Fish and chips :P

[becky.ford93]

I'm planning to buy fish and chips tonight as a Friday treat. I think the last time I had proper fish and chips was last summer, and I remember it spiking my levels pretty bad later in the evening, probably due to the high fat content. Just looking for some advice on how some of you more experienced people deal with high fat meals like this. Do you split doses, or change when you inject, or add extra??

 

[noblehead]

Split-dose but I'm reluctant to say how I deal with such meals as we are all different and it may not work for you Becky, but high-fat meals can effect bg levels for several hours after so a single dose would never really work.

It's trial & error I'm afraid, enjoy your meal and hope you nail it.

 

[pinewood]

Completely agree with @noblehead - it's going to be trial and error as everyone is different but split-dosing will be the way to tackle it. Due to the fat, the food will digest slowly so you'll want to (try to) mimic the release of the carbs over time with your insulin injections.

For me (and you may be need something completely different), I would take approx. 50% of my total dose immediately before eating, then 20% about 1-1.5 hours after, the next 20% at 2-2.5 hours and then - if needed - the final 10% (plus a correction, if necessary) at around 3.5-4 hours. That's "sugar surfing" it and I realise it's rubbish to have to inject so many times but, for me, it's a necessary evil if I want to keep a straight line. I'd potentially also need another correction at around 5 hours. For this reason, I tend to try to eat high fat/high carb meals as early as possible in the evening, otherwise I can end up high all night whilst I sleep.

 

[staffsmatt]

Do you have a libre or other CGM? If you do you can do what @pinewood suggests but the start of the "uptick" in your levels can tell you when you need to do your follow up doses (or at least tell you when you should do them next time...)

 

[becky.ford93]

I don't no, the NHS don't seem keen on CGMs and I certainly don't have the funds myself :/

 

[AndyS]

I more or less follow what @noblehead said though I did find that reducing the chips did help too.

In my case I weighed out the chips and dosed for them first off. Did an estimate for the fish and dosed for that when I finished up. Still see a little bit of a spike but nothing hectic and then I just do a correction before bed.

I should say that when I correct at bed I aim for around 8 instead of my usual daytime target of 5 simply because I don't want to risk a severe hypo overnight.

Failing that just dose the best you can and take tonight as a "treat night" and if you are high in the morning correct at breakfast.
Main thing is enjoy and don't worry about this one off (for now) spike.

Steak and skin-on chips (with loads of veggies) and blue cheese sauce for me tonight.

/A

 

[becky.ford93]

Thanks for that
I aim for 8 at night too, though I've given up ever taking correction doses at night. I think I'm still honeymooning, so regardless of what my bed time reading is, I always wake up fine! I do understand that being high for a period of hours isn't great though. I had a shock finding myself at 17mmol a few days ago, took one unit and stayed up till 1:30am to do a 2-hours-in reading only to find I'd dropped to 9.5....!! Pretty big jump for 1 unit in 2 hours. I think I must just have super-high insulin sensitivity at night.

 

[himtoo]

a proper takeaway fish and chips will normally have circa 130 grams carb ( i realise it can vary between chippies )
hope that helps you to work out a total bolus .

 

[becky.ford93]

Thanks, I didn't eat all the chips but did weigh it all and used the carbs and cals app to guess at 120. Split my dose into 8 before/4 an hour later so we'll see how it goes! Was disappointed to find theyd left the bones in my fish though...!! Haha

 

[Ilya83]

Just looking for some advice

If you want it Just do it ! It's Ok if you don't eat it everyday.

Don't think it's great when you think "Oh I'm soo poor. I want it so badly but I have to eat only cabbage and cucumbers"