To lower insulin or to eat more?

[Marfmama]

To combat hypos my first thought is to reduce my insulin intake, however I recently had a visit from my mum an after discussing it with her she thought perhaps due to my unwanted weight loss I should keep my insulin the same and increase the amount I eat. It seems like a sensible solution to me.. I don't think I could manage larger meals but I could definitely snack more! I teach 3 days a week and when I'm not doing that I'm with my 3 year old son so definitely burning a lot of energy. In started having porridge for breakfast as that's the only thing that keeps me full for long enough.. Do other people snack regualrly? I'm thinking I will need to mid morning, mid afternoon and supper time! I will need to think in advance about what to have as otherwise snacking will no longer be fun and become a bit of a chore.. I know there are plenty of threads here already about healthy snacks so I'll be checking on those!!


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[fractureman]

Sounds like your feeding your insulin to me.
You on a basal/bolus regime ?
What sort of times are you hypo? Post meal indicating too much bolus?
I'd start to keep a record of your carbs that you eat at meals & the bolus you inject, then you can work out what sort of ratio you need to inject bolus insulin.
Fasting tests (like first time in morning) will give you an idea of your basal dose, I.e if always low first thing in morning reduce your basal insulin. It does take about 5 days for this to have any effect on readings though.


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[noblehead]

Certainly snacking on things like nuts between meals will help you put the weight back (I'm assuming you know the reason for the weight loss) but might not stop the hypo's, the best way to reduce them is to carry out some fasting bg checks to see if your basal insulin is set at the right dose, meaning you eat a meal then miss the next but monitor your bg readings during this time, if your bg remains steady then it's your bolus insulin that you take with your meals that needs to be reduced.

I rarely snack between meals as I never feel hungry, sticking to just 3 meals a day has helped me maintain my weight over the last few years as where before I would put weight on, I did once snack all the time but not anymore. With your morning porridge try adding some pumpkin seeds, linseeds, blueberries and a heaped spoonful of natural yogurt, I do this most mornings and keeps me full till lunch :thumbup: