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Low carb question ?

NICNAK68

Well-Known Member
Messages
94
Good aftrenoon all,

I started low carbing yesterday in view to better blood sugar control and weight loss. Yesterday I had hot dog sausages chopped up with brie for lunch and mince with mushrooms, courgettes with bovril made into gravyfor tea. Today I have had, boiled eggs for breakfast, corned beef, brie, eggs and salad cream, with red peper and lettuce for lunch No carbs in this food so no short term insulin ( novorapid) , can someone explain to me why my blood sugar has gone through the roof since I have been low carbing? I am still taking my long tern _ Lantus before bed. Now I am confused x
 
Could be that your basal is a little low ? Also, although your new diet is very low carb, there are still a few there.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
By basal, do you mean Lantus - the one I give bfore bed ?

Do I have to check everything I eat for carbs, I presumed that meat, cheese, non rot veg would all be free from carbs ?
 
NICNAK68 said:
Good aftrenoon all,

I started low carbing yesterday in view to better blood sugar control and weight loss. Yesterday I had hot dog sausages chopped up with brie for lunch and mince with mushrooms, courgettes with bovril made into gravyfor tea. Today I have had, boiled eggs for breakfast, corned beef, brie, eggs and salad cream, with red peper and lettuce for lunch No carbs in this food so no short term insulin ( novorapid) , can someone explain to me why my blood sugar has gone through the roof since I have been low carbing? I am still taking my long tern _ Lantus before bed. Now I am confused x


You still need to bolus for the protein and the few carbs that are in your food, protein in the absence of visible carbs converts to glucose by around 50% and this is why your bg is climbing postprandial.
 
NICNAK68 said:
That sounds confusing :?:


My good friend SamJB is a low-carbing type 1 who will advise you further on blousing for these type of meals , hopefully he'll be along later so hold tight!
 
Haha, thanks Noblehead, I'm here now!!

Nicnak, lots of people think that they don't need to take fast acting insulin if a meal doesn't contain any, or very little, carbohydrate. As you can see, you do! When you eat and the food enters your large intestine, the cells that make up your large intestine produce glucagon which raises your sugar levels. This is why your levels went up even though you didn't eat any carbs. This is known as The Chinese Restaurant Effect, as pointed out by Robert, above.

So, you need to take insulin for every meal. I calculate my dose by looking at the portion size. A big meal will make your body produce large amounts of glucagon and hence you will see a large increase in BGs. Whereas a small meal will produce a smaller amount of glucagon and hence a smaller rise in BGs.

How you find out your dose really is trial and error, but you'll soon figure it out. It will only be a small amount of insulin though, usually only around a few units. Repeat what you ate today, tomorrow, and give yourself a small amount of insulin for it. Perhaps start off with a small dose of 2 units and see if that improves things.

Any more questions, then ask away. Let us know how you get on tomorrow.
 
Thanks for all you replies. I ended up going hom sick from work tues afternoon, back at work now but still feeling rubbish. I haven't been low-carbing since, more like binge carbing. Hopefully once I get rid of what ever I have I will get back to low carbing. x
 
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