Type 1: Will a low carb diet effect energy levels?

[Mrs of type 1]

My husband has been type 1 for over 30 years, he also has fibromyalgia, Chronic fatigue syndrome, gastroparisis, depression, neuropathy, thyroid problems, and retinopathy. He's unable to work, has chronic pain and spends most of his time sleeping. Just to walk down stairs exhausts him. He's on lots of very strong medication, some of which raise his BG. My question is would a low carb diet mean he has even less energy than he has now?

 

[qe5rt]

There's a large grey zone when answering this question but i'll do my best and i'm sure a lot of low carbers will answer too.

Low carb can lead to reduced physical performance due to the function of carbs as the preferred energy source for your muscles (i'm going to cut some corners here to keep it brief). But this only occurs on higher intensity exercising which i'm assuming your husband isn't doing. In that aspect when leading a sedentary lifestyle the need for carbs is greatly reduced so i'm fairly certain that your husband can make do with a limited amount of carbs. Whether this amount needs to be in the low carb region i'll leave in the middle.

Next to this unstable BS levels can have a tiring effect. I know when my BS levels are on the swing i'm so lethargic a bulldozer wouldn't be able to get me of the couch. This said, if a low carb diet improves his BS levels and the stability at least he wouldn't be exhausted from his BS levels.

Finally most people on a low carb diet don't feel like they have less energy on a day to day basis, some even feel more energetic. Which is a common effect of a healthy diet which leads me to another point: when going low carb make sure you still have a healthy and varied diet to get all the micro nutrients in. Changing your diet can have both positive and negative effects, if you're not sure the best advice is to check with a physician. But purely on the question if low carb would reduce his energy, i would say it's unlikely.

 

[Freema]

it all depends on a lot of other aspects.. he uses insuline and how well controled is his diabetes, are his blood numbers for other kinds of crucial vitamins, minerals and trace minerals normal...
has he got normal levels of f.x. vitamin D, normal levels of iron (not too low not too high) , how about magnesium , potasium and sodium are these levels normal... all of these can make people very tired and exhausted if they are out of whack..
also too high blood glucose in it self can make people very tired and give brain fog like the deficiencies.

low carb when using insulin is more difficult to manage, but som can do that, but of cause there is the posibillity to do lower carb diet... and maybe not be very extreme to start with, but most diabetics do already do a much lower carbintake than non-diabetics..

If I was having such a bad time like your husbond, i would at least make sure to know excactly how much carb in grams I ate every day and only seldomly go higher than what I would decide would be manageable to me... and I would also only eat the number of proteins in grams that would be what my body needs daily as the excess proteins get transform into glucose by our liver and contributes to the higher blood glucose numbers in general and to the dawn phenomenon where the blood glucose is raised even when not eating anything.. but guess you know all these aspects.


I was tired all the time when I ate a lot of carbs and was not diagnosed, my brain felt much better after like 3 weeks on very low calorie and very few carbs a day like 1000calories and maybe 130 grams of carbs a day... it was before I knew of the low carb high fat diet, since then i have also reduced my protein intake to now about 65-85 grams a day , i don´t succeed all days but it gets better all the time , and one learnes to make more interesting foods that are low carb and higher fats.

when using insuline one can more easily get too low , and that is also dangerous and can if unlucky give brain damages if too low and can also in worst case scenario be life threatening.. your husbond is on insuline and it is a kind of expert thing to try to go lower in carbs... and I know nothing of that...

I have myself gotten much more energy on low carb and lower calories and my brain feels normal again even when I do very much excercise, to others it has the opposite effect... my brain do not seem to need a lot of carbs to thrive... some can´t feel normal in their head if not getting a lot more carbs than I do (80 -120 grams a day) I very often do excercise without getting anything to eat in the morning, or just some nuts almost without carbs, and my brain do not seem to run low even after more than 4 hours of excercise...so that would vary from one person to the other (but maybe that is because my insuline isn´t working like it should )

 

[Mrs of type 1]

There's a large grey zone when answering this question but i'll do my best and i'm sure a lot of low carbers will answer too.

Low carb can lead to reduced physical performance due to the function of carbs as the preferred energy source for your muscles (i'm going to cut some corners here to keep it brief). But this only occurs on higher intensity exercising which i'm assuming your husband isn't doing. In that aspect when leading a sedentary lifestyle the need for carbs is greatly reduced so i'm fairly certain that your husband can make do with a limited amount of carbs. Whether this amount needs to be in the low carb region i'll leave in the middle.

Next to this unstable BS levels can have a tiring effect. I know when my BS levels are on the swing i'm so lethargic a bulldozer wouldn't be able to get me of the couch. This said, if a low carb diet improves his BS levels and the stability at least he wouldn't be exhausted from his BS levels.

Finally most people on a low carb diet don't feel like they have less energy on a day to day basis, some even feel more energetic. Which is a common effect of a healthy diet which leads me to another point: when going low carb make sure you still have a healthy and varied diet to get all the micro nutrients in. Changing your diet can have both positive and negative effects, if you're not sure the best advice is to check with a physician. But purely on the question if low carb would reduce his energy, i would say it's unlikely.[/Q'llUOTE]

Thank you for your reply. It is difficult to control BG especially when some of the medication is causing highs. The chronic fatigue he has is so much worse than the fatigue that fluctuating BG causes. I read so many have good results with low carbing but with all his many complications I didn't know if it would be a good idea for him. I think it is something I would have introduce gradually, just don't want him to suffer any more than he does now.

 

[Mrs of type 1]

it all depends on a lot of other aspects.. he uses insuline and how well controled is his diabetes, are his blood numbers for other kinds of crucial vitamins, minerals and trace minerals normal...
has he got normal levels of f.x. vitamin D, normal levels of iron (not too low not too high) , how about magnesium , potasium and sodium are these levels normal... all of these can make people very tired and exhausted if they are out of whack..
also too high blood glucose in it self can make people very tired and give brain fog like the other deficiencies.

low carb when using insulin is more difficult to manage, but som can do that, but of cause there is the posibillity to do lower carb diet... and maybe not be very extreme to start with, but most diabetics do already do a much lower carbintake than non-diabetics..

If I was having such a bad time like your husbond, i would at least make sure to know excactly how much carb in grams I ate every day and only seldomly go higher than what I would decide would be manageable to me... and I would also only eat the number of proteins in grams that would be what my body needs daily as the excess proteins get transform into glucose by our liver and contributes to the higher blood glucose numbers in general and to the dawn phenomenon where the blood glucose is raised even when not eating anything.. but guess you know all these aspects.


I was tired all the time when I ate a lot of carbs and was not diagnosed, my brain felt much better after like 3 weeks on very low calorie and very few carbs a day like 1000calories and maybe 130 grams of carbs a day... it was before I knew of the low carb high fat diet, since then i have also reduced my protein intake to now about 65-85 grams a day , i don´t succeed all days but it gets better all the time , and one learnes to make more interesting foods that are low carb and higher fats.

when using insuline one can more easily get too low , and that is also dangerous and can if unlucky give brain damages if too low and can also in worst case scenario be life threatening.. your husbond is on insuline and it is a kind of expert thing to try to go lower in carbs... and I know nothing of that...

I have myself gotten much more energy on low carb and lower calories and my brain feels normal again even when I do very much excercise, to others it has the opposite effect... my brain do not seem to need a lot of carbs to thrive... some can´t feel normal in their head if not getting a lot more carbs than I do (80 -120 grams a day) I very often do excercise without getting anything to eat in the morning, or just some nuts hardly without carbs, and my brain do not seem to run low even after more than 4 hours of excercise...so that would vary from one person to the other (but maybe that is because my insuline isn´t working like it should )

 

[Mrs of type 1]

Thanks for your reply. My husband has very low vitamin D levels but takes a supplement. We try very hard for his BG to be in range, he doesn't eat a bad diet but has grain bread, some potatoes and cerials most days, but his other meds cause highs. We carb count every meal but I get rather confused on how much protein can be eaten before being turned into glucose. I always thought energy came from carbs. Just don't know what else to try. Even the doctors don't know what to do to improve his quality of life.

 

[Freema]

proteins in a rather sedentary lifestyle is to a man about 0.6 - 0.8 grams pro kg body-weight