When Do You Think Is 2 Hours After A Meal?

[TheClockworkDodo]

I'm curious to know when exactly other people test, when testing 2 hours after a meal - do you go for 2 hours after you inject (if you're on insulin), 2 hours after you start eating, 2 hours after the middle of the meal, 2 hours after you finish eating, or any one of these at random?

Were you told which of these is officially 2 hours after a meal, or did you just work out for yourself when you need to test to see when your blood sugar is highest?

I ask because no-one ever told me, so I had to try to work it out for myself, and I'm a really slow eater ...

 

[Mark Parrott]

I go for 2 hours from when I start eating, though unless you are an exceptionally slow eater, I don't think it really matters. It confuses matters a bit more if you have a 2 or 3 course meal.

 

[SB2015]

I would go for two hours after the delivery of insulin, as I would want to check the action of the insulin. If I was not using insulin I am not sure what I would do.

 

[Kaylz]

I test 2 hours after I've finished eating, most meals only take me 10 minutes to eat but each meal is pre-bloused by a different amount of time, although saying that I don't think it would make TOO much of a difference to be concerned about x

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I tend to think of it as 2 hours after starting eating, or 2 hours after dose if there’s not much of a prebolus.

Like several others, most meals only take me a few minutes to eat so i don’t worry generally. If meals are eaten over an extended period I would generally split the dose, and to be honest I rarely worry over the precise timings of post meal checks. Round about 1.5 to 2.5 hours seems to suit me if I am checking, but a lot depends on the meal - I’m aiming for peak BG rather than a specific time.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

Interesting how already there's a split between 2 hours after injecting, 2 hours after starting eating, and 2 hours after finishing. I tend to go for 2 hours after starting eating, but it's usually a bit later because I've got distracted from keeping an eye on the time. Not as late as 2 hours after finishing eating though - my blood sugar would be going down again by then.

I'm astonished anyone can eat a meal so quickly that it doesn't make any difference (mind you, I shouldn't be, I've seen how fast R eats! - though I suspect @Kaylz just eats a lot less than I do rather than eating as quickly as R!). I can easily take an hour to eat a normal meal, and a lot longer if it's salad as it's more of an effort to chew.

I only split my dose if I have something like crumble or baked apple for pudding instead of my usual yogurt.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

No-one else have any opinions?

 

[Martin Canty]

IMHO it;s a matter of consistency, I never sweat a few minutes either way & personally (as I do the cooking & taste the food along the way) my timer start is when I actually sit down to eat. For insulin dependent D's it's probably a little more important as they need to judge when their insulin is starting to kick in.

 

[Greyhound Gal]

For me it's whenI start eating even if I've taken my insulin15 mins before that. To be honest I don't worry to much about 15 mins. If I want to check my peak levels and timing I do it when wearing a libre to make it easier.
I rarely do 2 hour post checks now, just waking, pre breakfast, lunch and dinner, mid afternoon and bedtime. If I'm wearing a libre I'll take a few more swipes during the day but not at set times.

 

[chaoticcar]

This has always confused me I am type 2 not on insulin
E.g. I have an Apple test before and 2 hours after
I have a meal with friends ,test before ,have soup ,Main course ,chat between courses have a glass of wine then cheese and an Apple this meal may be about 3/4 hour long so if I test 2 hours from the start I can't see how this gives me an accurate reading
CAROL

 

[chaoticcar]

PS I don't eat apples but just a for instance !!!
CAROL

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

This has always confused me I am type 2 not on insulin
E.g. I have an Apple test before and 2 hours after
I have a meal with friends ,test before ,have soup ,Main course ,chat between courses have a glass of wine then cheese and an Apple this meal may be about 3/4 hour long so if I test 2 hours from the start I can't see how this gives me an accurate reading
CAROL

That's a very complex meal, and lots of variables including all the foods interacting, so you wouldn't be able to draw any conclusions about any one component from it in my opinion. You might get a vague idea about strategies for 'that type of meal' (eat fewer spuds, avoid the pre-dinner nibbles etc) but it would be next to impossible to be much more specific unless you can repeat the same meal with the same foods except one on several occasions and try to see differences.

If you want to specifically check a food or fairly consistent meal, you can get a pretty good idea of how your body responds to, say, a bowl of porridge vs 2 Weetabix vs 2 slices of toast vs 1 slice of toast. You may find that they all give such horrendous numbers you avoid them all - but you may not. And knowing is the key thing.

Checking each of them more than once is important too - a couple of times is often sufficuent, but there's a lot more that affects BG than just the food we eat, so pointing a finger at 'that apple' because of a rogue 14mmol/L may be misplaced if actually the high BG was contributed to by a bewing illness, stressful morning or whatever.

 

[chaoticcar]

Sorry I have completely misled you here I wasn't asking about this particular meal but what aspect of timing your testing applies to
CAROL

 

[Caroline]

personally I tale 2 hours after a meal as 2 hours after I stop eating. I have been to meals that last a couple of hours because there are lots of courses so 2 hours after you start the meal could be too soon after the end of the meal for some insulin. This is just my opinion and wont be right for everyone.

 

[SB2015]

Thanks for starting this thread. It has clarified the purpose of the ‘2 hours after’ test as being one to look at the peak of the glucose action from a meal, knowing that any insulin taken will then continue its work to bring it down and back in target. Like others I now use the Libre to look at any spikes.

In trying to check out certain foods, as Mike said it is difficult if it is all mixed up with wine, other foods, ....
If I really want to know about the impact of an item of food I just have to isolate it if possible/sensible to do so.

With T2 who are not on insulin, is there the same pattern?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

With T2 who are not on insulin, is there the same pattern?

My understanding from reading other T2 experiences over the years is that it varies, but that many T2s find their 'peak' time to be rather shorter than 2 hours, particularly if their first phase insulin is impaired. By 2hrs many T2s I've seen sharing info would be expecting to be coming down as their second phase of insulin would be working.

Will be interested to see what our current T2s think.