For the past two weeks or so, I’ve been dealing with stubborn highs after breakfast. So far, I’ve made the following changes, but I’m still struggling with high blood sugar after breakfast:
I changed my carb to insulin ratio so I’m taking more insulin with breakfast.
I’ve increased my morning basal rate.
I’ve switched to a lower carb breakfast. I used to eat Quaker Weight Control oatmeal with no problems and I’ve switched to cottage cheese with chia seeds and an egg/veggie “muffin” so I’m getting protein and fiber but very few carbs.
I’m a teacher and my sugar tends to be higher in the mornings during the school week. But lately the spikes are affecting me during the weekend too. They are also leading to more frequent bathroom trips–really inconvenient for a teacher. My sugar levels out through the afternoon and I’m back in range by the time school lets out, but I need to get a handle on these post-breakfast numbers.
Any thoughts on additional changes I can make to prevent these spikes?
Try swapping that breakfast muffin for some sliced tomatoes or other veggies. Breakfast is notorious for spiking blood sugar in many diabetics. It’s a time of day when we tend to be insulin resistant.
For a few days record what you eat as well as your waking, mealtime and two hours post-breakfast blood glucose numbers. Those numbers will suggest food and insulin dosing that will tame your after breakfast blood glucose.
I can’t eat more than 12 grams of carbs for breakfast and maintain reasonable control. My best breakfast is bacon and scrambled eggs. I like to add salsa, tomatoes or avocado as well.
Experiment, document, adjust, repeat. You will figure it out. Good luck!
Breakfast is just another meal for me , the problem when I get up is metabolic. I need almost as much insulin in the morning without eating as I do if I eat. At 2am I start my highest basal rate of the day just to get ahead of my DP and it goes until 10 am. Then I have to give myself a couple of units after I get up to counteract what some call a second phase of DP . All of my pump settings are at there highest in the morning and drop some at lunch, and then again at dinner. I have never found any setting that is reliable I just use my CGM to keep my BG from getting out of hand in the morning.
often i have post breakfast high BGs. sometimes they come down on their own, but so many times they don’t. i found that eating a protein breakfast like eggs really keeps my BGs in check. once i start to add to that, i tend to go high (180s even when i started at 100) coffee in particular really spikes me no matter what i do. i am still experimenting after so many years. and i am a pumper w/ a cgm
are you on the pump? maybe you can alter your basal rates pre-breakfast, or you can try a temporary basal rate for a couple of hours (this often helps me).
I test one hour before breakfast and prebolus one or more units, as long as it will not make me go too low at the time I eat. That usually gives me a BG in the 80-95 range at the time I eat. I have a 25-30 carb breakfast without many fast acting carbs. Two hours after my meal I am usually in the 100-130 range. That works for me.
Hm…maybe coffee is part of the problem here. I’m a regular coffee drinker and it’s never given me problems before. But, we all know the definition of diabetic insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results! Could be something has changed.
I am super carb sensitive prior to about midday. I have given up on breakfast, i just eat later as i really don’t enjoy the majority of low carb options on the breakfast table.
I also had a wicked DP for a while - in the half an hour i took to get up, shower, make coffee and get dressed etc, i would always go up at least 50 points, and it would keep going. My endo recommended a ‘getting up’ bolus - so i would do my long-acting, and 1 or 2 units of short acting, read the news headlines, then do all my stuff, and it worked with a low carb breakfast.
One other thing that helped was switching to decaf coffee.
Lately, the DP has gone away, not sure if that is just me, the end of my honeymoon period, or the fact that my body has gotten used to not having breakfast.
change to steel cut oatmeal. Its better for you. eat maybe a 1/3 of a cup cooked or even 1/2 cup cooked. have some fruit and a few almonds. that quaker oat meal is not good. maybe exercise after breakfast.
i am a type 1 now and I wake up in the morning with blood sugars around 80-110 and I eat steel cut oat meal (trader joes best price) and fruit. 1/2 apple, strawberry blue berries and a few almonds and walnuts. I drink coffer with lactose free milk. I then exercise for 1 hour. My sugars are great.
Eat in moderation.
You must not eat bad carbs. I read about people and their blood sugars and how they cant lose weight or they cant control their BS but what most people don’t understand is you can’t eat bad carbs. breads etc. if you do no matter how much insulin you take your BS will spike. People don’t want to face the hard facts. Carbs (white devil) are a killer. you are what you eat
Breakfast is a killer for me. My IC is normal 1:15. Just yesterday I woke up at 212, ate a chewy granola bar (18g carbs) and gave myself 4 units of insulin. Three hours later I was at 280! The weird thing is, I would see similar results if i ate 30g of carbs too…it’s like my body just wants to go higher in the morning no matter what.
Anyway, I feel too uncomfortable giving myself like 5x more insulin than i normally do just because it’s breakfast…I just know that’s going to end badly one day so I’m going to cut out carbs as much as possible moving forward. Glad to see I’m not the only one struggling with this (kinda).
Interestingly, this is not endemic to just PWD. I have seen a controlled study of bg monitored using CGM on a group of perfectly healthy individuals over several days using some ‘standard’ daily meals. They found that the ‘normal’ bg spiked to a higher value after breakfast than after lunch or dinner, even though the breakfast included the smallest amount of carbs. The investigator made a side comment that the conventional wisdom about hefty breakfast being a healthy choice may not be true at all (for anyone).
