Hi it's my first post in a very long time. A bit of a back story, I got diagnosed as Type 1 when I was 28. Now 32. In that time I have lost a staggering 10 stone, becoming close to being underweight now. I'm still learning how to deal with diabetes especially after the pandemic has ceased any medical help I was getting from the diabetic team at the hospital. I'm finding now I'm very sensitive to insulin, I don't eat as much as I used to and due to other medications I've lost my appetite. Skipping meals and hardly eating when I do eat. My BG sits around 9/10 everyday, I find I'm only taking my basal dose of 20 units daily. I'm concerned that if I take insulin for when I eat it'll go too low. Has anyone else found they need little to no insulin after losing weight?
Hi Dee26eed!
So there definitely is a link with difficulty loosing weight if you take lots of insulin for some people as it connects with insulin resistance and hunger.
With then requiring less insulin when loosing weight.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more links to this as I often seen seen that many people with little insulin requirements tend to be slimmer or smaller built whereas larger insulin requirements can be associated with larger individuals due to insulin resistance. There are obviously exceptions.
To answer briefly, yes, I’ve noticed myself that when I do loose weight insulin needs drip and I adjust basals and carb ratios as needed then.
I am about to make some assumptions here..so please excuse me if they’re wrong.
It sounds like you’re on daily injections and I would say that if you’re doses are getting really small you may benefit from being on an insulin pump, there are many tubes and tubeless options which will allow you to get micro doses of insulin which are not possible with injections. Lots of options coming out with semi-autonomous glucose control with a sensor too (like Medtronic 780G, Tandem IQ and the new Omnipod 5- this one about to launch-).
I also guess that you have not done a DAFNE course, if you have, you may wanna refresh your memory with reading through your booklet and if you haven’t done the course you MUST speak to your nurse/Endo and ask to do the course asap, it is life changing (it’s also mandatory before going on a pump). It teaches a lot about managing diabetes and all situations, I’ve done it about 8-9yrs after diagnosis and it was life changing.
I also must note that your average blood sugar sound quite high to me at 9-10, so are you sure that you’re not cutting too much insulin?
This tells me that either your basal is not enough or that you’re not bolus enough for the food you eat..
On another note are you afraid of hypos in particular?
As reading between the lines you seem to have reservations, which (although they suck, don’t get me wrong) they just are part of being a T1…
Some glucose tablets on hand and it should all be good.
do you know how to calculate insulin to carbohydrate ratio? I.e. calculate yourself how many g of carbs does 1u of insulin cover?
Let me know what do you think of the above..
