I just got back from a Dr visit to get numbers for my 3 month blood work. My A1C crept up a little (6.3) but I was more concerned about our discussion. I was telling her that I'm thinking about joining a gym in the new year to try and "bulk" up and gain some muscle tone. I told her since I'm on a very low carb diet what else I could do so I don't burn off my sacred calories and she said "Try one of those energy drinks like Gatorade"... hmmm, 50 carbs per bottle... and she still tried to switch me to Januvia :(
On another note, I have noticed a lot of people on here only check BG levels at 2 hours post meal. Is it more important to check at 1 hour or 2? I've read the Blood Sugar 101 site and understand damage can occur over 140 but I mostly check at 1 hour. If I checked at 2 I'm sure I could introduce some more carbs at mealtime. Currently 10-20 carbs in one meal will spike me too much at one hour (160-216) but will be back to below 140 at 2hours...
you do what you have to when you train. i think the term is eat/train' to your meter' if you need the extra carbs cause you are training more then you need them - beats ending have a serious bonk. there are sports drinks w/ low carbs and even no carbs (powerade zero for one) if that helps any.
not sure why 2hrs is the norm for test. think it may be so that you aren't focused on the initial spike of the food but I am guessing (and will be checking back for more informed answers)
I always checked at 2 hours, but I am currently pregnant and now my doctor wants me to check one hour after eating to make sure that we don't see any spike. That made me think that I should have always been checking at 1 hour.
What I was initially taught was that people using insulin should check at 2 hours and those not using insulin at 1-1.5 hours.
Clueless doctors seem to be the norm. Weight training is supposed to help with insulin resistance. I've been considering it myself as my HbA1c also recently crept up.
The Bloodsugar101 website was also key in developing my goals. I don't think there is any definitive research pointing to 140 as an absolute number. I test at 1 hour and 2 hours and have chosen to be conservative in choosing my goal. I try to never go over 140. However I am not always successful. If you choose the 140 at 2 hours number as a goal, I bet your HbA1c would rise. Perhaps that is the better measure as the rise in complications with a rise in HbA1c is well documented.
As an interesting side note my 2 hr. number is often the higher of the 2. We're all so different.
I routinely drink the gatoraid "G2". It is low carb (like 8 grams per serving), and provides just enough of a carb load to keep me from going low during exercise.
I do struggle more with balancing my carbs for strength training like you are talking about than for aerobic exercise like running. With aerobic stuff, it is always a very consistent drop in BG, so it's a little easier to figure out how much carb to intake.
I switch off between checking at 1 & at 2 hours to get a better sense. With more strips, I'd do both regularly. Depending on what the meal is & individual digestive rates, some foods hit faster or slower than others.You drop down quickly. While highs aren't good, of course, it's sustained highs that are most damaging. I've searched & haven't found info on how long it takes for high BG to start effecting cells.
It depends how high you feel comfortable allowing BG to get. You have insulin production, but pushing the envelope puts strain on your beta cells.
Has adding more protein not helped with weight gain?
This is what I was thinking, too. For people who produce their own insulin I've read that the peak in blood sugar is around one hour or so after eating. But injected (or pumped) insulin is MUCH slower (as in something like 20x slower for even the "rapid-acting" analogues) than insulin which is released directly into the bloodstream. So for those of us taking insulin, at one hour the insulin hasn't even really begun to work yet. If we aim for normal numbers at one hour then at two or three, after the insulin has done its thing, we'd go low. Of course, this isn't taking into account things like pre-bolusing or eating lower-carb meals.
Most foods are well on their way to being digested in two hours, so that may be the reason. Carbs start being digested as soon as they hit saliva. Another reason may be that rapid acting insulin, for those on insulin, peaks at around two hours after injection, hence 2 hour testing.
I have been using a CGM since November sixth. This device has shown me that I usually peak at 1 hour and 45 minutes.
I used to take my bolus at start of eating, moved it back five minutes, and now 10 minutes before I eat. But I still don't have the timing right. This morning I had 30 Grams of Carbs at 7:30, took 3 unit shot at 7:20, and moved from 68 at 7:30 to 200 at 8:45 and back to 81 by 11:20.
I am sure each person has a different time, and each type of carb takes a certain amount of time. But for me it is usually 1 hour and 45 minutes.
By the way, when I printed these charts of BG reading every five minutes to my doctor, she said this is confusing, use a log book. Some of them are really clueless.
IMHO if someone's only problem numbers are post meal, then checking post meal is appropriate.
For the rest of us who have trouble with all our numbers, it can seem overwhelming to try to keep our post meal numbers in some narrow range when we spend all our energy on our before-meal numbers :-).
Not really. I've been eating more eggs, low fat meats and the protein shakes but my weight has stayed at 150-155 lbs for the past 6 months; I'd be more comfortable at 165. My Dr did say my cholesterol was borderline so I'm a little worried about the eggs and meat. Sometimes I feel like I should go raw food but I think my body would have a hard time with that.
I would love to have a cgm so i can see how my blood sugar is impacted during a work out. The only proble is that most t2's wont get a cgm since insurance wont cover it. so I am stuck at checking every 15 minutes to limit the carbs to what I realy need.
Sorry, Paul. High BG causes lipid problems. Mine wasn't good until I got my numbers tamed. I eat a ton of fat & mine are now very good. Dietary fat doesn't cause high cholesterol. Did the doc give you a copy of your lipid results? Ratio, LDL & HDL are the things to look at.
PatientX, I have not even officially been diagnosed with D. Four years ago my doctor put me on actos, then on Fortamet, then on Janumet. Only after getting the Dexcom and using it for a week, five weeks ago, I realized that I need insulin.
All I did was call Dexcom, they called my insurance and got pemission and shipped me the equipment.
Ya know, at your weight, I'd be suspecting possible LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults). Have you had an antibody test? If you came up positive, it would put a whole different spin on your treatment, because LADA is slow onset Type 1 in adults. Can you ask your doc for an antibody test?
Carbs, in the presence of adequate insulin, are what will give weight gain, but it's fat, not muscle. If you want muscle, then working out and making sure you have enough carbs in you to prevent lows is very important. But you also need sufficient protein, because that's what builds muscles. Protein does not cause high cholesterol; high BGs and insulin resistance do.
I usually hit my peak at 90 minutes- 145 and then fall to 110-120 at 2 hours. I used to limit my bgs to 10 carbs a meal but found since adding coconut oil at every meal I can eat more natural carbs and be a lot lower. So now I can eat around 20-30 carbs, dinner usually less. I still can't eat anything processed or with flour in it. But I can handle 2 slices of Eziekel bread as long as I put coconut oil on it. As far as working out. I would use a low carb whey protein shake to drink before or after workout instead of gatorade. If you need the electrolytes they have a 0 carb version of Powerade. Another thing I found works is an energy bar called EXTEND bar. It was designed by an Encocrynologist and breaks down slowly over 7 hours to prevent lows and highs.
I use a couple of teaspoons at a meal. I cook my eggs in it or if I am making stir fry veggies. As I said I spread it on sprouted bread or crackers and then put raw almond butter on it. You can even make your own chocolate bars by melting about 1/3 cup, adding dark cocoa, a little splenda and chopped nuts or peanut butter. Pour into a shallow dish and freeze until solid. Break in pieces. If you check online you can find tons of recipes using coconut oil. I find the Nutiva brand the best, you can get it at Nutrition.com or Swanson vitamins.com for a very reasonable price.
