Can I do low carb, high fat with T1 diabetes?

I’m Type 2 so don’t know the implications for Type 1s but @Mel dCP may be able to help you.

A great resource for low carb for Type 1's is the Facebook group "Type 1 Grit".

Lydiagoodman93 said:

! I am already putting on weight after 4 days of taking insulin

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If you have just been diagnosed with type1, it is likely that many of your's body's cells have been starved of energy due to a low insulin level, hence it is normal to put on weight when starting insulin. This does not mean you will keep putting on weight.

Clearly avoiding drinks that contain sugar is always sensible, likewise home cooked food is better than processed food. Other than that there is little agreement on what the best diets is for someone with type1. Many people with type1 find that they can get great BG results (without gaining unwanted weight) on a high carb diet, but other people with type1 find they get much better results on a low carb diet.

Sure you can, but only when you know how to adjust your insulin dose according to the carbs you eat. If you've only recently been diagnosed it's expected to gain some weight, as you've basically been starving running up to diagnosis. Give yourself some time to learn to crawl before trying to run.

Thanks for the tag, yes I do very low carb, and follow the Dr Bernstein method described in his book Diabetes Solution - https://amzn.to/2HR4Yy5 I’m also a member of TypeOneGrit on Facebook, there’s a lot of device and support there. I don’t do it for weight, I do it for blood sugar management, although of course I still take insulin.

And as the others said, if you lost weight prior to diagnosis, you will put some back on, as your body gets back to health.

Lydiagoodman93 said:

I have read such mixed reviews about whether a high fat low carb diet is beneficial for type 1! I am already putting on weight after 4 days of taking insulin and don’t want to put on any more. Has any one got any advice on what diet to go on?

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Whoah, steady on, Lydia!

You were dx'd T1 a few days ago. It's far too early for you to be making any decisions about radical adjustments to your diet.

You need to spend some time working with your doctors to figure out how insulin is working for you, and they will be able to do that by you eating what you normally eat.

T1 is a new ball game for you. It will take a long time before you can make any rational decisions about whether lchf, keto or just plain ornery food works best for you.

Lchf etc might be a good option for you in the long run, but, seriously, don't make that decision after 4 days.

Be aware that, while this site is a good source of info, 90% of Ts are T2, 10% are T1, and the biology has fundamental differences. Advice from T2s on T1 matters frequently fail to understand that difference.

The type1grit advice, for example. It might be an option which you choose in the future, but I really don't think that you are in a position right now to decide that, according to their rules, you should eat no more than 30g carbs per day, rule out any fruit except avocado, and avoid onions.

T1 has a huge amount of latitude in food choices. If you start looking at lchf options at this early stage, you're ruling out so many options.

@Lydiagoodman93

As you have not been on this site for long, you may have not noticed that many people (including me) who normally recommend "low carb", have not done so in response to this thread. This should tell you something.....

Did you lose weight before your diagnosis??

If you feel mentally ready to make choices for your future, make them. In your shoes I would take the route which limits potential complications and minimal insulin use.

Diabetes does not work off of our timescales. In your shoes I would apply to join Type 1 Grit and follow Bernstein. I am not pushing this, but as someone who experienced terrible symptoms (brain fog, weeing constantly, tingling fingers, fatigue, reduced vision, feelings of impending doom, I am clearly biased towards optimum control (all symptoms are now reversed).

It is too early into your diagnosis to decide on a dietary plan that your healthcare provider may be ill equipped to support.

Take your time to research deeper the value of each approach. Meanwhile work with your healthcare team till you are comfortable to run on your own.

Lydiagoodman93 said:

I have read such mixed reviews about whether a high fat low carb diet is beneficial for type 1! I am already putting on weight after 4 days of taking insulin and don’t want to put on any more. Has any one got any advice on what diet to go on?

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Hi Lydia,

Welcome to the forum,

I was eating LCHF immediately prior to going on insulin earlier this year. It wasn't sensible to continue on it when I was first put on insulin because of the fixed-dose most of us are started on and I'd've been hypo all the time if I'd insisted on sticking to LCHF once my very high blood sugars were down and stabilised. Much as I panicked about the weight I'd put on, the priority was getting blood sugars down and stabilised. The weight could be sorted once my body had adjusted to insulin again!

I also put on weight very fast for the first few days and weeks but it was my body restoring the essential fat it needed of the fat I'd lost. It did all stop once I could adjust my doses of insulin myself and I've just wavered a couple of pounds either side of that ever since.

9 months down the line, I am just easing back to a lower carb diet, but far more for the sake of my blood sugars and over-all health than weight. I do eat a certain number of grainy carbs which I'd rather not be doing longer term because I'd cut out gluten, not realising if I was going to be screened for coeliac disease I needed to have gluten in my system and my next clinic appointment is in January when I will be screened again.

Phew! 4 days into your diagnosis @Lydiagoodman93 and probably even more confused than ever!

So many contradictory views, even here.

I don’t know whether you are reading the forum on a phone, or a tablet or a bigger machine, but some of those allow you to see what type of diabetes each poster has. Have a look at the avatar pictures. Can you see Type 1 or Type 2 under each person’s name?

If you can, it is always worth noting this when taking advice from that person, simply because of the amount of experience they have to offer.

So far, on this thread you have had comments from 3 very experienced type 1 diabetics. @Mel dCP @Scott-C @donnellysdogs and @Japes who is Late Onset type 1, all of whom have masses of experience with insulin. They also have varying experience of lowering their carbs, and manage their type 1 with different levels of carb intake - which just goes to show how it is possible to manage type 1 on various different ways of eating - once you have settled in to carb counting and insulin dosing.

Regarding low carb... take your time. Changing the eating habits of a lifetime at the same time as getting a lifechanging diagnosis is a double whammy. You already have a huge amount to take on board. Switching to low carb is more complicated for a type1 than for a type 2, with more factors in play. And of course,as you learn carb counting and blood glucose management, you will very quickly see whether your current carb intake is working for you, or not.

If you lost weight before diagnosis, then your body will naturally replace that weight as a priority, now that it can get energy to where it needs to again, with insulin. But your priority is always going to be blood glucose management.

Welcome to the forum.

Edited for typos.

Lydiagoodman93 said:

I have read such mixed reviews about whether a high fat low carb diet is beneficial for type 1! I am already putting on weight after 4 days of taking insulin and don’t want to put on any more. Has any one got any advice on what diet to go on?

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You've had some great replies, but what you do is really all down to you. It all depends on what you're capable of handling at the same time.
Some prefer to deal with ONE issue at a time e.g. injecting for blood sugar control, while others will see a need for diet adjustment. If going LCHF is too stressful for you, I'd say avoid it. If you're capable of coping with it, I'd follow GP Ian Lake's example :

"GP Dr Ian Lake told the conference how he revolutionised treatment of his own type 1 diabetes by going on a “ketogenic” – extremely low-carb, high-fat – diet. The only pity, he said,was that he “didn’t do it earlier”.
"Some people do well on carb-counting and insulin injecting, he said; others don’t. And anyway, the one good thing about an LCHF diet is that “you can stop it at any time”.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/th...igh-fat-with-t1-diabetes.158611/#post-1923725

When I started on insulin I was already low carbing, and since doses are slowly titrated up to the required level, there was never a problem.
It's different strokes for different folks.
Geoff

Lydiagoodman93 said:

I have read such mixed reviews about whether a high fat low carb diet is beneficial for type 1! I am already putting on weight after 4 days of taking insulin and don’t want to put on any more. Has any one got any advice on what diet to go on?

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Hi @Lydiagoodman93 ,

Welcome to the forum.

You will gain back a little weight regarding what was lost prior to getting diagnosed. You were also probably dehydrated too.
With the thirst & urination symptoms.. This is normal.

You're on the 5th day into a new regime of counting the carbs, testing & injecting.. In these early stages? (With the possibility of the "honeymoon period" also showing it's hand at some point?)
Even protein has to be accounted for as the metabolism breaks it down...

Nobody gets "it" straight away when having boxes of insulin prescribed.
Take your time. Keep asking the questions, gain an understanding on how your meds work with your current advised diet.
Then work it from there.

You need a "reference point" to work from, before considering any tweaks...

Hope this helps.

Hi. A few points. First, in general a T1 or T2 can adopt a diet with low carb and higher fat and higher protein. When on insulin you always need to take account of the amount of carbs you eat and the insulin dosage. How you handle that will depend on whether you are on mixed insulin or Basal/Bolus (aka MDI). As you are new to using insulin you shouldn't make any great changes in diet without getting advice from the DN and/or thinking about what you are doing and the effect on insulin dosage. Gaining weight when on insulin will normally be due to having too many carbs as the insulin will now be enabling the body to metabolise the carbs and too many carbs means fat storage. As you have discovered taking insulin doesn't mean you can eat anything you like; you can but weight gain may result. Just take things slowly with the aim of controlling the carbs over time to a sensible amount. As usual make sure you are using the meter often enough to avoid hypo risk.

Mbaker said:

but as someone who experienced terrible symptoms (brain fog, weeing constantly, tingling fingers, fatigue, reduced vision, feelings of impending doom, I am clearly biased towards optimum control (all symptoms are now reversed).

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It's probably fair to point out to the OP that T1 and T2 experiences of complications are very different.

Generally, T2s will have had elevated levels for an extended period prior to diagnosis, so there's a higher chance of complications having already developed to a greater or lesser degree.

Whereas with T1, the onset is generally fairly rapid, a few weeks, so exposure to high levels is brief, nowhere near long enough to start complications. With T1s, it can take years of running too high to get complications.

Many T1s have had it for decades with no complications to speak of.

For T1s, avoiding complications is an argument for eating in moderation, not for low carbing.

Scott-C said:

It's probably fair to point out to the OP that T1 and T2 experiences of complications are very different.

Generally, T2s will have had elevated levels for an extended period prior to diagnosis, so there's a higher chance of complications having already developed to a greater or lesser degree.

Whereas with T1, the onset is generally fairly rapid, a few weeks, so exposure to high levels is brief, nowhere near long enough to start complications. With T1s, it can take years of running too high to get complications.

Many T1s have had it for decades with no complications to speak of.

For T1s, avoiding complications is an argument for eating in moderation, not for low carbing.

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I can testify to that. With the wonders of hindsight I would say my bg has been elevated for years. The earliest effects I could qualify as staring. That have now ceased, would be as much as 15 years ago.

Good luck with your choices.

Scott-C said:

It's probably fair to point out to the OP that T1 and T2 experiences of complications are very different.

Generally, T2s will have had elevated levels for an extended period prior to diagnosis, so there's a higher chance of complications having already developed to a greater or lesser degree.

Whereas with T1, the onset is generally fairly rapid, a few weeks, so exposure to high levels is brief, nowhere near long enough to start complications. With T1s, it can take years of running too high to get complications.

Many T1s have had it for decades with no complications to speak of.

For T1s, avoiding complications is an argument for eating in moderation, not for low carbing.

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No difference then. Mine came on within 4 weeks. In the November of 2014 I was fine. I upped all the high glycaemic carbarge and was on my way to an early grave. My advice is based on how the OP feels timing wise and in the context of the question, trying to reassure that low carb provides optimal results; I have not seen any cases where high carb betters outcomes in comparison. I see no point on going on roller coasters when the line (blood glucose control) can be fairly flat.