low carb diet the way to go?

[Deleted member 33898]

@Robin yes the injecting earlier has been mentioned before. I guess this would mean the insulin dose I've increased to might need to come down aswell ? So when levels drop rapidly and I try to address this with a small snack they just keep dropping. I imagine this is because there is still plenty of insulin on board and it just dealing with these small top ups quickly.

@rebrascora it's good to know it can work. Though I couldn't imagine being up that early to inject. I already get up at 630 everyday (maybe not soo early for some) so I take my dose 15 minutes before if my levels are between 5 and 7 , if in the 4s I try 10 minutes because I sometimes go hypo when Im finished eating. I will say though that looking back through my log there are morning's where there is no massive peak for the same meal, dose and timing. I was starting to think is lack of sleep a big factor on glucose levels aswell ? Some nights I wake up at least 6 times. Not the best at getting a good night's rest. My lunch follows similar trend though of peaking high and falling rapidly so that theory could be wrong.

 

[Inka]

Your plan sounds good @jazzchicken I agree with @Robin that timing of your bolus is important. I find breakfast is the time of day I need to bolus most in advance - roughly double the time in advance of other meals. I also find that my body unhelpfully likes to pump out glucose ready to start the day, so there’s an element of that interfering too.

But I’d also add that it’s still such early days for you as you were only diagnosed around 3 months ago. Here’s an example from my first few months of diagnosis: I had my breakfast of cereal and toast, tested 60-90 mins later and was 12/13, but 3 or 4 hours later I’d come down to 3.8. If you’re wondering when I had my bolus - I didn’t. I did that as an experiment. It was my own insulin that put my blood sugar down but it came in too late and a bit too much. I’m not suggesting you should omit your breakfast bolus, but I am saying your own insulin will be contributing just as mine did, which will help to explain why you go low. So, don’t obsess too much about perfecting things at this stage. Firstly, perfection is impossible, and secondly the honeymoon period is a time of erratic sugars and accepting that will help.

As far as alcohol goes, I drink moderately and usually drink with or after a meal. I tend to stick to 1 or 2 drinks, but occasionally will have three. The issue with alcohol is that it can cause hypos later if you have a large-ish amount. When I drink without food, I often nibble a few crisps (without a bolus).

 

[nonethewiser]

Try a day without eating and watch what happens to your BG level overnight. With no glucose to consume, your BG level should be level overnight. If it isn't level, your basal insulin is either too high or too low.

If your basal gives you a flat curve, you can control your BG with bolus

Not great idea, likely liver will dump glucose if starving yourself all day, better doing it in segments, miss brekkie one day lunch next tea next day.

Answering thread question, tried low carb about 14 years ago, it didn't reduce insulin usage nor did it increase it, found low carb meals would need lots of corrections to keep bg in range, more often than enough up to 3 injections for main meals, this up from 1 injection for carby meals.

Lasted about 3 months eating this way then switched back, found diet limiting & boring, also found myself thinking about diabetes more than I care for, must have been increased injection routine more monitoring of bg levels.