Normal Blood Sugar Meter Levels for Diabetics

Fasting Blood Glucose and A1C Levels Should be at Nondiabetic Levels

Nov 1, 2009 John Wu

Good diabetics strive to reach for non-diabetic levels for fasting blood sugar and A1C levels. The most beneficial changes come from eating a strict low carb diet.

Blood sugar levels change throughout the day for everybody. Some daily activities significantly affect blood sugar such as eating and exercise. The timing of diabetes medications and injected insulin affects blood sugar levels as well. Some activities such as eating affect blood sugar levels for many hours. Therefore, the ideal blood sugar level changes depending on what you're doing at the time of the blood sugar meter reading.

Snacks and meals affect blood sugar levels dramatically and quickly. Depending on how severe your diabetes is, blood sugar levels sometimes remain high for many hours after a meal, especially if the meal contains a high amount of carbohydrates. If you have been active or exercising, blood sugar levels tend to be lower.

Fasting Blood Sugar Level

One of the most important blood sugar readings gets taken after waking up in the morning, called the fasting blood sugar level. Most doctors request a blood sugar level reading after 12 hours of fasting to determine how severe your diabetes is. Fasting blood sugar gets taken in the morning because most people have not eaten for eight or more hours, and it's usually the lowest and healthiest blood sugar level of the day.

Healthy and Normal Blood Sugar and A1C Range

According to Dr. Richard Bernstein's Diabetes Solution (2007) and laboratory guidelines, here are the healthy and normal blood sugar levels everyone, both diabetics and non-diabetics should shoot for:

• Ideal non-diabetic fasting blood sugar level: 83 mg/dl
• Normal fasting blood sugar level: 70-100 mg/dl
• Normal A1C levels: 4.0 to 5.9

However, even on the official American Diabetes Association's recommended diet, it can be very difficult to stay within these ranges at all times.

Low Carb Diet for Diabetics

As dietary carbohydrates enter the body, the body secretes insulin in order to utilize the glucose in the blood. For most diabetics, Dr. Bernstein states that each gram of carbohydrate raises blood sugar levels by 4 mg/dl in a type 1 diabetic weighing 175 pounds. A 275-pound type 1 diabetic has a 2 mg/dl increase per gram of carbohydrate. The amount varies for type 2 diabetics depending on weight, diabetes medications, and how damaged the pancreas' ability to secrete insulin is.

In any case, this means diabetics should try very to eliminate carbs from their diet. In a 100 carb pasta meal, blood sugar could rise 200 to 400 mg/dl, which results in considerable damage to the body in the long term. On the other hand, blood sugar control is a lot easier if the amount of carbs is limited to 20 grams, which requires a strict low carb, high protein diet.

If you measure blood sugar levels hourly after a meal, the data you get allows you to determine whether that meal is harmful to your body as a diabetic. For example, if you eat a spaghetti meal that keeps your blood sugar high for over five hours after the meal, an adjustment to future meals by eating less carbohydrates is probably a good idea. In fact, spaghetti should be avoided completely and replaced with lean meat or low carb vegetables.

In the long run, it's much easier to attain the goal of normal blood sugar levels by eating a strict low carb diet with less than 20 grams of carbs per meal. Combined with exercise and diabetes medications, it's possible to see normal blood sugar readings all the time as a type 2 diabetic. Even type 1 diabetics achieve normal blood sugar levels because their injected insulin levels will be much easier to control with a low carb diet.

Those interested in low carb diets may also be interested in reading about low carb marathoners.

The copyright of the article Normal Blood Sugar Meter Levels for Diabetics in General Medicine is owned by John Wu. Permission to republish Normal Blood Sugar Meter Levels for Diabetics in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Knowing A1C Levels and Blood Sugar Levels Help