CGM reading at 2.9 after exercise - what to do?

[cornerdesigner]

I would be so grateful if you could give me some advice as to what you would typically do in this situation please :-)

I was diagnosed with type two diabetes two months ago, aged 48 with a reading of 49mmol. I was referred to a nurse educator ( I don't live in the UK ) we had a chat for an hour about things a few days ago and she gave me a Freestyle Libra CGM to use for 2 weeks. She said to aim to be in the range of 4-10, which I have been. I try to eat keto, but for the last 2 nights accidentally ate carbs (bean pasta one night and quinoa and beetroot last night). I saw my readings were going up to near 10, so I did some squats and that brought it back down again.

Today, I had smooth readings from 5-7, eat keto for breakfast and lunch. I went to bootcamp at 6pm on an empty stomach, walked for half an hour to dinner, had a reading of 5.4, had steak and salad for dinner, walked home for half an hour and when I got home my reading went down to 2.9, so I started to panic that I was hypo, but I didn't feel any different. Googled what to do, had some fruit squash, protein and some carbs.

Was my error this evening one of these or something else?

a) not eating before exercise?
b) exercising too much 45mins - 30mins walk - dinner - 30mins walk?
c) not having carbs with dinner after exercise?

What would you do if you accidentally went down to 2.9 to bring it back up again? I am seeing the nurse again in a few weeks, I just don't feel I was educated enough about what to do if the readings are alarming!

It’ll be a combination of A, B and C. If you’re type 2, 2.9mmol isn’t a huge concern.

Thanks for your reassurance, I think I need to eat complex carbs for dinner is my conclusion!

Firstly you can’t trust low or high readings from a libre you need to fingerprick as it can falsely read low

secondly you don’t need to do anything about low readings unless your on medications with danger of hypos eg insulin or gliclazide. Your body will just sort it out itself.

if you felt fine you likely weren’t low and it was just a false reading from the sensor

This is fine

low is good really, what you want to avoid is high. Your body will just release its own sugar stores and sort this out

(the exception being if you are on glucose lowering meds like insulin, that would be when you need to worry about hypos as these meds override your body’s ability to fix it)

No don’t do this, your blood sugar is supposed to drop overnight. Not having blood sugar drop low enough for long enough periods of time is potentially what contributes to type II diabetes in the first place!

2.9 isnt really worrying as your not type one.
Itll be a combination of all 3 though.

ok, thanks all for you reassurance, I'll carry on as I am being keto and seeing what results I get from that. its just concerning that I am getting 1-2 dips a day and usually at 8-9pm or after exercise. If I just eat keto and don't exercise its all very stable, which I am pleased about.

What’s concerning about it? Is there something specific you’re worried about happening?

thanks for your replies again :-) The concerning bit was the first time that I got a dip down to 2.9 and I didn't know if I was supposed to do something to combat it as the nurse who issued it to be said, "well you wont go hypo so don't worry about that". I was supposed to give someone a 60mins rtn lift somewhere and I made them take an uber as I was freaked out as to what might happen to me, even though I felt fine. When you google it, AI overview says its a medical emergency, when its clearly not.

lessons learnt

1. the CGM likes me eating keto
2. I spike after exercise
3. It didn't like that I had a blueberry and pea protein smoothie first thing (as recommended by my naturopath!
4. eating carbs sent me crashing a few hours later

It won’t kill you like it would kill a type one diabetic. Its only if you take insulin really that its really dangerous.
But lows can make you feel shitty, could have 4-6g of fast acting carbs to bring yourself up, but another thing with CGMs are they arent always accurate. Its important you have a glucometer to test alongside a cgm when dealing with lows & highs. If your not feeling low (light headed, out of it etc etc) then I would think its not really a true low.

spikes after rigious excerise is normal, myself & my child are type ones. If we do something like running we spike, if we do something gentle like swimming or walking we go low. Its weird. 😂

You can’t trust AI for medical advice! You don’t take medication that requires you to test before driving or to be at a certain number and you aren’t checking the CGMs accuracy with fingerpricks anyway. Your body deals with your blood sugar going up and down itself, you don’t need to intervene.