I am contemplating testing before and after meals for the next week or so. How much rise in blood sugar is considered acceptable? I have seen anything from 30 to 60. I understand that a high blood sugar is not good, but I need to determine if mine is from food or because I need more basal insulin. This is just an experiment strictly for myself and to present the data to my doctor the next time I see him. I did not think about this until after my last appointment with him.
I test before meals and 2 hours after. I set up this plan with my endo - and my goal is that 2 hours after eating, my bg should be 120 or less. Have you talked to your endo about what an appropriate goal for you would be?
I understand what you are saying, but that is not my question. I have a goal, but I have been stressing over my test results. I need a way of discovering whether I need to change my diet, or do something else. Maybe I’m not expressing myself correctly, but I am looking for a guideline on how much is an acceptable rise in blood sugar after a meal. I read today that the ADA recommends no ore than 50. I have seen it as low as 30. I just wondered what others used as a guide.
Scroll to middle of webpage. Sorry #s in mmol/L but you can get USA values by multiplying by 18.
Most diabetes pages have similar info from what I’ve come across. But YMMV so best to ask your doctor where they want you to be.
I understand a target of a certain test result such as 140, but that’s not the information I wanted. I want to know how much of a rise. If your goal is 140, and you reach it, but your before meal test was 100, is a 40 rise in your blood sugar the expected amount. I know there isn’t any set number that works all the time for everyone. From the answers I am getting, I guess my request isn’t one that is really appropriate.
Would it not depend on what you eat? If you know how much your blood sugar rises with 15g of carb, and you know how many carbs you are eating, then you can decide how much a meal with affect your blood sugar. Do you carb count? I realize not everyone does.
I understand you want to limit discussion to your narrow question. For me, I can often limit my rise to 30-40 mg/dl. I eat a low carb diet, however. If I ate breakfast cereal or pancakes before noon my BG rise would be measured in the 100’s of mg/dl.
I do think the mealtime starting BG level is important because staying within a defined range, I think, is clinically significant over long durations. I like to start eating at under 100/mg/dl for this reason. I often walk about 30-60 minutes after eating to pre-empt BG mountain-tops. This walking is much like a dose of insulin in its own right.
As far as teasing out the basal from the bolus needs, I believe fasting is the best test.
if you are fasting for lunch for example, how do you set a basal rate (one to start w/ for example .5 units per hour) and then judge what your basal rate should be based upon your fasting?
I think the most practical place to start is what is approximately working at the moment. If the person was starting from scratch I would calculate a starting total daily dose (TDD) at 1 unit of insulin for every kg of body weight. I’d use 50% of that for total daily basal and further divide that by 24 hours to get the average hourly basal rate. I am not advocating for the mythical perfect 50%/50% basal/bolus split some practitioners target. Furthermore, the 1 unit/kg of body weight is not a hard and fast standard.
This method, in my opinion, is just a starting point for testing since most of us have greater needs in the morning (dawn phenomena) and lower needs in the late afternoon and midnight - 3 a.m. periods. The most important concept is to do the test, measure, analyze, adjust and repeat. Our needs change all the time. Learning a method to roll with that change is a critical lesson to learn.
The rule of thumb I was taught was keep the rise in BG to no more than 50 pts when measuring two hours after eating.
That is what I recently read that the ADA recommends. I have also read it should be no more than 40. Like most things, I guess it all depends on what authority you check with.
Your asking a question that really has no answer, at least not one that fits everyone. Some indaviduls can live normal life spans with BG over 200mg/dL and others will have BG related complications caused by only minor excursions into the higher than normal BG range…you fit somewhere along this curve and when you have 1 or more complications you will know where you fit into the big picture.
Her is my plan: Enjoy my life, Praise my God, do the very best I can with everything I do…this includes my BG.
Remember life is kinda like a mine field…Diabetes is just one of the mines, I have no real significant diabetes complications after 40 years of crazy BG…Cancer or a Heart Attack is probably the way I will go if it’s Medical.
I think every diabetic is different. We are all on different meds and/or insulin and can each handle differing amounts of carbs. I know if I eat 10 carbs I will go up 30-40 points. If I start out at 90 that is fine, but if I start out at 120 before meal that is too high. So there are lots of variables.
The Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard University has guidelines for adults managing type 2 diabetes,. Their recommendation is that BG levels tested two hours after a meal should not exceed 180 for someone with diabetes. However, that assumes someone is managing their diabetes and blood sugar levels relatively well. If someone’s fasting blood sugar pre-meal is already elevated, then the goal of less than 180 after eating might be hard to achieve. In your case and based on my own personal experiences over the past 18 years living with type 2, you might expect a rise of about 60 points with normal eating and about 50 percent of your calories from carbohydrates. Any increases beyond that would suggest that a closer look at your mealplan, and/or your activity level would be advisable…