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Insulin to carb ratio

Ansari

Ansari

Member
Hi everyone

Just trying to get a generic idea about how much bolus insulin units do people on this forum averagely take for every gram of carb eaten and whether anyone has been able to bring it down with exercise or any other similar mean.

I am looking for ways to bring down my insulin requirement per every gram of carb so any help would be really helpful

Thanks
 
I work on 1.5 mmol of Novorapid for every 10 gm of carbs.

So for a 40gm potato I would have 6mmol of insulin. That was what the diabetic team indicated was the normal starting point for a type 1.
 
AJKOK11 said:
I work on 1.5 mmol of Novorapid for every 10 gm of carbs.

So for a 40gm potato I would have 6mmol of insulin. That was what the diabetic team indicated was the normal starting point for a type 1.
Click to expand...

How long have you been a diabetic for ? Coz in my case and many others too the dosage increases once the honeymoon period is over.
 
I'm currently working on which is the ratio best for me, but at the minute I'm having 2units of Humalog for 10gram of carbohydrate, which seems to be working well. I am also having 1unit of insulin to bring me down 2mmol as a correction dose. But stick with it, ratios definitely don't have an easy quick answer!
 
I am more insulin resistant in the morning so need 2u to 10g but lunch and evening meal I take 1.5u to 10g. I'm trying to exercise more and hope that will result in me being able to decrease my ratio
 
Hi there... I'm currently taking a ratio of 1:11 in the morning 1:10.5 for lunch and 1:9 for evening meal. If I need a correction to bring my sugar level down 1 unit lowers my blood sugar by aprox 4.5 mmol. Took a few months of 'micro management' to find my what ratio works best for me but well worth the effort
 
Postleneo said:
Hi there... I'm currently taking a ratio of 1:11 in the morning 1:10.5 for lunch and 1:9 for evening meal. If I need a correction to bring my sugar level down 1 unit lowers my blood sugar by aprox 4.5 mmol. Took a few months of 'micro management' to find my what ratio works best for me but well worth the effort
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Hey thanks for the reply

The micro management that you stated is it the same as carb counting ? Or different ?
 
Bassiette said:
How guys u do carb count i only take 8 iu for meals but fasting blood test always 200mg/dl and don't know how to fix this
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While counting carbs basically we try to understand what we are trying to eat and how many carbs would the serving contain. You can get a good understanding about how much carbs a particular item has by simply googling it like for example try to google carbs in a slice of bread.

Using this we get a normal idea of how many carbs we are going to eat and based on our insulin absorption and requirements ( everyone is different here) we take insulin.

This helps to maintain healthy levels with varying quantity and type of foods.

Hope it helps
 
Ansari said:
Hey thanks for the reply

The micro management that you stated is it the same as carb counting ? Or different ?
Click to expand...
Yes it very much involves carb counting. You must be aware that what may work for some people may not work for others. What I did was to basically try to work out how much a gram of carb increases my blood sugar at different times of the day. But first need to try and ensure that the basal insulin is as correct as possible. For myself to try to get my ratio for lunch I made sure that I had no insulin on board and had not eaten in the last 4 hours. I then measured my blood glucose and made a note. I then ate 10 grams of basic carbs exactly and then tested every half an hour until my blood glucose level stopped rising in my case 10 grams rise my levels by 2.8 mmol. This was an average over 3 days. 1 gram of carb therefore raised my blood sugars by approximately .28 at lunch time. My next step was to test my blood levels for lunch again with no insulin on board and not to have eaten in the last 4 hours. Note down the reading mine was 7.5 and have a 60 gram lunch and injected insulin based in my DSN advice ie at 1:10 ratio I injected 6 units. I then calculated how much my bs should rise ie 60x.28= 16.8 and added this to my before meal reading (7.5+16.8= 24.3) I carried on checking each hour to ensure my levels were not going to low and as I was advised my insulin covers 4 hours I wrote down my readings at the 4 hour mark ie 6.8 for me. I then worked out how many mmol was covered by 6 units ie 24.3 less 6.8 = 17.5 therefore 1 unit covered (17.5/6= 2.91 mmol). I then calculated the anticipated rise ie 16.8 by what 1 unit should cover (2.91) to get how many units I should have injected for the meal so 16.8/2.91= 5.77units. I then devided this into the carbs I ate ie 60/5.77=10.39 which I rounded up for ease to 10.5 therefore carb ratio equates to 1:10.5 for me. I hope you can follow that. I must stress that this worked for me... It may be very long winded but for me this approach gave a nearest **** it ratio..... I must say it's not an exact science but wanted to find a way myself of getting my carb ratio as correct as possible. I did this each meal and snack and basically tested a lot to see how the carbs affected my levels. A lot if work but worth it. This may work for you may not but may just give you something to think about i hope this helps. Please don't be despondent if your readings at times go to pot as this happens.... There are lots of variables and a lot if trial and error as I've found this condition can just go haywire at times and can be si unpredictable all we can do is try our best to try and control it best we can. Good luck
 
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The first thing to recognise is that the manufacturers of basal insulin don't tell you the whole truth. Your daily dose does NOT give you a steady level over 24 hours then fade out in time for the next dose. Lantus for example is roughly twice as effective 3 hours after injecting than it is 12 hours later. That means that you need less rapid insulin soon after the base dose than you do for the same amount of carbs later in the 24 hour cycle. I work on 1 unit of rapid for 18g of carbs in the morning, 14g at midday and 9g in the evening. Those figures are programmed into my BG meter so I don't need to do mental gymnastics.
 
Bolus ratios vary for everyone, as everyone's insulin sensitivity is different. The trick to getting it right is to test, record and analyse the results and look for patterns. As mentioned using a meter which calculates your ratios when you input your carb intake helps take the mental strain out of this, Abbott Freestyle optium is a good meter for this. Doing exercise will help reduce insulin doses, but requires careful monitoring.
 
I'd also just add that ratios can vary over time. My evening meal,ratio seems to swap between 1:10, 1:11, 1:12 with no obvious reason.

So never be complacent with Type 1. Keep testing and keep tweaking if necessary.
 
I have used the DAPHNE regime for nearly 10 years (basically Carb counting) but find that this is only one element in the calculation of how many units to take. Just as important as the carbs going in are the carbs being used up. For example assume my breakfast intake is 70g for which I would normally take 7 units (i.e. 1:1) - that's fine provided my morning is going to be sedentary. If I spend a couple of hours gardening that can easily burn up 20-30gm of carb an hour so I would adjust accordingly and perhaps take 3 units. The other variable is metabolic rate which changes during the day, so I need 1.5 times the unit rate at lunchtime and 2 times the unit rate at dinner before adjusting for any anticipated activity. In general this works for me, although there will always be unexplained hypers and hypos.
 
Hi Guys,
I am newbie here adn as type 1 too.
As per my calculations, my correction ratio is 1u:5 points (mmol/dl) adn my bolus ratio is around 1u:6 g of carbs.
Since I am a new. I want to ask if this is a bad ratio?
Is it too much or average or what?
Clueless here. Is there any app that can help me calculate this (iphone6s) , entering the carbs and BS level before eating to calculate correction.
Please, give me a hand.
This first week is terrible bearing with this so I will appreciate any help.
Thank you all.
 
Norman83 said:
Hi Guys,
I am newbie here adn as type 1 too.
As per my calculations, my correction ratio is 1u:5 points (mmol/dl) adn my bolus ratio is around 1u:6 g of carbs.
Since I am a new. I want to ask if this is a bad ratio?
Is it too much or average or what?
Clueless here. Is there any app that can help me calculate this (iphone6s) , entering the carbs and BS level before eating to calculate correction.
Please, give me a hand.
This first week is terrible bearing with this so I will appreciate any help.
Thank you all.
Click to expand...

T1 - no such thing as a bad ratio. Take the insulin your body needs for the food you want to eat. (well, a certain amount of moderation is probably good, maybe not eating entire chocolate cakes every meal, even if you can dose to cope :-) ).

Spike + libre can apparently do a fair job of your calculations thing. Measurement is key though - you need to measure to discover what eg 10u with a pizza does for you, and if you need more or less insulin for that meal.

Also different foods get absorbed at different rates (glycaemic index), so the dose and timing for the carbs may vary, but after a few goes you get better at knowing which way you want to tweak things.

Basically experience helps massively, and you'll get that experience fairly quickly if you keep at it - keep measuring, keep calculating, close the feedback loop.
 
evilclive said:
T1 - no such thing as a bad ratio. Take the insulin your body needs for the food you want to eat. (well, a certain amount of moderation is probably good, maybe not eating entire chocolate cakes every meal, even if you can dose to cope :-) ).

Spike + libre can apparently do a fair job of your calculations thing. Measurement is key though - you need to measure to discover what eg 10u with a pizza does for you, and if you need more or less insulin for that meal.

Also different foods get absorbed at different rates (glycaemic index), so the dose and timing for the carbs may vary, but after a few goes you get better at knowing which way you want to tweak things.

Basically experience helps massively, and you'll get that experience fairly quickly if you keep at it - keep measuring, keep calculating, close the feedback loop.
Click to expand...

I found that my bonus ratio is 1:6 but apparently my correction ratio is also very low.
My sugar went from 148 to 184 without eating anything, then I ate 30 g of carbs(5 units) and added 2u based 1:15 but 2 hours after my sugar was 251. WTH!!?
 
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