Ketogenic diet and exercise

[craig.turner1981]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie to the forum. Type 1 diabetic since the age of 12 and now the grand age of 31. My brother recently gave me a book advocating the benefits of eating paleo, and since then that has snowballed into reading about Bernstein, and the low carbohydrate diet for athletes. As I'm sure you are all familiar with, and I am especially annoyed with myself, is the lack of information on reliable and consistent food nutrition and exercise for type 1's (or type 2's). I've always (I'm being big headed here) considered myself a good athlete and have always tried to take care of myself but found exercise, especially endurance events, very limiting and scary things to undertake. However, since going on a ketogenic diet one month ago, I'm well on course for completing my first half marathon in a couple of weeks without having any fears of my blood sugars going low half way round the course. I was just wondering if other type 1's (or type 2's) have found endurance events since turning to a ketogenic diet? I really want to push myself this year (I'm optimistic enough to belief a full marathon might be possible later in the year) and would like to know if anybody has any tips for pushing the boundaries that little bit further?

 

[Bodybuilder type1]

How are you on a keto diet if you take insulin ?


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[craig.turner1981]

Hey bodybuilder,

If you eat less than 50g of carbohydrate a day you're body will enter ketosis and start using ketones as it's primary fuel source. This is known as nutritional ketosis and very different from ketoacidosis (which happens in the presence of high blood sugars and little to no insulin). So my diet is now high fat and low carbohydrate as opposed to low fat and high carbohydrate, which it was before. Does that make sense?

 

[silvi]

So i can make this diet if I use insulin!

 

[Lisa_87]

Hi craig.

I have been a Type 1 for the past 13 years mainly on MDI but have had an insulin pump for the last 3 years. Have experimented with certain degrees of low carb levels over the years, never completely commiting, however, something has changed (for some reason) for me in the last 2 weeks and have been on a strict ketogenic way of eating since....Have upped my fat intake to about 70%, decreased protein to about 30g per day and protein stands at roughly 60g. My blood sugar levels have been fantastic. Although my brain hurts from the amount of papers I have been reading on diabetics and metabolic pathways!

I think it is a good idea to keep carb intake matched according to activity if one partakes in alot of exercise, purely to prevent prolonged periods of glycogen depletion, which from my understanding is not where one wants to be for great amounts of time...

I tend to lower my basal insulin prior to exercise to avoid having to eat carbs, therefor never reach the stage where I am depleting my glycogen stores. Then try to evenly split my carb and protein throughout the day and keep my intake from the different macronutrients very similar day-day so it is easier to predict the rises and falls.... With hypos, by increasing bg checking, I can prevent the hypo occuring and having to eat more carbs by again decreasing my basal as my bg starts to fall.

Diabetes....1 big sodding learning curve....and I thought I had it cracked 5 yrs ago....