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Low carb diet - effect on my BG and stability

Spiker

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,685
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
I've just been looking at my Diasend stats, which pull in all the data from my pump, CGM, and my meters.

In April, the month before I started low carbing my average BG was 10.4 mmol/L with a standard deviation of 4.8 (which is a lot of variability).
This has come down every week since then, and in the last week my average BG was 6.5 mmol/L with a standard deviation of 2.4.

So far so good!
 
In the last 90 days, which is roughly how long I've been on the pump, my average BG is 11.2 mmol/L with a standard deviation of 5.8 :-(
That's a predicted HBA1c of 8.6%. So I am not yet the poster child for the pump!

However just before I started the pump my HBA1c was 9.7%. So I am not doing badly. And as the HBA1c is weighted more toward recent results, when I get my actual HBA1c on Monday, it might be good news.
 
From what I have gathered from reading msgs on the forum, lowering a highish hba1c needs to be done gradually over a period of months rather than quickly as too quickly can sometimes open up a can of worms esp where the eyes are concerned

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Well according to my expired home HBA1c test, my HBA1c is 7.6%. I have no idea if that test is accurate, but I will find out on Monday. If it's accurate then I am pretty happy with that reduction.
 
iHs said:
From what I have gathered from reading msgs on the forum, lowering a highish hba1c needs to be done gradually over a period of months rather than quickly as too quickly can sometimes open up a can of worms esp where the eyes are concerned
Click to expand...
That is a very good warning. However I don't have any existing background retinopathy (lucky me I know) so I am going to go for it, all out.
 
iHs said:
From what I have gathered from reading msgs on the forum, lowering a highish hba1c needs to be done gradually over a period of months rather than quickly as too quickly can sometimes open up a can of worms esp where the eyes are concerned
Click to expand...

IHS, would you care to expand a little about this as this is the first time I hear this? - However, I do know that (too) quickly lowering BG may lead to false hypos and generally feeling sick and shaky.

annelise
 
Well done Spiker. Low carbing is a bit of a revelation isn't it?
 
runner2009 said:
Spiker what made the difference this time in sustaining the LC diet
Click to expand...
I think the key thing was a really modest amount of protein and really emphasising fat as the main calorie source. This has meant better satiety, less craving, much better hypo situation. Most of my LC attempts have been Atkins rather than LCHF. I don't think protein is as much of a problem for non-diabetics and T2s, but it really complicates low carb diets for T1s in various ways. Reducing the relative amount of cals from protein really seems to have cracked it.
 
Since adopting a low carb approach, I've had to learn to bolus for protein. It was a learning curve but I got there in the end.

Great results on the numbers. (Julie)
 
Solestar said:
Since adopting a low carb approach, I've had to learn to bolus for protein. It was a learning curve but I got there in the end.

Great results on the numbers. (Julie)
Click to expand...
Thanks !

So how do you estimate your protein bolus ? I take one third of the protein as converting to carbs, and bolus for that on a 2 hour spread bolus on my pump (before I had my pump I used a slower acting QA insulin for the protein bolus). So I'm taking about half the theoretical maximum conversion of protein to glucose. I came to this through trial and error. After lots of hypos when assuming 60% conversion (the theoretical maximum).

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
You may not need to. Wait and see if you go high after protein heavy meals. If you do, a safe starting point is to treat 25% of the grams of protein as being carbs. Adjust from there, just like you would your insulin:carb ratio. The highest possible protein:carb conversion is 60%, but to get near that you would need to be eating nothing but protein.

As per above, take the dose later, or use a slower insulin.

If you don't need to dose for protein, don't. It is probably easier to reduce protein and replace it with fat.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Spiker... I may have missed a post of yours as I'm having problems with my Android Tablet of Evil

What was your HBA1c result on Monday , please ? I'm very interested in how you got on

Signy
 
I found this. Thought it was very helpful

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 

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8.0%! Down from 9.7% in two and a half months and less than one month of low carbing. So I am well pleased. Thanks for asking Signy. The post is on the "What's your Hba1c?" thread.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
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