Hello and two questions about diet

[zwhzjh]

Hi, I am from California, USA and was diagnosed as LADA last fall. Now with daily injection of 12U Lantus in the morning and ketogenic diet, both my blood sugar and body weight become stable. My blood sugar usually ranges from 3.5 to 7.0 and seldom goes above 7.0 even after meal. I also gain some weight, from 51kg at the lightest before Christmas to 55kg currently. Can I ask a couple questions about my current diet?

1) It is always said that ketogenic diet is good for losing weight. Is it also good for LADA patients to gain weight? Before the onset of LADA, my body weight is 63-64kg. My goal is to recover my weight back to around 60kg. I started ketogenic diet two weeks ago and now my weight increases very, very slowly, almost stable. I am wondering if I should use basal plus bolus insulin in order to have some staple food.

2) Previously I had about 40g butter in each meal (300 cal) and the total calories in one meal is around 600-800 cal. Later my wife thought that such high amount of diary fat might not be good for my health, so I cut down the amount of butter to 20g each meal and no exceeding 60g in total every day. I also try to increase the intake of fat from vegetarian sources, such as coconut oil, olive oil and nuts. Is there any suggestion for the butter intake amount?


Thank you in advance.

 

[NicoleC1971]

Hi, I am from California, USA and was diagnosed as LADA last fall. Now with daily injection of 12U Lantus in the morning and ketogenic diet, both my blood sugar and body weight become stable. My blood sugar usually ranges from 3.5 to 7.0 and seldom goes above 7.0 even after meal. I also gain some weight, from 51kg at the lightest before Christmas to 55kg currently. Can I ask a couple questions about my current diet?

1) It is always said that ketogenic diet is good for losing weight. Is it also good for LADA patients to gain weight? Before the onset of LADA, my body weight is 63-64kg. My goal is to recover my weight back to around 60kg. I started ketogenic diet two weeks ago and now my weight increases very, very slowly, almost stable. I am wondering if I should use basal plus bolus insulin in order to have some staple food.

2) Previously I had about 40g butter in each meal (300 cal) and the total calories in one meal is around 600-800 cal. Later my wife thought that such high amount of diary fat might not be good for my health, so I cut down the amount of butter to 20g each meal and no exceeding 60g in total every day. I also try to increase the intake of fat from vegetarian sources, such as coconut oil, olive oil and nuts. Is there any suggestion for the butter intake amount?


Thank you in advance.

Hi. Glad to hear you have been getting great blood sugars on your current regimen. Keto should help you keep whatever beta cells you have.
You lost weight because you did not have enough insulin in your body so you were pee ing out your glucose from food and your body was using up your own supplies to feed itself.
Keto won't help you gain weight however but if your blood sugars are normal you will be healthy with a normal appetite for food sufficient to replace whatever you've lost and perhaps slowly regain some muscle you may have lost if you eat to get full (not calorie counting) and lift some heavy things at a gym or in the garden/yard etc.
If you were concerned about your weight you'd need to eat more starch but would have to counterbalance that with managing blood sugars. Being underweight is also a risk.
Re butter, there's no evidence that saturated fat from dairy is unhealthy unless you have an intolerance of dairy. In a keto diet eating to fullness is what's recommended and eat good quality fats from animals and plants but especially omega 3s from oily fis, walnuts or flaxseed.
Butter has vitamin E, D and A in it and as with all fats it is a mixture of saturated, mono and polyunsaturated fats!

 

[HSSS]

I can’t answer as to LADA, but for those eating keto the way to gain weight is to add fats, and possibly proteins if these don’t effect bgl too much or you are able to cover them in your bolus. Adding more carbs isn’t the only option, but as an insulin user and presumably not insulin resistant, but it is one choice. Do you feel you could keep the stable levels whilst increasing carbs?

 

[Swillbos]

Hi zwhzjh,

Congratulations on getting such great blood sugars! I am low carb, not keto, the only advice I can offer from my own experience is trial and error....just keep a close eye on things and over time you will get a better idea of what works for you - we're all different. If you enjoy the keto diet and are getting such great results with your blood sugars then why change? You already know you need to get a significant amount of your calories from fat sources, if I was in your situation and wanted to gain weight, I would be extremely liberal with the extra virgin olive oil and nuts

Good luck with your journey

 

[zwhzjh]

Thank you guys for the warm welcome and all the suggestion! I will stick to the current diet for another one month to see how it turns out, also keep watching my weight change. Furthermore, I will have a blood test in early March to check my A1C and blood lipid. For the staple food, even if I had only 50g brown rice or whole-wheat bread, with such high amount of fat and meat and veggie, my blood sugar would soar up to 9-10. Now I am eating some cupcake made from almond flour, which is safe and sating. I will try to eat more ketogenic food. Now for lunch and dinner, it is safe for me to have 600-650g food each meal and I will go up to 700-750g.


Thank you again!