What Are The Benefits of Logging Insulin Dosages?


 2021-11-23

Editor’s Note: People who take insulin require consistently affordable and predictable sources of insulin at all times. If you or a loved one are struggling to afford or access insulin, you can build custom plans based on your personal circumstances through our tool, GetInsulin.org.


The benefits of logging insulin dosages are many—especially when it comes to your diabetes self-management and care.

Whether you take a set amount of insulin each day or change the dosages for meals—or to bring down high-blood-glucose levels—logging insulin dosages keeps track of how much insulin you’re taking.

In this article, we’ll list the benefirts of logging insulin dosages. 

How Can You Better Understand Blood-Glucose Patterns and Insulin Impact?

Knowing your blood-glucose patterns is essential to making the best decisions about when to take insulin—and how much.

Let’s say you’re always running high—even though you have background/long-acting insulin on board. You’ll get a better sense of how that insulin is working for you if you log:

  • The time
  • The units of insulin you administered
  • Your blood-glucose levels at the time, and
  • Any activity or food eaten.

By doing this, you may be able to see:

  • If you are taking too little insulin
  • If you are taking your insulin at the wrong time
  • If you may want to experiment with splitting doses.

In addition to helping you better understand your blood-glucose patterns, another benefit to consistently logging insulin is learning how much insulin you actually need—as well as improving your timing of when you take it.

  • You may discover you need more insulin at one point of the day than another—it’s common to be more insulin resistant at some part of the day than another.
  • You may also learn that certain foods require more insulin than others because of the type of carbohydrates, or the balance of carbohydrates with fat and/or protein.
  • You may find that you don’t need to take as much insulin prior to or after exercise.

Learning these patterns and insulin needs is an efficient way to use insulin.

How Does Logging Insulin Dosages Help Avoid Accidental Missed or Double Doses? 

We know insulin is an important tool that helps keep blood-glucose levels in check. However, taking too much of it can lead to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)—when your blood sugar drops below 3.9 mmol/L70 mg/dL.

Signs of low blood sugar include:

  • Excessive hunger
  • Shakiness
  • Sweatiness
  • Anxiousness and
  • Restless sleep.

If your blood sugar drops too low, it can lead to a serious health emergency. Severe hypoglycemia happens when:

  • Your blood sugar drops below 3.0 mmol/L54 mg/dL
  • You need assistance from another person and
  • You require the use of emergency glucagon.

Left untreated, severe low blood sugars can lead to unconsciousness, seizure and death. 

If you miss an insulin dose, your blood sugar will increase and you may begin to feel its effects, which include:

  • Fatigue
  • “Foggy-brained”
  • Excess thirst
  • Increased use of the bathroom.

Logging insulin might help alow down the rollercoaster of these blood-sugar lows and highs.

Useful Tip: To prevent missed or accidental doses, make a note on your phone—or in an app—each time you go to take insulin. 

How Can Logging Insulin Improve Communication with Your Doctor? 

Logging your insulin can serve as a powerful tool when meeting with your healthcare provider (HCP).

A logbook can confirm patterns you’ve noticed and provide a deeper look into your day-to-day with diabetes.  It can help illustrate if you are experiencing higher blood-glucose readings after your meal which may result in an altered insulin-to-carb ratio.

Don’t worry about assigning numbers as “good” or “bad.” Blood-glucose numbers and notes about how much insulin you take are just pieces of information—not a reflection of yourself as a person. Also, your doctor wants to know this info, so they can learn how to best help you.

Here are some questions to ask your doctor at your next appointment:

  • Do you notice any patterns in my logbook?
    • What do they mean? 
  • If my blood glucose is higher in the morning, what adjustments to my insulin dosages can I make to ensure I wake within preferred ranges?
    • Also, if I’m low at night, what should I do?
  • How much insulin should I be taking? 
  • How should I time my insulin doses? 
  • Can you tell me about insulin-to-carb ratios (how much insulin I should take with meals)? 
  • When my blood sugar is running high, how much insulin should I take to bring it down?
  • Are there any changes that need to be made to my diabetes-care plan?

Keep track of as much info as you can because every piece of information may improve the productivity of your doctor appointments. 

How to Stay Consistent with Logging Insulin 

Overall, the benefits of logging your insulin dosages contribute to helping you and your HCP learn more about your diabetes.

While it is “easy” to take an insulin shot here and there, any information you gain about your diabetes—even if it’s information you don’t expect—is beneficial to making well-informed adjustments to your routine. 

However, the question comes down to—How can I make it easier to track my insulin dosages? 

Fortunately, there is no single correct way to do it. You can do whatever works for you.

Here are some tips: 

  • Use a glucose-tracking app. 
  • Use the note app on your phone. 
  • Keep notes in a journal or notebook—make sure you keep this info in one place. 
  • When taking insulin, log it as soon as you do it to build the habit of keeping track consistently. 
  • Don’t worry about being perfect—if you’re not used to logging insulin, set a small goal that’s feasible for you and build from there
    • Commit to logging insulin for the biggest meal of the day for a week.
      • Or, you may want to commit to logging it several times a week.
    • Do what works for you. 

For more tips and resources on managing type 1 diabetes, click here


This content was made possible with support from Lilly Diabetes, an active partner of Beyond Type 1 at the time of publication. Beyond Type 1 maintains full editorial control of all content published on our platforms.

WRITTEN BY T'ara Smith, MS, Nutrition Education, POSTED 11/23/21, UPDATED 02/29/24

T’ara was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in July 2017 at the age of 25. After her diagnosis, she focused her academic studies and career on diabetes awareness and living a full life with it. Two years later, T'ara discovered she'd been misdiagnosed with type 2 and actually has latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA). Outside the office, T’ara enjoys going to the movies, visiting parks with her dog, listening to BTS and cooking awesome healthy meals. T’ara holds an MS in Nutrition Education from American University.