Low carbing

Hi

As a type 1 i do low carb and my husband joined me last year as he wanted to lose weight and he never has been hungry with low carb so not hungry no cheating. As i have done low carb for a long time i actually get nausea and start vomiting if i eat high carb

Lynz84 said:

Hi All

The time has come for me to lose some weight (natures duvet is cosy in winter...not cute in summer!) And I have seen a lot of you do low carb. Is it difficult to maintain? Im very aware of hypos and understand there'll be a change in basal dosage. Im just overcautious with any change tbh and just wanted to hear some of your experiences. Obviously hoping for tighter control too!

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There are different levels of low carbing. I hope you find the level that works for you the most

For me it's no bread pasta rice potatoes, no store bought sweets. I make my own sweets using sugar/flour substitutes. There are lots of low carb recipes available online.

I've been low carbing for 2 years now and I don't find it difficult to maintain- I think that's because I enjoy low carb cooking & eating and I know for me the benefit of low carbing (stable bs and no hypos) outweighs the negatives

Good luck !

I went to to my last clinic appoint ment about 6/8 weeks ago and had put on almost a stone. So decided to do something about it

I have started a low carb diet and I am actually enjoying it very much. Brekkie is normally museli or porridge around 40 g of carbs, lunch is salad stuff, cold meats, or cheese or tuna, virtually no carbs. Evening meal is chicken, steak, pork chops, sausages, with plenty of veg, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, mushroom, peppers, courgettes, again almost carb free.

Now as I am eating a lot less carbs, I take very little bolus insulin, previously I was taking around 16 units 10 units and 16 units. My basal insulin has stayed pretty much the same 2 x 22 units of levemir

Once a week I do have have a takeaway, which I enjoy, either Indian or Chinese

Plenty of hood apps out there to help you, Carbs and Cals which is around £3 and the free one I use is fatsecret which is free

Basically I have cut out bread, pasta potatoes and rice and eating lots more veg, which is not only better for diabetics but for folks in general

The secret here is to test frequently and adjust your insulin to match carb intake

Hope it goes well for you

Hi, I am type 1 and have recently piled on the weight after having a baby last year. I need to lose weight but finding something that works for weight as well as BG levels is really hard. I have tried following Slimming World but felt like I was eating lots more carbs than I would usually eat. I don’t want to cut out carbs completely but what is the best carb level to start off with? There is so much information online about low carbs but I’m a bit of a novice.....I like the sound of your average days food and wondered if you had any tips on a beginner entering the world of low carb eating!

Hi everyone, I’m a newbie to the site and would really appreciate your advice on this topic please.
I’m a type 1 diagnosed some 25 years ago. I am on a insulin pump. I have piled on the weight over the past few years in correlation to an increase in my insulin. I started a low carb diet some 9 weeks ago, approx 30-40g a day. Unfortunately I have not lost any weight whatsoever. My basal level has gone down by about 10% and the basal from 12, 12, 14 to 0, 4, 5.
I have read many successes on the LC diet in terms of ‘weight dropping off’ which I haven’t seen. I’m feeling disheartened, so please advice? Thank you

Zak786 said:

Hi everyone, I’m a newbie to the site and would really appreciate your advice on this topic please.
I’m a type 1 diagnosed some 25 years ago. I am on a insulin pump. I have piled on the weight over the past few years in correlation to an increase in my insulin. I started a low carb diet some 9 weeks ago, approx 30-40g a day. Unfortunately I have not lost any weight whatsoever. My basal level has gone down by about 10% and the basal from 12, 12, 14 to 0, 4, 5.
I have read many successes on the LC diet in terms of ‘weight dropping off’ which I haven’t seen. I’m feeling disheartened, so please advice? Thank you

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Hi

I would think that your insulin intake might still be high if you are on low carb.
You might want to lower your insulin intake but do still test your BG frequently while you are lowering your insulin.
I have lowered mine and it takes some time till you body adjust to the low carb diet and insulin till i lose weight slowly.
I would think that the Insulin will make us NOT lose weight as it makes us Hungry instead

Hope that works for you

Lynz84 said:

Im just overcautious with any change tbh and just wanted to hear some of your experiences. Obviously hoping for tighter control too!

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I low carb'd from diagnosis 2012 to 2015 i.e. less than 30 g of carbs per day most of the time and was inspired by the Bernstein book. Nowadays I low carb until the evening time then I add more carbs to my diet.

In terms of weight I exercise daily so i keep it off, but I've gained weight when injured on both low carb and higher carb diets.
Some of the main staples of a low carb diet can be seriously high in calories i.e. nuts , cheese, cream etc etc . I was making cakes from almond flour which were calorie bombs.

In my experience , whatever your diet is, you need to keep an eye the on calories also. I run in a calorie deficit on week/ work days by eating less and burn around ~ 1000 extra by cycling.

Check out calorie calculators
http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

Hmm just re-read the bellow, I'm actually not trying to put you off, a lot of people seem to get fantastic results with low carbing but...

Personally I would love to try low carbing (and have) but I find it impossible not to lose weight when I do it (I'm actually trying to put weight on).

I've found that if I drop my carbs weight just falls off me. I have tried replacing this with eating more protein / fat but find that I just go high about 5 to 6 hours after eating (so after evening meal the rise starts about half 11 when I'm asleep).

I'm sure it would lead to better glucose control but it just doesn't seem doable for me...

I'm currently on around 30g carbs per meal which seems to work ok for levels but there seems to be nothing that I can eat which doesn't send me up into the 12's a few hours later...

Matt

I’ve been extremely low carbing (keto) for about four months now. Lots of hypos the first week as I brought down my basal insulin, but nothing that couldn’t be sorted out in a few minutes with a couple or three dextrose tablets. I didn’t start it to lose weight, but to control my BG better, but I have lost a little bit, about ten pounds. Most importantly, my HbA1c dropped from 89 to 43 My insulin doses have more than halved, I’ve gone from 36 to 18 units a day of basal and usually less than 6 units a day of bolus - I was taking 10-12u per meal before.

@Lynz84 have you tried konjac pasta? Zero carbs, and a fabulous alternative. I get mine in bulk from Holland & Barratt when it’s on offer, it’s currently in the penny sale. You can get rice, noodles and a few shakes of pasta made from it.

lefeilouss said:

Hi

I would think that your insulin intake might still be high if you are on low carb.
You might want to lower your insulin intake but do still test your BG frequently while you are lowering your insulin.
I have lowered mine and it takes some time till you body adjust to the low carb diet and insulin till i lose weight slowly.
I would think that the Insulin will make us NOT lose weight as it makes us Hungry instead

Hope that works for you

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Thanks lefeilouss. I’ve already reduced my insulin from an average daily bolus 40 units per day (pre LC diet) to 9 units on the diet. Perhaps as others have suggested it could be the hidden calories in nuts and cheese. I will continue with the diet for another couple of months and see if I manage to lose weight.

Mel dCP said:

I’ve been extremely low carbing (keto) for about four months now. Lots of hypos the first week as I brought down my basal insulin, but nothing that couldn’t be sorted out in a few minutes with a couple or three dextrose tablets. I didn’t start it to lose weight, but to control my BG better, but I have lost a little bit, about ten pounds. Most importantly, my HbA1c dropped from 89 to 43 My insulin doses have more than halved, I’ve gone from 36 to 18 units a day of basal and usually less than 6 units a day of bolus - I was taking 10-12u per meal before.

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Thanks Mel dCP, well done ! I would love to replicate what you’ve achieved. How low carbing did you go?

Zak786 said:

Thanks Mel dCP, well done ! I would love to replicate what you’ve achieved. How low carbing did you go?

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I keep to less than 30g a day.

@staffsmatt When you eat a higher protein meal, you need to do a second injection a few hours later especially if it is beef. This is the case if you are injecting Regular as your bolus and even more so if on Humalog.