Type 1 on mdi - longest number of hours in-between meals

[mum2westiesGill]

For a Type 1 diabetic on mdi what is the longest number of hours we can go without a meal? Is 6 hours too long?

 

[Inka]

No, 6 hours isn’t too long. I once went all day without eating (I was moving house 😱 ). However, you might find your body pumps out some glucose in the lack of food.

 

[Sally71]

If you only inject rapid insulin when you eat then I think you should be able to go as long as you like in between meals, your basal should keep you steady in between. Just keep an eye on your levels and do corrections if they start creeping up. Gone are the days of mixed insulins when you had to eat at regular intervals!

 

[mum2westiesGill]

No, 6 hours isn’t too long. I once went all day without eating (I was moving house 😱 ). However, you might find your body pumps out some glucose in the lack of food.

Thanks @Inka

 

[Piglet]

For a Type 1 diabetic on mdi what is the longest number of hours we can go without a meal? Is 6 hours too long?

If you need scans or medical procedures you might have to go 11 hours or so without food. Just watch your levels as others have said and correct with short acting insulin as required bearing in mind the time scale of the insulin you are on.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

If you only inject rapid insulin when you eat then I think you should be able to go as long as you like in between meals, your basal should keep you steady in between. Just keep an eye on your levels and do corrections if they start creeping up. Gone are the days of mixed insulins when you had to eat at regular intervals!

Thank you @Sally71 and yes it's only rapid insulin that I inject for eating.

 

[Robin]

If you need scans or medical procedures you might have to go 11 hours or so without food. Just watch your levels as others have said and correct with basal as required bearing in mind the time scale of the insulin you are on.

Just so we don’t confuse Gill, I assume you mean 'correct with bolus'.

 

[Thebearcametoo]

You probably go around 12 hours overnight without carbs ‍♀️

Essentially as long as you’re matching your bolus to your carbs then you don’t have to worry about time. In reality if you fairly quickly drop a meal and your total carbs in the day drops considerably it can cause issues with the glucogen stores in the liver which can make it harder to deal with hypos. We’ve recently had this with my daughter and this was one of the possible reasons the dietician gave for having a much harder job of getting out of hypos. For a one off ‘I’m busy and a meal will be late’ don’t worry about it though.

 

[Kaylz]

From tea until breakfast it's 15 hours for me but it'd be longer if I could have a lie in

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Just so we don’t confuse Gill, I assume you mean 'correct with bolus'.

It's ok I thought it meant bolus too - I've never heard of correcting with basal before lol

 

[Piglet]

Just so we don’t confuse Gill, I assume you mean 'correct with bolus'.

Yes I did, Have edited post for clarification as I always get basal/ bolus the wrong way round Many thanks for the correction.

its not been a good week for me and I am runnign on tiredness and empty so apologies again.

 

[Deleted member 25429]

From tea until breakfast it's 15 hours for me but it'd be longer if I could have a lie in

What’s a lie in ??? One of the puppies thinks the day starts at 4 30 x

 

[Kaylz]

What’s a lie in ??? One of the puppies thinks the day starts at 4 30 x

I wouldn't know but seen them mentioned on the forum, I'm up at 5:20 but awake from the back of 4 when mum and Bubbles get up xx