I promote monitoring of fasted glucose, but many are going too far and messing this up. I like a fasted blood glucose to watch for trend lines over time and pick up on red flags to further investigate more in depth health screenings if needed. We know a root issue of many disease states is inflammation and this can present as insulin resistance. Which this all can be brought about by escalating training stress, high food intake, and escalated PED usage like in an offseason state. So, a fasting blood glucose gives a peak into what might be an issue, however these issues might not be a real issue.

The other morning I woke up and tested my once per week fasted blood glucose and I was at 105mg/dL. This is high for me and got my hamster wheel turning in my brain and wondering what am I doing wrong? Is it my growth hormone, poor sleep, too many carbs pre bed, too rapid of fat gain? You visually are lean and progressing well. A red flag happened, so lets lock in variables and find the culprit of the issue before dropping GH and going full bore Keto Diet.

Long story short, the one thing that has been changing and I didn't realize it was my fluid intake has been tapering down more in the evenings and I am waking up more and more “dehydrated”. Mouth is dry, thirst signal higher. More offseason food has cut back on my fluid intake intuitively. So, I have been driving 25oz of fluid prior to testing and low and behold normal blood glucose 85-90 mg/dL. This is normal despite if I took GH or left it out, had bad sleep or great sleep. The fluid is what made the difference. You see lower serum water means more concentrated glucose in that serum, so high glucose. Does it mean it actually is high due to insulin resistance? No, that is not the issue.

What if you have a high reading?

Before change your whole plan, the fasted glucose is a “check engine” light to look through variables that might be false positives but also might need to be addressed. Just to name a few, but not all:

Fasted glucose can be increased by several variables:
Poor Sleep
Low Hydration
High Stress
Eating too much or too close to sleep (Cheat meal night)
Changes in menstrual cycle for women (luteal phase increases serum glucose)
Faulty Glucometer
Expired Glucometer test strips
Dawn Phenomenon
Growth Hormone

The fasted blood glucose is not what decides our plan but a diagnostic tool to help refine a plan, but not without looking at the big picture of all the other variables happening within and around us.