I recently got a pod, and I love it! Because of it, I have been able to stay more active. I have recently started doing a good deal of cardio - 1 - 2 hours a day - and increasing activity during the day. I have always liked doing low-carb because it keeps my sugars a bit more level. If I keep doing cardio, can I still do low-carb (50 - 90 grams a day )? I love making use of the temp. basal rate. I buy into the theory that insulin stores fat, so it's best to use as little as possible. Also, as I shed some weight (I'm 200 lbs. right now, I want to drop 30 lbs.) , I understand that I will need to decrease my basal rates. Should I decrease them based on my weight? - I read that your total daily dose should be no more than your body weight divided by four, and I typically use 75% of my total daily dose in basal rates and 25% in bolus, so I could sit down and do the math on that. Any tips, suggestions, et. that would help me in shedding weight quickly but safely would be greatly appreciated. Also, when my sugar gets low, I used to gorge a bunch of food, which led to increased calorie consumption. However, now if it gets to about 50 or 60 for example, I will strictly practice the rule of 15, some times not eating a 15 gram snack after eating 15 grams of sugar in order to save calories. I like to decrease my basal either 50% for an hour or more too.
I had never heard of that rule about insulin being no more than 1/4 of your weight. I just did the math and my total insulin delivery averages my weight divided by 8. My endo likes the basal/bolus to be about 50/50. Obviously sometimes you'll use more basal than bolus, or vice versa, but that's the ratio he encourages. If you decrease your basal so that your bolus/basal ratio is more 50/50 then you'll probably need less calories to keep your sugars up. In other words, if your basal is too high then you're going to be chasing lows with more food especially if you're burning sugars with exercise.
Does this help?
You probably will need to decrease your basal if you lose 30 lbs but I would go by your BG readings more than your weight. A CGM is a huge help with this. I am also trying to lose some weight and agree that more insulin means more weight gain. I am going start on Symlin next week. This will allow me to use about 25% less insulin with meals.
I am still trying to figure out the best setting for cardio. I tend to almost go low and then spike an hr later. Has decreasing by 50% for an worked well for you?
Get the books "Using Insulin", "Pumping Insulin", and "Think Like a Pancreas" if you haven't already -- they really help with learning how to self-adjust.
The weight-based guidelines are just for starting off ... a lot depends on your insulin sensistivity, how much remaining insulin you produce, etc. so as pointed out above , you have to really go by BG numbers and adjust accordingly. The books above will help you adjust the dose and rebalance basal and bolus.
Basal should keep you flat when not eating. If you have to feed the insulin to stay flat , your basal is too high. If oorrection boluses are consistently more than about 10-15% of TDD, you may have to increase basal. But read the books....
I have started doing crossfit-style intense workouts, and as a basic rule I will reduce my basal rate by 50-75% for up to two hours or more (even though I only workout for one hour usually). One trick I have learned is to consume 15gms of carbs before a workout, and not bolus for that, as it helps to burn the carbs and not the protein in your muscle (bad news for Diabetics), as well as the fat stores. I noticed I started having a lot more lows too, as i started to lose weight, so I would stay on top of that and reduce your basal as required. Great to hear you're reaching a goal and exercising! I feel like this is one of the best things you can do as a T1!
I'll add that the Diabetic Athlete's Handbook is a great read as well! After 15+ years with D, I learned a whole lot about how to exercise smarter after I read it :)
Great resource! Thank you!
You need to be using lower basals when exercising. I normally take 1 unit per hour, but when I'm biking or running or walking the golf course I use an alternative basal rate of 0.35/hour
If you do short intense exercise sessions(like short sprints), you shouldnt need to decrease basal, and may possibly need a bolus ahead of time. This is a result of the cortisol produced by the body during the 'flight or fight' response. Ive even heard of sprinting as a treatment for low blood sugar. my bs will soar 50-75 points during short intense exercise(like tabata sprints) if i dont bolus.
My blood sugar starts to drop after about an hr of exercise, so I'll need to eat a little bit, but not too much, maybe 10 carbs(or reduce basal, but eating something is easier for me) You can definitely do cardio on 50-90 carbs/day, your body should be used to burning fat for energy instead of carbs and sugar. Staying low carb while exercising will only increase your weight loss as your body will need to tap into its fat stores for energy.
insulin dosing during exercise takes lots of trial and error and is obviously different for every diabetic based on the other responses.
Your insulin requirements should be a result of what you eat. As long as you are eating healthy and low carb, just give yourself enough insulin to keep bgs normal. When you start worrying about insulin ratios and such, then you start 'eating to your insulin' and that never produces good results.