New Diabetic New Low Carber Need Help

[mattyT1]

Hi everyone my names matt and im 32 years old,i was diagnosed with diabeties T1 8 months ago after being quite ill,i was put on insulin which started with 2 units of novorapid 3 times daily with food and 6 units of levemir at night,this worked for a while altho my BG levels werent great,then two months ago my BG went right up and i couldnt get below 11 mmol and went up as high as 20mmol so my diabetic nurse upped my insuling to 4 units of novorapid 3 times daily and 10 units of levemir at night but still my BG levels were quite high and since i was diagnosed and started insulin i have put on two stone of weight,now last week whilst i was looking for diabetic diets i came across this site and after reading some of these posts i started a low carb diet just three days ago now,amazingly by cutting carbs i have been able to bring down my units of insulin,ive returned to taking 2 units of insulin with meals and 4 units of levemir and in just those couple of days my BG levels have stabled always being somewhere between 6 and 7.5 mmol,the only problem im having at the moment is the hunger and not knowing what to eat,normally ill have something like scrambled eggs for breakfast,a tin of tuna for lunch and something like chicken with veg or some kind of meat and veg for dinner snacking on raw veg inbetween,ive totally cut out bread pasta rice and other things high in carbs..my question is,am i going in the right direction,3 days in it feels like my throat has been cut and i feel very tired,is this part of the starting process..any advice would be greatly appreciated,i would ask my nurse but she is adament i should have a diet high in carb,what i dont understand is why i should take high carbs to feed insulin when i can bring everything down to normal on a low carb diet..id appreciate any responses..take care everyone


matt

 

[daisy1]

Hi Matt and welcome to the forum For some ideas of what to eat, look at the Diabetes Food Forum. You are already doing very well to have stabilised your levels. You may have seen this as you have already been looking around the forum but just to make sure, here is the information written by the former monitors for new members. I hope it will be helpful to you.

Here is the advice that Ken and I, as Forum Monitors, usually give to newly diagnosed Diabetics. We hope that these few ideas gained through experience help you to gain control and give you some understanding of Diabetes. This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different.

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

For more information on CARBOHYDRATE see here:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20306

This is NOT a low carb diet suggestion, just a reduction in your intake of carbohydrate. You have to decide yourself how much of a reduction will keep your blood glucose levels in control.

The main carbs to avoid OR reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, starchy root veg and also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

If you are on Insulin you may find that reducing the carb intake also means that you can reduce your dose of insulin. This can help you to keep weight gain down as Insulin tends to make you put on weight and eventually cause insulin resistance. This should be done slowly so as not to cause hypos.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating, then two hours after eating, you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels. Some foods, which are slow acting carbohydrates, are absorbed more slowly so you may need to test three or even four hours later to see the effect that these have on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.


As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try!!

For TIPS FOR STRIPS see here:

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=19002#p173253

If you are an Insulin user in theory you should have no problem getting test strips.

The latest 2011 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking and before meals).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l...(Type 1 & 2)
2 hrs after meals........................no more than 8.5 mmol/l.....( Type 2)

2hrs after meals......................... no more than 9 mmol/l ......(Type 1)

If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do at least 30 minutes moderate exercise a day, it can be split into 10 min sessions to start with. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

The above is just general advice and it is recommended that you discuss with your HCP before making any changes. You can also ask questions on the forum on anything that is not clear.

Finally a few QUESTIONS TO ASK AT DIABETES CLINIC.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17091



Sue/Ken.

 

[josie38]

Hi matt,

When you have T1 you are advised to eat a diet of moderate carb and complex carbs to give yourself energy. Your body stores the carbs and then releases the carbs as glucose so you can have energy. Have you done a Dafne course which teaches you how to carb count and have a carb:insulin ratio.

I am T1 and this my average daily food:

2 slices of toast for breakfast
2-3oz of chicken and salad for lunch
4 egg sized potatoes and 2-3oz of meat/fish with veggies/salad
2 snacks a day of fruit

This keeps my Blood sugars stable through the day. As far as im concerned it is not hi in carbs at all and my carb:insulin ratio is 1u for 10g of carbs. At lunchtime I dont have any insulin because it is a no carb lunch.

Maybe seeing a dietician would be more helpful as some dont always say that you have to eat hi carbs mine helped me devise a diet plan that suited my lifestyle and my choices of lo carb or hi carb.

Josie

 

[Dillinger]

Hi Matt,

Welcome aboard.

Stick to your guns; your instinct is exactly right; insulin should match your carb intake not the other way around.

A DAFNE course might but useful for you; you need to be able to work out how many units of fast acting to inject per gram of carbohydrate you eat. It seems to me thought that some people go on these and then think that they can just eat as the always have done and match that with insulin.

I would suggest that doing as low a carb diet as you can manage is the way ahead. My diet consists of about 30 grams a day.

What you need to do is put aside the notion that fats and protein are bad and the carbohydrates and fruit are good. Alas, it doesn't work that way for diabetics.

I would suggest that you buy the books The Diabetes Solution by Dr. Bernstein and Think Like A Pancreas by Barry Goldstein.

If you have just embarked on a low carb diet there is no reason at all for you to be hungry. Have a look at the low carb diet section and read the low carb success thread here.

You may find that in the first week or so you feel slightly out of sorts but drink lots of water and it will pass.

Back in 2003 I embarked on a low carb diet just to lose weight and got an HbA1c of 5.8% - my doctor at the time said I should abandon the low carb and get my HbA1c up as it was 'too low', and so back to the 7.0's I went. Every morning I kick myself for listening to such appalling advice... :evil:

I'll stop when I get back to that level...

Research, test and think for yourself, one of the slightly unsettling things with diabetes is having to ignore and sidestep advice (eat carbs to keep blood sugars stable) that you often get from people who should know better.

Good luck!

Best

Dillinger

 

[noblehead]

Matt,

The increase in insulin is natural as you would be more than likely coming out of the 'honeymoon period' (google for a full explanation) so your insulin/carb ratio would need to be increased.

The tiredness/fatigue is only natural as your body adapts to a new eating regime, it could be that you've excluded too many carbs so a small increase may be necessary to bring back some normality, I tried once to reduce my carbs to 50g a day and felt absolutely awful, after a few weeks I increased it slightly and found I needed at least 80-90g just to function normally and feel mentally alert.

The DAFNE course Josie suggested is excellent, even if you do decide to low/reduce carb it will teach you the basic principles of carb counting and matching your insulin accordingly, so do ask your DSN about the course.

There are a few type 1's members who do low-carb (50g or below) but most eat above this limit to what I would call a reduced/moderate carb diet, hopefully someone who does low-carb will be along shortly to advise.

Nigel

 

[noblehead]

What you need to do is put aside the notion that fats and protein are bad and the carbohydrates and fruit are good. Alas, it doesn't work that way for diabetics.

Hi Dillinger, in what way are carbs and fruit bad for diabetics......particularly type 1's ?

Nigel

 

[mattyT1]

Hi Nigel Carbs turn straight to glucose so obviously the more Carbs you eat the more glucose in your blood which obviously send you BG level soaring , so less Carbs=less glucose= lower BG levels

 

[noblehead]

Hi Nigel Carbs turn straight to glucose so obviously the more Carbs you eat the more glucose in your blood which obviously send you BG level soaring , so less Carbs=less glucose= lower BG levels

Ah yes I'm well aware of that Matty but that is why the panceas produces insulin or in our case we inject it.

The DAFNE course (should you care to take it) deals with this issue and teaches patients how to counteract the bg spikes, I myself did the course when I was eating around 80g of carbs but still learnt a great deal from it's teachings, so much so that I now eat on average 130g daily and don't see 'bg levels soaring' as once before.

Hope you feel better soon and have great success with the low-carb diet!

Nigel

 

[jopar]

I've also done the DAFNE course an it's invaluable to the diabetic as it's not just about carb counting, but teaches you how to interprate your data.. Sick days rules, adusting for exercise and much more..

I wouldn't worry about HbA1c's so much, but concetrate on day to day control get this right and your HbA1c will look after themselves..

Biggest problem is that goals on control isn't all about hitting a numbers or achieving a non-diabetic HbA1c etc... As there is a lot to consider when deciding your personal goals.. Your first goal should be getting a tight range without too many flutuations... Then looking to reduce this if needed to an area that you aren't going below the 4mmol/l hypo land... As the more frequent and longer the time your body spends in hypo land the more it will impact on your hypo awareness, a complication of diabetes that is just as bad as long terrm complications!

The more times you have even a mild hypo the more difficult it will be for the body to sense that your bg is becoming low, which lessens the time that you have between easily treated to medical emergency! Then to completely losing awareness so you go from standing to medical emgerncy as you just peg out!

If you hold a driving licence, then hypo unawaress means no driving licence, if you are stopped or involved in an accident and your BG is below 4mmol/l then you could face prosecution for driving while under the influance and any other relavent charge upto death by dangerous driving while under the influance!

As to diet choices, really down to you, I eat a moderate carb diet, only use an adverage of 17 units in total of insulin a day, with no complications after almost 23 years and a HbA1c in the 5% and no other meds I must be doing something right.. Whether it would work for you dun know, you've got to do all the data collection, diary keeping and moditoring to find out what level of carbs etc that give's you could control and ticks all the box's..

 

[IanD]

You may find this link to Fergus experience helpful.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=23162