• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Snacking and stacking

Timostags

Timostags

Well-Known Member
Messages
112
I have always been very skinny and been able to eat whatever I like and not put on an ounce, some people get jealous but it's a major pain for me.

Since trying to get on top of this whole diabetes thing I have stopped snacking. Just to stop me stacking bolus on bolus.

I don't eat breakfast (I tend to feel sick when I eat first thing) but eat 2 good sized meals and have started having a dessert with my evening meal rather than having a snack later in the evening. I have found since I cut out the snacks I have lost about 9 pounds which I didn't really have to spare in the first place.I don't want to start snacking and stacking until I am happy my dosages are bang on (due to see a DSN in a couple of weeks to look at my dosages in detail)

Do "good" T1D's snack and stack? Do you always wait for a proper meal? Do you snack on carb free snacks?
 
I don't think of myself as snacking but grazing. Sometimes I snack on low/no carbs but usually have some carbs.
Like you, I am able to eat whatever I like without putting on weight.
If I wait for 3 meals, I feel hungry in between. This may be due to wait I eat or may be due to having a fast metabolism or may be something else. So far, I have seen no ill effects from my diet and way of eating.I inject for everything I eat before I eat it.
I've never thought of it as stacking but I often add insulin before the last dose has finished.

I am not sure if you consider me a "good" T1D but my hb1AC is under 50.
 
If I have a drawn out meal with multiple courses I simply inject for every new course. So occasionally it has happened I injected at 5 for a beer, at 5:10 for a snack to accompany the beer, at 5:25 for some more snacks because they were simply too good, at 6:15 for the soup, at 7 for the small pie, at 7:30 and 7:45 for the main course, again because the carby dish simply tasted too good, and at 8:30 for the ice-cream. As by that time, I didn't have a clue how far off I was with guessing carbs, the last 2 doses were smaller than what I thought I needed, so I corrected twice about 1 hour and 3 hours after.
Worked just fine, actually, but I'm happy christmas is only once a year :)

In normal every day life, I don't mind 'stacking' as long as I'm pretty much on top of my doses per food. I need the same amount of insulin for the planned and injected for cookie right after a meal, as for the same cookie an hour later. So it is the same if I take 8 units for meal + cookie or 6 units for meal and 2 units for cookie after an hour.
The main trick seems to be to keep in mind how much you have eaten and how much insulin you have on board, and how sure you are of your doses. I wouldn't pull tricks like that first meal if I hadn't planned to stay awake for at least 4 hours after to see what happened.
 
During my sedentary working day I probably put a bit much insulin in at the beginning and maybe too much basal, then use that to allow me to snack through the day. So I'm not injecting for each lump of food I take, I'm eating to bring my sugars up but in a sort of planned way. Not necessarily an approved technique, it requires me to not overreact to BSL going low and to eat in time, but it sort of works for me.
(is this "sugar surfing"?)

If I wanted to put weight on, I'd just eat more and inject for it, and not worry too much about stacking - but I've got large gaps between bolus at the moment where I can do that if I want.

The one time I do have to watch stacking is after an afternoon out in the hills. I need a little bolus when I get back, having been using the exercise to keep sugars low (and snacking on the way round), and enjoying a snack on my return. If supper isn't too long after that I need to remember there will still be some bolus left over from earlier. But so long as I do, it seems to work.
 
I am, like you, able to eat anything and not put on weight. I do snack BUT on carb free items if possible OR low carb items
 
When I was diagnosed they asked me to do 3 meals a day. With the amount of exercise that I do that just led to further weight loss - and after DKA that was the last thing I needed.

I now snack mid morning because I can handle that from a dosage perspective. Still struggling for mid afternoon munchies because I can't have novorapid in my system at around 4 when I leave the office - hypo time.

So I stack in the morning.
 
Back
Top