Low carb question

[RosieDred]

Is a low carb diet beneficial for somebody with type 1?

Also, will following such a diet cause a person to lose weight?

I don't suppose anyone has a link to a good site where I can find some more information on the subject. Have had a google but not finding as much information, just recipes/foods and stuff.


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[novorapidboi26]

depends what low carb is...........

I have heard some say less than 100g is low carb, however I would say 150g a day is low........

My experience is that if you have less carbs, or at least, less carbs like bread, pasta and rice etc, then your blood sugars behave brilliantly.....

it really worked for me, and still does, but I do find myself getting the real carbs in at the weekend..........

and yeah, less carbs means less calories which should help with weight loss.........having low GI carbs should also help......

 

[mo1905]

A low carb diet is beneficial for T1's as less insulin is required. This also leaves less margin for error in carb counting and dose so should mean fewer hypo's.

 

[RosieDred]

depends what low carb is...........

I have heard some say less than 100g is low carb, however I would say 150g a day is low........

My experience is that if you have less carbs, or at least, less carbs like bread, pasta and rice etc, then your blood sugars behave brilliantly.....

it really worked for me, and still does, but I do find myself getting the real carbs in at the weekend..........

and yeah, less carbs means less calories which should help with weight loss.........having low GI carbs should also help......

Thanks for the response.

Wen I first started reading about low carb I thought that there's no point seems as the dsn and dietician said I can eat whatever I want as long as I inject for it. Even chocolate. I believed them but I tried a little milk chocolate the other day and my sugars went really high. Same went for cake. So I clearly shouldn't be eating this stuff despite what they say. Hence the change of attitude toward my whole diet. I want to reduce the risk of future complication as much as possible.

I currently eat about 220g carbs each day and my blood sugars aren't terrible or anything but I want them to be good. I also just want to feel/be healthier than I am now.

Is there any way to follow a low carb diet and not lose weight? At 7 stone 3, u can't really afford to lose any more.


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[RosieDred]

A low carb diet is beneficial for T1's as less insulin is required. This also leaves less margin for error in carb counting and dose so should mean fewer hypo's.

Hi and thanks for the help. How is less insulin beneficial? Sorry, I know this is a very basic question but I'm fairly new at this.


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[Danny Prince]

To be honest with you, I wouldn't say you need to go low carb if you're type 1, the only think that varies is your insulin amount and i mean its not really much hassle injecting more to eat more, the only benefits like someone previously said is that there's less insulin required which isn't really to much of a benefit because you're always going to need insulin

 

[itconor]

Is a low carb diet beneficial for somebody with type 1?

Also, will following such a diet cause a person to lose weight?

I don't suppose anyone has a link to a good site where I can find some more information on the subject. Have had a google but not finding as much information, just recipes/foods and stuff.


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Ive been doing it since October. Lost 2 stone better control than i have had in years id Recommend i try stick between 130/150g per day

 

[mo1905]

Hi and thanks for the help. How is less insulin beneficial? Sorry, I know this is a very basic question but I'm fairly new at this.


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Firstly, insulin is a growth hormone so not advisable to take large doses. Second ( if on basal/bolus), the less carbs we eat, the less we need to inject, less margin for error. Whenever we carb count, the error margin is up to 20%. So, if a meal contains 100g of carbs, ratio 1:10, we inject 10 units. With 20% error margin, we could be 2units too much or not enough. If meal was 50g, 5 units, the 20% error is only 1 unit. Sorry if that's a really complicated way of telling you lol ! Hope it sort of makes sense.


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[paul-1976]

With a ratio of 1:10 you'd only inject one unit of fast acting for a 10 gram meal surely?.I don't use fast acting but I thought that was the method?

 

[mo1905]

With a ratio of 1:10 you'd only inject one unit of fast acting for a 10 gram meal surely?.I don't use fast acting but I thought that was the method?

Yep lol ! I'll edit it ! I meant 10 carb units ( 100g ). Nice spot


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[robert72]

Rosie, there's no need to low-carb if you have good control.

You could always try reducing carbs a bit if you want to see if it helps - maybe down to say 150g/day, and if you don't want to lose weight you need to keep your calories up.

 

[lessci]

To keep your weight stable you increase the amount of fats you eat. Not all fats are bad, and some are better than others

 

[RosieDred]

Firstly, insulin is a growth hormone so not advisable to take large doses. Second ( if on basal/bolus), the less carbs we eat, the less we need to inject, less margin for error. Whenever we carb count, the error margin is up to 20%. So, if a meal contains 100g of carbs, ratio 1:10, we inject 10 units. With 20% error margin, we could be 2units too much or not enough. If meal was 50g, 5 units, the 20% error is only 1 unit. Sorry if that's a really complicated way of telling you lol ! Hope it sort of makes sense.


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Thank you mo, that does make sense and is very helpful


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[RosieDred]

Rosie, there's no need to low-carb if you have good control.

You could always try reducing carbs a bit if you want to see if it helps - maybe down to say 150g/day, and if you don't want to lose weight you need to keep your calories up.

Thanks for the input. My control isn't really all that good the past week as I seem to be going into double digits at some point between lunch and bed every day. I'm in the process of reworking out my ratios this week as they have suddenly changed.

I don't think I really want to go really low so maybe trying 150g will be a good start to see if it helps.


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[RosieDred]

To keep your weight stable you increase the amount of fats you eat. Not all fats are bad, and some are better than others

What sort of foods contain the better fats? Thanks in advance


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[Daibell]

Hi Rosie. The obvious good fat food is fish with omega 3 oils but there other foods with this fat. I agree with the other posters ref low-carbing. Just get a sensible balance between carbs and fats and ignore the DN advice you were given; it's why there are so many obese people around. As Mo says by keeping insulin to a minimum consistent with good blood sugar you minimise peaks and troughs and hence hypos

 

[picklebean]

I don't know what sort of levels of insulin you're taking but it can cause you to gain weight the more you take, or something along those lines anyway, I'm not sure of the exact mechanism. This happens when you become insulin resistant - but many T1s won't experience this if they're in good control of their diabetes and at a healthy weight, healthy diet etc... I'm on fairly high doses for a T1 because of having insulin resistance as well as the T1 diabetes.

 

[RosieDred]

Hi Rosie. The obvious good fat food is fish with omega 3 oils but there other foods with this fat. I agree with the other posters ref low-carbing. Just get a sensible balance between carbs and fats and ignore the DN advice you were given; it's why there are so many obese people around. As Mo says by keeping insulin to a minimum consistent with good blood sugar you minimise peaks and troughs and hence hypos

Thanks daibell. Not really a big fan of fish but can give it a go.

I'm guessing everybody's ideal carb/fat balance different?

I definitely think I want to start reducing my carb intake so I can keep my sugars more stable throughout the day. Going up, down, up, down makes me feel like I have a hangover lol


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[RosieDred]

I don't know what sort of levels of insulin you're taking but it can cause you to gain weight the more you take, or something along those lines anyway, I'm not sure of the exact mechanism. This happens when you become insulin resistant - but many T1s won't experience this if they're in good control of their diabetes and at a healthy weight, healthy diet etc... I'm on fairly high doses for a T1 because of having insulin resistance as well as the T1 diabetes.

I'm not on huge amounts of insulin as was only diagnosed 3 months ago. I take 8 units levemir at night and my ratio for breakfast is 1:30, lunch is 1:15 and tea is 1:10. I increase the carbs by 5 for each of the ratios when I'm working. I take novorapid for meals.

My problem is the afternoon/evening numbers at the minute as between lunch and bed I seem to be going into double figures.

Would following a low carb diet help to prevent insulin resistance in the future?


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[robert72]

I would suspect that your Levemir is tailing off in the afternoon/evening - it only really lasts about 18 hours and most people take a split dose. Would be worth talking to your DSN about this.