Understanding Normal Blood Sugar Levels Chart

It may surprise you but sugar was once a luxury. It is only modern advancements that have made it so easily available. Unfortunately, people still love it as much and often end up eating too much of it. That has meant that type-2 diabetes is now becoming more and more common. It is possible in many cases whether one is likely to get diabetes in advance if one has what is called ‘prediabetes’. Whether one has diabetes or prediabetes, one should know about blood sugar charts. If the reader doesn’t know about them, they will find all the information they need here.

There are some popular notions about what blood glucose sugar should be – however, it is not just one number or even a single range. The answer to the question ‘What the ideal blood sugar level should be?’ remains far more complex as it depends on a number of factors. Some of these factors include:

• Whether one has diabetes or not?
• What kind of diabetes, if any, one has?
• What are health conditions you have (for example, you may have just had just have surgery or might be pregnant?
• How recently did you have your last meal?

Also, read up on the different types of diabetes we’ve covered on our website.

It is critical here to know that human blood sugar levels tend to fluctuate a lot several times a day. They tend to experience a spike an hour after a meal. A blood sugar chart can tell you about your desirable blood sugar level depending on the various factors mentioned above. It will tell you about the following:

Normal Blood Sugar Levels Chart

• Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG) – FBG is your blood glucose level after you have been fasting for 8 hours. For normal people, it should be below 100 mg/dl The number is far higher for diabetic patients. The range that falls between the diabetic range and normal blood sugar range is considered prediabetic.
• Pre-Meal – Also called baseline Glucose, it is your blood sugar level after waking up and before you had your breakfast level. It will be the lowest reading you are likely to have in a day.
• Post-Meal Glucose Peak: It is a glucose spike observed between 45 minutes to 1 hour after the meal.
• Mean 24-Hour Glucose: The average glucose level over a day.
• A1C blood sugar level: A1C is the chosen standard blood glucose metric used by people with diabetes. It is an average blood glucose reading, when expressed as a percentage, for over 2-3 months.
• Time-in-Range: The modern gold standard, Time-in-Range is a metric measuring the percentage of total time one’s blood sugar level was within a target range.

You can also check out our article on how to reduce blood sugar levels immediately, know more here.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are several questions relating to blood sugar charts. The following are some of the most Frequently Asked Questions:

Question: Is there such a thing as low blood sugar?

Answer: It is critical to ensure that one maintains blood sugar levels in a healthy range. Too lower blood sugar levels can create severe weakness, dizziness, etc- as glucose is needed by the body to create energy for various functions.

Question: What are target blood sugar levels?

Answer: Normal blood sugar levels only work for people who don’t have diabetes. Though the blood sugar charts can be used for reference purposes in case of people with diabetes or prediabetes, they must set target blood sugar in consult with their health physicians and stick to them

Question: What are some of the factors that affect blood sugar levels?

Answer: The following are some of the factors known to affect blood sugar levels:

• Food – What one eats is, for obvious reasons, the most critical factor when it comes to blood sugar levels. The more carbs one eats, the more glucose there will be in the blood.
• Exercise – Whether one exercise and how intensive the exercise will affect the blood sugar level. Exercises that are not too strenuous will reduce blood sugar levels – for example, brisk walking which increases heartbeat mildly. However, strenuous exercises can actually increase blood sugar levels.
• Stress – Stress is known to cause spikes in blood sugar levels. If one is experiencing this problem, one should try some stress-relief measures or change lifestyle. Moreover, stress can also affect blood sugar levels indirectly by affecting one’s sleep habits.
• Sleep – A lack of sleep or improper sleep is connected to a number of health issues and an increase in blood sugar levels is one of them.
• Medication – Certain medications can affect blood glucose levels too

If the reader has any other questions, they should feel free to ask them here.

The Bottom Line

One can easily wrap up the above discussion by concluding that blood sugar charts can be greatly useful for people trying to keep their blood glucose levels in check.