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Question about Hypos and diet change

Mark14400

Well-Known Member
Messages
88
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi,
Dietician recommended an adjustment to my diet to try and drop some weight (to lose weight you will be hungry she said). So I changed my Breakfast from a Cooked one to Shredded Wheat....Same carbs so same insulin dose.... 2 Units of Rapid... 3 Hrs later....Full on Hypo.....What have I been doing wrong... just don't get it....
Hope you are well,

Mark
 
You may find a cooked breakfast digests better and slower... and shredded wheat acts differently in your stomach.

Only thing to do really is to eat the same again incase its a fluke sort of hypo.
 
Different types of carbs and different meals can require slight tweaks to doses even if they have the same carbs.

Do you have a half unit pen? You could try the same breakfast again and this time test at one hour/90 mins too so you can catch any drop and see what's happening.

I'm presuming that your starting BS was the same before each breakfast?
 
hi there
I have been dieting the last 10 days and I am also getting hypos with the change in diet -- I am just testing loads more and lowering doses as appropriate ( I am on a pump which eases things )
 
Thanks Guys...BG now 10.5.....no reason for this.....it's all over the place today
 
Different types of carbs and different meals can require slight tweaks to doses even if they have the same carbs.

Do you have a half unit pen? You could try the same breakfast again and this time test at one hour/90 mins too so you can catch any drop and see what's happening.

I'm presuming that your starting BS was the same before each breakfast?

Hi Azure.....I only have a 1 unit Pen....I didn't know you can get half dose pens.....Mark
 
Hi Azure.....I only have a 1 unit Pen....I didn't know you can get half dose pens.....Mark
get in touch with your DSN ( diabetic nurse) and ask for one -- she will have a stock of all supplies for us D's
 
Hi Azure.....I only have a 1 unit Pen....I didn't know you can get half dose pens.....Mark

Yes, you can :) If you're on small amounts of insulin it makes it easier.

Ask your DSN as Himtoo advises. It will be useful even if this turns out to be a one-off hypo.
 
Hi Azure.....I only have a 1 unit Pen....I didn't know you can get half dose pens.....Mark
If you are in a hurry, while you wait for a half unit dose pen, just ask your GP or surgery nurse for a presc for a pkt of syringes - BD Micro-fine plus Demi, these have half unit dose markings on the syringes - before i was on the pump i used these all the time, and preferred them to a pen, I still use them occasionally if there is a pump problem
 
BG now 10.5.....no reason for this

Same carbs so same insulin dose.... 2 Units of Rapid... 3 Hrs later....Full on Hypo.....What have I been doing wrong.

Mark, you're doing nothing wrong. Carb counting is a very good starting point, but note that it is just a starting point. If it was a case of just saying X units for Y carbs, it would be a doddle. But there's usually several dozen other things going on in the background which you can't measure which will throw things out.

Personally, when I bolus for a meal, I know that it will generally work out in one of three ways: one, it will be fine, two, I'll go high, so then I take an extra 1 or 2u to bring it back in line, or, three, it'll go too low, and then I'll have a biscuit.

The latter two aren't necessarily failures: I'll have put a lot of thought into how much to bolus for that meal (not just a carb count, but also, where I've been bg wise in the last six hours, what I'll be doing in the next six hours etc.etc), but I know that it won't necessarily work.

It just reflects the fact that T1 is inherently random, and the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft a gleiy... It's a moving target, so if I need to tweak with an extra 2u or 5g after the event, I go with that, just like tactics might change in a football game.

My guess is that you're recently dx'd. Sure, focus on the carb counts, they're the goalposts, but sometimes the goalposts move...over time you'll figure out how to account for the etc. etc. I mentioned above and then tweak the carb count to adjust for those. It takes time, but, in the meantime, treat each "mistake" as a learning experience. Don't just think about the carb count: think also about what else was happening six hours pre and post meal.
 
Are weekends different to your weekdays? You may find this to be the case as well.

Everybodys bodys act differently but many people have different reactions on different days as well.

Are you logging your results to make comparisons just in case?
 
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