Does anyone have experience with using your basal/bolus rate to help with weight loss? I'm on the pump and I program it for 50% basal, 50% bolus. I use about 18-24 U Humalog/day and I eat low-carb (usually no more than 50 g/day). I have gained weight since going on the pump. I'm also hypothyroid (on 50 mcg synthroid/day) and I have been extra-sedentary this year (having a hard semester, developing new courses). I want to kick it into high gear as far as weight loss is concerned. Any suggestions are welcome
Tips for losing weight . . .diet and excerise . . .calories consumed vs calories spent.
Bolus/basal rates or using insulin for weight control? If your BG’s and A1c are under control, why mess with it. Using insulin for weight control is not a hot idea.
I’m on low-carb, too…and my basal:bolus ratio is 76:24 according to my 30-day average on my MM 722. I have maintained my current weight without any fluctuations.
You seem to be doing lower carb than me…so why do you have a 50:50 profile?
A good start might be to really fine tune your pump use. Get “Pumping Insulin” by Walsh. Tune you basal to properly match your fasting requirements, not some arbitrary number. And don’t ever eat and just think that you’ll just let your basal cover it. Low carb can make a key difference. Restrict your carbs and by all means get your b*tt moving. But really, I can’t think of anything. Good luck.
If you are really at 50/50 basal bolus for your insulin, and only consuming at most 50g of carbs, something is not right… that would mean that you’re using 12u to cover that 50g of carbs.
I use easily twice as much insulin as you do, and that’s twice the bolus I would need for 50g.
You will never successfully lose weight without becoming more active.
Thanks for the responses so far. Becoming more active is going to have to wait until the semester ends. I try to do about an hour of exercise most days but that doesn’t make up for sitting for 10 hours. I DO low-carb. I have to bolus even for a purely fat or protein meal though. Bolusing purely on carbs doesn’t work for me. Maybe I do need to adjust my basal level, but I recently had an ipro experiment done on me and I had “beautiful” “gorgeous” blood sugars , they said - very level and mostly under 140 even after a meal. I’ve read “Pumping Insulin” but I’ve never tested my basal levels by fasting, mainly because things were working okay it seemed. (Sigh). Fasting doesn’t sound fun. But maybe it’s worth it?
To test basal rate you don’t have to completely fast. All you need to do is skip a meal & see how level (or not) BG is. Skip lunch one day, breakfast another & then dinner another & test frequently.
