Carb Counting Journey

[sharp00782]

So, I am starting my carb counting journey today and adjusting insulin based in food. I am using the MySugr app. So, I am having 126 grams of Carbs for lunch and the app suggests taking 4 units of bolus. Does this sound about right? I have been on a fixed dose of 6 units for breakfast and 8 units for lunch and dinner recently.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

 

[Sally71]

To me that doesn’t sound like enough insulin, BUT everyone is different and it might be that you don’t need so much.
How did you set the app up? Most people start on a ratio of 1:10 when carb counting, which for 126g carbs would mean 12.6 units, probably rounded up to 13. So if it’s only suggesting 4 then it thinks you are on a ratio of 1:30 or something which would be unusual. Although not impossible!
If you have been having 8 units for lunch previously, have you been eating similar amounts of food and what happened to your blood sugars afterwards? If you ate about the same amount of carbs and injected 8 units and didn’t have a massive hypo afterwards then 4 units isn’t going to be enough.
The app will also take into account what your blood sugars are now and will add or subtract a bit from the bolus to bring them back into line if necessary, you need to set all that information up correctly too. If you don’t know how to do that then you need to ask your diabetes team for advice.

 

[sharp00782]

To me that doesn’t sound like enough insulin, BUT everyone is different and it might be that you don’t need so much.
How did you set the app up? Most people start on a ratio of 1:10 when carb counting, which for 126g carbs would mean 12.6 units, probably rounded up to 13. So if it’s only suggesting 4 then it thinks you are on a ratio of 1:30 or something which would be unusual. Although not impossible!
If you have been having 8 units for lunch previously, have you been eating similar amounts of food and what happened to your blood sugars afterwards? If you ate about the same amount of carbs and injected 8 units and didn’t have a massive hypo afterwards then 4 units isn’t going to be enough.
The app will also take into account what your blood sugars are now and will add or subtract a bit from the bolus to bring them back into line if necessary, you need to set all that information up correctly too. If you don’t know how to do that then you need to ask your diabetes team for advice.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

My insulin to carb ratio is 1:15 and when I tested before and put it in the app my bloods were 4.1

 

[Sally71]

OK so 126 carbs at 1:15 would be about 8 units, presumably the app has dropped it a bit as you were right at the bottom of the range for BGs. I’m surprised it took that much off, but now we need to think about what your target range is and insulin sensitivity. Insulin sensitivity is usually about 1:3 or similar (meaning that 1 unit of insulin will drop you by 3 mmol/l). The app will then aim to return your blood sugar to the middle of the target range. So if you have set your target range to be between 4 and 10, it will aim to keep you at 7, so with a blood sugar of 4 and a target of 7 and a ratio of 1:3 it would reduce the recommended bolus by 1 unit. Check what yours are and if you’re happy with how it’s set up then go with it and see what happens! These things never stay the same though and need tweaking quite a lot, so keep a close eye on things and see how it goes