Very hungry between meals

Hi,
No need to apologise, asking questions is what this site is all about. Here are your options:

1. Match your insulin to your carb intake. So if you have a bag of crisps that contains 20g of carbs, take insulin that will cover that 20g.

2. Eat low carb snacks such as nuts, cheese, cottage cheese, pepperami, meat, celery, humous, sugar free jelly, olives, pork scratchings. These won't affect your levels and you won't need to take insulin for them. There's a thread in the low carb section where someone asked about low carb snack.

Like Sam suggests, if I want a snack I have a low carb option (below 10g as I can tolerate as much as that, others can't take as much as that)

Cheese is my favourite snack, sometimes with a slice of apple (I have hundreds of nieces of nephews so there's always a piece going spare. I rarely eat a whole one as carb is high). Or slices of meat wrapped around something

I don't or very rarely snack between meals as I don't feel hungry, but if your needing to put weight on then snacking is a good idea. I think it will be trial & error as to whether or not you will need insulin between meals, even snacks which you may not think need insulin (such as eggs, meats, cheeses) may have a tendency to raise bg a few hours after eating so you will have to test and see.

If you do inject you will have to be careful about 'stacking' your insulin doses, insulin such as novorapid can be active for up to 4-5 hours after injecting so can cause postprandial hypo's when you next eat your main meals...so be warned and be careful!!!

Swankypants77 said:

Thank you, everyone.
Well, I'm cramming lots of information in my head and head hurts...
I got this book, think like a pancreas today and studying it.

Well, so am i right to think that if I snack and require more insulin, I shouldn't have next meal for at least 5 hours till snack insulin goes away?

According to this book, page 153 line 8, I should space meals and snacks at least a few hours apart...
So if my level is normal after two hours post meal and still hungry, then I can possibly inject some and snack , then I suppose I wait for sugar level to go down and for insulin to go away before I can have next meal , which takes sometime between 3 to 5 hours?

Aaaaargh. I don't know. I'm not sure what I'm talking about now. Too complicated.

Suppose its all trial and error, isn't it.

Sorry.


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It gets easier as time moves on Swanky

As I said it's all trial & error and mine or anyone else's experience may not resemble your own. As for your above question, if you inject 2 hours after your previous meal your insulin for that meal is still working (although roughly two-thirds will be used up by the 2 hour mark) so you still have IOB (Gary discusses Insulin on Board in his book) and this is what I was referring to before about insulin stacking.

I don't know what foods you eat for your meals but you shouldn't really be hungry 2 hours after eating a main meal, perhaps speaking with a dietitian at your next review might be helpful to you, they not only advise on weight loss but can also advise on increasing weight too!

I found I was realy hungry between meals shortly after being diagnosed, but for me it was a short term thing and after a few weeks settled down. Now I don't tend to feel hungry between meals which is much eaier to manage.

I've never found the perfect way to cope with carby snacks, even a small injection for me tends to cause problems later in the day. Low carb snacks are much easier for me to manage.

Heya I just read an interesting article, and I'm guessing your female ? If your iron stores are low it can make you more prone to snacking, so maybe a trip down the docs for a blood test to see if you have low levels ? Hope this helps x

Juicyj said:

Heya I just read an interesting article, and I'm guessing your female ? If your iron stores are low it can make you more prone to snacking, so maybe a trip down the docs for a blood test to see if you have low levels ? Hope this helps x

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I should probably have mentioned this myself, low iron stores has all sorts of effects on your body. For me they are the same as diabetes symptoms which was confusing a few years ago when I came back clear (the doctor was determined I had GD..... Except I wasn't pregnant!) and is why I took so long to go to the doctor this time around.

I would give yourself a few weeks to settle into the new regime. The snack may subside by itself, the less you do it the less you crave it. Honest! I generally only snack out of boredom at my desk rather than hunger. It's a bad habit!

Low iron stores isn't all that common. For me it gave extremes tiredness and a weird hunger, there was also an incredible thirst and need to pee but apparently that's not common and I've only heard of one other person who had that. And they're on this site also!

I would suspect your iron stores are probably fine, but if for whatever reason you decide to have it tested it is NOT the same as a normal anaemia test. My normal iron levels are fine, my stores are what occasionally gets low