Blood sugar 50 mg/dL
50 mg/dL is a very low reading. Treat it right away with fast-acting carbs, then recheck in 15 minutes.
Treat this low now
- Take about 15 grams of fast-acting carbs: glucose tabs, half a cup of juice, or regular soda.
- Recheck in 15 minutes, and repeat until you are back above 70 mg/dL, then have a small snack with protein.
- If you feel confused, cannot swallow safely, or symptoms are severe, this is an emergency: use glucagon if it is available and call emergency services.
Where 50 sits
If this was a fasting reading
LowFasting or not, 50 mg/dL is 20 mg/dL below the bottom of the normal fasting range of 70 to 99 mg/dL, and reads as a low.
If this was a standardized 2-hour 75 g OGTT
LowEven after a meal, 50 mg/dL is below 70 mg/dL and reads as a low rather than a normal post-meal dip. These diagnostic categories apply to a laboratory OGTT, not an ordinary meal. Home monitoring targets are individualized with your care team.
Across the day
Against the common tracking band of 70 to 180 mg/dL, 50 mg/dL sits 20 mg/dL below the bottom.
What to do next
One reading is a data point. The useful question is whether 50 mg/dL is your usual or an outlier, and only a short run of readings can answer that: check at the same times for a week and look at the pattern, not any single number.
If fasting numbers keep landing high, start with how to lower fasting blood sugar. If meals are the pattern, see after-meal blood sugar spikes.
Pregnancy uses stricter targets. If you are pregnant, the ranges on this page do not apply to you; your care team will give you the numbers to aim for.
Nearby readings
General information, not medical advice. Reference ranges follow the ADA diagnostic criteria; a single meter reading is not a diagnosis, which requires laboratory testing, usually confirmed on two occasions. See how we calculate.
Stop looking numbers up one at a time
A page can tell you what a reading means in general. Your own log tells you what it means for you: log a reading in seconds and SteadyRange shows your logged readings in range and the patterns in your records, on a private log you control.
Sources and review status
Educational content maintained by the SteadyRange. Source and terminology check: September 30, 2026. Independent clinical review is pending; no clinical reviewer credentials are claimed.