Why are people eating specific and low carb diets?

[sammyc123]

Why are people eating specific and low carb diets? You can achieve an hba1c as low as 4.4% (my current result 4 weeks ago) and eat as many carbs as you want...provided you bolus for it. Just ensure you are exercising or you may gain weight...but thankfully due to the amount of activity I am doing I eat whatever I want...had my dinner this evening and then went to coffee shop for cinnamon scone and hot chocolate fudge cake with ice cream an hour later.

 

[Ali H]

Good going Sammy, well done. Me personally I wanted to lower insulin requirements. I find low carbing means a tighter range of bloods and less room for error. Weight issue all my life, nobody knows why, cals in cals out not an issue nor exercise so I defo don't want weight gain lol. Like I said, each to their own.

Ali

 

[tim2000s]

Why are people eating specific and low carb diets? You can achieve an hba1c as low as 4.4% (my current result 4 weeks ago) and eat as many carbs as you want...provided you bolus for it. Just ensure you are exercising or you may gain weight...but thankfully due to the amount of activity I am doing I eat whatever I want...had my dinner this evening and then went to coffee shop for cinnamon scone and hot chocolate fudge cake with ice cream an hour later.

Then you are achieving something that many of us struggle with when eating a high carb diet. I have an hba1c of around 6% these days, and achieving that has taken a lot of work and and far fewer carbs in order to reduce the risk of extreme swings. "Just bolus for it" is incredibly condescending and often not very helpful advice.

 

[Ali H]

Agreed, has taken a ton of effort and quick learning not to gain weight on basal bolus for me Tim.

Ali

 

[ConradJ]

Why are people eating specific and low carb diets? You can achieve an hba1c as low as 4.4% (my current result 4 weeks ago) and eat as many carbs as you want...provided you bolus for it. Just ensure you are exercising or you may gain weight...but thankfully due to the amount of activity I am doing I eat whatever I want...had my dinner this evening and then went to coffee shop for cinnamon scone and hot chocolate fudge cake with ice cream an hour later.

I'm like @ tim2000s.

Plus, not everyone can be as physically active as you.

 

[sammyc123]

Then you are achieving something that many of us struggle with when eating a high carb diet. I have an hba1c of around 6% these days, and achieving that has taken a lot of work and and far fewer carbs in order to reduce the risk of extreme swings. "Just bolus for it" is incredibly condescending and often not very helpful advice.

I apologise for coming across as condescending Tim, certainly was not my intention.

In relation to my comment 'just bolus for it' if individuals calculate their carb:insulin ratio accurately then they should find it much easier to bolus accordingly....thus being able to eat what they wish.

I have been diagnosed 1year and 1 week today but I have researched and experimented a great deal and self taught the ratios and calculations. All doctors and consultants are very impressed and keep asking 'how I do it' and my response has always been similar to that what I said above, 'get the ratio right and bolus'...that combined with exercise and the confidence to experiment and I think many people could drastically improve their results.

 

[tim2000s]

Again, just bolus for it doesn't always help manage the swings. One of the main reasons t1s go lower carb is to make it easier to manage those. As your injection sites get more used, insulin absorption rates become more variable so the initial ease of bolus timing starts to become harder. To give you some idea, I've been diabetic for 26 years and I now have sites where it can take nearly 1.5 hours for NovoRapid to start to work. Unfortunately they are interspersed with sites where it doesn't. That's not always useful when trying to bolus for something that is going to create a quick spike!

 

[urbanracer]

Some people don't like to stick more medication in their bodies than they need to. Reduced carbs allows me to keep BG's stable on lower insulin doses.

 

[sammyc123]

Some people don't like to stick more medication in their bodies than they need to. Reduced carbs allows me to keep BG's stable on lower insulin doses.

But if you think about it the body is meant to produce insulin by itself so it doesn't have a negative impact by injecting 'extra' units.

I just think if you are going to have to inject a small amount...you are still going to have to inject. So why not eat what you want and take a little extra insulin and be able to enjoy your food more.

 

[Brownie1993]

I thought "just bolus for it" was enough until last Christmas... Following Christmas Day I had days where my BG levels were sky high even though I was bolusing.. I spoke to the doc and he said it was due to all the sugar in my blood following Christmas. I ate a ridiculous amount of carbs at Christmas and cos it was so much the insulin couldn't hack it! Not a low carber myself but you can definitely have too much, as I experienced!

 

[ConradJ]

I apologise for coming across as condescending Tim, certainly was not my intention.

In relation to my comment 'just bolus for it' if individuals calculate their carb:insulin ratio accurately then they should find it much easier to bolus accordingly....thus being able to eat what they wish.

I have been diagnosed 1year and 1 week today but I have researched and experimented a great deal and self taught the ratios and calculations. All doctors and consultants are very impressed and keep asking 'how I do it' and my response has always been similar to that what I said above, 'get the ratio right and bolus'...that combined with exercise and the confidence to experiment and I think many people could drastically improve their results.

I concur with @tim2000s, plus @sammyc123 you could well be in your "Honeymoon period" still, which will skew the picture for you for some time.

If things do start to go wrong do bear that in mind and revise your diet as well as your meds in order that you can regain control reasonably quickly.

 

[Juicyj]

I tried my hardest when I was first diagnosed, I followed the advice given by he NHS, I tried to eat carbs, I was swinging high and low and I became depressed, I came to the conclusion that the only way I could manage more stable blood glucose was to eat less carbs and take less insulin, since being low carb my BG is more controlled, I have less hypos as taking less insulin means less margin for error and no depression. I have learnt that what works for one may not necessarily work for another, I prefer my own method and I fully endorse low carb, it doesn't mean I completely restrict myself but most meal times I eat protein/fat/veg.

I take my hat off to anyone who's got this sussed and can manage to eat 'normally', but for me this did not work.

 

[sammyc123]

I thought "just bolus for it" was enough until last Christmas... Following Christmas Day I had days where my BG levels were sky high even though I was bolusing.. I spoke to the doc and he said it was due to all the sugar in my blood following Christmas. I ate a ridiculous amount of carbs at Christmas and cos it was so much the insulin couldn't hack it! Not a low carber myself but you can definitely have too much, as I experienced!

Lol - well that would be the case for a non diabetic person as well. When I say 'you can eat what you want' I mean you can still eat carbohydrate dense meals and a nice dessert (or a couple like in my case) but you can't eat stupid amounts (gluttony).

 

[urbanracer]

But if you think about it the body is meant to produce insulin by itself so it doesn't have a negative impact by injecting 'extra' units.

I just think if you are going to have to inject a small amount...you are still going to have to inject. So why not eat what you want and take a little extra insulin and be able to enjoy your food more.

Sorry but to me, it's manufactured insulin. It's not the same stuff as my pancreas used to produce, it's not natural and I don't really want to inject more than twice a day. I'm considering basal/bolus and even if I did it I still wouldn't go back to the same level of unhealthy carbs I was eating before.

 

[sammyc123]

Sorry but to me, it's manufactured insulin. It's not the same stuff as my pancreas used to produce, it's not natural and I don't really want to inject more than twice a day. I'm considering basal/bolus and even if I did it I still wouldn't go back to the same level of unhealthy carbs I was eating before.

That's fair enough - I understand everyone is different. My situation - training for competitive cycling so I need to eat a lot and I inject between 5-7 times a day...2 basal and 3-5 bolus depending on how much I eat. But I have to do this as my body needs fuel. I wouldn't eat unhealthy carbs every day...peak of season I might only consume unhealthy carbs once a month but I do need dense carbohydrate meals to ensure that my muscles have the fuel.

 

[sammyc123]

I concur with @tim2000s, plus @sammyc123 you could well be in your "Honeymoon period" still, which will skew the picture for you for some time.

If things do start to go wrong do bear that in mind and revise your diet as well as your meds in order that you can regain control reasonably quickly.

I can assure you I am not in my honeymoon period...because of the level of activity that I was completing pre-diagnosis my bg levels never went insanely high - also I had a phobia of needless (ironic) and so I avoided getting bloods done for months until at a medical for job interview I had to get them done and then was given the diagnosis. Doctors and consultants believe me to have ran my insulin production capacity well and truly into the ground - this I never really got a honeymoon phase.

 

[sammyc123]

Again, just bolus for it doesn't always help manage the swings. One of the main reasons t1s go lower carb is to make it easier to manage those. As your injection sites get more used, insulin absorption rates become more variable so the initial ease of bolus timing starts to become harder. To give you some idea, I've been diabetic for 26 years and I now have sites where it can take nearly 1.5 hours for NovoRapid to start to work. Unfortunately they are interspersed with sites where it doesn't. That's not always useful when trying to bolus for something that is going to create a quick spike!

Thank you for this information - I always inject in different sites depending on what form of exercise I am doing that day...I inject in arms, legs, stomach and even my rear end for giggles sometimes. The consultants have suggested that I maintain injecting in different sites because I need to inject so often and this will help decrease the risk of what you have mentioned.

 

[noblehead]

I don't follow a 'specific' or 'low-carb' diet but keep carbs in moderation, currently around 150 - 180g a day.

As mentioned above people follow a diet that best gives them the best bg control, so if that's eating 30g a day or 200g it doesn't matter, what matters is that you are happy with the way you eat, it gives you good overall bg control and its something that you can stick to in the long-term, there's no one diet that suits all as we are all individuals and have different tastes when it comes to food.

 

[Daibell]

HI. As you say, you are not typical in the sense that you are very active. As others have said, high Bolus amounts cause bigger swings and more hypo risk. I might challenge that you can accurately calculate insulin amounts for meals. As we all know, fats and protein have to be added to the carbs to a small extent to get the insulin right and it's not easy when you are staring at a restaurant meal. I suspect you may still have a reasonable level of production of your own insulin (so-called Honeymoon period)?

 

[sammyc123]

HI. As you say, you are not typical in the sense that you are very active. As others have said, high Bolus amounts cause bigger swings and more hypo risk. I might challenge that you can accurately calculate insulin amounts for meals. As we all know, fats and protein have to be added to the carbs to a small extent to get the insulin right and it's not easy when you are staring at a restaurant meal. I suspect you may still have a reasonable level of production of your own insulin (so-called Honeymoon period)?

I agree with you in relation to me not being 'typical' but wanted to stress to people that with exercise they can increase quality of life threw better bg control and being able to eat less restrictively.

I only eat out in three restaurants...all of which have provided me with the full nutritional info for the dishes in which I eat however, before the information was provided I did calculate fairly accurately...I was only a few units out. I requested the information from the restaurants to enable caloric consumption tracking...as I believe that I would have nailed the insulin requirements for those specific meals.