How low do you go................with carbohydrates.

[Pasha]

Only have one meal per day, start my morning with bullet/fat coffee (coffee, butter and coconut oil well mixed) a coffee in the afternoon with jersey cream and coconut oil , then in the evening my dinner a meat or fish with butter or bearnaise/hollandaise sauce and a small portion of vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, salad or fermented cabbage or mouli) , some cheese for dessert (usually no carbs in the cheese), today I'm going to have some tuna (tin) and mix it with mayonnaise and 2 tbsp chopped red onion, a couple of boiled eggs and an avocado, probably some cheese.

Have you noted a significant drop in blood glucose after having shifted from 20-25 carbs/day to 10 carbs a day ?

 

[Bluetit1802]

Only have one meal per day, start my morning with bullet/fat coffee (coffee, butter and coconut oil well mixed) a coffee in the afternoon with jersey cream and coconut oil , then in the evening my dinner a meat or fish with butter or bearnaise/hollandaise sauce and a small portion of vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, salad or fermented cabbage or mouli) , some cheese for dessert (usually no carbs in the cheese), today I'm going to have some tuna (tin) and mix it with mayonnaise and 2 tbsp chopped red onion, a couple of boiled eggs and an avocado, probably some cheese.

That sounds very limited over a period of time. Do you keep count of all your nutrients, protein, vitamins, minerals, fibre? Hats off to you if you meet all the nutritional requirements. I couldn't do it for a day never mind longer!

 

[Pasha]

Yesterday I had just 10.7 net carbs for the whole day, this mornings FBG was 73 mg/dl or 4.06 mmoles/l.

 

[Enclave]

I have an average of 30g a day .. This is am amount I enjoy and my bs stay quite level

 

[modesty007]

Have you noted a significant drop in blood glucose after having shifted from 20-25 carbs/day to 10 carbs a day ?

Don't measure BG since I've avoided diabetes going LCHF

 

[modesty007]

That sounds very limited over a period of time. Do you keep count of all your nutrients, protein, vitamins, minerals, fibre? Hats off to you if you meet all the nutritional requirements. I couldn't do it for a day never mind longer!

Keep good track on my macros; protein, fat and carbs. Make sure i have good quality food and take some extra omega 3, vitamin D and magnesium. Don't think fiber is essential, but believe a good gut flora is, but it doesn't need any rouhage, but might need resistant starch. More important to include some fermented food in your diet.

 

[Pasha]

I am now on my fourth day on ca 10 grams of net carbohydrates and seem to be feeling better than ever. Of course its far too early to be getting a good picture of the real situation, but I am now encouraged to give this very low carbohydrate way of eating a much longer trial.

Has anybody else here experienced this?.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I am now on my fourth day on ca 10 grams of net carbohydrates and seem to be feeling better than ever. Of course its far too early to be getting a good picture of the real situation, but I am now encouraged to give this very low carbohydrate way of eating a much longer trial.

Has anybody else here experienced this?.

Hats off to you Pasha. I couldn't do it, at least not for more than a day!

 

[AndBreathe]

Personally, I found my bloods are not linear to the carb levels I consume. If I go too low carb, for me, my numbers go up, not down. I have never gone lower than 30g for any more than a couple of days at a time, and those days would just happen to be that way.

I'm not trying to encourage anyone to up-scale their carb intake, just commenting that cutting and cutting doesn't necessarily lead to better bloods.

 

[asyarlk]

Hi
I'm recently diagnosed with type 1. Just wondering whether I should be on a low carb diet and if so how much per day? I am 8 stone and 5'5' so no weight to lose.

Also after a meal with no carbs, how do you sustain your blood sugars without going low? My blood sugars are erratic and after a meal drop very low after 2 hours!!

 

[Brunneria]

Hi
I'm recently diagnosed with type 1. Just wondering whether I should be on a low carb diet and if so how much per day? I am 8 stone and 5'5' so no weight to lose.

Also after a meal with no carbs, how do you sustain your blood sugars without going low? My blood sugars are erratic and after a meal drop very low after 2 hours!!

Hi and welcome!

Low carbing is good for type 1s (there are several who do really well on it, who post on the forum). But most people on this thread are type 2s, so we are not using insulin - and that makes a big difference.

I think there are a number of adjustments/tricks that type 1s use when low carbing, and they can give much better advice than I can.

If you go to the type 1 section on the forum and ask the same question, you should get experienced input.

In the meantime, I will tag a few people who may be able to help; @donnellysdogs @LucySW @smidge @tim2000s @Ian DP @Dillinger

It's a bit of a slow time on the forum at the moment, but hopefully someone will be able to pop in to answer your question.

 

[Ian DP]

Hi asyarik

I was diagnosed just over a year ago. Just about everything I have learned has originated from this forum. Many of us on this form have found low carbing helps us keep our blood sugar levels under control. I started to low carb about 11 months ago, started to eat to my meter (testing my BG levels 1hr and 2hrs after eating food) and started to avoid those foods which I found elevated my BG levels. I quickly found that bread, potatoes, rice and pasta caused my BG levels to rise very high, so in no time I was down to around 100g of carbs per day, but gradually getting less and less as I started to avoid other foods that raised my BG levels. I am now down to 36g of carbs per day, and have been for the last 5 months. I am happy with 36g. I see it is a long term sustainable diet, that certainly enables me to control my BG levels.

36g carbs per day is not for everyone. It means, for example, you can not eat anything in most cafes, but I have found nearly all pubs ok. It means substituting chips for salad, for example. I eat a lot of meat and fish, with salad or vegetables. At 36g carbs per day I found it hard to sustain my weight, but this can be done by increasing your fat content. Eg by eating more fatty cuts of meat, more butter, oils, cream and cheese.

I found Dr Bernstein's book diabetic solution (£5 on kindle) a very interesting read. His 'solution' is to keep BG levels at normalised levels, with 36g carbs per day. Dr B is a qualified Dr specialising in diabetes. Diagnosed T1 age 12, given 5 years to live through diabetic complications when around 30 years old, then purchased a BG meter and started eating to it. He is now 80 years old with little or no complications, and still running his practise with hundreds of patients.

If you want to keep your quantity of injected insulin down to a minimum, low carbing is very much worth considering. Low carbing will also likely help you keep your BG lows and highs to a minimum. Eg the risk of hypos is generally considered to be less when low carbing, because everything is minimised. Dr Bernstein goes into much detail of this in his book.

Being newly diagnosed, you might still have a few healthy insulin making beta cells remaining. If you have, keeping to normal BG levels will possibly keep them healthy for longer, thus keeping your quantity of insulin down.... Just a maybe..... This is often called by Drs as being in the honeymoon period, often called LADA, which I am.

My advice, Keep trolling forum posts on this forum. You will learn so much on here. We are all different, the important thing is finding the right solution for you.

 

[smidge]

Hi
I'm recently diagnosed with type 1. Just wondering whether I should be on a low carb diet and if so how much per day? I am 8 stone and 5'5' so no weight to lose.

Also after a meal with no carbs, how do you sustain your blood sugars without going low? My blood sugars are erratic and after a meal drop very low after 2 hours!!

Hi asyarlk and welcome to the forum!

I'm an insulin-dependent low-carber. I was diagnosed about 5 years ago and am on a basal-bolus regime. Like you, I do not need to lose weight - 7 and a half stone at just 5 feet. My BG also have a tendency to be very erratic and low-carbing seems to reduce that for me to a large extent - although they still seem more erratic than some others' on the forum. For example, one small chocolate (e.g. Hero or Celebration) with just 6g carb will raise my BG by up to 4mmol almost instantly, so avoiding over-correcting a hypo can be difficult.

Low-carbing is really beneficial to those of us on insulin. The main thing is that it keeps your mistakes small; there is a lot of error in diabetes management - 20% tolerance on most BG meters, estimated carb content of food, activity level etc, estimated doses of insulin - all in all, you could be 20% over or under what your body really needs each time you inject - and then there's the basal - don't get me started on the basal LOL! Now, it doesn't take a genius to work out that 20% too much on a 3 unit dose is a **** site easier to deal with than 20% too much on a 15 unit dose! So, keep the carbs low, keep the doses to a minimum, keep your inevitable mistakes small.

Also, far from worrying about losing weight, most Type 1s find it hard to keep the weight off; insulin isn't called the fat-making hormone for nothing! I have found that my weight is very stable on a low-carb diet. I stick to around 50g carb a day - which for my body weight is nowhere near as low-carb as IanDP's diet. I don't really have to add much fat to my diet, I just have to not avoid fat if you see what I mean. The only fat I actively add is single cream in my coffee - and that's just because it tastes good, not because I really need it LOL! I cook with olive oil and butter whereas previously I would have dry-fried things. I eat nuts as a snack where it would previously have been crisps. I regularly have avocado in my salads or use an oil and vinegar dressing. I grate cheese over a chilli con carne whereas I used to have rice. That's about it really. Foods I avoid almost completely are bread, pasta, rice, cereal, potatoes - although I have a couple of small roast potatoes about once a week. I also limit fruit - although I think I need to limit it a lot more - my BG really doesn't react well to fruit.

One of the common mistakes for low-carb Type 1s is thinking they don't need to jab for no-carb meals - I need about 1.5 to 2 units for bacon and eggs - although I usually take that after I've eaten to avoid the drop in BG that you have alluded to. Protein breaks down more slowly than carb, but a good proportion of it does turn to glucose eventually, so you'll need to experiment with the timing of your injections to see what works for you. Some meals there is simply no alternative to split-dosing - taking a small amount witht the meal and then another unit or two an hour or two later - I find steak to be like that.

If you are considering low-carbing, you will need to adjust both your basal and your bolus ratio - contrary to popular opinion, what we eat does have an impact on the background levels, so the basal has to be adjusted downwards. All of this assumes you are on a basal-bolus regime. If you are on the older mixed insulins twice a day, you should go and ask your doctors to swap you onto basal-bolus - there is simply not the flexibility to adjust your insulin doses sufficiently with that to low-carb successfully. Some people manage it, but I think you would drop low all the time and I really wouldn't know what to advise with that.

Anyway, take it slowly, test a lot and adjust your insulin doses and timings as you see a pattern emerging. Good luck.

Smidge

 

[tim2000s]

Hi @asyarlk , as one of those mentioned, here's my two penneth.

What has been said thus far is all sensible advice and all I can really do is to add my observations and how it has affected my insulin levels.

What I've found is that Low Carb has generally reduced the peaks and troughs of my blood sugar, as there is less variation in the glucose going in, so there is less required to manage it. It has resulted in my lowest Hba1C test, pretty much ever. Like everything with T1 though, it does require a bit of working at.

So, point one. How much does your insulin regime change? For me, substantially. Going from approximately 200g carbs per day to <50, I have seen my basal level drop from 45u to 20u (and had to do a lot of monitoring to get there comfortably), The amounts of Novorapid I require have also changed noticeably, and the timing of these shots has had to change due to protein and fat based diets taking longer than carbs to have an effect. Typically I need 2-3u for a meal now, and take this when I've eaten rather than 15 mins before.

In terms of how much to eat, if I eat <2000 calories low carb, I lose weight. If I eat ~2000-2500 my weight is stable. So I am eating average calorie volumes for an adult male. The main thing is that this is split 45% Protein, 45% Fats, 10% carbs at a macro level.

If you are on the two shots a day regime, as smidge has mentioned, you will probably need to take a very measured approach and it may be worth looking at changing your regime to basal/bolus, if you are happy with the injections.

We're all around to help, so if you have any questions, please do ask!

 

[s_k_s]

Interesting reading this as a newbie. About 12 years ago, when i wasn't diabetic, I did <20g a day combined with running to reduce my weight and it was successful but I ended up putting the weight back on. This time round going for a balanced approach by <100g a day combined with running.

 

[phil1966]

I've found my carb intake gradually decreasing as I get more used to the lchf way of life. I'm now between 30 and 40 a day and find that's a level I can achieve without any effort and it's having a great effect on my BS levels.
I don't think I'll consciously try and go any lower now

 

[Ian DP]

I've found my carb intake gradually decreasing as I get more used to the lchf way of life. I'm now between 30 and 40 a day and find that's a level I can achieve without any effort and it's having a great effect on my BS levels.
I don't think I'll consciously try and go any lower now

I am much the same, around 36 per day, but not counting so realistically it is between 30 and 40 per day, depending on quantity of salad and veg I have. I feel this is sustainable for life, and quite easily achievable any and every day.

I now actually concern myself more with protein than carbs. Too much protein I feel is not so good (and raises BG levels), whereas fat has no protein, does not raise my BG levels and it seems to improve cholesterol HDL levels (the good one)... It certainly has with mine.