What are Normal Blood Sugar Levels?

Diabetes Testing Numbers

Diabetes testing numbers are very important for those people with diabetes. In today’s world, more and more people are becoming diabetic largely due to the amount of sugar in the average American diet. Diabetes is a disease where the body’s organ known as the pancreas manufactures too little of a chemical known as insulin.

Insulin is used by the body to convert the glucose (sugar) in the blood into fuel that the body can use. When the insulin levels are low the sugar levels are high and this can cause a lot of damage to the body as at too high a level, sugar can become a poison killing the body slowly.

The damage associated with high blood sugar includes heart damage and the risk of getting heart disease, eye damage/blindness, nerve damage, and kidney damage. These factors make diabetes a deadly and very serious disease. So, what should an average person’s diabetes testing numbers be compared to that of a diabetic?

What are Normal blood sugar levels for non-diabetics?

For most people who are non-diabetic healthy individuals, their blood glucose levels would vary during the day, depending on whether it is premeal, or two hours after eating. Generally, premeal levels would be the lowest. For some, 60 mg/dL is normal, for others, 90 mg/dL is also normal.

Most people that don’t have diabetes would sit around :

Fasting – 72 – 99mg/dL (4.0 to 5.4 mmol/L)

2 hours after eating – Up to 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L)

What is a Good Blood Sugar Level for Diabetes Type 2?

Good blood sugar levels for the average person with diabetes should be between 60.8 mg/dl and 120.4 mg/dl ( 3.4 to 6.7mmol/L) depending on the time of day and amount in the last meal.

However, with diabetes type 2, your glucose levels can be anywhere from 120.8 to 200 mg/dl (6.7 to 11.1mmol/L)

At these levels, the body suffers damage. In order to keep the body from reaching these extremes, it must be monitored with a blood glucose meter. There are many different versions around nowadays, some are watches, and some require no needle finger pricks.

Check HERE for the top 5 companies developing non-invasive glucose monitors in 2022.

What are random blood sugar levels?

A random blood glucose test is where a small amount of blood is taken and added to a blood testing strip and tested at any given time of the day. This type of random blood testing is really quite essential for a diabetic, as it can indicate how well they are managing the disease.

Non-diabetic random blood levels – would be below 200 mg/dL (11.1mmol/L)

Diabetes random blood levels – would be above 200 mg/dL (11.1mmol/L)

What are Blood sugar levels 2 hours postprandial?

To start with, postprandial means after lunch or dinner. So the “PPG concentrations” are referring to the Plasma glucose concentrations after eating.

Non-diabetic 2 hours after eating – should be below 140mg/dL (7.8mmol/L)

Diabetic 2 hours after eating – should be below 180 mg/dl (10.mmol/L)

What are Fasting blood sugar levels

A fasting blood sugar level is taken after you have fasted (not eaten) overnight. It is important that you have had nothing to eat or drink, apart from water, for approximately 8 hours. This particular test will help your doctor, or health care professional to determine whether you have diabetes or not.

Normal Result – Fasting Blood glucose test – less than 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L)

Prediabetes Result – Fasting blood glucose – 100 to 125 mg/dL (5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L)

Diabetes Result – Fasting blood sugar test – 126 mg/dL (7 mmol/L) or higher on two separate tests.

Normal blood sugar levels During pregnancy

If you have diabetes and you are pregnant, you need to be very strict with checking your blood sugar levels. Your doctor or obstetrician will ask you to monitor prior to meals, 1 or 2 hours after meals, and then also additional times such as prior to going to bed and even overnight.

You will need to keep good records of these results to give your team a better understanding of your sugar levels, so you can adjust your insulin levels accordingly.

Recommended level target during pregnancy – Fasting 4.0–5.5 mmol/L

Recommended level target during pregnancy – 2 hours after meal 5.5–7.0 mmol/L

So How Can we all Lower our Blood glucose Level Naturally?

Ensure you always monitor your blood sugar levels
Drink plenty of water and stay well hydrated
Try and control your stress levels – perhaps do some meditation or yoga.
Make healthy food choices – control your carb intake and choose low-GI foods.
Cut down on your meal portions
Increase your fiber intake
Very importantly, regular exercise. This will assist with weight loss as well as increase your insulin sensitivity.

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More on Normal Random Blood Sugar Levels HERE!

What is a Normal Blood Sugar Level?

The amount of sugar (glucose, measured in mg/dL) in the blood fluctuates throughout the day. Blood sugar levels usually depend upon what, how much and when you’ve eaten. Your levels can also change depending on your exercise regimen.

Depending on your treatment plan, your diabetes educator or doctor may recommend checking your blood glucose levels once a week or even up to 10 times a day. Rather than classifying blood sugar levels as being ‘normal’ or abnormal, you can think of them as being “at goal”, “in target” or “in range”.

Although the ADA (American Diabetes Association) provides clear guidelines for blood sugar goals for people living with diabetes, the goals usually vary depending on the time you’re checking your blood glucose.

Normal Blood Sugar:

Fasting normal blood sugar (before eating the first meal)

Normal fasting blood sugar level (no food for 8 hours) for a person without diabetes: 3.9-5.5 mmol/L (70-99 mg/dL)
American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommendation for people with diabetes: 4.4-7.2 mmol/L (80-13 mg/dL)

Postprandial (Normal blood sugar two hours after meals)

Normal for people without diabetes: Lower than 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dL)
American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommendation for people with diabetes: Lower than 10.0mmol/L (180mg/dL)

HbA1c

Normal for people without diabetes: Lower than 5.7%
American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommendation for people with diabetes: Lower than 7.0%

Blood Glucose Levels and Diabetes

what is a normal blood sugar levels — Blood Sugar Levels Chart

Most people who have been diagnosed with diabetes have wondered at some point what their blood sugar level should be.

Although the responsibility of giving patients the answer to this question rests upon your doctor, physician, nurse practitioner or whoever diagnosed you, not every diabetes patient is given blood glucose goals.

In some cases, you might have been given your glucose goals a long time ago, and they have since been forgotten. However, this shouldn’t be cause for concern – we will discuss all that.

What is blood sugar, anyway?

Blood sugar (or glucose), is glucose that is in the blood. It mainly comes from the food we eat and the main contributors to blood sugar are foods that are rich in carbohydrates, such as fruit, pasta and bread. The cells in your body need sugar for energy in order to perform various functions such as breathing, moving, learning, and thinking. The brain is the body’s command center and it uses about 50% of the energy from blood sugar.

How do things go wrong?

The pancreas is responsible for releasing enzymes and hormones that metabolize food and help the body handle the high glucose levels. Insulin is the main hormone that helps manage blood glucose levels. This is where things can go awry. If your pancreas stops making insulin or doesn’t make enough of it, blood glucose levels can rise too high (type 1 diabetes). Another possible scenario is insulin resistance, where the cells have trouble using insulin properly. This is the main cause of type 2 diabetes.

High blood glucose levels (hyperglycemia) can have a wide range of symptoms in the short term, including fatigue, frequent urination and weight loss. If untreated, serious complications can arise, such as ketoacidosis. In the long run (chronic high blood sugar levels), it can lead to more serious complications such as, heart disease, nerve damage, eye disease, as well as disease.

Measuring Blood Glucose Levels

Unless your blood glucose level is too high or too low, you may not always have the signs and symptoms of either low or high blood sugar. In fact, studies show that most people with type 2 diabetes rarely have the symptoms of high blood sugar. As a result, they may go undiagnosed for several years.

One of the best ways to know your blood sugar level is to check it using a glucose meter. The procedure is quite simple and straightforward. It involves doing a finger-stick with a lancet to draw a drop of blood onto the test strip and inserting it into the glucose meter for a reading.

An alternative way of knowing your blood glucose levels is by using a continuous glucose monitor. The continuous glucose monitor (CGM) reads glucose in the fluid stored between cells (interstitial fluid) approximately every 5 minutes.

While some doctors are able to provide patients with glucose meters free of charge, continuous glucose monitoring can be expensive, and is not covered by some health plans.

Therefore, it’s important to consult your health plan for clarification whether they have any “preferred” meters.

Tips for Managing an 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan

One of the ways that you can help fight your diabetes is by sticking to an 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan. This number may sound scary or restrictive at first, but know that this Calorie count is higher than an active 30 year old male in good shape needs to maintain his body.

The main idea behind the 1800 calorie diabetic diet plan is that you need to get 1800 calories each day, which should be manageable by most Americans.

The reason why this ‘should’ be manageable is that 1800 is near to the standard diet plan for healthy living.

How the 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan Can Help You

This diabetic diet plan helps you to maintain normal blood sugar levels, and is designed so that you can lose some weight as well which is always a good thing! While on this diet it is also important that you try to keep active so that you can burn up any excess calories. Indoor and outdoor activities are highly encouraged, so lace up those shoes and get out for a bike ride, jog, walk, or other physical activity.

When you are following this plan it’s very important to avoid carbohydrate foods that have a high Glycemic Index (GI).

These bad foods include:

Donuts
Sweet syrup
White rice
Bagels

Instead, replace those bad foods with fruit and vegetables. It sounds bad at first, but once you rediscover how sweet and tasty an apple is, or how refreshing a raw, sweet pepper can be, it won’t take you too long to curb most of your sweet carb cravings.

Sample 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan

The first thing that you’ll likely ask yourself once you start to consider the 1800 Calorie Diet Plan is if you’ll actually have the will-power to stick with it. It sounds great on paper, but reality is where we need to live, and it’s here that we also face the toughest challenges.

Three big keys here that I’ve found have worked wonders for myself:

Learn the simple rules that you need to follow to live within the Calorie budget of the diet eg: how much protein, vegetables, etc make up each meal. Once you know this you can start to improvise easily.
Learn how to cook food that you like to eat. If you don’t enjoy eating it, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll stick with this diet for any length of time.
Learn how you can cook in batches to save time. This was a big one for myself, because I look at time in the kitchen as ‘wasted time.’ To get over this lie that I tell myself (because time in the kitchen is never really wasted) what I did was cooked larger portions of food, so that I would have several meals that I could put into the fridge, reheat, and eat them quickly.This was also important because on those days when I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to cook, the meals were already prepared in the fridge waiting for me!

Here’s a sample plan that you can follow:

Breakfast:
A good diabetic breakfast idea is to have a large banana with a cup of skim milk, along with one and a half cup of bran cereal and a tablespoon of cream cheese.

Lunch:
For lunch, simply have an ounce of low fat Colby cheese, ½ cup of mild salsa, 2 ounces of baked nacho chips, 2 ounces of ground turkey, along with 2 cups of chopped lettuce.

Dinner:
Dinner may consist of two thirds of a cup of brown rice with salmon, a teaspoon of olive oil, ½ cup of cooked carrots, 1 cup of skim milk and three quarters of a cup of pineapple for dessert.

So don’t be afraid to get creative when designing your 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan so that you can enjoy keeping your body healthy and fit and your blood sugar levels down!

Blood sugar levels after eating

Many foods that you eat contain the sugar vital to your body’s normal function. Sweets, such as candy or cake contain processed sugar. Fruit contains natural sugar. The body converts carbohydrates into sugar. When you ingest sugar from any of these sources, it enters your bloodstream and becomes what is known as blood glucose or blood sugar levels after eating.

You can test your blood glucose level by placing a small amount of blood on a small strip of treated paper that you then insert into a glucose meter. Normal blood sugar levels are between 70 mg/dl to 120 mg/dl (milligrams of blood glucose per deciliter of blood).

Hyperglycemia is when your blood glucose levels are higher than normal. Blood glucose levels below normal can cause a condition called hypoglycemia.

When sugar enters your bloodstream, your pancreas is triggered to produce a hormone called insulin. Insulin bonds with the blood glucose, allowing it to feed your body the energy that it needs. The pancreas constantly monitors your blood glucose levels and produces enough insulin to fuel your body and keep your blood glucose levels in the normal range. This all effects your blood glucose levels after eating.

There are several activities that can cause normal fluctuations outside of the normal range in your blood glucose. The most common are eating a meal, exercise and stress.

When you eat a meal that contains any sugar source, your body is flooded with blood glucose. The pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin to accommodate the sugar, and so your blood glucose levels will rise above a normal level for approximately one to two hours. It is possible that during that first hour, your blood glucose level could be as high as 180 mg/dl.

Your blood glucose levels after eating will vary from what you eat, what time of day it is as well as what types of food you eat. By avoiding foods that are high in sugar and carbohydrates you can take care of your blood glucose levels.

Normal Blood Sugar Levels for Diabetics

What are the normal blood sugar levels for diabetics? This is becoming a question that is being asked more and more often in doctor’s offices and other healthcare facilities all across the globe. In most places heart disease, stroke, and cancer rates are on the decline, but the numbers of new cases of diabetes continue to rise each year. Not long ago, very few people would have ever thought to ask such a question as “what are normal blood sugar levels for diabetics?” but nowadays the question may be the answer to the difference between a long and happy life and a shorter life plagued with diabetes associated health problems.

Diabetes occurs when the body either does not produce enough insulin or the cells of the body have become resistant to the action of the insulin that is produced. In either case the lack of insulin action will not allow the glucose in the blood to pass into the cells to be used up for energy. This results in a build-up of insulin in the bloodstream. Glucose, a simple sugar, is usually used by every cell in the body as fuel, but when glucose levels get too high the glucose can cause damage to nearly every system in the body. This damage may manifest itself as heart disease, kidney failure, hypertension, peripheral neuropathy, or even coma and death. So, “what are normal blood sugar levels for diabetics?” is a very important question.

“What are normal blood sugar levels for diabetics?” can be a difficult question to answer due to the fact that everyone is different, but generally speaking a blood glucose level between 60 and 110 is considered normal. If you or anyone you know begin to develop the symptoms of sudden increased thirst, increased appetite, and increased urination it may be time to visit the doctor and ask the question, “What are normal blood sugar levels for diabetics?”