# 2 hour post-meal BS readings



## Carina1962 (Aug 7, 2010)

I'm very please at the moment with my 2 hour post-meal readings for evening meals, they vary from 7.2 to 7.8 - is this good?  i read somewhere that non-diabetics have readings of 8 or below, 2 hour post-meal, is this correct?  i tested my partner once after he'd had a high carb meal (ie chips) and his 2HPM was in the 5's.  I haven't managed to get them in the 5's (pre-meal, yes) but considering i used to get 8's or higher i'm assuming that i'm doing OK


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## AlisonM (Aug 7, 2010)

I'd say those are really good results, well done you.


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## richardq (Aug 7, 2010)

I would be very pleased with post-meal results like that.

R


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## Steff (Aug 7, 2010)

I'd be over the moon with results like that well done Carine very good work x


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## Carina1962 (Aug 7, 2010)

thanks everyone, it's nice to know other people's opinions are cos sometimes it's so confusing as to what you should aim for.  I've also started calorie counting again and doing more excercise so i'm sure that is helping a lot.  By testing i've really come to know what certain foods can do to BS levels.


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## williammcd (Aug 8, 2010)

wish i could get as low as that after a meal lol well done


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## wallycorker (Aug 8, 2010)

carina62 said:


> I'm very please at the moment with my 2 hour post-meal readings for evening meals, they vary from 7.2 to 7.8 - is this good?  i read somewhere that non-diabetics have readings of 8 or below, 2 hour post-meal, is this correct?  i tested my partner once after he'd had a high carb meal (ie chips) and his 2HPM was in the 5's.  I haven't managed to get them in the 5's (pre-meal, yes) but considering i used to get 8's or higher i'm assuming that i'm doing OK


Hi again Carina,

I rarely test at two hours after finishing eating but did so yesterday after eating from a buffet meal at a cricket match. The result was a what you might think to be a very respectable 4.7 mmol/l. However, was that really such a great result?

The reason that I had tested two hours after finishing eating is that I had tested one hour after finishing eating and found a very unsatisfactory 10.1 mmol/l - i.e. the highest result that I had recorded for several months.

What had done the damage? What had I been eating? The answer is bread - I'd been eating sandwiches? Not much or many of them but quite simply a few bread sandwiches! I really did ought to have known better!

Based on my personal experiences as a non-insulin Type 2, I have absolutely no idea why the authorities see very much relevance in the two hour reading. My two hour readings are always just fine but I could have been at totally unacceptable levels in the time leading up to that after having eaten.

As I have been telling you for quite some time now, you really are doing OK. However,  I do think that you have the possibility to do very much better if you were to eat less starchy carbohydrate. It all depends on you and what you yourself want to do and where you want to get to.

Good luck and best wishes - John


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## Carina1962 (Aug 8, 2010)

john that is very interesting about your reading and the difference between 1 and 2 hours.  I have to limit my test strips as i'm not allowed many so why are we told to test 2 hourly when it sounds like we should be looking at the hourly reading? i think i will mention this to my DN next time i see her.


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## wallycorker (Aug 8, 2010)

carina62 said:


> ............I have to limit my test strips as i'm not allowed many so why are we told to test 2 hourly when it sounds like we should be looking at the hourly reading?...........


Carina,

I don't do that much testing these days because I really don't need to. Why? Because I've learnt which foods do the damage to my blood glucose levels - i.e. cereals, bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, pizza etc. 

My GP prescribes me fifty strips per month which is quite adequate for my needs. I very rarely ever test two hours after finishing eating because I know that my level will be back to 4 or 5 after that time. 

I test most often at one hour after finishing eating because I think that is the most important time - i.e. the time that my blood glucose level is likely to be at its highest. That is the level that I am trying to keep down and aiming to keep that level below 7 mmol/l - which I manage to do most of the time.

John


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## Cliff (Aug 9, 2010)

I think there might be two schools of thought here, both of which I'm sure are valid.  1.  You're testing at 2 hours to see if your BG level is getting back down to it's pre-meal level; 2. you're testing at 1 hour to see how high you spike.

Personally, I always test at 2 hours but now I have a fairly good idea of what my 2 hour level will be (I can make a good guesstimate based on what I've eaten), I'm considering moving to 1 hour to specifically target spikes.  It's worth remembering though that even non-diabetics show BG spikes, although I don't know what a typical non-D spike would be.  Anyone help out with this last point?


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## Carina1962 (Aug 9, 2010)

thanks for that Cliff but i have very limited test strips so although i try and vary the times, i always test 2HPM because i was told to.  I still am a little confused as to 'spikes' and what to look out for - what is a good spike and what is a bad spike?


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## Cliff (Aug 9, 2010)

Carina - A spike is simply the rise and fall in your BG level after a meal.  Imagine you're running along at 5, you eat something and your level goes up to 8 max and then you gradually fall back to where you were - the level of 8 is the level you've peaked at and it's called a spike because that's what it looks like when you plot BG level over time on a graph.  The problem is that you don't always know exactly when the spike will be - it varies with individuals and different foods but it might be somewhere between 1 and 1.5 hours.  I don't know too much about 1 hour levels because, like you, I've always tested at 2 hours.  I'm sure wallycorker will be along at some stage to explain the whole 1 hour thing better than I can.

As I said earlier, I don't know much about how high non-D people can spike.  My focus up to now has been to get my 2 hour reading to be about the same as where I started - in the high 4s or 5s.  I'm not always successful, often I'm not, but I'm getting there.  2 hour readings in the 6s are common enough for me, rarely in the 7s.  I never hit the 8s, except by accident when I eat something that has hidden sugars (do not trust Chinese restaurant beansprouts).


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## shiv (Aug 9, 2010)

Cliff said:


> As I said earlier, I don't know much about how high non-D people can spike.



My team tell me a non-d person can spike up to 11, 12, maybe more depending on what they've eaten. I have seen a couple of studies (I'm afraid I don't have anything to link to, this is just from memory) which show that actually a person without d doesn't often go much over 9 or 10.


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## wallycorker (Aug 9, 2010)

shiv said:


> My team tell me a non-d person can spike up to 11, 12, maybe more depending on what they've eaten. I have seen a couple of studies (I'm afraid I don't have anything to link to, this is just from memory) which show that actually a person without d doesn't often go much over 9 or 10.


Hi shiv,

I don't know whether what you say is right or wrong but based on my personal experiences I'm surprised by what you have been told. Based on those numbers it sounds as though I'd be considered not to be diabetic.

I don't very often go above 7 but I'm certainly diabetic.

Best wishes - John


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## wallycorker (Aug 9, 2010)

Cliff said:


> ........I'm sure wallycorker will be along at some stage to explain the whole 1 hour thing better than I can..........


Hi Cliff,

I can't explain it any better than you have done there. 

John


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## Carina1962 (Aug 9, 2010)

All very interesting - i am due to see my DN soon so will definately speak to her about all this and will report back in due course


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## shiv (Aug 9, 2010)

wallycorker said:


> Hi shiv,
> 
> I don't know whether what you say is right or wrong but based on my personal experiences I'm surprised by what you have been told. Based on those numbers it sounds as though I'd be considered not to be diabetic.
> 
> ...



I don't know if it's right or wrong either - just what I've seen and heard. I think it's part of my team's way of telling me to chill out if I see a high-ish reading 2 hours post.


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## Jill (Aug 9, 2010)

I was told that Type 2 targets should be:
Before meals - 4-7
Two hours after: less than 8.5


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## wallycorker (Aug 9, 2010)

Jill said:


> I was told that Type 2 targets should be:
> Before meals - 4-7
> Two hours after: less than 8.5


Hi Jill,

I agree that those are the often quoted levels. However, these days, I'd be very unhappy if I ever found myself as high as 8.5 two hours after finishing eating. 

In fact I can't ever remember being as high as that at that time since I began testing. However, I must have been I suppose before I started testing when my HbA1c was as high as 9.4%.

4-7 at anytime is my target these days.

Best wishes - John


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## litto-miss-loz (Aug 9, 2010)

this annoys me, cause if im under 10 two hours after a meal then il end up hypo and if im high two hours after a meal then il b down at under 10 like 4 hours later.

does this mean my insulin ratios are wrong???

help lol xx


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## Jill (Aug 9, 2010)

wallycorker said:


> Hi Jill,
> 
> I agree that those are the often quoted levels. However, these days, I'd be very unhappy if I ever found myself as high as 8.5 two hours after finishing eating.
> 
> ...



Thank you John.  I suspect you're right and I must try harder - bread is my downfall.  So much conflicting information - it's very confusing.  Jill


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## Becca (Aug 10, 2010)

litto-miss-loz said:


> this annoys me, cause if im under 10 two hours after a meal then il end up hypo and if im high two hours after a meal then il b down at under 10 like 4 hours later.
> 
> does this mean my insulin ratios are wrong???
> 
> help lol xx



Hey, it's hard isn't it, i know it's different for adults to children but i remember when Rose was on MDI, she would start off a respectable number, then 2 hours post breakfast spike she would be up to the mid 20s, have a snack not injected for, then be back to the respectable number 4 hours on.  We had to give the snack not bolused for as she would hypo within the 4 hours.  She would def have hypoed if not in the 20s post 2 hours....makes me sad thinking about those times and what damage we were doing...DSNs advice, after i asked for help was just "well, don't test and then you won't know the levels?!?!"  

We tried swapping the levemir around, split for 2 doses a day and gave novorapid 10/15mins earlier to try and stop the spike...

Is it the same spike every day at the same time?  Is it for a certain type of food?


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