how long before a meal do you bolus

Depends on the type of meal, my current BG, the type of insulin I use (it was different when I used Novorapid, and I find slight differences between Fiasp and Lyumjev as well), and the circumstances (eating out or with friends at home is different than when eating at home alone).

On lyumjev it varies between injecting right before food or even after, and about 30 minutes before.
On Novorapid I often waited for 45 minutes to an hour.

But people are very different in how quickly the insulin hits, and many people would experience serious lows trying to prebolus with Lyumjev or Fiasp!

Do you use a sensor? It's a very useful tool to help you work out what works for you.

Diabeticger said:

just thinking back to a stint I had in hospital last year and they weren't very consistent when giving me my fast acting insulin, I always try to dose, 30 mins before a meal

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I wad told straight away with the meal in 2mins

Leolady19 said:

I wad told straight away with the meal in 2mins

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The point is, does that work for you? It certainly wouldn’t for me. But we are all different. There are no hard and fast rules it is about finding out what works.

like everything it’s down to trial and error, and finding how different foods affect you , e.g i take. My bonus for spag Bol.2 hrs after if eaten it , that’s taken numerous attempts alongside numerous failures , but I got there , and I’m sooooo glad I did, it takes patience but you will get there

I agree with all the previous comments and I would just add that I find it can also depend on whatever your glucose level is before a meal. If I’m on the higher side then it could be sooner rather than later, even though the bolus amount would reflect that.

On Novorapid - was injecting between 30 and 60 mins before (when possible)

On a pump using Novorapid, about the same.

With Fiasp, at the time I ate - same with Lyumjev

Now on FCL with Lyumjev - it boluses when the carbs hit and delta rises - ultimately means I get more high BGs than carb-counting (just had 40 grams of carbs in porridge, and it hit 11.6 before being bought back down). Good compromise for not having to think about eating and works for me - just eat etc

High carb meals don't work as well - I do need to set Temp Targets for those before the meal - give the loop more chance to handle the rapidly changing BGs, also tend to set extended carbs for pizza etc to give the loop chance to handle it (say 4 hours)

I originally was on NovoRapid with mdi and used to pre-bolus 15-30 mins before depending on the food. I’m now on omnipod 5 and have tried Fiasp with this I used to pre-bolus about 10 mins before and you could see the blood sugar dropping slightly be before the carbs kicked in. I’m now on Lyumjev and bolus as the food hits the plate!!!

Was in hospital for 5 days when first diagnosed and the message I got from the nurses was not to dose with the fast acting insulin till my food was actually in front of me. Have generally stuck to that over the last 18 months, though some people find it annoying if they set food down in front of me and then have me disappear to inject the insulin.. the worst times I have been ‘caught out’, by injecting too much insulin for the meal have been in ‘gourmet ‘ type restaurants, where the menu might mention some kind of potato..but actually when it turns up… it’s like somebody just smeared the tiniest hint of mashed potato across the plate, and most of that is probably cream and butter… in those situations I have asked the waiter to bring me some bread, please!
still find it hard to calculate the number of carbs in a portion of pasta or rice.
these days you can’t always rely on a restaurant dessert to be that sugary and therefore carby, with all these keto diets going on.
getting increasingly annoyed by menus that request you to let the kitchen know if you have any allergies.. but nothing is mentioned about us needing to know the carb content of the dishes on the menu.

My fast-acting is Trurapi and before that, Novarapid. I find them the same. If I don't prebolus an hour or an hour and a half before eating, I spike over 10 for a several hours. That's for lunch; for dinner I prebolus only about half an hour. I stay aware of my blood sugar after the prebolus, until I start eating, just in case it starts acting quicker than usual.

JAT1 said:

My fast-acting is Trurapi and before that, Novarapid. I find them the same. If I don't prebolus an hour or an hour and a half before eating, I spike over 10 for a several hours. That's for lunch; for dinner I prebolus only about half an hour. I stay aware of my blood sugar after the prebolus, until I start eating, just in case it starts acting quicker than usual.

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Have you considered seeing if you can try Fiasp or Lyumjev?
Both are supposed to act quicker than Trurapi/Novorapid.

I travel with work and eat out at restaurants frequently. I tend not to bolus (Novorapid) until I can see the food!

mibby said:

I tend not to bolus (Novorapid) until I can see the food!

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Only way to do it - you never know when the food will actually turn up

Used to go to a restaurant in Nottingham where the head waiter was T1 - he always asked how long I wanted before the food arrived, and made sure it did - fabulous service (but very very rare)

Antje77 said:

Have you considered seeing if you can try Fiasp or Lyumjev?
Both are supposed to act quicker than Trurapi/Novorapid.

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Trurapi and Novarapid are the only insulins covered by the gov't health plan where I live and I have to still pay a portion of the cost; so for economy reasons I'm sticking with them. It's not a problem because I have grown used to them and know what to expect.

Emilyroby said:

It's best to take fast-acting insulin about 15-30 minutes before eating.

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Agree- Thats what I did for fast acting - for ultra-fast you pretty much bolus when you eat (much better) as that stuff can be very rapid to hit your system

Works really when when looping, as the loop has a better control over what's going on with the BG, and can react accordingly

Marikev said:

these days you can’t always rely on a restaurant dessert to be that sugary and therefore carby, with all these keto diets going on.
getting increasingly annoyed by menus that request you to let the kitchen know if you have any allergies.. but nothing is mentioned about us needing to know the carb content of the dishes on the menu.

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I’ve yet to find a restaurant with a low carb dessert let alone a keto one, other than maybe some cheese without the crackers. Please share who they are.

Totally agree listing carbs would be hugely helpful but as those of us who count carbs are still a tiny % of the population I can’t see it happening anytime soon. I guess when a customer could drop down dead in minutes with allergies and several high profile campaigns they have to be vigilant there.

Although my carb choices aren’t for insulin, but ‘exclusion from the plate’ reasons as a diet controlled type 2, I’ve been know to ask about the carb content in response to the allergy question eg it’s not an actual allergy but I need to know if there’s x y or z in the dish please and if so a little or a lot. Not perfect but helps. Most wait staff are happy to go ask the chef, who usually is quite helpful

Hi
I have a physical job and walk to and from work.
I often leave the insulin until after the meal as i'm low at this point and my body is sensitive to activity.
Plus i have no desire to force feed myself if i have had enough to eat.

At weekend where i'm not as active i inject about 20 minutes before but even then theres lots of things to take into account.

On a much lighter note if a medical person was to analyse my readings they would conclude i have an issue at 4.30pm every saturday as my levels are v low indeed.....
This is because my wife and i simply love an aperol spritz....
Its packed with sugar and its the only way i can deal with it without extra insulin as we eat at 6pm and i don't want 2 lots of insulin sloshing about!
It works for me.

I wish you well

Tony