Today I checked my BG when I got home from work. It was 145 about 4 hours after lunch. I checked it again an hour later and it was 175. No food or drink. Just an increase in BG. I’m sort of confused about the cause of this. Is this a normal phenomena? My logic tells me if my BG is 145 and I haven’t eaten anything, it should progressively be getting lower. At least that’s how my mind works. Does anyone know the answer to this riddle?
Well, if you ate a lunch with a significant fat or protein content, those elements convert to glucose more slowly, so that could be the case. Or if you have caffeine in the afternoon, that could have an effect on your sugar or your insulin resistance. Or stress can cause sugars to rise. Illness or infection, too. But my first guess is fat content. I’ll always have a higher blood sugar 4-6 hours later if I have peanut butter and jelly for lunch than if I opt for a turkey sandwich.
What did you eat for breakfast and lunch?
Something else to consider is how close together lunch & breakfast were & what you ate for breakfast. Some people digest slowly. If breakfast had a good deal of fat/protein & lunch did also, this could account for it as well. This can keep BG high for a while. I’m guessing it was the fat content, too.
Other things factor into BG that have nothing to do with food & sometimes we can’t control these. When I experience what you do, I go for a long walk to bring it down.
OK, Now I understand. I had one slice of pizza, about a half cup of Mac & Cheese, and a 1/2 Cup of pasta. I wonder now if it was the Pizza. But would one slice do that? I’m still not familiar with how to use the dual/square wave bolus and maybe I need to educate myself with that and start using it. I just now checked it again and its down to 100.
One slice of pizza could definitely do that. Pizza seems to be one of the things that makes us all nuts. I just don’t eat pizza any more. I’ve tried & can’t handle it. Between the fat in the cheese (most places use crappy cheese), the extra oil & carbs in the crust & sugar in the tomato sauce, it’s not worth it for me. There’s a fast food guide that lists the carbs per slice of chain pizza places. Maybe that would help you. Won’t help with the neighborhood pizzeria:)
You will probably need to play around with that dual wave bolus feature for pizza. It’s not an exact science and I certainly don’t have it down either, but I find that I need to take about 60% of my insulin up front and square the rest out over 2-3 hours for pizza. That’s what a dual wave allows you to do. You’ve done the legwork to know that the fat hit you about four hours later, so that’s great.
Also, I don’t know what dietary restrictions or considerations you and your doctor are comfortable with, but you took in a good deal of carbs in one sitting and that can also be hard to manage over those post-lunch hours. You might try substituting the pasta and mac&cheese for veggies/salad or something low-fat / high fiber when you choose the high-fat pizza slice - just to space the carbs out a bit. I find that my insulin works more effectively for smaller portions of carb per sitting. I’ll have the slice plus veggies. Other times, I’ll have the macaroni and cheese with fish. You should try to safely experiment with what works for you.