How often to eat

Yikes - I read the same thing about eating every 3 hours cos it helps keep the metabolism going....however, depending what you eat I worked out this could involve more needle pokes (and resulting holes!) a day than your average colander.

Aas a woman I am forever on a diet (tried pills, combining, starvation, even DKA when I was first diagnosed....never again!) to lose weight but have had to resign myself to the 'eat less, move more!' way of life.

Studies have now proven that it's not how often you eat, but the total calorie consumption that affects weight loss long term.

I found reducing carbs did help me (trying to come in at around 70-100g a day)- I cut out pasta and white, refined carbs and cereals, but still eat multigrain bread (2 slices of peanut butter on toasted multigrain keeps me going for about 5-6 hours!). I also found that by having 20g or so carbs in the evening (couple of new potatoes in their skins/slice bread), I felt less bloated and got much better morning sugars.

It's different for everyone, but I think the most important thing to focus on is WHAT you're actually eating rather than WHEN.....

Low GI foods help to control cravings and make you feel full for longer (wholegrains etc), plus I hate dark chocolate but Hotel Chocolat do a fantastic milk chocolate called "Macho Milk" that is 50% cocoa so gives you that hit, but also contains less sugar. My husband (a sugarholic!) now has a separate area in the fridge for his 'junk' sweets and knows he's in divorce territory if he so much as sniffs mine.....(love, eh?! )

Best advice I can offer? Keep a food diary. Try and record everything you eat and drink (inc carbs if you can - Collins Gem do a great little booke for under 3 quid!), then see where yoiu can make healthy changes.....even upping your exercise will help!!!

Let us know how you get on - always looking for inspiration!!!

ma5on x

Just watch out for those diet groups/plans. A lot of them want nothing to do with diatbetes of any kind.

I was told by my diabetes nurse you had to wait at least 4 hours between your insulin before you eat.So i usually try to have breakfast at approx 7.30am dinner about 12.30 and tea appprox 6pm.I dont even know how long you can go over.I mean if you dont feel like your tea does anyone know if you can have it a lot later for example if you have dinner say at 1pm can you have your evening meal about 7.30?

surgarybibs

What regime are you using?

If you are using basal/bolus regime, you should in theory if your background insulin is correct be able to eat when you want..

I'm baseing this on the basal/bolus regime, where you are carb counting, injecting background insulin, and using quick acting to cover carbs that you eat..

I'm not sure where you nurse is coming from with saying waiting four hours between injections and eating! I assuming she is saying this because for most quick acting insulin effectiness will peak at 2 hours, but still has some effect on sugar levels for another 2-3 hours...

But you can eat earlier or later if you want, but it isn't wise to eat/snack and inject too quickly, as this can cause insulin stacking, where you overload the amount of insulin that is working at once before the body got time to asorb the carbs for it, then suffer a hypo.. then a rebound high to due having fast acting insulin, and the rest of the carbs catching up..

As to eating later, this really shouldn't be too much of a problem, in theory if the background insulin is correct, then you should hypo, but to ensure that you avoid this, check your BG as norm, and if it look like your BG's are going to go below 4mmol/l before you plan to have your meal, then eat around 10g of carbs (on adverage 10g of carbs with raise the BG by 3mmol/l for an individual) this should tie you over until you have your meal... If you miss the carbs, or even if you have them if you feel that you might be low check your BG again..

Hi Jopar yes i am using basal/bolus carb counting blood testing etc.I have had type1 for 39 years and still get told different things by different doctors and different.I think i was better years ago when i only had to inject twice a day!i wouldnt ever know what my blood sugars were because as you might know no one had blood glucose monitors then only test strips for our wee.Anyway one nurse told me i would be ok to have a meal out later than my usual evening meal time and justb to check blood glucose to make sure it was ok.The other night i thought i would have meal about 7.30 in evening just to try it out but my sugar levels were all over the place next day.I was thinking maybe because i had my novorapid at 7.30 and still had my lantus at 9pm which i always do anyway.I know lantus is supposed to last 24hours but do you think this would be affected if it is given not long after my novo?like if a have lunch about 1.30 i thought i coudnt have my evening till at least 5.30 and sometimes when i am hungry i feel like having this meal earlier but was told no you have to wait at least 4 hours. :? :?

4Hours? I don't get that. I'm on NovoRapid and Lantus. The NovoRapid is injected just before you eat based on what you'll be eating, carbs etc. and lasts 2-3 hours. The Lantus is a basal insulin used once a day usually in the evening but some people do slit it at 12 hour intervals. Carol

I was diagnosed a couple of months ago and told the whole 4 hours between meals thing, I queried on here as well because working full time I never eat before 7 at night. I had the whole bolus/basal thing explained and the eat when you like, fast acting insulin will cover it and changed straight away. (I'm on Novorapid / Levirmir) and can confirm it works just fine! Just sometimes I'm hungry mid-afternoon or mid-morning and have a piece of fruit or some nuts.

Hope that helps!

Cath

Carol11 said:

4Hours? I don't get that. I'm on NovoRapid and Lantus. The NovoRapid is injected just before you eat based on what you'll be eating, carbs etc. and lasts 2-3 hours. The Lantus is a basal insulin used once a day usually in the evening but some people do slit it at 12 hour intervals. Carol

Click to expand...

Hi Carol11,yes i do inject my novorapid just before i eat and work out how much carbs im having to how much i inject but i was told the novo lasts up to 5 hours and is at its peak approx 2 hours after youve ate and not to inject again for at least 4 hours till your next meal!!i test my blood sugars regularly as well.Ialways inject my lantus at approx 9pm in the evening even if i am out or having an early night.So i still dont know whats best .its like when i lost weight because i reduced my novo myself to between 4-6 with each meal so my carbs were reduced and doctor at clinic said "that is the dose we usually start newly diasgnosed people on and it is too small a dose so higher it to between 8-10!!Sometimes i think its a waste of time its bad enough being diabetic we have to be geniuses as well!!! :lol: :lol: