I have to agree with Sienne and it's also based on my lengthy experience here and having looked at hundreds of SSs and also having sat up most of the night with members whose cats were in low numbers.
First of all, you cannot extrapolate across the board what a number on a human meter will equate to on an AT. We've had lots of members, including me, run comparisons and they are all over the place. One can compare one's own human meter and one's own AT but I wouldn't go any further than that. I have a tab on Gracie's SS if you would like to see the comparisons. Based on that info, I would never make the assumptions you make regarding meter comparisons.
Secondly, every cat responds differently to carbs just as people have different responses to different macro- and micro-nutrients. My philosophy is to use the lowest carb food that gets the job done but, for some cats, that might be a high carb food if numbers are low. I see no benefit in allowing my cat to surf in the 40s because there is no cushion and she has been flat even in the 60s and then dropped to the 20s (these are all human meter BGs). Know thy cat. Your cat might do fine with your regimen but until a new member knows their cat, we are going to be cautious based on our knowledge. Lantus and levemir insulins have a cumulative nature so one shot builds upon the preceding. When the depot gets full, a CG could be dealing with low numbers for an extended time. I know...I've done it. I'm not waiting six hours for my cat to come out of the 30s. As a doctor, you should know that hypoglycemia has many effects on the body and that includes the brain. We don't have any way to connect our cats to monitors at lower numbers to see what effects the low blood sugar is actually having when they are showing no clinical signs of hypoglycemia. Safety first.
Thirdly, numbers might shoot up for a variety of reasons including the response of the liver, feeding high carb food, lack of duration. If numbers skyrocket from green or blue to pink or higher within a very short span of time (hour or so), it is likely due to lack of duration. I've also had Gracie fairly tightly regulated for long periods of time with minimal bouncing...and then she starts the bouncing again.
Lastly, some cats do much better on a 10% of calories from carbs food as opposed to a very low carb food such as 0-1%. My kitty did not do well on the lowest carb foods. She does much better with foods in the 4-10% range. ECID.
I did NOT run my cat in numbers below 50 and have not. Look at my SS.
I did and I don't know how you can make the above statement, on the night you got a 36, you didn't retest for six hours. Knowing what I know about FD, he could have run below 50 for several hours. The honey you gave him likely wore off within an hour or two. It's possible that he came up on his own with the FF because he was past mid-cycle but his depot was very full...so he might have stayed low for quite some time before coming up.
) LEARN thy cat (which eventually will turn into KNOW they cat) --- I asked TONS of questions in the beginning, looking at other spreadsheets and comparing them to Skooter's and trying to make sense out of everything and don't just look at the numbers -WCR Whole Cat Report -- how are they acting? eating? playing? etc....that can sometimes can tell you just as much about how your cat is doing as the number on the meter.
The more time Frankie spends in normal numbers, the faster he'll begin to clear his bounces. In the meantime, enjoy testing less often if he's running high.