Hi All…
I’m just wondering if you would mind posting your numbers for me? I’ve been diagnosed for just over 2 months now and still getting used to all of the testing/monitoring that needs to be done to control my type 2.
If you could post your fasting numbers and what you typically eat throughout the day and what this does to those numbers… Do they spike etc etc…
If I’m asking too much just let me know… I’m new to this forum/community… Thanks in advance, Paul…
You are kind of asking a lot . . . and for a lot of information that won’t really do you any good. Not only will my numbers tell you nothing about you, but there is so much variety in what I eat and what it does to my numbers depending on when I ate it and what I’ve done, it would be useless for you to know it. If you need some general guidelines I recommend buying a book (Dr. Bernstein’s book is a good place to start) or asking a more general question.
In general, fasting glucose should be between 80-120. After meal spikes should be no more than 50 points two hours after eating. Foods with lots of carbohydrates (i.e. almost anything white, almost anything that’s dry, processed and poured out of a box, almost anything from the bakery) will cause a large rise in blood sugar. So will over ripe fruits.
Learn to read labels - looking for the carbohydrate content. Chart your own reactions. The numbers YOU get are the best guide for you as opposed to anyone else’s numbers. The best way to find out how your BG reacts to different foods is to eat them and test.
It will take some time, but you’ll get the hang of it. You’re not going to get perfect numbers or perfect results ever and it will take some time to figure out what foods give you good results. But the time will come.
Good luck,
Terry
Hi Terry,
Thanks for your reply. I thought I was asking too much… I have been testing after every meal and so far breakfast is the one with highest spikes so I have cut out cereal altogether but finding it difficult for alternatives. I have tried scrambled eggs and ham but I don’t like/want that every morning. I had a Kashi granola bar and noticed it spiked 3 points (mmol/L) so didn’t like that… But not even sure if that’s good/bad because it did go back down 3 points, 2 hours after.
I’ll figure it out in time… Thanks again for your input… Paul
Hi Terry,
I thought about my post and what I was really trying to figure out is what spikes are “bad”, what are “good” and what is “normal”. I have noticed my numbers always come down 2 hours after a meal, even after some of the bad ones like pasta. For example, I ate 1 cup of Special K and a low carb/sugar yogurt for breakfast last week and my numbers were 5.1 before, 11.9, 1 hour after and 4.9, 2 hours after (mmol/L). Are these bad, good or normal?
What would be an acceptable spike for a type 2 diabetic knowing it comes down 2 hours after?
Thanks for your input, Paul.
Terry,
Anything over 7.8 causes damage. 11.9 is high. Though you came back down to a perfect 4.9, your pancreas is being stressed & overworked. The best thing to preserve your beta cells is avoiding foods that send you dangerously high regularly since you’re not on insulin or meds to help lower BG.
To be sure you’ve been diagnosed properly, you should have C-peptide & GAD antibody tests done by an endo. You could be a Type 1, Type 2 or Type 1.5 (LADA). Wonderful that you’re testing frequently to keep track!
In addition to Dr. Bernstein’s book, Jenny’s site is great http://www.bloodsugar101.com.
Hi, Paul,
Some people think it’s OK to spike after meals as long as you come down by two hours, but I think it’s better to try and keep under 140 at an hour. I have read that big swings can be very stressful on the pancreas, so try to avoid eating things that send your BG really high, even if it does come down quickly. It sounds like you still have an intact second phase insulin release, which is what brings you back down to normal at two hours. I’m presuming you don’t take insulin, since you are diagnosed Type 2, so you might try some exercise immediately after eating, especially breakfast. I find that 20 minutes on an exercise bike brings my BG down about 50 points and I avoid that spike after eating. I also think it’s worth checking into whether you have LADA. C-peptide won’t tell you much since it’s pretty clear you still are producing insulin, but antibody tests might. If you do have LADA it would be important to start insulin rather than trying to control with diet and exercise alone.
Hi Paul,
Welcome, and sorry that you need the help that you can find in places like this. Hope you know what I mean.
I was dx’d as T2 in July. My numbers are not bad, and would not help you very much, but fwiw, I am in the 80’s in the morning, and seldom exceed 140 after I eat. Sorry we don’t speak the same language in BG numbers 
I have no super powers, or great self control, but I set out immediately to prove to myself that I could get myself under control. I have enough life issues to cope with, without worrying too much about diabetes. My initial A1c was 6.8, which ain’t bad from what I read. Three months later, it was 5.5. I did the very best I could for those three months.
If it helps you, all I drank was water. No soda, no juice, just water, with an occasional bit of lemon juice when I simply could not get plain water to go down anymore I always drank about a gallon of water a day, so I just stayed with it, and ditched the small amount of soda, and all the OJ I used to drink.
You seem to have noticed what quite a few of us have found, that mornings are a bad time to take in carbs. At first, I was having cereal, but quickly found out cereal is just no good for my numbers. I tried other things until I recognized that AM and carbs don’t work for me. I have eggs, bacon, sausage, and even Bratwurst for breakfast. Tried so hard to get in a small bowl of cheerios to break the monotony, but too much sugar for me, so believe it or not, I switched to having an occasional salad for breakfast. Just the stuff in the bag, with some tomatoes and hard boiled egg tossed on top. Lite dressing has few carbs if you keep the amount low. Salad for breakfast ain’t much fun, but I was out to prove I could get my A1c number down.
Deli meat for lunch, turkey and ham would often get just rolled up on a plate with some garlic powder and pepper, and some mustard and even a bit of mayo. Not great, but it kept me from dying of starvation, barely Eventually, I found tortillas that are 8 carbs each (walmart) so I could have a kind of sandwich with the meat. Tuna or canned white chicken, mixed with some mayo goes well on them too, so I have made it this far, calling them real sandwiches. If it was a bacon and eggs breakfast, a salad for lunch is due.
Don’t forget about cheese. Mostly zero carbs, and I have been known to make a cheap quesadila (sp?) with just the tortilla and cheese in the microwave.
Dinner I hit up the frozen foods dept and keep a supply of vegetables. Personally, lima beans, cut green beans, and broccoli are all I can get down. There are other choices. These are not free of carbs, but have much more nutrition so its worth it to eat them. I don’t care for vegetables, but my days of eating just what I love are over, so I take em, cause I have to. Lite dressing makes them palatable. A small red potato cutup and boiled with the skin in the same pot as whatever veggies is okay for me by the evening time, and I eat either boneless chicken, pork chops, cube steak, other types of steaks and even a hamburger with the fixings, but no bread. I cook them all on the bbq. No fried anything That’s been dinner for for going on five months.
Roasted, unsalted nuts, walnuts, and the occasional granola bar (quaker) are what I munch on in between meals. Even tho the granola bars sometimes hit me hard, I am not perfect, and simply need to eat one… The worst was no chocolate, but I found that the instant, non-fat chocolate pudding with non-fat milk is pretty low carb, and helps with the “gotta have chocolates” Whipped topping, lite, is also okay.
There you have what I eat 95% of the time, but that is just me, and we are all different, so test and test and test to see what your choices do for you. The most important thing to do is find a few meals, and some lunches that test you out okay, and then you have something to fall back on, and can modify, add and subtract from there.
You need to establish a baseline, and not just go all willy nilly or you will never find what is spiking you, and what is good, and risk tossing a lot of good, because of your process. Simplify, would seem a good battle cry for getting a handle on what you can eat, then expand your diet once you have control.
Just remember the logical point that if your add more than one thing at a time to a meal, you won’t know which rings the bell, and which does not.
I have been to Wendy’s a few times. Small chili and 5 pc chicken nuggets are okay. Even cheeseburgers are alright, but I have to toss the buns, and just eat the rest plain. Kind of a waste of money tho, so I stay away for the most part.
Another approach is smaller meals, more often, which spreads out the intake of carbs over the course of the day. Seems that for me, and I think most, too many carbs at once is the big problem, so if you are gonna ingest 50 carbs, you may spike too high, but if you have 25, and then 25 more in an hour or so, you may be better off. Test, test, test.
What I have been taught, read, and found out is that going over 140 is not good, so if you can avoid that, you will do well. If your fasting numbers are sub 100, and you seldom ring up past 140, your A1c will drop quite a bit. Exercise matters, but some folks need to do it first, others, after they eat. Testing will answer that for you.
I am not a doctor. You asked about an acceptable spike, and I believe that number is 140. Beyond that, things start to get damaged, by what I have researched. I also simply cannot speak like an expert, because its just me and my understanding, but forget about cereal. Special K is 23 carbs, avoid milk unless its non fat and even then, not much. No bread, no pasta, nothing white and processed. Fruit is not recommended, as its mostly sugar, but some is worth it for the other nutrition.
I believe that once you get into a habit of the food that keeps your numbers tight, you can begin to experiment with other foods and see what they do, so you are not locked into the same thing every day, but being able to go the day without a 140+ goes a long way towards keeping you from having troubles down the road.
I started at 238 lbs and am down to 215, and I think that has helped a lot, so keep the exercise going, its as important as the diet, imo.
You did ask for a lot, and I did give you a lot. Probably more than you needed
Stress is bad for BG, so relax as you move along and learn what’s good and what’s bad. Keep asking questions, but remember that diabetes doesn’t seem to be just one disease, its kind of unique to all of us, and what is good for a goose, is not always best for the rest of the gander. Also, you aren’t gonna die next month from complications, so you have time to work this out and get it under control. Just remember that most of the diet books, and even the ADA and other federations, are full of baloney about what and how much you can eat. Their numbers are wrong, and the only person who can control your diabetes is you, along with your meter, so depend on it, and take everything else with a grain of salt, so to speak.
Almost forgot to mention. www.calorieking.com is one of a few sites where you can get the nutritional info on just about any food out there. You can punch it in one at a time online, or buy the software which lets you plan meals, does your exercise results for you, and a mess of other very useful tools if you find it hard to calculate carbs, or just flat don’t want to I don’t work for them, but I find it a very good tool, along with my meter. Also http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/A1ccalc2.php is a calculator to translate average BG into A1c, and between mg and mmol in case you haven’t found that one yet.
Hi Paul: I would second what Libby and Gerri have suggested. You really should be tested to see if you have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. All too often, adults are diagnosed as having Type 2 simply because they are adults, not because the doctor has made a definitive diagnosis. The definitive, gold standard test for Type 1 autoimmune diabetes (at any age of onset) is antibody testing (glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies (GADA), islet cell antibodies (ICA), and insulinoma-associated (IA-2) autoantibodies). The out-of-pocket expense for the test is less than $500, very worthwhile I would say. A c-peptide test is also very useful to indicate how much insulin production you have. If you have autoimmune diabetes, you should be on exogenous insulin. Best of luck to you, Melitta
Wow,
Thanks for your incredible reply John!!!
I greatly appreciate you taking time to discuss your personal life coping with this. I am trying to get a handle on all of this and right now I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. I’m finding it hard to concentrate on work fully (I work from home which makes it harder).
I have been reading what some of the other posters have been saying and started reading up about LADA and it seems I have most of the symptoms for this, loss of weight, in excellent shape (BMI of 21) and no prior family history of Diabetes. I have a Dr appt on Friday so I’m going to ask about this before I jump to any conclusions and worry myself further.
I greatly appreciate your comments, which helps me greatly, and all of the comments I’m receiving.
About the “avoid fruit”… I have read that an apple a day is supposed to be very good for type 2 diabetics as the sugars release slower than other sugared foods and it helps regulate overall blood sugar? I had a medium sized apple last week and here are my numbers: before - 4.4, 1 hour after - 5.4 and 2 hours after - 5.1… Is this good, bad or ok?
Thanks again, Paul
Fruit of any kind isn’t going regulate overall blood sugar. What you read may have been referring to people who have problems with hypos (usually those on insulin).
If it’s a choice between a candy bar & an apple, well, an apple is the better choice:) Apples are less sweet & higher fiber than many other fruits. Fruits of tropical origin are very high in fructose. Apples & berries are lower.
From your readings, the apple didn’t effect you badly.
Hi Paul,
As usual, I got long winded and didn’t put in enough “disclaimers” because I can only speak for what foods do for me, to help you with a baseline. Nothing wrong with those numbers from the apple. You may be fine with them, so by all means, if they work for you, they are surely good for you. They don’t sit well with me, although I sneak a half a one now and then since I have apple trees in my yard, and right now, they are bright, juicy red… 
Fruit should probably be eaten, but its hard for me to find fruit that doesn’t send me too high. Check each type on calorieking.com and get a feel for how many carbs and sugars they have. As others mentioned, its better than a candy bar, but that is really not a fair comparison
Keep testing, experimenting, and keep a baseline so you always know where you are at and don’t get lost and frustrated.
John