General maths help wanted please for Insulin to carb ratios and how many units of insulin for the meal

[silentsquirrel]

Going from 1:10 to 1.5:10 would mean injecting half as much insulin again - 5.4 units instead of 3.6 units, that is a sustantial change. 1:8 or even 1:9 would be a much smaller and safer change - you can always change it again later if it isn't enough.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Going from 1:10 to 1.5:10 would mean injecting half as much insulin again - 5.4 units instead of 3.6 units, that is a sustantial change. 1:8 or even 1:9 would be a much smaller and safer change - you can always change it again later if it isn't enough.

Thank you @silentsquirrel 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

To me it would be a lot safer just doing the correction the bolus advisor suggests because if you change your breakfast to something higher carb, the suggested ratio is going to mean a more significant increase in insulin. A change in ratio also makes the calculation more complicated when the likelihood is that an extra correction unit will fix it short term and longer term, because your basal needs have been changing recently anyway, it may well resolve itself.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

To me it would be a lot safer just doing the correction the bolus advisor suggests because if you change your breakfast to something higher carb, the suggested ratio is going to mean a more significant increase in insulin. A change in ratio also makes the calculation more complicated when the likelihood is that an extra correction unit will fix it short term and longer term, because your basal needs have been changing recently anyway, it may well resolve itself.

Hi and thank you for your reply. If you don't mind me asking - which suggested ratio do you mean - 1:8 or 1.5:10?

 

[rebrascora]

The suggested ratio by the nurse. 1.5:10 I am guessing he/she may be DAFNE trained and used to working in Carb portions which is why she is suggesting changing the units of insulin rather than the grams of carbs. I think it is too extreme a change. I would go with @Kaylz suggestion or just leave things as they are for a bit longer but correct according to the bolus advisor and don't worry about stacking. The bolus advisor will be taking that previous correction when you woke up into account. It may be after a day or two of doing corrections that you need to start increasing your Tresiba again and that sorts it so personally I would wait and see what happens.

 

[JJay]

Gill, I would suggest asking your DSN why on earth she thinks 1.5u:10g would be easier to work out! You have fairly precise carb values from Nutracheck, presumably you have a calculator on your phone, so dividing your carbs by 8 or whatever is just a couple of clicks.

 

[Lucyr]

Gill, I would suggest asking your DSN why on earth she thinks 1.5u:10g would be easier to work out! You have fairly precise carb values from Nutracheck, presumably you have a calculator on your phone, so dividing your carbs by 8 or whatever is just a couple of clicks.

Even easier than that as Gill uses my sugr and can just update the ratio rather than doing any maths

 

[JJay]

Even easier than that as Gill uses my sugr and can just update the ratio rather than doing any maths

Yes I realise that, I use it myself. I was just concerned that Gill was worrying about complicated calculations when they can actually be done quite simply.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Yes I realise that, I use it myself. I was just concerned that Gill was worrying about complicated calculations when they can actually be done quite simply.

Thank you for your concern @JJay it's appreciated and as you can see from earlier replies I've had lots of maths tuition from very helpful forum members which is fabulous for if I ever have to do it myself. When you say "it can be done quite simply" do you mean that the MySugr app will do the maths? The one concern I did have was when my DSN suggested 1.5:10 instead of 1:8 or even 1:9

 

[Bruce Stephens]

The one concern I did have was when my DSN suggested 1.5:10 instead of 1:8 or even 1:9

1.5:10 is close to 1:6.7, so it's a suggestion to use a little more insulin than 1:8 or 1:9. That's all.

(If you had to enter it into a bolus calculator as a setting you could put 7g or 6.5g (if the calculator wants grams per unit, with 6.5g being closer, but obviously would need the calculator to support halves).)

 

[JJay]

Thank you for your concern @JJay it's appreciated and as you can see from earlier replies I've had lots of maths tuition from very helpful forum members which is fabulous for if I ever have to do it myself. When you say "it can be done quite simply" do you mean that the MySugr app will do the maths? The one concern I did have was when my DSN suggested 1.5:10 instead of 1:8 or even 1:9

Yes, the bolus calculator will work with whatever ratio you set. Under Carbohydrates you can choose either Grams or Carb Portions (Exchanges). Your DSN's suggestion used carb portions, ie 10g, but I think we're all of the opinion that grams are easier to work with!

So, you choose grams, go to Carbs/insulin ratio and you can have the same ratio all the time as you've been doing or you can adjust the ratio for certain times, as you are going to try for breakfast time. So choose your times under "Morning" and change the 10s to 8s. Keep your correction factor as it is for now. Then go to Confirm and away you go!

But even if you are doing it yourself there's no need for complicated sums - you're just dividing one whole number (grams) by 10, 9, 8 or whatever your ratio is. You will probably end up with a decimal point but just round to the nearest 0.5 as you have a half unit pen. So 36g for breakfast (1:8) would be 4.5 units, 36g for dinner (1:10) would be 3.5 units

Good luck and hope the change in ratio works well for you!

 

[Sally71]

OK I’m going to go against the grain a bit here. Yes we all agree that grams are easier to work with normally and I would always recommend that. BUT as we know, maths is not Gill's strong point and she prefers to use the bolus calculator all the time. And if her DSN is a bit old fashioned and still likes to talk in carb portions then there's a dead easy way round it.

Gill, remember when we first started suggesting that you change to 1:9 and you didn’t know how to do it? And you went into the bolus calculator settings and it was set to carb portions and was asking you how many units of insulin to you use for one carb portion?
We all told you to change it to grams so that it asks how many grams of carb per unit of insulin, because that's the way most people do it these days and it's easier to work out. But if you change it back again, it's talking the same language as your DSN and you can change the 1 to 1.5 and that will be the exact ratio your DSN wants to use (one carb portion is always 10g)
If you change the ratio and then change the setting back to grams it might even show you exactly what it converts to 🙂

 

[mum2westiesGill]

OK I’m going to go against the grain a bit here. Yes we all agree that grams are easier to work with normally and I would always recommend that. BUT as we know, maths is not Gill's strong point and she prefers to use the bolus calculator all the time. And if her DSN is a bit old fashioned and still likes to talk in carb portions then there's a dead easy way round it.

Gill, remember when we first started suggesting that you change to 1:9 and you didn’t know how to do it? And you went into the bolus calculator settings and it was set to carb portions and was asking you how many units of insulin to you use for one carb portion?
We all told you to change it to grams so that it asks how many grams of carb per unit of insulin, because that's the way most people do it these days and it's easier to work out. But if you change it back again, it's talking the same language as your DSN and you can change the 1 to 1.5 and that will be the exact ratio your DSN wants to use (one carb portion is always 10g)
If you change the ratio and then change the setting back to grams it might even show you exactly what it converts to 🙂

@Sally71 or @JJay or anyone


I much prefer grams. Have I set this right for 1u :8g? Also I have my breakfast anything from 9am to 10:30am so have I got the correct times? What does worry me is if I had my breakfast a bit earlier or a bit later than those times. Lunch is usually around 1:30pm to 3pm

 

[JJay]

That looks fine to me Gill, though as mine is on iPhone it looks a bit different! Am I right in thinking that on the Android app you can set “blocks” of time for different ratios? If so I’m jealous - on mine you have to change each hour individually - it’s a pain!
It’s difficult to predict what would happen with earlier/later breakfasts, depending on whether lunch was also early/late and, as always, “other factors”! All you can do is try it and see.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

That looks fine to me Gill, though as mine is on iPhone it looks a bit different! Am I right in thinking that on the Android app you can set “blocks” of time for different ratios? If so I’m jealous - on mine you have to change each hour individually - it’s a pain!
It’s difficult to predict what would happen with earlier/later breakfasts, depending on whether lunch was also early/late and, as always, “other factors”! All you can do is try it and see.

Thanks @JJay and by 'blocks' of time do you mean like this? I can't change the times and I have to go to each different time to enter the ratio.


Here's the diffident times where I've changed it to 1u:8g

 

[JJay]

Thanks @JJay and by 'blocks' of time do you mean like this? I can't change the times and I have to go to each different time to enter the ratio.
View attachment 18025

Here's the diffident times where I've changed it to 1u:8g
View attachment 18026

Ah, it is the same as mine then.

I just have my entire "Morning" list set to my breakfast ratio as I can be having breakfast literally any time from 6 to 12 - one of the joys of retirement 😉 !

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Ah, it is the same as mine then.

I just have my entire "Morning" list set to my breakfast ratio as I can be having breakfast literally any time from 6 to 12 - one of the joys of retirement 😉 !

Enjoy your retirement then lol

 

[JJay]

Enjoy your retirement then lol

Oh, I am! Though admittedly the 6.00 am breakfasts usually only happen when I've a plane to catch - and it's been a long time since that was the case Rising much earlier at present due to the heat, though