Blood Glucose Four Hours After Eating

What you eat impacts your blood glucose level.

Image Credit: dragana991/iStock/GettyImages Cells throughout your body work around the clock, even when you’re sleeping. Clearly, they need a steady supply of energy to keep going. To function, they rely on glucose, a simple type of carbohydrate.

  Advertisement
 Glucose enters your bloodstream until the hormone insulin comes around to help cells use or store the circulating glucose. Your blood sugar may go up a bit after eating, but if it's still high four hours after your meal, or if it drops too low, something is awry in your body.

  Video of the Day
  Normal Ranges

Normally your blood sugar should remain between 70 and 130 milligrams per deciliter, according to the American Diabetes Association. This range is for any random time throughout the day, before or after meals. After a long fast, such as after a night’s sleep, it’s normal for your glucose to be on the lower end of that spectrum – 70 to 100 milligrams per deciliter.

  Advertisement
 Four Hours After Eating

If you’re generally healthy or are properly managing your diabetes, your blood glucose should fall between 90 and 130 milligrams per deciliter four hours after eating. If you do not have diabetes, your sugar could even go as high as 140 milligrams per deciliter after meals. Of course, if you do have diabetes, your blood glucose could rise even higher – 180 milligrams per deciliter or above, even several hours after eating.

  Advertisement
 Causes of High Blood Sugar

It’s not typical for your glucose to remain elevated four hours after eating. By then, insulin should have done its job and made sure that all of that extra glucose was used up. So if your blood sugar is still high hours after eating, it could be a sign that you have diabetes.

  Advertisement
 Or if you have already been diagnosed, the dosage of your insulin or other diabetes medication might be off. Elevated glucose can also stem from an infected pancreas, an overactive thyroid and certain types of tumors.

  Advertisement
 Low Glucose Causes

Having low blood glucose after eating, especially four hours later, isn’t healthy either. If you have diabetes, it’s possible that you took too much insulin or other diabetes medication. Whether you have diabetes or not, chronic low blood sugar might mean that you’re not eating enough. Decreased glucose levels could be a sign of a dysfunctional pituitary gland, underactive thyroid or rare type of tumor in the pancreas that leads to increased insulin production.

  Advertisement
 
  Advertisement
  
  references
  
      MedlinePlus: Glucose Test -- Blood
    
      University of Mexico Hospitals: Checking Your Blood Sugar
    
      American Diabetes Association: Tight Diabetes Control
    
      Diabetes.co.uk: Blood Sugar Level Ranges
       




  references
  
      MedlinePlus: Glucose Test -- Blood
    
      University of Mexico Hospitals: Checking Your Blood Sugar
    
      American Diabetes Association: Tight Diabetes Control
    
      Diabetes.co.uk: Blood Sugar Level Ranges
    




What you eat impacts your blood glucose level.

Image Credit: dragana991/iStock/GettyImages

Image Credit: dragana991/iStock/GettyImages

      MedlinePlus: Glucose Test -- Blood
    
      University of Mexico Hospitals: Checking Your Blood Sugar
    
      American Diabetes Association: Tight Diabetes Control
    
      Diabetes.co.uk: Blood Sugar Level Ranges