Two hours after eating

[Becka]

You test two hours after you start eating because that is the point the metabolism starts up. Which is how I understand it, that what you want to see is how things are going two hours after the insulin went to work rather than once all the glucose had been inserted.

So what does that mean about the results if you started eating before you "started eating"?

i.e. you had a hypo and treated it but then ate properly a little while later, so the metabolism is already doing stuff with insulin before the glucose is inserted. Would that mean that two hours after eating the result will be lower, because the insulin had an early start, or it would make no difference?

And what is a better analogy to use than inserted? Because saying that sounds weird.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I am not familiar with what you are saying about the metabolism only starting up after 2hrs @Becka

In some circumstances the digestive process begins while food is still in the mouth (some things can be absorbed through the cheek wall I think, and others are begun to be broken down by saliva.

I thought that the 2hrs thing was perhaps connected to insulin phase eg if a person’s first phase insulin is on the fritz you might see a big rise early, but by 2hrs the second phase has kicked in so that early rise may not be indicative of the overall response?

Was that what you meant about the metabolism starting up?

 

[Lucyr]

I thought the 2 hours thing was because the majority of the food rising your blood sugar will have been completed by then, and your insulin is still working to get you down again? So it wouldn’t matter if you snacked a bit before your main meal, you can’t start digesting your main meal until you’ve actually eaten it.

 

[trophywench]

Er - I thought 2hrs after starting to eat was the approx time it takes for the BG to peak after eating - however with anyone, that could be sooner than 2hrs or later than 2 hrs so first find out when yours does that.
Ehhhh? - well that timing will be affected by more than the 42 things on the ruddy list and how would I be expected to know what that was this lunchtime?

It's APPROXIMATE - and that's all it is.

 

[Becka]

Well it was something I read on here! It was in a discussion of whether the two hours starts before or after finishing eating. What if you spent fifteen minutes eating a salad, but then had stewed sugar in syrup with a side of frozen sugar for desert. Surely you would still be rising beyond two hours. There was probably a better example given in the topic I read, but the response was to the effect the two hours starts witj the first bite as that is what gets the metabolism working.

As said elsewhere, I have been asked to do a two-hour post meal reading for my appointment with the consultant, which is not something I have had to do before. It was only when I joined here I discovered it was a thing people other than for insulin requirements. Not was mentioned when I was diagnosed (though that is true in a very general sense too, I was not even told to test for hypos), but Gliclazide cajoled my pancreas well and so my HbA1c went down to normal levels.

Unfortunately a couple of times now I have been hypo at my evening reading, so I am just trying to understand if and how the results may be affected. Because I do not have long to collect data between being asked and the appointment, and the results are a bit all over the place, between being 5.8 higher two hours later to one time being 1.2 lower. So maybe my pancreas is just spurty?

Anyway, I had the same meal thrice because of leftovers. An Indian takeaway I bought when I returned home after a long and hot day. The effects it had on me were 6.8 after an untreated 3.9 (I had had no symptoms and was testing before eating), 7.1 after a 6.8, and yesterday I was 3.0 so treated with Lift and was 5.4 fifteen minutes later. I did not eat until half an hour later, but two hours after that I was 8.7.

The situation was different each time, but discounting the initial order which came after an active day, the other two were both similar days and both reheated should that make a difference. So it was the different responses in similar circumstances to the same food which made me wonder if treating the hypo made a difference.