Blood Glucose Meters a useful tool?

[AndrewD]

Hi everyone. As I suspect a lot of people who buy myprotein products I've been lurking here for some time so thought it was time to post something!
Blood Glucose meters. Anyone use one as a tool to further their training/dieting goals? Can't help but think it might be useful but was looking for feedback.

Thanks

[James]

This isn't meant to sound offensive, I'm just conscious it may... useful in what way exactly?

[MoonBoots89]

Hey Andrew, welcome to the forum.

Are you suggesting using it to get a rough idea of insulin spikes? I really don't think that it would be worth taking a blood sample for something like that...might be interesting to know your blood sugar levels but I doubt you could use it to help you achieve results. Cool idea though.

[Billv0]

I thought the blood glucose meters were good in telling how sensitive you were to insulin. This would change every few months dependant on level of exercise. Im sure HTTK and NU posted about them several months back. Theres little point in trying this if your doing a keto diet.

[NU_nutrition_TS]

Why do I use a blood glucose monitor? Well, I'm a gadget freak and a little geekily anal! Actually, as a low carber to no carber and follower of the ketogenic diet principle, it allows me to track whether my blood sugar levels are normal and stable despite the lack of dietary carbs. One of the justifications for not requiring dietary carbohydrates is that the human body is capable of synthesising its own glucose as and when required. If this was not true, then someone like me would spend most of the day in a hypoglycaemic state. However, even when doing a rolling 16-hour blood sugar analysis and eating just 2 main meals a day with next to no carb content, my blood sugar remains stable at an average of 5 mmol/L (this was also confirmed by a HbA1c test of 5%).

As far as insulin is concerned you cannot measure levels or degree of sensitivity directly with a blood glucose monitor, though you can infer something about them by doing an oral glucose tolerance test. In this test you consume a drink made up of water and a significantly large portion of dextrose (pure glucose) and measure your blood glucose responses at regular intervals for up to 2 hours. If you graph the results, the shape of the curve can tell you something about glucose tolerance and possibly insulin sensitivity. For instance, a sharp initial spike in blood glucose followed by a steady decline back to normal levels by 2 hours or so shows normal glucose tolerance and probably insulin sensitivity too. If the initial spike is less sharp and delayed and takes longer to return to normal, this may show insufficient insulin secretion or increased insulin resistance. On the other hand, a glucose response that drops to hypoglycaemic levels (way below normal) at or before the 2 hour mark may indicate too much insulin being secreted or a higher level of sensitivity to it. But these are not the only interpretations and to really know what is going on with insulin you need to have these levels measured clinically.

Is this a useful training tool? I don't see how. It is more a dietary/health tool.

[Wotan]

I use one too. But for all the same reasons as Nu.

[stronglikewood]

Is there any particular model or kit you two would recommend, Wotan and NU?

[Wotan]

To be honest all I did was walk into Boots and got the cheapest one going. It cost £12 I think and came with everything you need.

You don't need to do it everyday, just a few times in any one day every so often so as to get an idea of your general response (eg upon waking, before dinner, and then every half hour after dinner for a couple of hours say).

If the number on the screen is consistly higher than 7 (seven) go and see a doctor as soon as possible and say why. Ideally it will never go above 6 (six), mine doesn't but I suppose if you ate a couple of Mars bars followed by a full-fat coke there might be a bit of a spike. This should flatten out fairly rapidly though and certainly not stay elevated for any length of time.

[stronglikewood]

Great, thanks. I find the notion of what is going on in my body interesting so shall look into the boots kit.

[NU_nutrition_TS]

Pretty much as Wotan has already said, I use mine periodically - maybe a morning fasting reading every so often or a postprandial reading and, rather more infrequently, a rolling series of checks after a meal and up to 2-3 hours postprandially.

Most high street chemists will sell a basic monitor complete with finger pricker, lancets and test strips to start you off (usually for a tenner or less). The most expensive components are the test strips, so it might be worth checking - if there is a selection of brands/models on offer - how much the replacement test strips cost per pack for each particular model and how easily available they are. It's also worth checking on the 'net, as you can often get them cheaper than at a high street chemist.