Blood Sugar (Glucose)

The targets recommended by the American Diabetes Association® are listed below. Work with your physician or certified diabetes educator to set your personal targets.

Many people use their meter to check their blood sugar several times a day. Talk with your physician or certified diabetes educator about when and how often to check your blood glucose.

While each person’s blood sugar testing schedule is slightly different, many people test at common points during the day. As always, consult your health care team about your schedule and directions for testing. Here are some examples of when people commonly test:

1. Fasting blood sugar testing: This test is done in the morning upon waking, before eating or drinking anything, before exercising, and before taking oral antihyperglycemic medications or insulin.

2. Pre-meal testing: Some people test their glucose just before eating, especially if they use short-acting insulin or pre-meal medication to control glucose. Work with your health care team to determine how to interpret and use these numbers.

3. Postprandial, or after-meal, testing: This is commonly done one to two hours after a meal. This gives your physician/health care team a good idea of how well your medications are working to control blood glucose.

4. Bedtime testing: Work with your health care team to determine the best time for this test.

Keep a log on paper or use the personal blood glucose tracker on this site. Reviewing your records can show you patterns and indicate times of day when you should fine-tune your diabetes control plan.

What can make blood glucose rise?

• A meal or snack with more food or carbohydrates than usual

• Inactivity

• Not enough diabetes medication

• Side effects of other medications

• Infection or other illness such as a cold or the flu

• Changes in hormone levels, such as during menstrual periods

• Stress

What can make blood glucose fall?

• A meal or snack with less food or fewer carbohydrates than usual

• Drinking alcoholic beverages

• Missing a meal or snack

• Extra activity

• Too much diabetes medication

• Side effects of other medications