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Advice for going low carb

The wonder of a forum is an argument can go on and on. It's not on topic and it's certainly not necessary. This post was giving me some good points from all angles, but it is quickly degenerating into name calling, which is the type of thing a moderator could lock the post for. We are all here for the same reason: to grab diabetes by the throat, jump up and down on it and beat it mercilessly until it is whimpering and agreeing to behave. Everyone can get to be the bigger person and walk away from the argument. If you have a useful point to make, great. If not, invite your adversary to a bad youtube video and continue the name calling in the comments section there.
 
Do we really need to go through these pointless and rather tedious conversations anytime somebody asks about low carb? If somebody asks it is reasonable to assume that they have already done some research and decided that it is something they are interested in, yet its always the same people trying to persuade them otherwise. Tiresome in the extreme.



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Thommothebear said:
Do we really need to go through these pointless and rather tedious conversations anytime somebody asks about low carb? If somebody asks it is reasonable to assume that they have already done some research and decided that it is something they are interested in, yet its always the same people trying to persuade them otherwise. Tiresome in the extreme.



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Indeed.
It's strange how the single line
" liver function and bone density, as well as the rest of the bloods are also good checks iif you lchf for life"
appears to have caused such unrest, and is now being decried by low carbers as the ultimate phrase to persuade anyone not to low carb.
Is it really that volatile, and such a phrase could really sway people to gorge out on carbs for life?
 
Charles,

I thought this video about low carbing was very interesting; much of this we know already but it's really good to have the low-carb strategy explained so well by a doctor (of all people!!!). Your point about the rollercoasters of high to lows whilst eating plenty of carbs is repeated here.

Worth a look; I'd be interested to see what your DSN would say in response to this?


Best

Dillinger
 
*** can we get back to helping Charles. There are risks associated with any approach and Charles seems to be grown up enough to realise that so let the low carb INSULIN using diabetics relate their many years of experience to someone who wants to try the same approach. That way we can all best help Charles with the choice he has made.

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Absolutely, low carbing will stop the swings. The reason it works is because when you consume large amounts of carbs, you expose yourself to a large amount of error. If you get your insulin dose correct, you shouldn't go high and you shouldn't go low - right? Well, there's a 20% error in the amount of carbs written on a packet of food, 30% variation in the amount of insulin the enters your blood stream and if I were to hand you a plate of food and ask you to guess the amount of carbs in it, you'd get that wrong by 20% too (this latter value is from a study on carb count estimation).

If you've ever had one day when after lunch, for example, you had a BG reading of 6.0 mmol/l. Then the next day you do nothing differently and you have a reading of 12 mmol/l or something? Well, it's because one of the things above has gone wrong. When you reduce your carb portions, you are reducing yourself to the error - a 20% error in 10g of carbs isn't going to mess your levels up, but a 20% error in 100g carbs will.
 
One thing to watch out for (as my T1 LC son tells me) is that he has to start to account for protein when calculating his insulin rather than just the carb content.
 
I've made 2 changes recently to my low-carbing and they have really helped with weird blood readings the first is to change the needle for every injection full stop. I used to change the needle with each vial, and I'm sure that contributed to strange readings.

The second thing is I've started eating breakfast again; I was getting quite weird mid morning levels, sometimes fine sometimes high and I think it was related to liver dumps; by having a single slice of luv live bread (4 carbs) and peanut butter things have also levelled out.

I would evangelically say always change your needle now; I'm hoping that those things will 'cure' my recent spike in HbA1c to 6.6% which I couldn't understand.

Best

Dillinger
 
Dillinger said:
Charles,

I thought this video about low carbing was very interesting; much of this we know already but it's really good to have the low-carb strategy explained so well by a doctor (of all people!!!). Your point about the rollercoasters of high to lows whilst eating plenty of carbs is repeated here.

Worth a look; I'd be interested to see what your DSN would say in response to this?


Best

Dillinger
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for posting that, what a fantastic video. My wife is finding the terminology in Dr Bernstein's book a bit tricky, but that speaker explains things very clearly so I will show it to her when she gets in. I will definitely be forwarding that to my DSN.
 
Needle changing is something I definitely need to be better at. I will go and switch mine now ready for my lunch injection. Thanks for the tip Dillinger! And thanks Sam and Xyzzy for the advice regarding protein. My BS levels are getting that bit better each day, but I still have progress to make. I'm confident I can get there though. :)
 
I agree with Dillinger. I used to change it once per day, but they're designed for single use. Here's a pic of a needle used multiple times:

http://www.diabeticcatcare.com/COK/Insulin syringe photos/Used needles.jpg

Have a Google, there are a few more pics out there.

Used more than once, then your dose accuracy will decrease. Like I said above, if you get your dose correct you shouldn't go high or low. If you don't change your needle every time then you probably won't be getting your dose right.
 
Dillinger said:
I've made 2 changes recently to my low-carbing and they have really helped with weird blood readings the first is to change the needle for every injection full stop. I used to change the needle with each vial, and I'm sure that contributed to strange readings.

The second thing is I've started eating breakfast again; I was getting quite weird mid morning levels, sometimes fine sometimes high and I think it was related to liver dumps; by having a single slice of luv live bread (4 carbs) and peanut butter things have also levelled out.

I would evangelically say always change your needle now; I'm hoping that those things will 'cure' my recent spike in HbA1c to 6.6% which I couldn't understand.

Best

Dillinger
Click to expand...


It took you a long time to heed that advice Dillinger:)
 
xyzzy said:
*** can we get back to helping Charles. There are risks associated with any approach and Charles seems to be grown up enough to realise that so let the low carb INSULIN using diabetics relate their many years of experience to someone who wants to try the same approach. That way we can all best help Charles with the choice he has made.

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Click to expand...

Maybe you should apply for the moderators post. then you could split the forum and restrict posters to only their own area for their particular type of diabetes, and censor anyone who you think is stepping over?
However, if you think you personally shouldn't be posting here as a non INSULIN user, until then it's your choice not to.
 
My needle supply and sharps bin have just been awarded permanent spots on the work top for easy access from now on. :)

Douglas, it seems you had some valid points but now just have an axe to grind. Kindly go and find another whetstone.
 
douglas99 said:
Maybe you should apply for the moderators post. then you could split the forum and restrict posters to only their own area for their particular type of diabetes, and censor anyone who you think is stepping over?
However, if you think you personally shouldn't be posting here as a non INSULIN user, until then it's your choice not to.
Click to expand...

Douglas all I am pointing out is you do not have the experience to advise an insulin using diabetic especially over low carbing. The exact same argument applies in reverse ie an insulin using diabetic does not have the experience to advise diet only T2s imo.

By all means comment on any thread but recognise your limitations when it comes to advice.

Charles specifically asked for advice on low carbing for insulin users not about the merits of lc.

As to moderating then board warnings have rightly been issued to diet only T2 forum members who have posted "advice" to insulin users.

This is why you will rarely see many even very experienced T2s commenting in anything more than general terms on threads like this because we don't know enough.

If you want to debate this fine but do it on another thread rather than continually ***** at people on this one.

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