New T1 And Completely Overwhelmed!

Hello!
Are you on fixed insulin doses? And is it a basal / bolus plan you are on?
Fixed carbs make sense if you are on mixed insulin twice a day, but less so if you are using MDI.
It may be that they want to bring your levels down slowly to avoid eye damage.
Have you been tough carb counting yet? That is the first step to dose adjustment and more flexibility. Which then allows you the option of low carb if you want to go that route.

Hi there.

It is overwhelming at first - for everyone, so this is perfectly normal. You have been diagnosed at a time of massive changes - from greater pump availability, flash and continuous glucose monitoring and high carb / low fat being accepted as a viable choice.
I have been type 1 for 30 years now and when I was first diagnosed as a teenager the insulin used at the time dictated the quantity of carbs I had to eat at each meal. This changed about 20 years ago, when it was flipped on it’s head - I decided what I wanted to eat and then worked out the amount of insulin that was needed. This is called your carb to insulin ratio and it is different at different times of the day. For example, for breakfast I need 1 unit for every 12g of carbs. After 10am this reduces to 1 Unit for every 18g. You then factor in corrections so if by BG was above 5.8, extra insulin is added to the dose incrementally to bring BG back to normal. Thankfully I am on an insulin pump, so my BG monitor calculates this for me and I just need to accurately count the carbs!
I am unsure as to the advice given at diagnosis. Did they teach you how to carb count? If not, it may be worth asking about a DAFNE or similar course, where they will teach you how to do this. At the time, it was life changing for me, but I do remember something about having to be 1year post diagnosis to do the course (this was about 16years ago though).
In terms of weight, I joined Slimming World and lost 6 stones and I’ve now kept it off for 2 years. As it’s about healthy eating rather than dieting, the plan is what everyone should be doing anyway. The amount of insulin I take has dramatically reduced - I used to take a basal of 46 units and it’s now down to 12.65 units! By needing so much less, I think this supports me to keep the weight off as well.
Good luck, and keep asking questions until you find what works for you. It does get easier but will be something you always have to consider. I still remember a nurse telling me ‘control your diabetes, don’t let it control you’.

Welcome to the club.

This forum is great. There is a huge variety of people contributing and asking questions which is amazing. Over time, you will start to realise, all the of the information is interesting but not all the information is relevant to you in your situation.
For example, low carb diet has great results for people with type 2: you could think of type 2 as carb intolerance. Some people with type 1 also chose to follow a similar diet but many do not and live pretty healthily whilst matching their insulin to their food.
Another things which seems to vary between type 1 and type 2 is the relationship between insulin and weight gain. For example, I have had type 1 for nearly 15 years, am very active, eat what I want and the only weight problem I have is keeping it on.

At the start, there seems to be a huge amount of information; things to understand; rules to follow; hints to review; ... you don't have to learn all of this on day one: I am still learning about diabetes and expect to continue to do so for many many years.
Managing diabetes is a marathon: it is not a sprint. You will make mistakes but don't beat yourself up about it. It is best to understand why something happen, if you can (sometimes your body is just showing you it's independent).

I am very much of the opinion that diabetes will not stop me doing what I want. This has not always been easy. For example, I am not going to avoid exercise because I am afraid of hypos: I find ways to exercise without hypoing which is usually a balance of carbs and insulin.

In your position, I would follow the guidance your dietician has given you at the start and then ask how you can adjust this to give you more flexibility. At the moment, you have probably been asked to keep it reasonably regimented so they can work out your insulin doses: if you change things, it is harder to work out a baseline.

The overwhelmed feeling should change over time.
Think about things you have mastered in the past. I always think about driving - how do I make sure I am in the right gear, keep to the speed limit, watch out for obstacles in the road, talk to my passengers, ... and not stall the car or suffer from complete brain overload? I guess it's because I have been doing it for many years.

There are some T1's that do low carb and find it helps keep things stable, but generally Low carb is more the domain of T2's.

And Helens said it all........

cri07007186 said:

Hi everyone,

I have been newly diagnosed as a T1 diabetic 3weeks ago. Since then i have been trying to wrap my head around all of the new information i need to know. I understand the basics of what i have ti do now and my diabetic nurse has been really great and supportive but i still don’t understand a few things.

Firstly i have been reading a lot on this forum and elsewhere about low carb diets and how they seem to be the way to go. However my dietitian has given me a certain amount of carbs to eat with each meal (breakfast 50g, lunch 50g, dinner 70g) so should i cut down or do as she says. It just seems like a lot of carbs. Also I’ve been eating breads and pasta etc to maintain the cards she recommended but from what i can tell these are the foods i should be staying away from, is this true?

Also i have tried very hard over the last two years to lose weight and have been quite successful however i have read and been told that insulin will cause me to gain weight. I would really like to tackle this however im afraid to do exercise as just simply cleaning my house has caused me to go hypo.
Has anyone got advice for me? Did anyone else have trouble with their weight management at the start.

Also can i just say this forum has been a godsend to me since i found it. In times when it all just seems too much to think about i love coming on here to read other peoples stories. So Thankyou everyone

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Hi and a hug, I well remember how I felt 10months ago, confused, angry and overwhelmed.
Overwhelmed by all the information and especially the abbreviations everyone used here and just being worried that I was going to die in my sleep. I'm a real plonker at times but don't worry, it's not necessary, I'm still here and so are a lot of really really understanding and helpful people. I've learnt more here than from the nurses or the consultants and you do get your head around it

It's up to you whose advice you follow but 170g seems like a lot to me and if I'd followed the advice, it would have meant my changing my eating habits to eat more carbs.................. so I didn't. Despite this, I did put on weight 8k but I've stopped gaining now and feel I've got more of a handle on diabetes and diet.

My advice is eat moderately and carb count. I kept a food diary from the start but didn't write down the number of carbs I was eating until 2 months in but I was counting and doing bolus injections. Looking back at the diary, I can see that my diet has changed and I'm now eating far fewer carbs and rarely bolus.

I think it's a matter of taking little steps and not thinking you can do everything at once and @helensaramay gives great advice and @slip too and they've been here way longer than me. You can do it, watch your machine and count. Another hug to end

SueJB said:

Hi and a hug, I well remember how I felt 10months ago, confused, angry and overwhelmed.
Overwhelmed by all the information and especially the abbreviations everyone used here and just being worried that I was going to die in my sleep. I'm a real plonker at times but don't worry, it's not necessary, I'm still here and so are a lot of really really understanding and helpful people. I've learnt more here than from the nurses or the consultants and you do get your head around it

It's up to you whose advice you follow but 170g seems like a lot to me and if I'd followed the advice, it would have meant my changing my eating habits to eat more carbs.................. so I didn't. Despite this, I did put on weight 8k but I've stopped gaining now and feel I've got more of a handle on diabetes and diet.

My advice is eat moderately and carb count. I kept a food diary from the start but didn't write down the number of carbs I was eating until 2 months in but I was counting and doing bolus injections. Looking back at the diary, I can see that my diet has changed and I'm now eating far fewer carbs and rarely bolus.

I think it's a matter of taking little steps and not thinking you can do everything at once and @helensaramay gives great advice and @slip too and they've been here way longer than me. You can do it, watch your machine and count. Another hug to end

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Hi Sue,

Sorry to butt in to someone else’s post you mentioned something I’ve been wondering since diagnosis in April, can I eat a carb free lunch (salad for example) and take any insulin?

Julie x

Mrs Allport said:

Hi Sue,

Sorry to butt in to someone else’s post you mentioned something I’ve been wondering since diagnosis in April, can I eat a carb free lunch (salad for example) and take any insulin?

Julie x

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I don't think @cri07007186 will mind. I was told that only snacks and meals with 10g carbs and over I had to do a bolus prick. My lunch today was and egg 0g and some protein bread 8g so didn't do any extra pricking.

SueJB said:

I don't think @cri07007186 will mind. I was told that only snacks and meals with 10g carbs and over I had to do a bolus prick. My lunch today was and egg 0g and some protein bread 8g so didn't do any extra pricking.

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Thanks Sue, I’ve been meaning to ask my dietician or DN and keep forgetting I tend to only eat salads for lunch so have been having to have a pitta or flatbread so I that I take a unit but I think I’ll give it go and keep an eye on levels xxx

Mrs Allport said:

Thanks Sue, I’ve been meaning to ask my dietician or DN and keep forgetting I tend to only eat salads for lunch so have been having to have a pitta or flatbread so I that I take a unit but I think I’ll give it go and keep an eye on levels xxx

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OOOOOOOOOOOhh, pitta and flat breads are way over 10g. Just salad, no bolus. .................. but pitta defo on for a prick there. My partner had a wrap this evening 22g!!

SueJB said:

OOOOOOOOOOOhh, pitta and flat breads are way over 10g. Just salad, no bolus. .................. but pitta defo on for a prick there. My partner had a wrap this evening 22g!!

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I usually have to pretty much force myself to eat one just because I thought I had to take insulin with every meal so I will be very happy to drop them and stick with just a carb free salad xx

@cri07007186 you can try this for an intro to carb counting https://www.bertieonline.org.uk/
As afar as I know there are no private versions, but then I've not been allowed on any course. The dietician taught me to carb count.

cri07007186 said:

Hi everyone,

I have been newly diagnosed as a T1 diabetic 3weeks ago. Since then i have been trying to wrap my head around all of the new information i need to know. I understand the basics of what i have ti do now and my diabetic nurse has been really great and supportive but i still don’t understand a few things.

Firstly i have been reading a lot on this forum and elsewhere about low carb diets and how they seem to be the way to go. However my dietitian has given me a certain amount of carbs to eat with each meal (breakfast 50g, lunch 50g, dinner 70g) so should i cut down or do as she says. It just seems like a lot of carbs. Also I’ve been eating breads and pasta etc to maintain the cards she recommended but from what i can tell these are the foods i should be staying away from, is this true?

Also i have tried very hard over the last two years to lose weight and have been quite successful however i have read and been told that insulin will cause me to gain weight. I would really like to tackle this however im afraid to do exercise as just simply cleaning my house has caused me to go hypo.

Has anyone got advice for me? Did anyone else have trouble with their weight management at the start.

Also can i just say this forum has been a godsend to me since i found it. In times when it all just seems too much to think about i love coming on here to read other peoples stories. So Thankyou everyone

Click to expand...

Hi sounds like your doing a great job of learning. We had a similar experience when our daughter was diagnosed just over 3 years ago.

For her and us we worked out very quickly that eating a ton of carbs then taking a ton of insulin made for unstable high blood sugars and weight gain ( something a young teenager definitely didn't want)

Unfortunately we also found out when we made the decision to go low carb ( our daughter is on under 30g of carbs a day & these carbs are from low carb gluten free foods, things like healthy veggies low carb bread & low carb baked treats along with yummy meats nuts eggs and dairy) that our medical team didn't support or understand this approach so we made the decision to go it alone after much research by educating ourselves. We decided on implementing Dr Richard K Bernsteins low carb approach, with the support of the online community of typeonegrit.

After changing our medical team to a team who were ok with low carb but still not thrilled about it ( even though our results spoke for themselves) for the last 3 years our teenage daughters HbA1c levels have been between 4.9 & 5.4 she has maintained a healthy weight is growing is a well adjusted teenager who is doing well at school is an active sports person ( has been her age zone athletics champion for the last 3 years (this zone has 8 schools in it with about 1200 kids at each school) rides and trains horses (spending days at a time in the holidays on her own out in a paddock training and riding horses) has had no admissions to hospital is rarely sick and if she gets gastro or a cold / flu it's short lived. Her cholesterol & thyroid levels were abnormal on diagnosis and are now at normal levels. Low Carb is super easy in comparison to counting carbs for us.

The benefits of having to learn this approach without a team to teach us every step of the way was that we are much stronger, the support team we chose were a mine of information and could lead us to studies and support information that made us confident in our decisions & we have learnt a huge amount of information and we and our daughter are very confident with managing her type1.

We no longer live in fear of the complications of diabetes as her diet and stable blood sugars are protecting her heart, circulation, eyes, kidneys etc and she has already corrected the 2 complications that she had on diagnosis, high cholesterol & abnormal thyroid levels (she was fit, healthy, of normal weight, sporty & didn't eat a lot of junk before diagnosis)

We have been very happy with the results we have achieved and our daughter has a bright and happy future and I hope you find what works for you as no one can tell you what to do, ultimately it's a decision that you have to make for yourself because it's your future and your health.

Hi @cri07007186,
Welcome to the club ! You have joined a great support team.
I was 13 when diagnosed as TID, and now 51 years later am still going strong.
I can understand that that at the moment being prescribed a fixed diet, makes the balancing out of your insulin requirements easier.
Yes, you are right to query the diet as you can everything about your treatment, that is how we learn.
Once your bsls have stabilised you can start to try things out a bit more, under the guidance of your Diabetes Nurse and your doctor. You may also have lost weight before diagnosis and the the diet may have been prescribed to help you regain weight.
So it is possible that the diet will be revised before long.
At this stage trying to go low carbohydrate might be too soon to contemplate.
Keep asking questions, gain your confidence and remember that anxiety, fear , anger etc just push up the bsls.
Perhaps an analogy is that you are learning to fly an airplane, just not by choice ! Learn how how fuel you need, how the engine and ignition work, how to keep balanced, and land and take off well.
Your health team, pharmacist. friends and places like this forum are the soft landing places !!

You don't have to stay away from carbs, you just have to learn how to use your insulin to manage them. Insulin itself won't cause you to put on weight, but if you are eating too many carbs for the exercise you're doing then you'll pile on the pounds.

What units of insulin are you using for those carb amounts your nurse gave you. If - for instance - you are taking 5 units for 50g of carbs then you are on a 1:10 ratio. If you only eat 30g of carbs then you'll need just 3 units of insulin.

That makes it sound very simple, but our bodies are complex machines and throw regular curve balls at us!!