Req: tracking entries for diabetics?

Good information both of you.  Last questions, what is a range of values that we will be putting in the log?  (necessary decimal points), and is this called 'blood glucose'?  What units is it measured in (mmol)?

As far as graphing, aside from the straight values themselves, would an overlay of measured blood glucose and calories consumed in a 24 hour period be a good graph to correlate?  Since you would be logging the time at each blood test during a day and you could also be logging the all the foods you eat and when during the day, this could be a nice graph.

Hi, just noticed this thread, and thought I'd chime in.  I'm a type 2 diabetic, and I currently log my glucose in my workout notes.  But it would definitely be handy to have a more formal way to do it.

Generally, T2 diabetics are told (I think) to test at least once a day, usually first thing in the morning, before eating.  This is called the "fasting" blood glucose level.  Other common times to test are right before a meal ("pre-prandial" ), 1-2 hours after a meal ("post-prandial" ), or randomly (at any time).  Some test before bedtime to ensure their glucose is high enough that it won't go low during the night.  One doc told me I only needed to check my fasting level, but another said it's better to test once a day but vary the time day-to-day, to get a more complete picture. 

Since they are dependent on injected insulin, T1 diabetics have to test more frequently than T2 diabetics, though I'm not sure exactly how frequently... probably 4+ times a day?  I'll post a message in another thread where some T1 diabetics hang out, and get them to chime in over here.

Now, as I understand it, the above is merely the testing diabetics should do under ordinary circumstances.  Diabetics who start athletic pursuits are a different matter -- they are probably testing much more frequently (at least at first), to see how their body reacts to different circumstances.  I tend to test right before starting a workout, during the workout (if more than 45 minutes), and then immediately after the workout.  I'm tempted, though, to add some more tests 1 to 2 hours after my workouts, to see what residual effect the exercise is having.  And I'm sure there are other strategies that people use.  (In a race, diabetics might test their glucose during T1 and T2 to see if they need to eat something or inject insulin, etc.)

Speaking just for myself, what I'd love to see for logging glucose readings would be this:  for any workout, have a pre glucose field and a post glucose field, and keep them separated by sport.  Additionally, allow time-based glucose entries independent of workouts.  I haven't used the nutrition logging feature yet, but I'm thinking this is maybe how you enter foods that you've eaten?

Countries that use the metric system measure glucose as mmol/L.  The rest (mostly just the U.S. I think) use mg/dL.  It is easy to convert between the two.  To go from mmol/L to mg/dL, just multiply by 18.  Or to go the other way, divide by 18.

Normal values (mg/dL) range from about 70 to 140, though there is considerable debate about what this magical range should be.  Below-normal readings are called hypoglycemic, and above-normal are called hyperglycemic.  For diabetics, the values can range from really low (40s?) up to really high (600+).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sugar