Eating Times

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chezpez

chezpez

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hiya all!
I know this is a daft question, and i should know but i dont :0)
I've also been very regimantal with my eating times, but today for instead i had a big breakfast and didnt feel like anything for lunch. Could i skip lunch and not put any insulin in, and just waiting until i felt hungry nearer to tea time and ate and injected then? it confuses me coz nurses say also put insulin in even if your not eating? but how much would you put in?? hope someone can advise me - thanks xx
 
The advice given to me was not to skip meals. I suspect it will work diferently for me as I am on tablets and I am always up early. I think the thing to do is establish a routine that can be flexible to suit whatever you are doing.
 
Same goes for me that caroline said i am very naughty and dont eat breakfast. As Caroline im on pills and always up early if i get a banana and take my metformin thats me done,
 
Hi chezpez, you can skip meals if you are on basal/bolus (slow and fast-acting insulin), as the basal insulin should keep your body ticking over until your next meal. If you find your levels climbing, then it means that your basl insulin dose is probably too low - this is what is known as 'basal testing'.
 
Hi Chezpez

Have you done DAFNE? I have, and only inject when I eat and do sometimes skip meals (I often don't eat breakfast for example). DAFNE gives you the flexibility of eating when you want to eat rather than at specified times. I'm not sure that injecting quick acting insulin without food is a good idea, won't that make your BS go too low? If your background insulin is right and you're having enough quick acting to cover your big breakfast I can't see a reason why you would need to inject at lunch time when you're not eating anything. Others may be able to advise more. x
 
If you're on a basal bolus routine and carb counting then you should be able to skip a meal if you want to. So long as you have your basal dose right you should stay pretty steady.
Like allisonb I'd also recommend trying to get onto a DAFNE or similar course if you can to help you with the basal bolus thing.
 
Thanks all!
I carb count and on long/short acting injections..
so basically i should use my novorapid only when i eat a meal.. so if a skip a meal i dont need to inject.. but what if my level was about 10 would i need to inject then without eating?.. but why does my nurse say to me you should eat 3 meals a day and inject? i presume its coz it level things out?? so if i was sickly with a bug and couldnt eat i still would inject then?
I know i should know this but its so confusing sometimes!
 
chezpez said:
Thanks all!
I carb count and on long/short acting injections..
so basically i should use my novorapid only when i eat a meal.. so if a skip a meal i dont need to inject.. but what if my level was about 10 would i need to inject then without eating?.. but why does my nurse say to me you should eat 3 meals a day and inject? i presume its coz it level things out?? so if i was sickly with a bug and couldnt eat i still would inject then?
I know i should know this but its so confusing sometimes!
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If you find that your levels are above range when you have skipped a meal, this means that your slow-acting insulin is not sufficient to deal with the glucose being released from your liver (it does this throughout the day and night). So if you were 10 mmol/l at a time more than 5 hours after your last meal (when your fast-acting insulin will have run out) you might need to take a correction dose of novorapid (this occasionally happens to me, but I usually just take a little extra novorapid with my next meal). But what you should then do is consider increasing your basal insulin a little in future. If you are ill and this is the reason for your levels going above normal, then you would probably just correct with the novorapid - but it is always better to have something to eat or drink, even if you don't feel like it when ill.

Hope that helps! Might be worth going through it again with your nurse.
 
thanks northerner thats does help.. but just another question i cant go any higher with my night time insulin coz i have to eat a piece of toast before i go to bed now, and sometimes 2 slices if i've been exercising as will hypo a 5.00am.. but at least i know i can skip meals or eat at different times.
xx
 
If you're having to eat toast every night before bed to keep your BS up so you don't hypo in the night your basal that you are taking before bed time might be too high. It might be worth reducing it. Your basal should keep you stable overnight, not cause a high or a low. Either that or you're having too much quick acting with your evening meal, which depending on what time you eat, and what time you go to bed, might still be in your system.
 
It's a tricky business! My nightime insulin was too high, and I was like you chezpez - having to go to bed high or eat snacks to prevent night hypos. I've gradually managed to get that more or less right. What does seem to be happening now is that if I miss breakfast then my levels will begin to climb in the morning. I think this is because, at certain times of the day (mornings for me) the basal insulin is insufficient or I have more insulin resistance at that time of day. The best solution to this dilemma is probably a pump, where you can set different basal rates of insulin for different times of the day - you can't do that when you are only injecting once at night!

Some people split their slow-acting insulin and find this works better. I miss so few meals though that it's not worth doing for me personally.
 
For me it is fine to miss meals or delay them as my basal is set pretty well and I will inject my novorapid for the meals that I eat.
The only thing to consider is if you aren't on a flat basal like lantus or levemir you might not be able to miss lunch, or if you don't want a meal you might have to eat a snack to prevent a hypo.
 
Another question!
what would you do if your hungry between meals? like today at 3.00pm bsl was 7.0 so didnt want to eat carbs so ate tin of tuna lol.. what else could you do? would you inject novorapid for a snack that is higher than 10carbs?
 
chezpez said:
Another question!
what would you do if your hungry between meals? like today at 3.00pm bsl was 7.0 so didnt want to eat carbs so ate tin of tuna lol.. what else could you do? would you inject novorapid for a snack that is higher than 10carbs?
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I must admit that if I feel hungry and my BG is at the top end of my range then I'd look for a non-carb snack rather than injecting for carbs. I usually stuff my face with peanuts!🙂 I think others do inject for snacks though, just that I haven't got into the habit of it.
 
Thanks Northener, i've not injected for snacks before - didnt know you could! might have to have a go at that.. i wished i like peanuts lol
 
chezpez said:
Thanks Northener, i've not injected for snacks before - didnt know you could! might have to have a go at that.. i wished i like peanuts lol
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Hi chezpez. If you are on the basal/bolus regime and carb count then you can inject novorapid whenever you eat or even when you arent eating if you are very high, obviously it's best to avoid that situation though. It's just about how many times you are comfortable about injecting because obviously you dont want to feel like a pin cushion! I quite often end up injecting 5 or 6 times a day.
 
Hi Katie, i asked my nurse that question today as went for a flu jab and blood tests.. and she said we dont like to encourage to inject at snack times as should only have a 10 carb snack. She also said you shouldnt have to do correction doses if your counting carbs correctly! coz she said too many corrections would probably make you hypo later on!! its all just so confusing !! xx
 
chezpez said:
Hi Katie, i asked my nurse that question today as went for a flu jab and blood tests.. and she said we dont like to encourage to inject at snack times as should only have a 10 carb snack. She also said you shouldnt have to do correction doses if your counting carbs correctly! coz she said too many corrections would probably make you hypo later on!! its all just so confusing !! xx
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does she have diabetes? 😉 because she probably wouldnt know unless she had it... I agree it's best not to, but if I have a 10g snack when I'm not low/going low I still need to inject, so should I just never eat unless it's meal time? I don't think so! On the DAFNE course they do tend to tell people you can eat whenever/whatever as long as you bolus for it. She is right about correction doses, but like a lot of people I dont weigh everything EVERY meal so im bound to guess incorrectly sometimes and therefore might do a correction even when i'm not about the eat - but usually with next meal 🙂
 
so you give yourself a correction dose at your next meal? the thing is my carb ratio changes depending time of month and activity so it would be hard to guess what correction dose to put in.. I never knew you could use novorapid for a snack! i think the diebetic nurses at the hospital and at my clinic have just scared me to even try that coz of too many hypo's etc
 
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