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Low carb eating

the "rule of thumb." The rule of thumb comes from the middle ages and it is the rule that a man could beat his wife with a stick no thicker than a man's thumb.
I prefer to use "guidance rule"
 
How do I check ketones? As @DCUK will know from another forum, I have been eating as few carbs as I can for many months to try both to lose weight and keep BG under control, and as few calories as I feel able to as well. It has worked a bit, but not as much as I would like, despite taking insulin in larger doses than I would like. Health professionals do not approve but I am determined to keep going. They seem to be worried about hypos, which I understand and am watching for that. However, I don't really understand how to keep track of ketones, or if I am really risking ketosis - and would that really be a bad thing?
 
You need to differentiate between ketosis which is what you want, burning fats for fuel, and ketoacidosis, which is high blood glucose and high ketones, usually, and most undesirable.
Ketones can be measured using urine sticks or strips similar to those used in blood glucose meters.
Eating a low calorie diet can be detrimental to the metabolism, slowing it down and making a permanent alteration to the speed at which it operates.
Low carbing usually means eating a diet which makes up for the lack of carbs with protein and fat. Many people report that they feel more energetic eating a low carb diet - personally, I have gone back to work as now have the strength to hoist knitting machines around again.
 
Juicyj said:
Hello Nessa,

You need to take care hun - as @DCUKMod has said BG levels of 16 and ketones of 5 is dangerous you will end up in hospital if you're not careful. Please take your correction dose and work on getting this down, if no change contact your local hospital.

Check your blood sugar and ketone levels
Check your blood sugar level if you have symptoms of DKA.

If your blood sugar is 11mmol/L or over and you have a blood or urine ketone testing kit, check your ketone level.

If you do a blood ketone test:

  • lower than 0.6mmol/L is a normal reading
  • 0.6 to 1.5mmol/L means you're at a slightly increased risk of DKA and should test again in a couple of hours
  • 1.6 to 2.9mmol/L means you're at an increased risk of DKA and should contact your diabetes team or GP as soon as possible
  • 3mmol/L or over means you have a very high risk of DKA and should get medical help immediately
If you do a urine ketone test, a result of more than 2+ means there's a high chance you have DKA.
Click to expand...

Omg hi it’s been so long. I did end up in hospital. But I went to bed at 8 bs reading woke up and just was tired so slept till 2 pm next day and was sick and confused I tested bs it was 16 then thought I will check ketones and this was five. In the four years I’ve had type 1 I’ve never had ketones higher than 0.8 , so when I saw this I actually thought it was my bs as I was so confused but re did it an rung healthline they rung an ambulance. My concern is I eat well I constantly test and I don’t how or why this happened. So I’m scared. I have cns sensitisation and interstitial cystitis so I live with huge amounts of pain and I’m so scared this will happen again and I won’t no. We don’t get ketone strips like we do bs strips so I’m restricted in how much I can test . My hba1c is 53 just got that in a few days ago then boom dka. I’m a bit lost
Cheers
 
Heya @nessa1970 good to see you although it’s a shame you find yourself in these circumstances. Cystitis can elevate your bg levels so be careful when unwell and keep a close eye, that could be a possible cause of your high ketones so trust your gut when unwell and running high bg levels - are you ok correcting high levels ?
 
Resurgam said:
You need to differentiate between ketosis which is what you want, burning fats for fuel, and ketoacidosis, which is high blood glucose and high ketones, usually, and most undesirable.
Ketones can be measured using urine sticks or strips similar to those used in blood glucose meters.
Eating a low calorie diet can be detrimental to the metabolism, slowing it down and making a permanent alteration to the speed at which it operates.
Low carbing usually means eating a diet which makes up for the lack of carbs with protein and fat. Many people report that they feel more energetic eating a low carb diet - personally, I have gone back to work as now have the strength to hoist knitting machines around again.
Click to expand...

I have to say, I feel much healthier doing without carbs (as far as possible) and I do include quite a lot of animal fats in my diet (butter, cream, cheese, streaky bacon etc) and only once in a while wish I could eat something carby. But I am still taking too much insulin, in my opinion, and my BG levels are around 9 to 12 most of the time. C-peptide test indicated that I am producing insulin and, in fact, have too much insulin floating around in my blood, but it does no good in terms of reducing BG. The only thing that does have any controlling effect is the insulin that I inject. Health professionals keep telling me that my BG levels are good and I shouldn't be aiming for tighter control. Nevertheless last HBA1C was 50 - down from 53 6 months ago. That was met with approval. So, why, if I shouldn't have been aiming for lower BG, is that approved of?

I am obviously still a work in progress (still after, probably, 52 + years), but was wondering if there is any point in trying to check ketones, how to do it and what the advantage would be. I take it, with the level of fat I am eating, there is no danger of ketoacidosis. But I don't really know enough about it. Getting a GP appointment here is seriously difficult but when, if, I do get one I need to know what I'm talking about or he will just dismiss my efforts and my questions.
 
Annb said:
Nevertheless last HBA1C was 50 - down from 53 6 months ago. That was met with approval. So, why, if I shouldn't have been aiming for lower BG, is that approved of?
Click to expand...
That might seem like very slow progress, but it does reveal a ray of hope, as it is at least going in the right direction.
I had rapid results, but I consider myself lucky.
Though I am three years from diagnosis, things are still happening and changes are going on - if took decades of being advised to eat carbs to get me to diagnosis, and I hope for decades yet to come to sort myself out again.
When I had dropped my blood glucose to normal, I stuck to the same meals, and saw my levels gradually reducing without any further alterations - you are approaching the lower end of the diabetes scale, so you might slide into prediabetic levels if you can stick to what you are doing. Gradually getting metabolism back into balance seems to be the way to go, restoring the closest to normality possible with a wonky carbohydrate control.
Feeling so much better has a lot going for it as a state of being.
 
Juicyj said:
Heya @nessa1970 good to see you although it’s a shame you find yourself in these circumstances. Cystitis can elevate your bg levels so be careful when unwell and keep a close eye, that could be a possible cause of your high ketones so trust your gut when unwell and running high bg levels - are you ok correcting high levels ?
Click to expand...

Definitely correcting
We think maybe it was the insulin in the pump as I’m doing such low carb I was day 7 without a site/insulin change. Maybe this was why I got the dka. I thought I could just keep going as long as the insulin was in pump till it was gone and change. Oops
 
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