Enter your fasting and post-meal blood sugar readings alongside insulin, carbs, and exercise minutes to see your Diabetes Management Score and daily pattern.
Your fasting number was 118 this morning, but your post-breakfast reading hit 210. Same medication, different day. Blood glucose shifts in response to food, activity, stress, and sleep — sometimes in ways that feel impossible to predict without a log. This tracker structures those daily readings into a complete picture. You log Fasting Blood Sugar, Post-Meal Blood Glucose after Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, Insulin Dose in units, Total Carbs in grams, Exercise Minutes, Hypo Episodes, Medication Adherence, and Diabetes Type. The tool produces a daily management score and highlights which readings are in range versus out of range.
The four-reading-per-day structure is intentional. Fasting glucose and post-meal peaks tell different stories. A person with a good fasting number but high post-breakfast spikes has a different pattern to address than someone with consistently elevated fasting values and moderate post-meal numbers. Seeing all four readings alongside your inputs for that day is how individual patterns become visible.
Fasting blood sugar — what the morning number tells you
The Fasting Blood Sugar input accepts values from 40–500 mg/dL, with the target fasting range for most people managing type 2 diabetes sitting at 80–130 mg/dL before meals. For type 1 diabetes, targets are individualized and set by the care team. The fasting reading reflects overnight glucose regulation and is particularly sensitive to the previous evening's meal timing, carbohydrate content, and medication effects.
A pattern of consistently elevated fasting values — say, 150–180 mg/dL — despite reasonable overnight carbohydrate intake often points to the dawn phenomenon (natural hormone-driven glucose release in early morning hours) or the Somogyi effect (rebound hyperglycemia following overnight hypoglycemia). Logging the fasting value alongside the previous evening's dinner reading and insulin dose over time helps identify which pattern applies — information your care team can use to adjust dosing strategy.
Post-meal readings and the two-hour window
The tracker logs post-meal blood glucose after each of the three main meals. These readings are typically taken one to two hours after starting the meal. Target post-meal values for most people managing diabetes run under 180 mg/dL (1–2 hours post-meal); tighter targets under 140 mg/dL are sometimes recommended. The tracker displays all three post-meal values alongside the fasting reading on the dashboard so you can see your full daily pattern at a glance.
Comparing post-meal values across meals often reveals which meal type is causing the most glucose impact. A person whose post-breakfast reading consistently reaches 200+ while lunch and dinner readings stay under 160 probably has a breakfast composition issue worth discussing with a dietitian. That specificity is something a simple average or A1C number cannot provide.
Carbohydrates, insulin, and the ratio behind the numbers
The Total Carbs Today (grams) and Insulin Dose Today (units) fields together capture your insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio on a daily basis. Insulin-to-carb ratios are highly individual and typically set by an endocrinologist or diabetes educator — a common starting point is 1 unit of rapid-acting insulin per 15 grams of carbohydrate, but the actual ratio varies significantly by person. Logging both values daily lets you see whether your blood glucose responses are consistent with your ratio or whether there are days when the numbers diverge significantly.
Tracking exercise minutes alongside carb and insulin intake is equally important. Exercise affects glucose utilization for hours after the activity ends, and post-exercise hypoglycemia is a recognized risk for people on insulin. If your logs show hypoglycemic episodes consistently in the evening on days you exercised in the afternoon, that is a meaningful pattern to bring to your diabetes care team.
Hypo episodes and what they signal
The Hypo Episodes field tracks the count of hypoglycemic events today — 0, 1, 2, or 3+. A hypoglycemic episode is typically defined as blood glucose below 70 mg/dL, though symptoms can begin at different thresholds for different people. Frequent hypoglycemia indicates that the current management regimen may be too aggressive for your actual glucose patterns — not a personal failure, but a calibration issue worth documenting and addressing.
People on insulin often normalize a certain frequency of lows because they have learned to manage them with glucose tabs or juice. What the log makes visible is the cumulative pattern: someone experiencing 2–3 hypos per week every week is living with a recurring problem that is probably addressable with dosing or timing adjustments. Consistent logging creates the documented evidence needed to have that conversation.
Diabetes type and why it matters for the score
The Diabetes Type dropdown includes Type 2, Type 1, Gestational, and Prediabetes. The underlying biology and management goals differ across these categories, and the tracker's scoring calibration adjusts accordingly. A fasting glucose of 125 mg/dL is in the prediabetes range for someone without a formal diabetes diagnosis; the same reading in a type 1 patient on insulin calls for a different response than the same reading in a person managing type 2 through lifestyle alone.
Gestational diabetes has specific fasting and post-meal targets — typically under 95 mg/dL fasting and under 140 mg/dL one hour post-meal — that differ from standard type 2 targets. If you are tracking gestational diabetes, note the gestational-specific targets in consultation with your OB or maternal-fetal medicine team. Start your free log now and bring the full reading history to your next appointment — no login required to begin.
How to use it
- Log Fasting Blood Sugar first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything other than water.
- Enter Post-Meal BG after Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner individually — typically one to two hours after starting each meal.
- Record Insulin Dose in units and Total Carbs in grams for the day, then log Exercise Minutes and Hypo Episodes.
- Select Medication Adherence and your Diabetes Type, then review the daily management score and which readings are flagged as out of range.
- Note patterns over days — consistent high post-breakfast readings, recurring hypos on exercise days — and bring the trend data to your endocrinologist or diabetes educator.
Who it's for
- Person with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes learning their patterns — Logs all four daily readings for 30 days to identify which meals produce the largest glucose spikes, bringing concrete data to their first dietitian consultation.
- Type 1 adult fine-tuning insulin-to-carb ratios — Tracks carb intake and insulin dose alongside post-meal readings to identify meals where the current ratio is under- or over-correcting, supporting a conversation with their endocrinologist about ratio adjustment.
- Person experiencing morning hyperglycemia — Logs fasting values alongside previous evening's insulin timing and dinner composition for two weeks, documenting a dawn phenomenon pattern that explains persistent elevated fasting numbers despite good overnight values.
- Individual managing gestational diabetes — Tracks all four daily readings against gestational targets, bringing a complete log to each weekly OB appointment rather than reconstructing the week from memory.
- Adult managing prediabetes through lifestyle — Uses the tracker to monitor fasting glucose trends over a 90-day lifestyle intervention, documenting whether dietary changes are moving fasting values toward the normal range.
Key terms
- Fasting blood sugar
- Blood glucose measured after at least 8 hours without eating. Reflects overnight glucose regulation and baseline metabolic function.
- Post-meal blood glucose
- Blood glucose measured one to two hours after starting a meal. Reflects the body's ability to manage the glucose load from food intake.
- Hypoglycemia
- Blood glucose below 70 mg/dL, characterized by symptoms such as shakiness, sweating, confusion, and rapid heart rate. Requires prompt treatment with fast-acting glucose.
- Dawn phenomenon
- A natural rise in blood glucose in the early morning hours driven by counter-regulatory hormones. A common cause of elevated fasting glucose despite good overnight management.
Frequently asked questions
What are the target ranges for blood sugar in type 2 diabetes?
General guidelines suggest 80–130 mg/dL before meals and under 180 mg/dL one to two hours post-meal. Individualized targets may differ based on age, other health conditions, and your care team's judgment. Use the targets your provider has given you, not a generic standard.
My post-dinner reading is always high — what does that mean?
Consistently high post-dinner readings often point to the size or carbohydrate content of dinner being too large for your current management regimen. It could also reflect less physical activity in the evening compared to earlier in the day. Log your dinner carbs and note the reading — the pattern over a week will be informative for your dietitian or endocrinologist.
How is this different from a CGM app?
A continuous glucose monitor provides real-time glucose data; this tracker captures structured daily inputs around specific readings, lifestyle factors, and management context. They serve complementary purposes — this tracker adds the dietary, insulin, exercise, and hypo data that a CGM alone does not contextualize.
Should I log on days when my diet was unusual, like during travel?
Yes — unusual days are especially worth logging because they reveal how your glucose responds to changes in diet, routine, and activity. Mark them with a note and treat the data as informative rather than anomalous.