[Hammer]

I figured I'd use this thread whenever I have more questions. First, if you're taking Byetta or any other medication that you have to take before you eat, when you do a before meal test, do you test before you take the medication, or do you take the medication, then do a test right before you take your first bite of food? I've always done a test before I took the medication, since the medication is going to limit the spike that occurs after eating. Taking a reading after you've taken the medication would give you a BG number that's lower than your basal numbers. I'd think that you'd be interested in knowing how much your basal numbers went up, not how much your numbers changed from a false low caused by the meds, to it's high spike after eating.

For example, I took a reading before lunch today and before taking Byetta and my numbers were 96. I had some frozen vegetable lasagna and my after meal numbers were 98. That tells me that most likely, the Byetta lowered my numbers below 96 before eating, and that there was a bigger jump than just 2 points after eating something like lasagna. So, wouldn't my main concern be that I went from a basal reading of 96 to a spike of 98?

Not knowing what my numbers were after taking the Byetta, but before my first bite of food, it's possible that they might have been really low like 60 or something, so the difference between 60 and the 98 would be 38 points.....not the two that I read before. Wouldn't you be more interested in the fact that your basal level only went up 2 points as opposed to knowing that the meds lowered your basal level to 60 first, then you spiked 38 points to reach 98?

Also, I see people commenting in other threads about how Byetta makes you lose weight. It hasn't caused me to lose any weight, so I'm curious how it does that? Does it make you less hungry?....does it do something to your body that causes it to burn calories somehow? I haven't experienced these things, so I'm wondering if Byetta doesn't do that to everyone.