The blood sugar levels change depending on the time of day. The amount of glucose will also change and it depends on how much exercise a person does or how much they eat. Sugar is measured in mg/dL. But how do you know if your blood sugars have a normal level?
When to Check the Blood Sugar Levels and What Are Their Normal Limits?
If you don’t eat for 8 hours (that is a normal fasting) you should have a blood sugar level between 70 and 99 mg/dL.
You should have a normal blood sugar level after 2 hours from your last meal, and this should be less than 140 mg/dL.
You might have diabetes if you have one of the following results:
- You took two consecutive blood glucose tests after fasting and they show you 126 mg/dL or more.
- You took a random blood glucose test and it’s greater than 200 mg/dL.
- You took a blood test of your average blood sugars for the last 3 months (which is called A1c) and it shows 6.5% or more.
- The oral glucose tolerance test that takes two hours shows a value over 200 mg/dL.
Symptoms Associated with Diabetes
You will also experience several symptoms like fatigue, thirst, excessive urination, or even weight loss. But usually, a lot of people don’t have these symptoms and they don’t know that they have high levels of glucose in their blood. This makes the diabetes diagnosis a surprise.
Do I have pre-diabetes?
If your doctor said that you have pre-diabetes, then you should know that you might develop diabetes but you can prevent or delay it. you should increase physical activity maintain or lose some weight and have a healthy diet. prediabetes is also known as impaired fasting glucose (IFG).
You will get diagnosed with prediabetes after the following results:
- A fasting blood glucose test shows 100-125 mg/dL.
- The A1c is between 5.7% and 6.4%.
- A 2-hours 75g oral glucose tolerance test measures between 140 mg/dL and 199 mg/dL.
