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Low carb high fat

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Flic2019

Well-Known Member
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so I am starting to crave more sweets and more cake and I think it’s because although I’ve been trying low carbs I think I could go lower. I’ve been eating bread most days (not loads) and I think this may be stopping my bag from reducing.

I have seen low carb high fat mentioned a lot and wondered if this might be the best way to go!!

My only query is, is this a viable option for type 1? Only asking because it will be approx another two weeks before I know definitively if I’m type 1 or type 2 so I am trying not to heaped is enough myself. The hosp are treating me as if I’m type 2 but the question is still there.

Thanks In advance and I’m sorry it’s me yet again lol xxx
 
Yes there are quite a few low carb T1's on the forum as well of course as many T2's in remission who follow a low carb way of eating.
Are you measuring and recording your blood sugar levels along with your food intake to you can see what the possible effects of the bread may be?
 

It is! It all depends on how you want to live your life because either way you will be injecting but looking up the work of Dr. Bernstein will show just what LCHF on in his case he advocates a Low Carb High Protein diet will do for a T1 too with a stable set of numbers than having to correct roller coasters. I feel if your body responds well to LCHF then it's kind of how you're wired to sustain yourself, I noticed A LOT of issues went away with taking the plunge into LCHF and then got better on keto so to each their own! As for sweets, I found it best to cut them out besides some berries or full fat dairy but there are plenty of keto treats out there (made some really nice ginger snaps before!)

And please, keep posting! It's always best to get all the info before going into it and wishing you the best of luck with you finally getting a proper diagnosis

(Also yes like BB says, make sure to keep testing!)
 
There are certainly some people with type 1 who use a low carb diet to make management of their diabetes easier for them.
However, this does not remove the need for insulin and many people with type 1 find they can manage their diabetes with a "normal" diet provided they correctly calculate and time their insulin.
For example, at the weekend, I ate pizza and, last night, I ate pasta. I use a Libre to monitor my BG and, following these meals, my BG did not rise above 6.0mmol/l.
Eating some carbs does not mean automatically you will suffer insulin resistance.

Good luck with your journey which ever way it turns. As the others have said keep in touch and keep testing.
 
Many breads are very high in carbs, so much that you could eat a low carb meal, seafood salad to start, meat and roast veges and a dessert and still not have had as many carbs as a single slice of ordinary bread.
I was eating low carb for decades before diagnosis, and it really did make me feel great and controlled my weight too - it is no bad thing as a way of eating.
 
Hello there. Yes for type 1 and type 2 as others have mentioned. If you are type 1 then by the law of small numbers it will be easier to adjust your insulin doses plus if you are a type 1 you may be able to extend your honeymoon phase where your beta cells are still making insulin, by not over taxing them (according to Dr Bernstein - The Diabetes Solution and see YouTube).
The caveats are that if you are taking any blood pressure meds, you may lose fluid/salt as your body adjusts to low carb and find yourself with low bp so may need some advice on dosage.
On a practical note there is this forum with plenty of great success stories and Diet Doctor for recipes and educational videos. I find their visual guides really useful too. Best of luck and let us know how you get on.
 
Thanks guys. I think I will look into further cutting my carbs and see how much of a difference that makes.

Xxx
 
@Flic2019 I think it is worthwhile emphasising the motivation with low carb for people with type 1 is typically different to low carb for people with type 2.
As @NicoleC1971 explained it is "the law of small numbers". This may be best explained by a couple of examples. For both let's assume you take 1 unit of insulin for every 10g carbs (I use this and the following as an illustration but the insulin to carb ratio is not the same for everyone)
1. You eat a pizza which contains about 100g carbs so before starting to eat, you take 10 units of insulin. When you are 75% of the way through, you realise you are full. However, you have 2.5 units of insulin in your body which you cannot take out, This is enough surplus insulin to lead to quite a severe hypo.
2. You eat a salad with a salmon steak which contains about 20g carbs so, before starting to eat, you take 2 units of insulin. When you are about 75% of the way through, you realise, as my MIL would say, your eye are bigger than your stomach. You now have half a unit of insulin in your body which you cannot take out. Your BG is likely to go lower than you want but not so far into the hypo-zone.

Whilst it is possible for someone with type 1 diabetes to experience insulin resistance, this is less likely to be the motivation for someone with type 1 diabetes to eat a low carb diet. Someone with type 1 diabetes will still need to take insulin but a mistake in calculating the dose is likely to have less of an impact.
 
A LCHF diet is valid for both T1 and T2. For T2s it may be about the only way to control BS whereas for a T1 it may not be essential. For T1s, insulin can control BS but a LCHF diet will guard against weight gain and excessive BS swings when you don't get the insulin dose right. With my insulin I follow a fairly low-carb diet with enough fat and protein. If I don't do that my weight goes up. A lot depends on your natural metabolism.
 
If I eat a low carb diet, doesn't that encourage my liver to dump more glucose inot my bloodstream in response?
 
I just did that reduced my carbs stopped wheat ..Diet Coke and processed foods ...unbelievable results check my blog www.alternativediabetic.com where I explain my journey ...I have been type 1 for 27 years and never tried reducing carbs to this extreme before....No more sugar cravings and hardly spike
 
peterlemer said:
If I eat a low carb diet, doesn't that encourage my liver to dump more glucose inot my bloodstream in response?
Click to expand...
Your liver will only cause the creation of more glucose if your body needs it and if the fat is available to produce it. After going on an ever increasing dose of insulin I asked my 'specialist' if the higher bg readings when I increased the dose was due my pancreas motivating the liver to produce glucose or my pancreas reducing its own insulin production due to the higher insulin levels in the blood. The response was "ER,...no...er yes...er the first, no the second." He had already told me not to count carbs as this was a waste of time! 8 months later and 5 months on a low carb diet I was able to stop injections completely and had my Metformin cut in half. Trajenta was added but it may soon be possible to stop this and cut the Metformin again. To answer your question, and this will depend on the individual, going low carb may cause the body to create its own glucose but this will be much more evident for people who are overweight with fat as this gives a source for the glucose. I combined my low carb with a strenuous gym programme and have lost nearly 30 lbs. I no longer have any issues with exercise causing a bg spike and I rarely have low bg. In my case my body (liver/pacreas?) has adjusted to a lower level of carbs and continues to work well.
 
Hi there @Flic2019,

I've been T1 for over thirty years now (diagnosed age 18) and went keto just over a year ago.....

I appreciate one person's experience may not be the same for somebody else, but in my case it's like night and day!
Within 12 hours of going keto my blood sugars stabilized.

I read Dr Berstein's book - The Diabetes Solution - and that got me started.

However, please note that in order for your body to enter a state of ketosis (burning fat instead of carbohydrate) you cannot cheat the diet, if you do it doesn't work!

I've noticed lots of other benefits since going keto eg:
- lost the extra pounds (weight not finances!)
- cholesterol improved
- energy levels increased

I can't recommend the keto diet enough - no more rollercoasters and worrying if I'm going to go hypo when I'm out all day long. It's had a really positive impact on my lifestyle.

READ THE BOOK!

Hope this helps and good luck,
RBG
 
peterlemer said:
If I eat a low carb diet, doesn't that encourage my liver to dump more glucose inot my bloodstream in response?
Click to expand...
In my experience on low carb diet ( 30 g per day, remembering low carb is classified variously as less than 100 g to 120 g carb per day)It is a possibility particularly if bsl goes low. Use of fat to maintain satiety, plus spreading meals apart and perhaps to 2 per day, and no snacks and ensuring insulin is not missed all help stop liver dump - but that might just be me. I get into trouble if a start eating lots of cheese as on a very low carb diet ( ?40g carb or less,), about 50 % of protein needs to be counted as carbs since excess protein gets converted to glucose but appears in the blood stream in less dramatic fashion than carb-derived BSLrise and also about 3 hours after ingestion, more in keeping with short-acting insulin action.
Increasing magnesium and sodium intake seemed to help me also. See @NicoleC1971 above.
Others can speak to the place of intermittent fasting.
I have also read that being deficient in iron affects those low carb diet but that is more about achieving weight loss.
 


Hi,

I'm type 1 and have been on Keto since January, I would say that if you are on CGM/Libre and pump then it is great. I wouldn't like to think what it would be like on 'normal' injections
 
Low/keto since Dec 26, on pmp but no cgm.
But also please note that Dr Bernstein has managed on soluble insulin and Levemir injections plus glucose meter for decades and only recently added cgm into his management and switched to Tresiba insulin, but not due to any instability of his bsls.
 
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