Now Bob has all his numbers figured out, time to put it into action

Bob eats a meal and tests his blood 2 hours later

If his meter say “at or under” 142/7.9 he knows that meal is “safe” in the portion size he ate

If he counted the carbs that would tell him that meal, with X carbs is a “safe carb number for HIM”

If his result was “high” that tells him he ate “too many carbs to reach HIS goal”

If the result was “low” that tells him he could add a few more carbs (if he wishes) and test it again next time

Bob continues using this method for 2 or 3 months until he has compiled a whole list of “blood sugar safe meals”

He knows how much and in what combination he can eat them and knows what his “expected” blood sugar will be after eating them whether or not he tests

He has learned that he can handle 35 carbs a meal but does better if he sticks to about 30 (or whatever)

By then he has got pretty good at “eyeballing” a safe meal

He can use that when he is at a restaurant or a buffet or a wedding and will have a pretty good idea “if” he can eat something and what it will do to him (or he could “chow down” because he is so careful otherwise and knows a single meal will average out as long as he doesn’t do it too often)

The confirmation comes when Bob does his next A1C test

If his A1C is that 6.0% he was targeting (plus or minus 0.1%) Bob has mastered “eating his meter”, his blood sugar is controlled and he has developed “new healthy habits” around what and how much he eats

Bob is Happy 😁

Well earimg my.meter would ruon my teeth...lol.....seriously, I maybe try to eat toy meter in the extreme..like I know its not go to starve my self., but i try not to eat until.i can get my BG at or below 100,, I do thay ny running around in place and then after I eat i run inplace to try to keepy.post meal.below 140 ..this way I can still get 3 squires a day, and again then snack in the middle
Speaking of eating my meter, I then measure my blood on the snack.. which I notice if I dont want my blood to get to 130 it requires me to eat 1/2 instead of entire apple paired with almond butter. This seems to keep.my daily average below BG 107.. The point being that I can size down or temper my portion sizes according to what my reader points to..so I eat and swear and probably.die by the meter..

@A DiabetesTeam Member it really depends how often you want to "stick yourself"

I did - tested before and after a meal to see "exactly what that meal did" and over the course of a couple of months I tested the same meal a total of 3 times to be confident what it was doing to me

Looking back it probably was a little unwarranted

Unless your fasting numbers are wildly all over the place then I'm not sure how much "extra" value testing before a meal would give you - but generally if you are say staying mostly in a 20 point range (fasting) most of the time save the odd "blip", that's fairly "stable"

My own post meal maximum was set to 8.0 mmols (144 points) way back in the beginning and I have never varied that - so as long as I'm not over that I don't worry about an individual number

Initially my first goal was simply to keep "all my meals" in that range

Then as a few months passed then I started to change my strategy and start "tweaking"

So yes, sometimes I would eat and hardly move the meter - I might only see a 5.8/104 post meal which would even be a great fasting number. With that result I would consider, "was that meal satisfying?" or would it have been nice to eat a bit more "whatever that had carbs in it" as part of that meal

Then decide - again because we are talking "long game" - maybe I want to keep that meal "as is" because it means I can let a different meal, eaten in the same week, take me all the way up to my 8.0/144 or even a little over - maybe I can eat two slices of Pizza and that bumps me to 8.3/149

Ya, out of my range a little BUT because the day or two before that other meal barely moved the needle, they average each other out

So initially I ate my meter to "gain control"

Once I had control I started "zigzagging" which allowed me to eat an occasional slightly out of range "treat" meal but it was balanced off by a meal that barely brought up my sugar level

I track my average "week over week" (the app my meter talked to provided a weekly report)

So after a while I "knew" that say a half dozen meals hardly moved my numbers and a dozen were decently in mid-range and a couple things I still loved eating (pizza or hamburger helper) would "blow me up a little" and I learned how to balance them all off - 1 supper "high" 5 "mid" and 1 "low" a week kept the average fine

Got some variety, still got a "treat meal a week" and my App would tell me my weekly average was the 6.0/108 I was looking for - if it came out to say 6.2 I would be more careful "next week" and balance it off

It works for me

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A Diabete...

I use my meter a bit differently. Testing before meals. Eating less if I am over 100. More if below 90. If down in the 70 range I may splurge and have a carb on my plate like sm portion of pasta. If planning spaghetti I usually have zucchini spirals but if its 70 or so i will have whole wheat past instead.

Works for me

@A DiabetesTeam Member you know I guess I never put much thought into eat to your meter but it’s quite an eye opener. A year into this and I feel like a newbie😂 your explanation was very well written and really helps in understanding what it means. I’m definitely going to use my meter to find what I can eat more or less of. One thing I was wondering, should you test before you eat your meal and then two hours. Also there are times my 2 hr is 98 or lower then by four hours it’s 115 or somewhere in the 100’s, Do I need more or less carbs at a meal? All the numbers can be so confusing.

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A Diabete...