Does a non-insulin dependent diabetic need to use a glucose meter?

Definitely. It's the only way you will know that your meds and diet plan are working. I've been a type 2 , non insulin dependent for 19 years. I test twice a day, before bed and first thing in the morning. The pills I am on have varying effects depending on just what I eat and I stick to a pretty strict diabetic diet. If you are not careful you may find yourself crashing and that is really scary. You averages of 150-160 are a bit high, but not to awful. The doctor is going to want to know just what you are averaging. It the only way the doc can properly treat you. I know it's a pain, but it's worth it. I test just the twice normally but whenever I feel the need do it again. It's surprising how little things can throw you off and you will have to learn just what does. Good luck. It scared the hell out of me at first but now that I have learned to live with it, I'm actually in better shape. Weight loss made a big difference.

Your numbers are high for fasting so, yes, you need to continue to test yourself and you need to do more to try to get your fasting numbers down closer to 99. 99 is the top most number for normal and that's what you should aim for. My fasting number is normally not above about 125 ever, usually it's lower (but I also don't eat for hours after waking but am doing chores and need glucose--it's not a good thing that I do but I cannot stand to eat first thing in the morning), and it's been this way for the past 2 years so I only test myself once a week. Since you're newly diagnosed, you need to do the 7-times-per-day testing just to familiarize yourself with how your body is handling things, to discover which foods raise your glucose higher then others so you can make wise choices. And since we are each individuals, you have to learn about your own body by doing the blood tests for a while, writing down the results (and time), adjusting your food and/or exercise so you can get your numbers lower, how exercise affects you (like if you walk for an hour, does your glucose go up or down? if you walk for 30 mins, does it hit the sweet spot?). Once you can almost predict accurately what your numbers will be, then you can talk to your doctor about cutting back on testing. And any time you eat something brand new, or if you get sick or have a lot of stress or anything that may disturb your blood glucose, you should test yourself. When my favorite uncle died, I didn't sleep well for about 2 days and it showed in elevated blood glucose levels--so I did some extra walking to try to get it down (and just to relieve some of the stress). Whether you test yourself or not is totally up to you; personally, I want to know what my body is telling me so I can adjust my things so I run less of a risk of developing any of the diabetes-related complications. The recommendations given to diabetics are general and may differ slightly for you. For example, some people can eat a banana and get only a reasonable glucose rise; if I eat a banana my blood glucose soars way high and my toes get overly sensitive to the point I cannot sleep with any bedding touching them (they don't hurt, they just make enough "noise" keeping me awake).

Life style is often part of the issue. Life style changes now could delay or prevent you from getting diabetes later. Learn here https://tr.im/dwJzV

What you eat is not actually the cause of diabetes, but how you live can be. If you sit on the couch all day, your chances of developing diabetes goes up greatly.

Just do the best you can to not gain weight and to maintain an active life style and that will greatly help reduce some of your risks.

It's not worth it for an average- for an average, the doctor can just run a one time A1c.

It is worth testing if you are changing things or if you want to see how different foods affect your blood sugar. You should also have strips just available to test what happens if you get a cold or the flu or something because sometimes a mild illness can make things a whole lot worse.

You need both an endocrinologist and a glucometor[ blood testing machine ] .

All people with diabetes need to keep informed about their sugar levels.