Glucose spike of 7mmol/l or 126 mg/dl 3-4 hours after eating normal/healthy?

Quantified Self General Health
1

Hi there,
i have started tracking my glucose levels in my quest to find out why I am so so incredibly tired after meals.
I’ve read that it’s normal for a spike to occur between 30min to 120min after a meal and also that it can be biphasic curve. What if the spike occurs much later? In my case 4 hours after my meal.

Let me tell you a little more about my day. I measured glucose levels every half an hour.

11.00 am: First meal of the day was a chocolate croissant, a sandwich (white bread) with cheese, and an apple with peanut butter (I didn’t track calories but assume is about 700-800kcal).
My glucose before that meal was 4.8 mmol/l or 86 mg/dl, having fasted for 13+ hours.

11.30 am: Glucose at 5.2 mmol/l or 94 mg/dl
12.00 am: Glucose at 6.1 mmol/l or 110 mg/dl

12.15 am: I had a small cup of coffee with 250ml of sweetened soy milk.

12.30 am: Glucose at 6.2 mmol/l or 112 mg/dl
1 pm: Glucose at 6.3 mmol/l or 114 md/dl
1.30 pm: Glucose at 6.5 mol/l or 117 mg/dl (first spike)
2 pm: Glucose at 6.3 mmol/l or 114 md/dl
2.30 pm: Glucose at 6.9 mmol/l or 124 mg/dl
3 pm: Glucose at 7.0 mmol/l or 126 mg/dl (second spike 4 afters my big meal and 3 hours after coffee)
3.15 pm: Glucose at 6.2 mmol/l or 112 mg/dl
3.45 pm: Glucose at 6.4 mmol/l or 115 mg/dl
4.15 pm: Glucose at 5.7 mmol/l or 103 mg/dl
4.45 pm: Glucose at 4.9 mmol/l or 88 mg/dl
5.15 pm Glucose at 5.0 mmol/l or 90 mg/dl
5.45 pm: Glucose at 4.7 mmol/l or 85 mg/dl

Then I stopped tracking as I was back on baseline.

What do you think about this? Have you made similar experiences?

Have a nice day.

2

Can you say something more about how you were measuring your glucose, what instrument you used?

3

Hi Agaricus,
i have a finger-prick glucometer. It’s called one Touch Select Plus.
Also I should mention that there was no physical activity involved and it was a low-stress afternoon.

Thank you!

4

I had some unexpected spikes at night during a period of glucose testing with a Freestyle Libre. These remained unexplained; it’s possible it was a measurement issue (pressure on the sensor while lying on my side?) but the slope of the rise and fall was nice and smooth during the time it occurred, and very much resembled the shape of a rise and fall after eating. I’ve always wondered about it and meant to do the test again.

5

Let me know if you repeat your monitoring and gain any insights.

6

This doesn’t seem like a huge spike, but the delay is a bit unusual… Was this a typical day for you, or do you usually eat at different hours? If it was a typical day, were you able to reproduce this on a subsequent day?

7

This was an unusual day. I ate like this because I had remembered that this exact meal has caused me massive fatigue in the past.

I’ll update this thread when get to do this test again.

So far these are my two guesses why I had a delayed spike.

  • Meal was high in fat due to the croissant and cheese. Fat makes you spike later and longer.

  • Or could be a measurement issue. Today I had fasting glucose of 7.3 mmol/l in the morning and 20min later it was at 4.8mmol/l. :grey_question: