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How many IU?

emiliano

Well-Known Member
Messages
47
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hello everybody,
excuse me if this question has been asked already, but I am curious to know how many IU you inject - boluses, or basal\fast acting.

In average I do 24 units basal (lantus) and 15 Units fast acting (apidra). I am 86-ish kgs.
 
Weigh 89.8kg, and take 30iu of Lantus split into two 15s, plus roughly 8iu of Novorapid across 3 meals. My bolus level is roughly 1u per 10g Carbs/20g protein. Also 1u per 2.8mmol/l drop in BG.
 
thanks Tim,
very interesting.

apparently 1IU causes me a 1mmol\l drop and I need 1IU per 5gr CHO - in normal conditions.

what could that mean? Am I more insuline resistant than you are or could it be the lower basal?
how long have you been using insulin? I've read that it is quite normal to increase the IU's with time, did you experience that?

excuse me for all these questions... hope I'm not being too intrusive...
 
Hi @emiliano no problem with the questions.

I've been Diabetic for 26+ years now. I started on Protophane (now known as Insulatard) and used to inject around 18 and 12 u at first. When I moved to MDI, I was still using Insulatard, but only for one injection per day and that was around 30u. My Bolus amounts haven't really changed that much.

As I put on weight, my Basal level crept up, but it remained the same for 9 or 10 years, and in the last six months, having lost a significant amount of weight (I now weigh what I did when I was 18 ), and started eating much lower carb, my basal is back at 30u and due to the lack of carbs in my meals (I carb count and always have) I am really bolussing for protein and very few carbs so my bolus injections are significantly lower.

In other words, no, I haven't experienced an increase with Basal and Bolus with age. Only Basal and only with weight gain.

With regard to the amounts you need to use? That's very much something that will be personal to you. Unfortunately we are all different so drawing analogies is quite hard.
 
I see.

Even though I've been using insulin for quite some time now (7 years), I'm still not sure to have my basal level correct. One year ago I used to do 18IU, now I'm up to 24 and I fear this trend might continue in the future.

I'm under the impression I should be needing less insulin as I low carb (even though I have cheat days and I still drink more than I should) and exercise a lot.

Is there a practical way you know of to calculate the correct basal?

thanks!
 
I take just 2 units of levimir (my background) a day and a maximum of 15 units of novarapid a day, generally 2-5 units with a meal. I am very insulin sensitive through exercise at the moment and am awaiting a pump
 
I take 24 units levemir in morning and 36 units at night. I carb count so use ratios 1:10 for breakfast and 1:8 lunch and tea time normally take anywhere from 3-15 units humalog... How embarrassing, I take loads compared to everyone else. I'm 65kgs too
 
Teh problem with this kind of question is that it's looking at it from the wrong direction. How much insulin I use is irrelevant to you or anyone lese, as the replies above demonstrate.

Teh question really needs to be "am I taking the right doses for me and how do I know?" as there are so many variables.

I for instance take less than Kelsie overall but in a completely different basal:bolus proportion as I have a similar but different level of activity, different age of diagnosis, maybe even different BG targets, different diet.

Although our body masses are similar, I take much less than serioulsy_sax, perhaps reflective of a generally higher body fat % in females.

So many variables to consider.
 
I am very likely still in my honeymoon phase... or not, i have no idea lol

I am about 79kg (175lbs) I use 13 lantus each night, and average about 8 units Novo rapid everyday. Right now my carb ratio is 1u to 22g of carbs.

But as Dave said, its fairly irrelevant to anyone else haha
 

It is far from irrelevant.
Since as you say there are so many variables it is very complicated to get the amount right, it's important to have comparisons just to understand the impact of these variables.
If I compare myself to someone who's fatter or leaner than me, than I can try and understand just how important BMI could be.
If I compare myself to someone who has a totally different lifestyle than I have, than I can try and understand the impact of lifestyle and so on...

Even though diabetes is kinda crazy, there are patterns, a method to its madness... to recognize those patterns is a huge plus if you want to manage it. In my opinion there are only two ways to recognize those patterns: experiment on oneself and compare with others.

no man is an island...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I agree entirely with your last statement. Perhaps "entirely irrelevant" is a bit harsh and not what I actually said, I was just trying to get you to think about it in a different way

My point, which you appear to agree with, at least in part, is that you as an 86kg strength athlete reall can't be compared accurately with me as a 68kg endurance athlete taking <100g carbs a day, or a slim petite female who's monthly hormonal changes also have an impact on dosage.

I think your questions above are much more pertinent i.e.
How does my BMI influence doasge
How does my diet influence dosage
How does the type and volume of exercise influence dosage

If the questions are put that way, they are probably less subjective and easier to extract relevant information from than just "how much do you use"
 

but comparing myself to you I can have a rough idea of the impact of endurance vs strength training on BG. I know we differ for x other aspects (body weight etc.) but maybe, getting infos from more and more people, I will eventually be able to draw a map and put myself somewhere on it.
 
BTW, where in NZ are you? I've got a cousin in Christchurch, lovely part of the world
 
ElyDave said:
BTW, where in NZ are you? I've got a cousin in Christchurch, lovely part of the world
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I live in Italy...totally agree with you NZ is really nice.
 
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