I don’t have carbs in the day then will have a normal meal with carbs in the evening as my insulin seems to work better in the evening. I don’t take 24U of levemir anymore that was my original doses when I left hospital, which has gradually reduced over 2 months. I’ve taken 6U daily, 3 in the morning and 3 in the night. I have used 2U this morning instead.
I’ve heard that you can eat anything and inject for, but I have to be honest I’ve researched it so much I just don’t feel that is entirely true and will cause fluctuating BG levels which I don’t want.
My logic is if I can reduce my insulin intake safely whilst having a balanced healthy diet surely that’s the best thing to do? Really confused why the NHS don’t advise a low carb diet to type 1s. My DN told me you get a lot of your energy from carbs and that why she wouldn’t recommend it, but then why recommend it for type 2s?
My insulin needs has reduced so much since I’ve gone low carb, I do feel it’s a sustainable long term diet.
For your basal to decrease that significantly you are definitely in a fairly good honeymoon period. Some people are completely off insulin while others have no noticeable honeymoon like myself (diagnosed April 2020).
The way basal insulin works is different to a normal pancreas as a normal pancreas would be able to vary the rate at which insulin is produced according to need but the insulin we inject doesn’t so if you don’t eat at least some carbs then you can go hypo so watch out for that.
The Libre would be good in learning about your metabolism and how your sugars respond to different foods. It’s all about trial and error. Not all carbs are the same: a doughnut and some spicy lentils will do very different things. Some foods might not even raise your blood sugars especially when I’m eating out, if I eat McDonalds I’m usually also walking around so my sugars don’t have a chance to rise and if it goes slightly low later then I just have 1-2 Dextro Energy tablets.
Maybe a lower carb diet yes but I do not personally think keto diets or anything of the sort are quite healthy for you to be honest. You just need to find a balance between meeting your carb needs and controlling your blood sugars. Sometimes I have had bean burgers (no bun) with 40g of carbs and if I inject my insulin before the meal I have gone low due to the fibre in the beans causing slow glucose release so the art of diabetes is knowing when to inject.
T2 and T1 are in essence completely different diseases that have been given a common name called diabetes because both is caused by an impaired glucose tolerance. The NHS advice is like that because T1 is not caused by yourself so you cannot fix it but T2 is lifestyle based and can be helped. Insulin resistance (cause of T2DM) can be reduced by losing weight, eating less carbs so you have less insulin spikes and exercising to make your body more sensitive to insulin).
The definition of low carb can change from person to person. When reading scientific publications generally I have seen <130g carbs to be classed as low carb and <50g carbs to be classed as very low carb. If you can do it while getting your 5 a day, your vitamins and minerals then do it
