• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2026 Survey »

basal/rapid units

L

luca ferrario

Member
Messages
9
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I'm 42 and i'm type 1 from the age of 3 years.
I have a curiosity, usually it's said that the number of basal units/rapid units should be more or less the same in a day but in my case this isn't true. Maybe for insuline resistance but usually my tresiba units are 25/day and rapid units are 12/13. I'm 10.1 in and 163 lb so my weight is normal. What do you think about this?
Luca
 
hi there:)
it would be nice if our insulin doses never changed but I know mine do.
they can increase with colder weather for example.

my rapid units do change every day because I do not eat the exact same food each day.
some days more carbohydrates and some days less.
 
Hi @luca ferrario as long as the basal insulin dose you are using is keeping your blood glucose levels flat when fasted (and you aren't suffering hypos) and your bolus insulin is controlling meal time spikes, whilst guidance is 50:50ish, we don't all fit a mould. As is often said. your diabetes may vary!
 
50/50 doesn't work for me either. I have more bolus than basal.

I wouldn't worry about it. The important thing is to control your blood sugar. We're all different :)
 
You can always try a basal rate test to see just how well tuned your Tresiba dose is. But there probably isn't much of a need for that:

https://mysugr.com/basal-rate-testing/

Your TDD is 38u (13u bolus + 25u basal). Basal dose is "normally" somewhere between 40-60%. Your percentage is 66% so I wouldn't say that's in any way abnormal:)
 
I'm in and around the 50/50 split, think last time I looked it was something like 48% basal 52% bolus.

Agree with other comments Luca, don't worry about it as your TDD looks fine to me.
 
I'm not half and half either - I take around 13.5u to 15.5u basal insulin per day, and between around 7u to 13u bolus insulin per day. The variation is due to exercise and carb intake, but generally my total daily basal is much higher than my total daily bolus. TDD is anything between 20u and 28u, depending on what I'm up to and what I'm eating.

This 50/50 thing was a sticking point on my pump start day - when we were working out my basal/bolus split, it was just divided into two - which gave me some problems when I was just starting out with the pump.

Pre-pump my basal insulin was also higher than my bolus - which is why I'm a bit cross that I felt pushed into the 50/50 thing when I started pumping!

:)
 
Mine is totally dependent on what I eat. On low carb periods I'm about 70% basal, whilst on higher carbs, I can be 80% bolus. It all varies!
 
Back
Top