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Type 1 The carnivore diet

J

Jackr00

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi all, I’ve just started the carnivore diet. A totally carb free diet that includes nothing but animal product. Basically meat, eggs and a bit of cheese. Has any other T1 tried this and have any advise?

Thanks in advance, Jack
 
I’m veggie so not tried it. My advice would be test lots, you may have to start dosing for protein. Not sure how you plan to treat potential hypos?
 
Diakat said:
I’m veggie so not tried it. My advice would be test lots, you may have to start dosing for protein. Not sure how you plan to treat potential hypos?
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I have thought about that and apparently a drop of honey is my best bet. And I’ve noticed a little spike in readings after protein,trial and error I suppose
 
Jackr00 said:
I have thought about that and apparently a drop of honey is my best bet. And I’ve noticed a little spike in readings after protein,trial and error I suppose
Click to expand...
Are you already low carb? My (very limited and possibly/probably incorrect) understanding is that once you go sufficiently low carb you have to count protein g as half that of carb g.

Would be interested in more info about counting protein as am moderately low carb at the moment and possibly going lower.
 

I’ve literally started today, from a balanced diet to zero carb. Have noticed I need insulin. I’ll get back to you if o figure it out
 
A very high protein (lean muscle) carnivore diet can still be somewhat glucose-based if the balance of fuel lost from carbohydrate cessation is not coming primarily from dietary fat. This might depend largely on how much body fat you have to draw from (in lieu of alternative fuel sources the body may turn to breaking down amino acids into glucose).

Ketogenic carnivore would be optimal if you really wanted to minimise bolus insulin. Although you are type 1 so I'll let others comment on the suitability and day-to-day safety of ketogenic eating.
 
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The work of Dr Ian Lake, himself type 1, may be of some help. He focuses on keto rather than carnivore, but there may well be some useful information amidst his videos/blogs and papers. He quite regularly speaks at the PHC conference, so that website would be a good starting point.
 
This is quite an interesting take of Dr Lake's endurance running, whilst keto: https://type1keto.com/

It's obviously not for everyone, but it seems to work for him.
 
I'm not on the carnivore diet but I eat very low carb and dose for protein. I dose at 1:15 (50% of what I dose for carbs) with regular insulin (ActRapid), and use split bolus taking 2-3 injections per meal. For the carbs (15-20g) I pre-bolus by 20-30 minutes, then eat and dose for the protein after the meal.

How many shots I take depends on how much protein I eat. If it's less than 30g it's a single shot, and if it's more I split it in two to avoid hypos. Most of the time I inject for the third time an hour after eating. It depends on the fat content of the meal though. Pork belly and sausages are slow to digest, so it happens that I take the second protein dose several hours after eating.

I use the libre and scan a lot after meals to time the dose. Sometimes I mess it up, but for many meals I flatline and my last HbA1c was 32, so this way of eating works.

If you haven't read Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, it's a good starting point for insulin and protein. Then there's some trial and error. In the beginning I used to take the whole dose before eating and go hypo so I started splitting it. The exception is breakfast where I eat no carbs and take one shot. If you eat the same things a lot it gets easier with time.
 

Thank for you’re help
 
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