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Daily calorie intake for weight loss-Type 1

H

Hezzie_77

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi everyone,
I'm type 1 and trying to get healthier starting of with some much needed weight loss. I'm a female in early 20s, How much calories should I aim for daily. Any other tips for losing weight for type 1 is also much appreciated. Many thanks
 
Hi. You don't need to worry about calories as we are glucose intolerant and reducing the carbs is key. Carbs are also the main cause of weight gain rather than fat. So set yourself a daily carb limit that you find works for you in both weight terms and BS. Many set a daily limit of 150gm or less. Some go much lower but when on insulin it's easier to cover the carbs without weight gain. Having enough fats and proteins to keep you feeling full plus veg and fruit gives you a balanced diet.
 
I've always been at the low end of the BMI range until starting insulin. At DAFNE they suggest you reduce your total calories to lose weight. I'm on a LCHF diet, which didn't stop me from gaining weight. The issue with LCHF is there are a lot of calories in the healthy fats I'm eating, and I need to count them. Cheese, nuts, cream, and dark chocolate are the portions I have to mostly watch.
 
I wear a fitbit which gives a good idea of how many calories I'm using daily. On the days I'm office based it's much lower than I expected.
 
Recommended daily calories for a woman is 2000 calories.

My advice is eat a lot of vegetables which are high in fibre and low in calories. You will have fewer spikes and a more level BG.

The problem is you really don’t want to restrict your calories too much because burning fat releases ketones and you really don’t want to end up in DKA
 
I personally find increasing exercise helps more than restricting calories. As a type 1 I have to be careful as even a small increase in exercise makes me more sensitive to my insulin so I have to decrease basal and/or bolus doses depending on how sustained the increase in exercise is, otherwise I'd hypo and need to have glucose to treat that which would be counter productive!
 
CelalDari said:
The problem is you really don’t want to restrict your calories too much because burning fat releases ketones and you really don’t want to end up in DKA
Click to expand...
Ketoacidosis (DKA) is a different thing altogether than ketosis, it's not the ketones that make you ill, it's the acidity of the blood in ACIDosis.
You produce ketones when the insulin level in your body gets very low. In T1 this can happen when you're not taking enough insulin, or no insulin at all (like before diagnosis), which will give you very high bg in combination with ketones, very dangerous situation!
But many people (non diabetics, T2's and some T1's) use a keto or very low carb diet to keep their own insulin production low which then makes their body produce ketones while having healthy low blood sugars. Nothing wrong with that!

Losing weight (burning fat) doesn't lead to DKA as long as there is enough insulin (your own or injected) to keep your bg at a healthy level.
 
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