blood glucose (including contaminated fingers), so if it is genuinely a very low carb meal which should not raise levels by 4mmols, then wash hands and test again. Important to also double check whatever you have drank with the meal in case there is something there which has more carbs than you expected and has influenced things.....

 

[Nayshiftin]

you say other things. My daughter was anxious and i was trying to dort that out on the phone? if the stress causes a rise.
However i am noticing even though my food is on the low carb plan unless its like eggs or just a plain salad for example cheese n salad leaves n half a tomato its fine but add anything like beetroot even though it was less than 14 carbs with eggs rather than cheese that also spiked my sugars a bit. So will test maybe Thursday n see if beetroot out of vacuum pack does that. it did say no added sugar.
My meals yesterday cane to 30.6 Dinner itself was 10. 6 yet it spike my bs to 10.3 last night from 6.3 so i was not best pleased.
Today will be hard as we are going to seaside so goodness knows what i will get. i plan the all day breakfast and will have coffee out snd need to decline most of what else is on offer.
i need to do this for to get fit n well.

 

[Lurcher67]

I do read posts. Read one that says the morning reading is irrelevant to type 2.
I thought it would get me to a point where it would be within normal range and why most like the HS.
Maybe I am doing this all wrong.
I can not say I know what foods really set me off as sometimes my bs is higher or lower throughout the day for no real reason .
As I've noticed my blood sugar goes up in the morning before I have breakfast and can go down after I have eaten.
I am pleased though I seem to have it better controlled due to eating a lower carb diet.
So I am doing something good.
Just dont know whether Type 1 and those on meds and insulin are testing first thing for a real reason .

Hi, I am new to this (diagnosed T2, March 2023). Like yourself I was testing every morning and almost always getting higher readings than before lunch or evening meal which did concern me. Through this forum I have understood this dawn phenomenon has an impact. The morning levels do come down gradually over a couple of months so don’t be too concerned if you are eating well. I only test before breakfast if I am going to eat something different. I have been told I have become a bit obsessive with the testing, so I am trying to become a little more relaxed now that I have a fairly good idea what I can tolerate. I still get some much higher readings than I would like, but the majority are now acceptable.
Keep up the good work.

 

[Nayshiftin]

Hi, I am new to this (diagnosed T2, March 2023). Like yourself I was testing every morning and almost always getting higher readings than before lunch or evening meal which did concern me. Through this forum I have understood this dawn phenomenon has an impact. The morning levels do come down gradually over a couple of months so don’t be too concerned if you are eating well. I only test before breakfast if I am going to eat something different. I have been told I have become a bit obsessive with the testing, so I am trying to become a little more relaxed now that I have a fairly good idea what I can tolerate. I still get some much higher readings than I would like, but the majority are now acceptable.
Keep up the good work.

Thank you. Yes i have that in common . if its high i take the average testing nearly all mu fingers lol if its low i get hubby ti see washing hands dancing about but im happy . But when it is high at night over 10 at 10.3 i get so cross
ill sed if Tuna scoots me up another time.
I don't know why as low carb but it the food was low .
Still it might be good long term for my
bg to level so it can come regular and not spike.
Thinking about getting a CGM to see but expensive snd ? worth it .
oh the joy

 

[Leadinglights]

you say other things. My daughter was anxious and i was trying to dort that out on the phone? if the stress causes a rise.
However i am noticing even though my food is on the low carb plan unless its like eggs or just a plain salad for example cheese n salad leaves n half a tomato its fine but add anything like beetroot even though it was less than 14 carbs with eggs rather than cheese that also spiked my sugars a bit. So will test maybe Thursday n see if beetroot out of vacuum pack does that. it did say no added sugar.
My meals yesterday cane to 30.6 Dinner itself was 10. 6 yet it spike my bs to 10.3 last night from 6.3 so i was not best pleased.
Today will be hard as we are going to seaside so goodness knows what i will get. i plan the all day breakfast and will have coffee out snd need to decline most of what else is on offer.
i need to do this for to get fit n well.

A 4mmol/l rise from just 10g carbs seems weird, I wonder if because there were few carbs your liver was releasing glucose.
If you are only having 30g per day carbs you are in the keto diet rather than low carb so your body is probably taking some time to adjust. Is that a sustainable regime for you. A more moderate but consistent amount of carbs day to day may allow your body the settle better into a sustainable regime which you will be doing long term.

 

[harbottle]

Type 2s have a problem where gluconeogenesis occurs even though blood sugar is already higher than normal and this leads to rising levels. They can also have higher levels of glucagon which stimulates the release of glucose from glycogen and can lead to higher levels.

 

[rebrascora]

Type 2s have a problem where gluconeogenesis occurs even though blood sugar is already higher than normal and this leads to rising levels. They can also have higher levels of glucagon which stimulates the release of glucose from glycogen and can lead to higher levels.

And of course, Metformin is the medication to help with this particular issue and sadly @Nayshiftin can't cope with that medication. Exercise might help, even if it is just putting some music on after a meal and having a dance around the kitchen or living room or hoovering the stairs or brushing/sweeping the garden paths or drive. Sweeping up is great exercise for lowering levels for me. Sweeping my stables is a guaranteed BG reducer.

 

[rebrascora]

I find acidity helps with either reducing my liver output or increasing my sensitivity to insulin.... ie it helps me manage my diabetes better. So my salads all have a good dressing of balsamic vinegar which I love and I can eat pickled beetroot from the jar one after the next and it doesn't affect my levels even when sugar has been added in the pickling process. There are a few mentions of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) as being helpful with diabetes management and I use that in the fibre drink I make and generally my levels are much more compliant if I have that tough of vinegar in my diet. Might be something to experiment with. A dash of ACV in a large glass of water can be quite refreshing and having it before a meal means that if there is any benefit from the acidity then it will help with the meal as well as helping to hydrate you and fill your stomach so that you are less hungry..... or just try the beetroot pickled instead of boiled. I hate the sweetness of boiled beet, but absolutely love the sweet and sour combination of it pickled.

 

[Nayshiftin]

A 4mmol/l rise from just 10g carbs seems weird, I wonder if because there were few carbs your liver was releasing glucose.
If you are only having 30g per day carbs you are in the keto diet rather than low carb so your body is probably taking some time to adjust. Is that a sustainable regime for you. A more moderate but consistent amount of carbs day to day may allow your body the settle better into a sustainable regime which you will be doing long term.

I am struggling and it is not that low daily I fluctuate so it could be that I am not keeping it stable. Many want me to go below 20g and I am struggling now so it is a long way until I can get my head around to achieving that. This was just the 30g for that one particular day. I am thinking of getting a CGM as I believe it has been my problem. My liver dumps I am sure of it as I go very low and very high from eating the same foods when testing.
It is all too much to get my head around.
I feel better about this way of eating as long as it is not too high I really need to stop thinking about these figures. Might be best not to test at all.
I am losing weight although not as good as at first but any diet does that the fluid etc then little. So it is possibly the same with Blood sugars.
Life must get more than all this.

 

[Leadinglights]

I am struggling and it is not that low daily I fluctuate so it could be that I am not keeping it stable. Many want me to go below 20g and I am struggling now so it is a long way until I can get my head around to achieving that. This was just the 30g for that one particular day. I am thinking of getting a CGM as I believe it has been my problem. My liver dumps I am sure of it as I go very low and very high from eating the same foods when testing.
It is all too much to get my head around.
I feel better about this way of eating as long as it is not too high I really need to stop thinking about these figures. Might be best not to test at all.
I am losing weight although not as good as at first but any diet does that the fluid etc then little. So it is possibly the same with Blood sugars.
Life must get more than all this.

Who are the many?
I think quite a few people have suggested you may have gone too low too quickly as managing this diabetes thing is not a quick fix but a sustainable long term process.

 

[Nayshiftin]

Who are the many?
I think quite a few people have suggested you may have gone too low too quickly as managing this diabetes thing is not a quick fix but a sustainable long term process.

I will not name them but I know i am not going that low . They obviously know it would change bs and weight but I am just doing what i can . i use the diet app recipe sheet to keep it low carb . I think though what we eat is low carb but it has to equal what our body does at that one time.
i guess if it were as simple as carb need x amount if insulin those taking insulin would not be having to change .
I am doing okay
I am not stressing over food as long as i keep the nasty carbs away and blood sugar is okay then the DN should get a better blood result from me. and I should be healthier.
I am doing okay.

 

[Leadinglights]

I will not name them but I know i am not going that low . They obviously know it would change bs and weight but I am just doing what i can . i use the diet app recipe sheet to keep it low carb . I think though what we eat is low carb but it has to equal what our body does at that one time.
i guess if it were as simple as carb need x amount if insulin those taking insulin would not be having to change .
I am doing okay
I am not stressing over food as long as i keep the nasty carbs away and blood sugar is okay then the DN should get a better blood result from me. and I should be healthier.
I am doing okay.

Yes you are!!!!

 

[grovesy]

I have been at this game many years and I do not always get the same results eating the same foods.