Highs

SandyDee

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I need a bit of advice please, I have been trying to reduce carbs for a while but I am getting very high readings after eating no carb food. I know someone said to me before about allowing insulin for no carb stuff and I have been trying that from the beginning, but when I say high I'm talking 20+. I must be doing something wrong I just can't work out what, my basal rates are ok. I am very insulin sensitive so am using trial and error with dosing for no carb meals but it seems to make no difference. I got less of a spike from the bread, pasta and potatoes when I was eating them. Almost ready to give up and my dietician was clueless too.
 

noblehead

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When are you seeing the Postprandial spikes, it may be the case where you need to split-dose if your following a low-carb diet that is both high in protein and fat.

Edit, just looked on your profile and your using a pump, an Extended Bolus or a TBR would work the same as split-dosing.
 

SandyDee

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Thanks for reply, I still can't get it right I was 4.1 before lunch today had a cheese omelette took it as 50g carb and split dose 3 hours later (i always test after 3 hours as there is always a delay with insulin for me) and was 22.3!!
 

noblehead

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Thanks for reply, I still can't get it right I was 4.1 before lunch today had a cheese omelette took it as 50g carb and split dose 3 hours later (i always test after 3 hours as there is always a delay with insulin for me) and was 22.3!!


My goodness that is high, are your sites OK and you do have any lipohypertrophy problems, I'm not sure what the solution is tbh but what bg levels would you expect to see at 3 hours postprandial if you ate a sandwich and an apple for lunch and bolused accordingly?

I'll tag some type 1's who low-carb and use an insulin pump to see if they can offer you any advice @Spiker @donnellysdogs
 

SandyDee

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i do have some lipohypertrophy but not on my stomach which is where my pump is, bread always made sugars rise but nowhere near this much no more than 4 or 5 points.
 

novorapidboi26

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with no carbs as such with a rise like that, could your basal rates be out............?
 

noblehead

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i do have some lipohypertrophy but not on my stomach which is where my pump is, bread always made sugars rise but nowhere near this much no more than 4 or 5 points.

Very odd that your bg levels should go up by 18.2mmol after a cheese omelette when you only see a 4-5mmol rise after eating carbs, could you not find a half-way house and just lower your carb intake but include some with your meals, so instead of having the cheese omelette have poached eggs on some Rye or Wholemeal bread and see what results you get.

I'll tag some more low-carb type 1's who may help @LucySW @robert72 @engineer88
 
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robert72

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Those are some pretty high spikes for an omelette especially considering you bolused for 50g carbs. Are you eating more protein since reducing your carbs?
 

SandyDee

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Those are some pretty high spikes for an omelette especially considering you bolused for 50g carbs. Are you eating more protein since reducing your carbs?
A bit more but not a tremendous amount. It's extremely frustrating because after reading everyone extolling the virtues of low carbs I was expecting magical things. I'm not doing very well, I may have to give up.
 

robert72

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A bit more but not a tremendous amount. It's extremely frustrating because after reading everyone extolling the virtues of low carbs I was expecting magical things. I'm not doing very well, I may have to give up.
It does seem very odd. I worked my way down through medium carbs for about a year before I reached lchf - I wonder if that gave me more time to adjust. I'm currently taking 12u basal and about the same in bolus for 25g carbs a day, 71g protein and 169g fat. Bloods normally meander between 4-8. Maybe you could try medium-carbing for a while to see if that suits you better?
 
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SandyDee

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I thought I was medium carbing, I have cut out all bread, pasta and potatoes, I am trying to average around 50g of carb a day. I still eat some fruit (berries mainly) and some veg carbs and I still have my cereal because I love it too much to give it up.
 

noblehead

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I thought I was medium carbing, I have cut out all bread, pasta and potatoes, I am trying to average around 50g of carb a day. I still eat some fruit (berries mainly) and some veg carbs and I still have my cereal because I love it too much to give it up.

If your eating cereal on a morning then you are probably eating more than 50g a day Sandy by the time you add up salads, veggies and the berries.
 

CDM9

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I'm frustrated too as trying low carb but still need insulin .....! my basal is fine as my morning wake up bg is 5-6 but after a turkey and 2 egg white omelette it shot up to 11! Is it the protein???
 

noblehead

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I'm frustrated too as trying low carb but still need insulin .....! my basal is fine as my morning wake up bg is 5-6 but after a turkey and 2 egg white omelette it shot up to 11! Is it the protein???

Both protein and fat can have an effect on bg levels and most people need to bolus for low-carb meals, I think many new members wrongly assume that if you drop the carbs you don't have to take any insulin or very little of it, from my own experience I can use just as much insulin for a low-carb breakfast of eggs & bacon/cheese omelette as I do for a bowl of porridge, it doesn't make sense really but that's the way it is.
 
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tim2000s

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If you eat protein two things happen. Firstly, you tend to see a reasonably sharp increase in bg level immediately after eating. This seems to be related to protein driving an insulin reaction in a normal person that requires a similar glucagon reaction. As a diabetic, we don't have the insulin, but the glucagon reaction takes place anyway. To deal with this i usually require about half the insulin I would need for the same grammes of carbs. If I don't use insulin, I see an increase rate of about 2.5-4 mmol per hour.

Following this, a process called gluconeogenesis kicks in, which causes the liver to convert protein to glucose. This will steadily increase your bg level post eating. I find that it needs approximately 1.5-2 u per hour for a few ( depending on amount of protein eaten) hours post eating. The rate of increase of bg without it over this period is roughly 0.75-1.5 mmol per hour for me.

So you can low carb, you just have to be aware that there are other processes in your body that create glucose and you have to learn to deal with them.
 
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CDM9

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Try telling that to my healthcare team....... .:)
 

donnellysdogs

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Sandydee
What pump are you using?
 

donnellysdogs

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I don't personally think this is a food problem. To get rises like that its either a site/set prob or settings not right....
A rise that quick after food no matter what I would have changed the set and site and ate the same again the next day.