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Tired after meals

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olly

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi

I am a newly diagnosed type 2 so forgive me if this sounds daft.

I am taking tests regularly to try and understand what foods etc triggers my blood sugar test results. I have been doing this for a few days now and I find that my before meals score is around 5.0 and my two hours after a meal score to be around 9.0. Not sure if this is good or bad really?

The main problem is that I feel extremely tired after a meal for about 1-2 hours. I would have thought that you would feel tired with low rather than high test scores??

At the moment I am taking 1 500mg metformin and 1 5mg Linagliptin a day.

I am due to go back to work on Monday for the first time in 3 weeks and worried that I will not be able to focus after my lunch.

Any help gratefully received.

Thanks

Olly
 
High blood sugar makes me tired. I somehow managed to forget to take my my lunch time insulin today and my level was 9.9 after 2 hours. Yawning for Britain!! Could you try a low carb lunch? Something and salad? I particularly like tinned mackerel and salad. That shouldn't raise your levels very much at all.
 
Hi Olly

Higher blood sugar makes some people feel tired, anything above 8 for me makes my body think it's nap time. A sharp rise in blood sugar practically knocks me out, because our bodies are designed for very slow changes to blood sugar really. What type of food are you eating?

Oh and welcome aboard 🙂
 
Hi a couple of days I had a medium sized jacket potato with Tuna, another day Chicken salad wraps. For dinner I had a chicken and veg stir fry with a small amount of noodles and all these things made me very sleepy. Perhaps I am having too much carbs and maybe I should try and cut down even more.

Thanks for your response, its nice to know I am not alone!!
 
Well that doesn't sound too carb heavy to me 🙂. Personally I'd steer clear of the jacket potato because they send my blood sugar soaring (more than any other type of spud) but that doesn't necessarily mean it will do the same for you. One of the joys of diabetes is we all react differently to different carbs. For example I tolerate bread very well, my friend really doesn't but she can eat a huge jacket spud without it registering really and I only have to sniff one and my blood sugar is through the roof. It's worth experimenting with lunchtime food and see if you get lower post meal results, and if that corrects the tiredness. The starting figure of around 5 is great, but I'd play around with different foods and see how you go with them. For me lunchtime is the time when I'm most sensitive to carb so I tend towards poached eggs or an egg salad with a small pitta bread or something around 30g of carb. You might find you just need more medication of adjustment to when you take it so be sure to mention the tiredness to the doctor and take your meter readings too so they can see the increase 🙂
 
We are all different and react to different foods in different ways so it is difficult to categorically say this is the best lunch for you. Baked potatoes can be quite high in carbs. I would try a leaf salad and protein such as cheese, egg or oily fish for lunch but one of our non insulin using type 2 colleagues would be perhaps better placed to advise you.

I would consider getting a copy of Carbs and Cals it was the key to helping me get a better control on my bg levels.
 
Feeling tired after a meal, depending on how many carbs were in the meal, could also be partially a normal effect. I know a lot of people without diabetes who get that feeling, and the Boondocks cartoon did an entire episode on it.,
 
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