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Getting low sugar on waking on low carb question.

candi-girl

Well-Known Member
Messages
356
Location
UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I'm Type 1 and on a pump. I had my over night basals set right so I'd go to bed around 6 and wake up 5/6mmol.

However, since going low carb over the last 5 or so days (just started) my basals are fine in the day but three mornings I have woken up with a 3.0 , 3.2 and today 2.4 and really felt terrible.

I usually have an increase of insulin from about 4am because that's what I needed, assuming my liver giving me glucose and other hormones? I wonder is my liver not giving out as much glucose because of not eating so many carbs?

Sorry if this is really stupid but I am new to this all. It's amazing. All day yesterday my sugar was between 6 and 7, even at work where I usually end up going to low and then overeating and going too high and feeling awful.

I am going to put my pump to 0.55 all through the night now instead of the 0.6/7 I usually have in the early hours,
 
Hi Candi
Sorry cant help you specifically with the pump questions, but I'm Type 1 on Basal/Bolus and I low carb. You will find that you will need to adjust your insulin requirements as you go really. Depending how low carb you are and whether you are in Ketosis or not will effect how much insulin you will need.
I think what you have suggested for your nighttime basal looks like a good start, it is better to adhere on the side of caution and run slightly high at first on a night rather than risk Hypos while asleep, then gradually increase back up IMO .
You will find foods and a pattern of eating hopefully that you can work with in time, hopefully you will reap all the benefits of going low carb...just remember lots of colour to your plates, plenty of fruits and veg, and do not be afraid of fat to keep you full and this will help to stabalise your BG.

Hope it works out for you
 
thank you. yes better to run on the higher side. hopefully just a few adjustments and thanks for the advice. have included more fat today esp at work and its much better. i feel much better on the whole!
 
ps. how do i know if im in ketosis? doubtful yet seeing as ive needed carbs to cure the hypos!! had 42g yesterday and 56g today
 
Below 50 grams, but everyone again is different and it depends how physical you are being exercise wise on a daily basis...around 50 grams does it for me but I do cycle it to keep my metabolism up.

Looks like you are doing great, whats a typical days eating for you now then?
 
Hi,

I'm not that active but I do work in the evenings 4 - 10pm cleaning offices at the local factory and don't really sit down much in that time and there's lots of offices to hoover so I consider that my exercise :lol:

The new overnight basal seemed to work last night so I will test it again for a couple more days. Before bed at 11.30pm I was 6.9 then at 2.30am I was 5.8 and this morning when I got up I was 6.0 so seems OK...

Food wise I don't like a lot of things so you will prob say it's not great. Weekends I will be home so can cook some chicken and have veg with it (carrots and peas, all I like)

I've been having grilled bacon and scrambled egg for breakfast. Lunch Chicken Salad, lots of chicken and just lettuce, carrot and cucumber, again, all I like. With cheese and hard boiled eggs.

Snack before work Apple and Greek Yoghurt which say is 3.8g carb per 100g.

At work a sausage roll ( I love them and they never spike my sugar) still give insulin for it though, same with the apple. Loads of carrot sticks, cheese strings or mini baby bells (love these too) sugar free jelly, more greek yoghurt (I sort of graze when I'm at work) Cold cuts of ham or beef.

Please I welcome any suggestions on other foods or any help. I don't like fish
 
Well glad you have got the basal sorted, well done that looks good. As with any change it will be a bit of trial and error and experimenting at first but for early days with your change of diet it's looking good.
Carrots and peas I do include in my low carb diet, but these are of the starchier veg group , so try to look for other grazing / fruits if you eat A LOT of them.

It all depends how low carb you want to be and for what reasons ,is it for more stable control? Is it for weightloss/ maintenance? Allegies? Or the Paleo lifestyle just appeals to you?

If it is for steady control you may find a moderately low carb lifestyle achieves this , some people on here stay at around 100 grams to 150 grams and do very nicely on it...So them sausage rolls you could have a couple of them then

I'm not a picky eater but I do tend to eat the same things day in day out for my breakfast and lunch..but then on a high carb diet I did this, it's routine. So that makes things easy. Main meals are adapted home cooked family meals in the main..I minus the carb part of it.

You will find probably that you need to do a fair amount of homemade meals, not only to ring the changes but also to keep costs down. I do a lot of batch cooking, ie meat balls which I have with salad. Stews which I have just with the veg...shepherds pie with sweet potato topping for me.
I do a lot of different meats and fish but I will have it on a bed of home made teriyaki veg. Rest of my family I will make it with rice or noodles.

Look in the recipe section a poster called Whitby Jet has been kind enough to post dozens of fantastic ideas to aid a low carb lifestyle. Get creative

I think you may find in a few weeks if you get the fat portion of your diet right you won't feel the need to snack/ graze as much. I eat my three meals a day and I am never hungry even when very low carb...but I have never been a snacker or a grazer anyway, so that part was not difficult for me.

If you google on line low carb recipes A LOT comes up, it's just finding good tasty foods, that are nutritious that fit in with you...Hopefully you will find them . At the end of the day,it may work for you it may not..give it a go ,if not then just go back to eating carbs..it's no great stress.

If it does work though I think you will be very happy
 
Thanks. Have to say I've never really cooked 'meals' in my life. More of a beans on toast kind of girl 8)

Reason for low carbing is for better control to stop the spikes. I'm 9st so my Doc says I'm an ideal weight . At work I kept going low and then eating lots then going high etc etc.. so far there's been none of this and it's made it much easier for me.

I've always been a grazer with my food, even before diabetes, never had just three meals, just how I prefer it so little and often.

Yeah, I know carrots and peas have more carbs in it but I bolus a small amount and seems to be OK. I don't eat LOADS of them so OK.

I still can't say I feel hungry, just 'different' ... hard to describe but def have better energy levels. I will see how things go and perhaps introduce a few more carbs spread over the day but not lots and certainly none for breakfast.

I am still going up to 9.0 after a few hours after i've got up. If I stay in bed it doesn't happen so not food related :roll:
 
Hey CG

Sound like you are doing great, The extra energy is THE BEST. I fell off the wagon this Christmas and have felt YUUUKKK. But it's not taken long at all to get back to Ketosis. It took me 4 weeks of total over indulgence to put on 3lbs...I have lost it in a week on Paleo. I will up the carbs a bit now to stabalise my weight...but I feel Soooo much better again now back to my normal lifestyle.

I know you say the rise in BG is not food related after breakfast and you are probably right as a lot of processes beside foods raise BG in the AM....but a good breakfast I have found which keeps me very steady and enables my long runs is a big bowl of strawberry's and blueberries with double cream.
Don't know if you like these but it's lovely if you do and they sell three big packs of these at Tesco,sains for a fiver. Morrisons sell bigger packs for cheaper. They are frozen so no waste and you can just defrost them in the microwave before eating.
WJ posted a great recipe on Home made Granola on here, do a search. I think if you search Lizzies Granola it will throw it up. It was lovely with no spike but for me I was allergic to some of the ingredients...walked around with lips like Angelina Jolie for a few days after it...you will be fine though ,and it was lovely

Hope some of this helps, good luck
 
I like strawberries and I can def eat them and double cream... I will give this a go I'll give the blueberries a try, never tried one!

Will have a look for that recipe too, you've been a great help.
 
candi-girl said:
I like strawberries and I can def eat them and double cream... I will give this a go I'll give the blueberries a try, never tried one!

Will have a look for that recipe too, you've been a great help.
Click to expand...



Blueberries are a fantastic fruit and very good for the eyes too!
 

Excellent. I have just seen the frozen ones Fallenstar mentioned on the Sainsbury's website. I shall get some tonight on the way home from work and try them Saturday morning. I have work early tomorrow so it messes with me anyway but want to test them in my normal routine.
 


I'm not a fan of the frozen variety having tried them once before, fresh blueberries are really cheap at the moment in all supermarkets but Lidl and Aldi are the cheapest at around 89p for a 125g pack.
 
I will try fresh and frozen Hope I like them.
 
I agree with you on the old frozen fruit Noblehead, I've tried it on and off for years and it was a bit gross...but these new packs that they all seem to be doing now are fab.The strawberries on their own are lovely and juicy and no bad ones :wink: and no waste.
The blueberry's with the strawberry slices are as good as fresh when defrosted...and again if you don't eat them all that often ,no waste again. A lot of the fresh soft fruits this time of year are a bit :sick: So I have found a lot of success with these packs
 
My theory is when we low carb, we lower our glycogen stores. When we lower our glycogen stores, we lower our basal sugar output. Seems sensical to this layman. I found I needed to drop by basals 20% across the board, but when I stay in deep ketosis for extended periods -- at least two weeks -- then they may drop again. I know when I need to adjust because my waking numbers also hit the 3's. So far it's been consistent 20% jumps, for me.
 
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