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Blood Sugar Diet

luceeloo

Well-Known Member
Messages
677
Location
Rowley Regis
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
It's been a long time since I last posted here - I fell off the wagon big time after starting Lantus. I've had 8 months of really not having much control over when I need to eat... because the Lantus has made me want to eat continuously. Coupled with a really stressful year so far, I've gained a lot of weight.
Desperate to get health and life going in the right direction again, I decided that I need to do something quite disciplined, and the Blood sugar diet seems like the thing for me. I've got the books, and I'm following the meal plan in it as close to the letter as I can.

Just wondered if anyone else has done the BSD whilst on basal, and managed to lose weight? Also, any tips would be greatly received.
 
Are you taking lantus in the morning or at night? I had to switch to right before bed as it made me hungry all the time with loads of peaks and troughs. Now I just sleep it off.
I did take it twice in the morning and starving all day feeding hypos.
Some people split their dose morning and night but that didn't work for me. Perhaps you could talk to your diabetes team and see if you can try it at night if you're taking it in the morning.

My lantus runs out well before I get up and I have a morning rise so asked my doc if I could split it or take a unit in the morning and he didn't like that idea at all.

Have you done a basal test to see if your dose is right?

As for the BSD, I'm not overly familiar with it but is t it low carb?
That's what I do but I need plenty of healthy fats to make up for the carb calories.
Any idea how many carbs you eat in a day?
 
Thank you for your reply.
I have had very little support from my GP since being on Lantus. Basically, my DSN and all of the Nurses at my GP left in the space of a month, meaning they had to employ new staff. It took them months to find a new Diabetic Nurse. I met her once 8 months ago when she put me on Lantus. She literally said "take 6 units, and increase by 2 units every 3 days until you reach a point where your blood sugar has reduced". I'm at 77 units (and still increasing every 3 days), and although I've gone from around 20-23mmol on average, I'm still now around 12-16mmol on average... and feel a bit rubbish most of the time.
I've tried to get an appointment with the new DSN, but due to lack of staff I continuously get told "call back next week".. Hence the reason why I need to take matters into my own hands.

Currently, I am eating too many carbs per day. I am aware of that.
The BSD is a variant of low carb... it's portion controlled and very low carb for a period of 8 weeks, in order to reset the body and the way it burns energy. Then it's a bit more of a maintenance something akin to a normal low-carb diet.

I've just googled basal testing. I'd never heard of it. But I will research it more, and do it.

I had no advice about when to take it, just that I should take it once a day. I tend to take it in the morning before breakfast, as I also take Lixisenatide (and that has to be taken before the first meal).
I will try taking it on an evening - maybe will do the switch this weekend as I have no real plans and can take the time to do lots of monitoring.
 
Ok. Not good with your gp. So laxidIical. Not their life right?
What I can tell you and how I live by is if lantus at night drops you 30 ( us ) points decrease it by one unit until your close ( within 30 US points ) If you wake up 30+ points add one unit. I advise to error on the side of caution and start slow. If you wake up during the night, test and see if you've dropped. After around 5:00 am we all tend to start rising with the kick of cortisol and adrenaline waking up to start our day.
I believe most docs reccomend lantus before bed or at night, not mornings. Not sure of your realtionship with them or if you're comfortable or allowed to adjust your own insulin so might need to talk to them and get their approval. My doc is great and tells me I have better bs than him and just test. Just be cautious. Always better to be a tad too high than hypo.

I e never technically basal tested. But I take very small doses and nothing is there in the morning

Also , Very important. As you reduce carbs your insulin needs will reduce. For me, hugely. I'm far more hungry when I'm dropping so be very careful if you were a big carb eaters. If you change your regime it's important to test often as while you reduce carbs you'll reduce insulin needs.
 
Thank you so much - that's all very helpful.
I do plan to change GP surgery, but I seem to be in an area where the others are worse than what I have... so it's a case of risk!

I have complete control over my dosage, as they've never shown the slightest bit of interest in what I am doing. So I think the way forward for me is to test, test, test.
 
You got it. Test test test. Lantus does act differently away from food. It's not supposed to be used on food but rather keep us steady through the night as background insulin. Your needs may change drastically if you're moving it to before bed.
As a side, lantus makes me feel like rubbish and am very happy to sleep on it rather than deal with it during the day.
How does your bs act during the day? Lots of ups and downs?
So you're not on any bolus insulin?
I love using lantus at night and relying on my humalog for food during the day. I have much more control.
 
Kristin251 said:
I love using lantus at night and relying on my humalog for food during the day. I have much more control.
Click to expand...
Hey that's cool, sounds like we're on the exact same insulin regimes and I share the same experience as yourself in regard to Lantus and when best to take it and why. Glad you mentioned it Just curious and I suspect it differs from person to person but when you take humulog how long does it take to start doing its thing - it usually takes me any where from 10 - 20 minutes.
 

It was interesting reading your post as I used to be on Lantus (and Novorapid) and the Lantus made me hungry ALL the time and I was injecting about the same amount of Lantus as you are.

I did my own version of the BSD while on insulin injections but I did it in a sort of BSD / Very Low Carb combination and managed to lose weight and reduce the amount of insulin I needed. I did eventually manage to not need the insulin any more but it took a couple of months and its something my GP and DN didn't support me with.

The BSD seemed to work better for me when combined with low carb as, after a while on very low carb, my appetite just disappeared. After a while (and after reading Michael Mosley's Fast Diet and Dr Jason Fung's blog) I also added in a couple of days a week of intermittent fasting.
 
Great question! I switched from novolog to humalog about 5 months ago. So I've been testing and it's almost always 20 min. If I'm riding a little low I'll start eating at 15 after injecting and I come up just a bit. If I'm a tad high I'll wait 30-35 and I'll come down a bit. I like humalog o much better. Much smoother and lasts a bit longer. Novolog had asharp peak around 45-60 min and a fast drop.
It was you that inspired me to move my dinner earlier and lantus later away from food. Fastings got much better briefly but I was dropping into the 50-60 range during the night even on just one unit. So started having a spoonful of avocado ( egg with mayo or cheese didn't help) and the last three days I stay exactly the same until around 5 am and only get about a 20(us) increase at fasting. Better than dropping so low. Easy to fix in the morning. I always need an extra injection one hour after starting to eat bf to stop any further rise.

Lantus during the day is so wavy, never know whats going on. I know my humalog and can keep very steady. Throw lantus in there and I'm all over the place.

Thanks for the tip of moving food and lantus further apart! It lets lantus do what it's supposed to do and not be used on food.
 
My advise if trying the blood sugar diet is to plan your meals. Its a low carb, very low calorie diet for 8 weeks, if you choose the right foods you can actual eat a far amount (loads of salad, stir fry/roasted veg, courgette with simple sauce) I fell off because I didn't plan and make sure I had the correct ingredients at home
 

My blood sugar is high and erratic mostly during the day, except for today... first proper very low carb day today, and it was at 11.9 (214) before dinner. I know that's hugely high still, but before dinner has usually been much higher and can be late teens... I'll take 11.9! I also didn't take any Lantus this morning, and tonight will be my first evening dose. I'm going to start at 40 units, and then see what tomorrow's readings are like, and start adjusting in increments as necessary.
I'm not on any bolus. I'm on a glp1 (Lixisenatide), and good old metformin.


That's exactly what I'm hoping to do. I love low carb when I've got into it and got my head into. I think it's so flexible and there are so many choices that don't seem like "diet food".


I've made a copy of the menu plan, and have been shopping today to make sure I have everything in that I need. I never do diets the proper way, so thought I'd start by following it to the letter!
 
When your bs has been high for awhile it can take time for your body to adjust to a new lower set point. You may ( most likely ) experience false hypos.

40 units is just about half right? It sounds like a reasonable starting point. I'd still set my alarm. And test during the night. It can also take lantus a few days to get with the program so tread carefully please

Lantus during the day made me very irratic so I hope moving it to nights smooths things out for you.

At least your bs is moving in the right direction. Have you asked for bolus insulin? I don't know how I could stay steady day and night on just lantus.

Wishing you a great outcome. Keep us posted!
 
Lantus is a long acting, background insulin. You need a quick acting to cover meals. You should not be taking vast amounts of lantus and seeing levels still in the teens. It is not effective because it cannot match your meals. Especially if you are eating high carb, not a hope in hell of ever getting control I am afraid. Shame on your GP Practice. Shocking level of assistance.
 

Changing GP's seems like the only option for improving my level of care at this point. I was scared of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, but my GP Practice has just been put on to "special measures" by the CQC. Which confirms what I've always thought - they are utter rubbish! I've also read this weekend that they've employed one of the countries leading Diabetic Nurse Specialists - she sounds very dynamic, but seems a bit late in the day to me.
 

Go for it, stand your ground and tell them you are not happy to accept levels this high and need a quick resolution. Good luck. It's your body, not theirs.
 
I feel like doing a little dance! So, my blood sugar was in the mid teens on waking most mornings. In my four diagnosed years, it has never been below 10mmol in the morning. This morning... 6.1mmol.
It's been coming down fairly steadily since Sunday, and the more I've seen it come down, the more I've been encouraged to avoid carbs.
I'm going to celebrate by eating the left-overs of last night's dinner for breakfast - cottage pie made with cauliflower cheese on top instead of potato.
 

That's brilliant - well done!!!
 
DANCE DANCE DANCE!!!!

Did you just lower carbs or move lantus to the night?
 
Kristin251 said:
DANCE DANCE DANCE!!!!

Did you just lower carbs or move lantus to the night?
Click to expand...

Both!
I've been eating really low carb, and now take the lantus right before bed. I wake up hungry, but instead of waiting until I've got to work to eat breakfast, I take my Lixisenatide and get myself ready for work then eat right before I leave the house.
 
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