My First Blood Glucose Meter Test Results
TX_Bluebonnet
Posts: 244 Member
This morning I tested my blood glucose for the first time. I tested after about 10 hrs fasted, and then 1 and 2 hours after started eating breakfast. My corresponding results were 73, 68, 71.
My breakfast was a muffin in a minute with 1 tbsp kerrygold butter. The MIM recipe included 1 tsp of Pyure, which is a mix of erythritol and stevia leaf extract.
Based on the above results, can I conclude that those two AS's don't have an impact on my insulin levels?
My breakfast was a muffin in a minute with 1 tbsp kerrygold butter. The MIM recipe included 1 tsp of Pyure, which is a mix of erythritol and stevia leaf extract.
Based on the above results, can I conclude that those two AS's don't have an impact on my insulin levels?
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Replies
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Unfortunately you can't really tell if it's affecting insulin by blood glucose.
If it did trigger an insulin response, your blood sugar would be lowered... but, glucagon would be secreted to raise it to prevent it becoming too low. All of this would happen without being able to "see" on the meter. It's automatic in keeping bg normal.3 -
TXbluebonnet2017 wrote: »This morning I tested my blood glucose for the first time. I tested after about 10 hrs fasted, and then 1 and 2 hours after started eating breakfast. My corresponding results were 73, 68, 71.
My breakfast was a muffin in a minute with 1 tbsp kerrygold butter. The MIM recipe included 1 tsp of Pyure, which is a mix of erythritol and stevia leaf extract.
Based on the above results, can I conclude that those two AS's don't have an impact on my insulin levels?
What was in the muffin?
If you're concerned, the best way to get a handle on your insulin is an OGTT with insulin assay, as described by Dr. Joseph Kraft in Diabetes Epidemic and You.
@cstehansen0 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »Unfortunately you can't really tell if it's affecting insulin by blood glucose.
If it did trigger an insulin response, your blood sugar would be lowered... but, glucagon would be secreted to raise it to prevent it becoming too low. All of this would happen without being able to "see" on the meter. It's automatic in keeping bg normal.
Oh, okay, thanks for the explanation. I thought that if the numbers spiked then it meant it had an effect, so when it looked basically stable I thought (hoped) it indicated a good result.0 -
TXbluebonnet2017 wrote: »This morning I tested my blood glucose for the first time. I tested after about 10 hrs fasted, and then 1 and 2 hours after started eating breakfast. My corresponding results were 73, 68, 71.
My breakfast was a muffin in a minute with 1 tbsp kerrygold butter. The MIM recipe included 1 tsp of Pyure, which is a mix of erythritol and stevia leaf extract.
Based on the above results, can I conclude that those two AS's don't have an impact on my insulin levels?
What was in the muffin?
If you're concerned, the best way to get a handle on your insulin is an OGTT with insulin assay, as described by Dr. Joseph Kraft in Diabetes Epidemic and You.
@cstehansen
I'm not really concerned (unless I should be?), but I'll do some research on the OGTT with insulin assay. I was curious to test out if any particular artificial sweeteners had a negative effect on me. I thought the way to do that was by using a blood meter.
MM ingredients:
1/4 C - Flax Meal
1/2 tsp - Baking Powder
1 tsp - Pyure AS
1 tsp - Cinnamon
1 tsp - Coconut Oil
1 - Egg
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Glucometer readings will show you the effect on blood glucose, but not necessarily on insulin. Looking at those ingredients, I wouldn't expect much of a response from either unless you ate a huge quantity.
Also, given those readings, you probably don't have any need for concern. It looks like you began this WOE before developing any metabolic problems.
There many here (including me) who would love to have those readings or even within 20 points of them. Heck, there are several who would be happy getting within 30 points of those.2 -
I would gleefully buy your numbers, though even a T2D shouldn't see much of a spike from that particular meal.
Erythritol is generally the least mischievous sugar alcohol, and the stevia/erythritol blend is the most benign liquid sweetener. I don't count it at all in my carb tally, though everything else gets logged at 50%. Xylitol seems to be a YMMV animal regarding its insulinogenic and laxative
potentials.
If anything, your BG is a little lower than average for non-diabetics, but that's a common artifact of LCHF. I don't think you've got anything to worry about, but do try testing after a high-protein or moderate-carb meal.0 -
Thank you both for the information. I'm not so sure I want my numbers this low. I went for a 7 run/walk yesterday, and a few hours after getting back I starting getting really sleepy, so I checked my glucose and found it had dropped to 52. I ate some carbs and after 15 mins it read 61. 45 mins later it was 63 so I had some more carbs and got it back up into the 70s. I was trying to become fat adapted, but doesn't seem like a good idea to let my BG drop so low.
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You might find Phinney and Volek's Art & Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance enlightening. They report endurance athletes in ketosis running asymptomatic BGs in the 40s. (The key being asymptomatic.)
Many things that seem "funny" when you're burning glucose do not necessarily carry over to life on ketones.0 -
That sounds interesting. I'll hazard a guess, though, that those low carb athletes weren't feeling sleepy after their performances. I just checked Amazon ... it's free with my kindle unlimited plan. Yay!2
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TXbluebonnet2017 wrote: »That sounds interesting. I'll hazard a guess, though, that those low carb athletes weren't feeling sleepy after their performances. I just checked Amazon ... it's free with my kindle unlimited plan. Yay!
Could've been a need for sodium. Truly low blood sugar feels like panic. You feel almost nervous... shaky... kinda scared even.1 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »TXbluebonnet2017 wrote: »That sounds interesting. I'll hazard a guess, though, that those low carb athletes weren't feeling sleepy after their performances. I just checked Amazon ... it's free with my kindle unlimited plan. Yay!
Could've been a need for sodium. Truly low blood sugar feels like panic. You feel almost nervous... shaky... kinda scared even.
Good point.
I've pulled out my glucose meter on occasion when friends/family members have complained that their blood sugar was low. It never has been (almost always in the 80s). In one instance, low BP may have come into play; low sodium intake could certainly have been a factor in the other cases.1 -
TXbluebonnet2017 wrote: »That sounds interesting. I'll hazard a guess, though, that those low carb athletes weren't feeling sleepy after their performances. I just checked Amazon ... it's free with my kindle unlimited plan. Yay!
As long as it's free, there's also their Art & Science of Low Carbohydrate Living. Their YouTube lectures are great, too.0 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »TXbluebonnet2017 wrote: »That sounds interesting. I'll hazard a guess, though, that those low carb athletes weren't feeling sleepy after their performances. I just checked Amazon ... it's free with my kindle unlimited plan. Yay!
Could've been a need for sodium. Truly low blood sugar feels like panic. You feel almost nervous... shaky... kinda scared even.
Good point.
I've pulled out my glucose meter on occasion when friends/family members have complained that their blood sugar was low. It never has been (almost always in the 80s). In one instance, low BP may have come into play; low sodium intake could certainly have been a factor in the other cases.
That was my experience too. I had symptoms of hypoglycemia when my BG fell quickly. It still could have been an 80 but I was shaking, sweating, and not the sharpest at the time.
When I was ketogenic, my BG would occassionally fall below normal but I never had symptoms. It wasn't much below normal but just enough to make me notice and think "huh". I knew I was fat adapted when that started happening.
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I don't think it was a sodium issue because I had two bouillon cubes just before my 7 mile run/walk, and also had a SaltStick about every 30-40 mins for the duration. And then had a salty (ham, cheese, dill pickles) snack when I got back. I'm a salty sweater so figure I need lots of salt. Maybe I need to go even higher?
Now, the BG meter actually read 52, which to me means it did indeed drop, not like I'm imagining it? When I say I got sleepy, I mean the type of sleepy where when you're driving you almost (or do) doze off despite your best efforts to stay awake. From what I read getting tired is a symptom of both low sodium and low BG, so guess it could be one, the other, or both.
@RalfLott - Thanks for the resource suggestions. I've started to compile a wish list of stuff to read and watch on youTube.
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TXbluebonnet2017 wrote: »I don't think it was a sodium issue because I had two bouillon cubes just before my 7 mile run/walk, and also had a SaltStick about every 30-40 mins for the duration. And then had a salty (ham, cheese, dill pickles) snack when I got back. I'm a salty sweater so figure I need lots of salt. Maybe I need to go even higher?
Now, the BG meter actually read 52, which to me means it did indeed drop, not like I'm imagining it? When I say I got sleepy, I mean the type of sleepy where when you're driving you almost (or do) doze off despite your best efforts to stay awake. From what I read getting tired is a symptom of both low sodium and low BG, so guess it could be one, the other, or both.
@RalfLott - Thanks for the resource suggestions. I've started to compile a wish list of stuff to read and watch on youTube.
Meters only have to be within 15-20% accurate, and I am not always sure some are that accurate. I say this because I had 2 Freestyle meters I was using for several months (one at home and one at work) where I would get readings consistently in the 80's and 90's and sometimes in the 70's. Imagine my shock when when I had an A1c of 6.0.
I went and got a couple of ReliOn meters and did some calibrating and found the ReliOn readings seemed to match my A1c results pretty closely which meant they were anywhere from 15 to 30 points higher than the Freestyle meters every time. After about 10 days of checking using both, I switched over to the ReliOn since they were more in line with my A1c results. To see this, I logged all my readings (and I took a ton of them) and used the average for each monitor and got an online calculator to have a predicted A1c. ReliOn came back at 5.9 and the Freestyle came back at 4.8. Having multiple A1c tests over the last 2 years that have all been either in the diabetic or pre-diabetic range, there was no way I could trust either of the Freestyle meters for accuracy.
If your meter is off as much as mine were, that 52 very well may be a 70 which would be a healthy result. Depending on the lab, normal is as low as 60, so given acceptable margin of error, 52 could be 60 or more pretty easily.0 -
cstehansen wrote: »TXbluebonnet2017 wrote: »I don't think it was a sodium issue because I had two bouillon cubes just before my 7 mile run/walk, and also had a SaltStick about every 30-40 mins for the duration. And then had a salty (ham, cheese, dill pickles) snack when I got back. I'm a salty sweater so figure I need lots of salt. Maybe I need to go even higher?
Now, the BG meter actually read 52, which to me means it did indeed drop, not like I'm imagining it? When I say I got sleepy, I mean the type of sleepy where when you're driving you almost (or do) doze off despite your best efforts to stay awake. From what I read getting tired is a symptom of both low sodium and low BG, so guess it could be one, the other, or both.
@RalfLott - Thanks for the resource suggestions. I've started to compile a wish list of stuff to read and watch on youTube.
Meters only have to be within 15-20% accurate, and I am not always sure some are that accurate. I say this because I had 2 Freestyle meters I was using for several months (one at home and one at work) where I would get readings consistently in the 80's and 90's and sometimes in the 70's. Imagine my shock when when I had an A1c of 6.0.
I went and got a couple of ReliOn meters and did some calibrating and found the ReliOn readings seemed to match my A1c results pretty closely which meant they were anywhere from 15 to 30 points higher than the Freestyle meters every time. After about 10 days of checking using both, I switched over to the ReliOn since they were more in line with my A1c results. To see this, I logged all my readings (and I took a ton of them) and used the average for each monitor and got an online calculator to have a predicted A1c. ReliOn came back at 5.9 and the Freestyle came back at 4.8. Having multiple A1c tests over the last 2 years that have all been either in the diabetic or pre-diabetic range, there was no way I could trust either of the Freestyle meters for accuracy.
If your meter is off as much as mine were, that 52 very well may be a 70 which would be a healthy result. Depending on the lab, normal is as low as 60, so given acceptable margin of error, 52 could be 60 or more pretty easily.
The only A1c test that I have to compare it to was done nearly 2 years ago (6/15). That test result was 5.8, just inside per-diabetic territory.
My meter is a Bayer Contour NEXT EZ Meter. I used the test solution and it tested at 124, with the acceptable range being 109-135. But I understand what you're saying.
I have an appt with my rheumatologist in a couple of weeks. I'll be getting some lab work done so I'll see if they can add on an A1c for me.0
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