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Is this too much carbs before bed?

Bazzza

Bazzza

Well-Known Member
Messages
162
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
32 grams.
crispbread
crackers
Tuc
Sugar free biscuits
German garlic sausages slices

I think maybe its too much....what should I really be aiming for? I must inject 10 units of Novoraid and 12 units of Lantus before bed. I'm stuffed all day. I think I might fast for 24hrs...I've been eating non stop since I got into hospital and I'm really not used to feeling so full 24/7.
 
well "before bed" is what is termed as night/last insulin dose of the day. I have to inject four times a day. So I must eat something with each injection. I don't usually go to bed until 1/2am tho.
 
am I reading you wrong? you wouldn't take Novoraid at this time of night without a main meal
you need to adjust your Novoraid to the amount of carbs you have, you take it with your tea, on another post you are saying you are low, this is the reason I think

if you are still awake, eat or drink more carbs
 
4 times a day tends to mean 3 rapid insulin dosages with meals and 1 long lasting before bed - or that is how it was told to me when I started on insulin many years ago.

Long lasting (Lantus) is a baseline insulin it stays in your system for 24 hours giving it a steady dosage of insulin to work with and you bolus with the rapid acting inulsin (humalog) when you eat your main meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and or when you snack if necessary (just have to remember not to stack your dosages) .

Stacking your Rapid and Long Acting at the same time isn't recommended (or that's what my endro told me) it can be dun if necessary but you have to watch out for hypos if you do so (because apparently it becomes more common and deadly if you do). Rapid acting insulin is designed to DROP you and it will continue to drop you after its hit its peek (it takes 15 minutes for it to hit your system and it peeks at about 30 to 90 minutes but it stay in your system for 3 to 5 hours), add in the base line insulin and its strongest between 6 and 10 hours and you have a good chance of going hypo in your sleep.

As to is what you listed to many carbs that would depend on your carb to insulin ratio - which is the number of units of insulin need to take to cover your carb intake
*Mines 1;10 meals n 1:15 snacks , which means I take 1 unit of insulin per 10 grams of carbs or 1 unit of insulin per 15 grams of carbs for snacks - Example: 10 units of insulin would equal 100 grams of carbs for me if it's with a meal yet if I had a snack that was only 20 grams of carbs I'd only take 1 units of insulin (since i can't take half units with the pen system I'm using). Your listing of 32 grams of carbs would equal 4 units of insulin if it was for a main meal for me, if a snack it would be only two units of insulin.

But you also have to take into count what your current level is before you are eating and add that into the calculation as well, so if I'm at 6 and eat 65 grams of carbs that I'm already at my ideal glucose number so i'd only need to count for the carbs, however if I was at say 15 and ate 65 grams of carbs I'd have to take into consideration the glucose number plus the carbs. In my own case it at mmol 15 i'd take 3 units add in the 65 grams of carbs for 7 units and that would be a total of 10 units of rapid acting insulin I'd need to take to cover the carbs and get my glucose numbers down into the range they need to be in (my bolus ratio is 1U : 2.8 mmol/L.)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bazzza said:
well "before bed" is what is termed as night/last insulin dose of the day. I have to inject four times a day. So I must eat something with each injection. I don't usually go to bed until 1/2am tho.
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You only have to inject your novorapid 3x a day for your main meals, and even that is optional as basal/bolus is more flexible than other insulin regimes as you can skip meals if you choose.

I would just have your main evening meal a little later if you get hungry on an evening and don't eat before bed, injecting QA insulin before sleeping can lead to hypo's in your sleep if you get the dose calculation wrong.
 
Ahh guys I was making a complete mess this, No wonder I was so low last night.. I took my Lantus with my Novorapid and have been since I got out of hospital. :facepalm: Thanks guys for the catch there and a big thanks to you Nyxks for explaining how the ratios work. I'll have to read it a few times to let it sink in an make sure I understand it. :)
 
you would have been in shock still at the hospital, you wouldn't remember much
you need to keep your nurse informed too
do you have a care nurse, are you keeping a food and injection time diary, ring up tomorrow and make an urgent appointment to see her'him

if you don't have a diary, what I would do is ring you nurse for a wed/thur appointment..do the diary and take it...go over everything and make sure you have it clear with the nurse
 
I attend the diabetes day center once a week for them to monitor my levels and then change my dosage if need be. I dont have a specific nurse I see...years ago when I used to go to it it was a different nurse each time so sometimes I'd get one for two weeks in a row then it might be someone else. At the moment, I'm testing before my meals, then two hrs after, then three. I'm recording them on an app on my phone as well as a book they gave me. I have another app called myfitnesspal which records all what I eat and gives me stats on that, I only got that yesterday tho and started to record my carbohydrate and calorie, fat and BS readings. I'll ring up tomorrow and ask for an appointment to see somebody.
 
Bazzza said:
Ahh guys I was making a complete mess this, No wonder I was so low last night.. I took my Lantus with my Novorapid and have been since I got out of hospital. :facepalm: Thanks guys for the catch there and a big thanks to you Nyxks for explaining how the ratios work. I'll have to read it a few times to let it sink in an make sure I understand it. :)
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Don't know if I'm mentioned this book to you Bazza, but get hold of a copy of Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner, it has loads of tips and advice to help you manage your type 1 diabetes, it only costs around £10 from the likes of Amazon.
 
You did man ;) I found it on abebooks.com for $3.50 and ordered a copy after I couldn't find a PDF version to "buy" lolz :p
 
Hi. Thanks for the updated information. Yes, you have been left a bit confused by the diabetes staff. Follow the advice given by the other posters. If you are not already carb-counting ask the DN to give you some advice. The idea is to decide what you want to eat at each meal and take enough Rapid insulin to match it. My DN gave me a Roche leaflet that gave example pictures of portion sizes for 10gm carbs. I started on 1 unit of rapid to 10gm carbs but it will vary from person to person and the meter will help.
 
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