No carbs = No insulin????

Vikki,

No carbs doesn't mean no insulin.......it's not that simple I'm afraid!

Basal insulin would still be required to control your bg levels between meals and during fasting and some insulin would still be required to cover the food you eat at meal-times. It's almost impossible to avoid carbs altogether and stay healthy as most fruit and veg contain carbs, also protein in the absence of carbs will convert to 60% glucose in the body and insulin would still be required to cover this.

Those that reduce carbohydrates or go on a low-carb diet do find they need less insulin on the whole but can never do without it much like a non-diabetic with a normal functioning pancreas, your question isn't ''dense'' and we are all here to learn from one-another.

Nigel

Hi Vikki To help you with your new diet here is a diet written by my friend Viv which I'm sure she wouldn't mind me posting. It is an excellent diet based on the Atkins diet. Give it a try...
A lot of members have already been very successful with it

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=18803&hilit=viv%27s#p170998

Vikki1981 said:

Thankyou for your quick response, really want to stick at low carbing but finding it all very confusing at the moment, i was reading about an atkins style diet and it said your body has to enter a state of ketosis, i was always told that this was dangerous?, it also said your carbs had to be no more and no less than 20 per day for the first 2 weeks :shock: , how is this possible?, maybes when i've been doing it a few months it will seem easy but right now its hard to find the correct way of doing things

Click to expand...

Here is an explanation of the Low Carb diet written for newbies.........

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7215#p64246

That's a great article by Fergus, Cugila, thanks for posting the link.

Vikki, as Fergus says in that article, 'ketosis' and 'ketoacidosis' are two different things, and it's the ketoacidosis that is the dangerous one. Fergus explains the difference very well, but if you need more info than his explanation just google for it.

Not everyone doing Atkins gets signs of ketosis in their urine (it's a dip-stick test). I didn't for a long time, but I nevertheless lost 5.5 stone in 18 months. Daisy gave you the link to my version - do try it, it's safe and it works. PM me if you need any further info.

Viv

Vikki1981 said:

Thankyou for your quick response, really want to stick at low carbing but finding it all very confusing at the moment, i was reading about an atkins style diet and it said your body has to enter a state of ketosis, i was always told that this was dangerous?, it also said your carbs had to be no more and no less than 20 per day for the first 2 weeks :shock: , how is this possible?, maybes when i've been doing it a few months it will seem easy but right now its hard to find the correct way of doing things

Click to expand...

Vikki,

A low-carb diet doesn't have to be 'Atkins style diet' where you enter a state of ketosis, most people on a low-carb diet will never get near this point but its assumed that anything below 30g of carbs is sufficient to turn on this process.

A low-carb diet is open to debate in what actually defines a LC diet, some people on the forum state they are low-carb but can eat 100g of carbs a day....some more some less, it doesn't really matter what you call it or how many carbs you eat as long as your bg keeps within normal targets.

As to ketogenic diets been dangerous, well my diabetes consultant insists they are as they cause long-term damage to the liver and kidneys, the best person to ask is your diabetes team who will advise on this matter knowing your past and present medical history.

I consume on average 100-150g of carbs a day but over the course of the week it is near 120g, I use the DAFNE approach to adjusting my insulin to the carbs I eat which has transformed my control over the last 2 years.

Nigel