Type1. LCHF Diet

[joanne75]

I eat vlc and it suits me very well. Small insulin doses suit me well too.

It's not the insulin that will make us fat but the foods we eat that need to be covered by insulin. I store every carb I eat, no lie. Any grain or dairy goes right to my bum. I do eat lc veggies because they're healthy and I like them. Other than that it's just mostly protein and avocado. Simple and basic but I love it.
Recently I think I developed a food intolerance to nuts as everytime I ate them the top of my hand would itch so those are out now too. The ever dwindling elimination of foods. Just don't take my avocado away!!!

Obviously you are not over eating calories but the type of food you're eating could matter. Do you think you have any food intolerances? I probably eat about the same amount of calories as you, especially without nuts. I have never needed loads of calories. Zaps my energy when I eat large meals. I'd rather graze which is hard to do with insulin.

Do you know how much protein you're eating? And are you including enough healthy fats? A calorie isn't a calorie in my book. How low carb is low carb to you? Maybe some tweaking to shift things. Fat is fuel and in the absense of carbs it does not make us fat.

Have you figured out your macronutrient ratios?

As azure said, SOME people do better with a few more carbs but SOME people do better with much less. Which way do you FEEL better?

Hi ok I seem to need insulin for whatever I eat unless I don't eat then I would generally not need it, I am trying to fast at the moment so am having 1 meal a day so I have one portion of protein with veg or salad, whether it be 1 piece of fish, prawns, tuna, 1 x chicken breast or an egg salad, not sure if I have any intolerances I have avacado do which is full of fat and has some carbs, I have cream in my coffee, I use olive oil to cook with and I have salad dressing and nuts, I dont know how to work out Macro's any advice? Thanks

 

[joanne75]

No, insulin doesn't work quite like that if you're Type 1. To put it simply, we're just replacing the insulin we can no longer make ourselves.

Regarding your weight, perhaps you're eating too few calories? How many carbs a day are you eating? LCHF doesn't suit everyone and it can cause physiological insulin existence. Our situation is different from someone with Type 2 so we often need a different approach.

Hi, what do you mean by physiological insulin existence? I am trying to keep my carbs down to see if this will help so I am fasting in the morning I might have some Italian ham and cucumber with cheese for lunch and then dinner would be some sort of protein with veg or salad, to be honest I am at such a loose end now I just dont know what to do, I have always struggled with my weight and the diaticians just seen to want you to be on 1200cal a day and really cant help me in why I cant loose weight

 

[azure]

Hi, what do you mean by physiological insulin existence? I am trying to keep my carbs down to see if this will help so I am fasting in the morning I might have some Italian ham and cucumber with cheese for lunch and then dinner would be some sort of protein with veg or salad, to be honest I am at such a loose end now I just dont know what to do, I have always struggled with my weight and the diaticians just seen to want you to be on 1200cal a day and really cant help me in why I cant loose weight

Physiological insulin resistance can be a natural response to going very low carb.

Assuming you don't have a thyroid issue - and I do think it's important to,rule that out properly - you could try increasing your carbs ever so slightly and see if that helps. I also think that for some people - I'm one of them - missing meals can be counterproductive and cause your body to hang on to,weight.

So if it was me, I'd get other things ruled out like thyroid, female hormone imbalance, insulin resistance (eg some Type 1s benefit from Metformin). Assuming everything was ok there, I'd then try various amounts of lower carb diets, logging food/calories/carbs and see if you can hit on something that works for you.

I do sympathise. It's very frustrating when there's no simple answer.

 

[joanne75]

Physiological insulin resistance can be a natural response to going very low carb.

Assuming you don't have a thyroid issue - and I do think it's important to,rule that out properly - you could try increasing your carbs ever so slightly and see if that helps. I also think that for some people - I'm one of them - missing meals can be counterproductive and cause your body to hang on to,weight.

So if it was me, I'd get other things ruled out like thyroid, female hormone imbalance, insulin resistance (eg some Type 1s benefit from Metformin). Assuming everything was ok there, I'd then try various amounts of lower carb diets, logging food/calories/carbs and see if you can hit on something that works for you.

I do sympathise. It's very frustrating when there's no simple answer.

Thanks Azure, so I take 150mg of thyroxine and I have just had an email from the dietician to take metformin to see if that helps, not sure how they check insulin resistance or do I do that? and ever since having my baby I have not been right as in, extremely tired all the time and hormones seem all over the place in regards to emotions and I just seem to get really hot when I walk or exercise as if my body cant cool down quick enough wonder if that is my hormones. I did have my blood checked for iron etc and it has thrown up that I am Vit D deficient and have to take supplements but that was only confirmed last week. Can I ask my GP to do a hormone blood test do you know? thank you

 

[joanne75]

bacon and eggs for breakfast in various forms. greek yog and berries and nuts

lunch cloud bread/lettace wraps/soup/leftovers

dinner meat and veg with some sauce normally...stir fry/tofu/full English fry up minus bread

just a few suggestions

I second they thyroid also

Hi Thank you for the info, I didn't think you could have berries on the LCHF type of low card diet? what kind of berries? I suppose I am just afraid that the fat will make me fatter as I dont know how much I should eat for my weight etc same as protein

 

[azure]

Thanks Azure, so I take 150mg of thyroxine and I have just had an email from the dietician to take metformin to see if that helps, not sure how they check insulin resistance or do I do that? and ever since having my baby I have not been right as in, extremely tired all the time and hormones seem all over the place in regards to emotions and I just seem to get really hot when I walk or exercise as if my body cant cool down quick enough wonder if that is my hormones. I did have my blood checked for iron etc and it has thrown up that I am Vit D deficient and have to take supplements but that was only confirmed last week. Can I ask my GP to do a hormone blood test do you know? thank you

Yes, you can certainly ask your GP to do a hormone blood test. Say you're feeling out of,sorts and unbalanced since having your baby and you wonder if your hormones haven't yet returned to normal. I can't see any reason why they wouldn't do a test for you. You could,ask for a full hormone screen, checking things like oestrogen,,progesterone and FSH (connected to ovulation). They may advise you have the test done on a certain day of your monthly cycle so make sure you ask about that.

Trying Metformin is a good idea

I know very little about thyroid problems but I wonder whether the feeling hot thing could be connected to that, along with the tiredness?

Vitamin D deficiency can also cause tiredness.

 

[Kristin251]

Hi ok I seem to need insulin for whatever I eat unless I don't eat then I would generally not need it, I am trying to fast at the moment so am having 1 meal a day so I have one portion of protein with veg or salad, whether it be 1 piece of fish, prawns, tuna, 1 x chicken breast or an egg salad, not sure if I have any intolerances I have avacado do which is full of fat and has some carbs, I have cream in my coffee, I use olive oil to cook with and I have salad dressing and nuts, I dont know how to work out Macro's any advice? Thanks

I need insulin for whatever I eat except maybe a few nuts, olives or a mayo based dip for celery.
To find out your macros you can go to www.myfitnesspal.com and plug in what you eat for a week or so to get an average. You'll need a food scale to be accurate. I'm wondering if you're just not eating enough healthy fats and if that would jump start something rather than more carbs. Worth a try. Add some avocado, oil or butter etc. you need not add tons, just some. You can even figure out your macros by yourself but you need to weigh EVERYTHING, including oils etc. MFP is much easier.
Fasting only raises my bs but it's great for some people. I just have 1/3 avocado for bf now at 8 and then lunch at 3. Dinner 6:30. I do have a few fat snacks in between. My tank likes to be topped off rather than emptied and then filled. My glycogen stores like to be emptied often so fat is my main macro. 80% . No matter what I eat if it's not 80% fat I'm hungry. Not everyone is like this but I thrive in ketosis. If I go over 20 carbs per day it's disastrous lol.

Try MFP. See how your macros and calories come out. Then you can adjust from there. May e you're eating more than you think of something.

 

[Engineer88]

Hi Thank you for the info, I didn't think you could have berries on the LCHF type of low card diet? what kind of berries? I suppose I am just afraid that the fat will make me fatter as I dont know how much I should eat for my weight etc same as protein

I know this is a shock but eating fat doesn't make you fat. Its a hard mindset to get out of I know. make sure youre eating full fat greek yog as the others are full of sugar!

Berries (straw, black, blue, cherries rasps) are all really low carbs for fruit. I have a mixture apart from black because I'm not a fan!

Protein I've seen between 0.8 to 1.2 g per kg of body weight, if that helps but Ive never watched how much of it or fat ive eaten and generally I loose 1lb a week for several weeks (until I look skinny and I'm told to literally eat a pie!)

 

[Kristin251]

I know this is a shock but eating fat doesn't make you fat. Its a hard mindset to get out of I know. make sure youre eating full fat greek yog as the others are full of sugar!

Berries (straw, black, blue, cherries rasps) are all really low carbs for fruit. I have a mixture apart from black because I'm not a fan!

Protein I've seen between 0.8 to 1.2 g per kg of body weight, if that helps but Ive never watched how much of it or fat ive eaten and generally I loose 1lb a week for several weeks (until I look skinny and I'm told to literally eat a pie!)

I don't measure carbs as I know my limits by eyesite but I do measure my protein and eat at the .8 and rarely higher. I just eat enough fat to satisfy. Never measure. It's always at least an avocado a day, so,e mayo or olive oil, maybe so,ennutsnor seeds, a few green olives. And of course that fat that comes with my protein but I do try to keep saturated fats on the low side.

 

[noblehead]

Hi, what do you mean by physiological insulin existence? I am trying to keep my carbs down to see if this will help so I am fasting in the morning I might have some Italian ham and cucumber with cheese for lunch and then dinner would be some sort of protein with veg or salad, to be honest I am at such a loose end now I just dont know what to do, I have always struggled with my weight and the diaticians just seen to want you to be on 1200cal a day and really cant help me in why I cant loose weight

Have you thought about trying something like Slimming World @joanne75?

We've had a few discussions on the SW diet over the years, in this one a member called @Mrsass (who has type 1) replied and said she'd successfully lost weight after previously trying a LCHF diet:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/thr...-and-effective-for-those-with-diabetes.91559/

Maybe worth considering if all other attempts fail, my wife (she's not diabetic) enjoyed her time on SW and said the group involvement motivated her to stick to the diet and lose weight. Anyway good luck.

 

[Diabeticlifer_]

Thank you for your response, so what do you eat in a day?

Usually 3 egg omelette with ham/tuna/bacon whatever is in the fridge, don't eat any cheese, with salad , then a meat and veg,
Sometimes veg for lunch, just swap depending if I want a hot evening meal or salad.
If I can get the nurse to change my levemir for tresiba tomorrow, then I will only need one injection in the morning ( I don't have any quick acting insulin during the week as my work burns the fruit carbs off by lunch, so that would mean only one injection a day) that's as good as a cure for new!
Good luck with your diet and diabetes.

 

[alexmtaylor]

I feel a bit ambivalent on the LCHF diet recommendation Throughout my 50 years of being Type 1 I have seen various diets recommended enthusiastically by experts, but they nearly always seem to be 'high something low something'. What about medium carb, medium fat and medium protein?

 

[azure]

Many Type 1s on LCHF need to bolus for protein in the absence of carbs @Diabeticlifer_

I feel a bit ambivalent on the LCHF diet recommendation Throughout my 50 years of being Type 1 I have seen various diets recommended enthusiastically by experts, but they nearly always seem to be 'high something low something'. What about medium carb, medium fat and medium protein?

That's what many Type 1s do @alexmtaylor I find it gives me the best of all worlds

 

[Kristin251]

I guess we are blousing for something one way or another.