Food cravings, discipline and amylin, type 1

Food Nutrition
#1

In this interview http://diabeteshealth.com/read/2012/08/31/7634/why-do-we-crave-carbohydrates–/
DrB says:“People with type 1 diabetes, who have no beta cells and make no insulin, are missing all of their amylin. They do not have the satiety hormone that tells them they are full”.
The same he writes in the book, suggesting some complimentary drugs for managing hunger or hoodia gordoni or hypnose. But sometimes it feels like he thinks. people miss discipline not sticking to his regime. Especially I feel like he is trying to tell that in his e-book there he answers questions, “Beating dabetes”. He never mentiones difficulties of adapting his WOE and challenges on the way. Does he mention extra sodium intake? May be I’ve missed it.

I don’t know but to eat the same amount of everything day after day… It is a lot of discipline and a lot of planning. The same as eating 5 hours prior to sleep. And it seems rather easy to nuke cheese between papers and enjoy it, as well as jello for dessert :-).

At the same time people starting LCHF diets say that they are not hungry at all, they don’t need to snack etc.
Are you guys hungry? I am experiencing tremendous hunger this week and try to eat more fat, that is the mistake newbies do on lchf if feeling hungry. But it makes me feel sick and spike me hours later even with extended bolus. and I am gaining weight, not loosing it.
What am I doing wrong?

#2

First let me say, it does take discipline to do this and people comment on that all the time to me that see how I eat, check my sugar and inject. I thought being consistent with my food would get really old too but I've found not feeling like crap b/c I'm eating incorrectly far outweighs the planning and discipline.

I typically cook 2-3 days a week, large meals and pre-portion them out so they are grab and go. I make it so I have NO excuses not to follow this plan. After a while you just fall into a pattern and you're good with it.

Generally, I am not hungry but still want to "bored snack" throughout the day. I rarely get hungry and I have been following Dr. Bernstein's recommendations since January 1st. The weight has slowly come off and it has taken A LOT of work figuring out the insulin ratios. (I conduct lots of self-experiments) I eat about every 5 to 5.5 hours also. I stop eating by 7pm as I find eating any later will cause me to stay elevated for hours into the night.
Here is what I do:
7am I make a protein shake and keep the carbs under 9 on average. I take my symlin and 1/2 of my insulin bolus. I set an alarm for an hour to 1.5hrs later, check my sugar and take the other half of my bolus. So far that has worked with the morning spikes. I also did basal testing a few months ago to determine how large my morning spike was without any food. On average it was about 75mg/dl. So in the morning if my blood sugar is 100, I ad 75=175. My correction target is 120, so I do 175-120=55 then divide 55 by correction factor (for me its 45 points to 1 unit humalog) = 1.2 units which I add to my morning bolus.
Lunch I eat about 3oz protein, non starchy veggies, nuts.
Dinner is about the same as lunch.

Remember as far as eating goes, anything you eat can potentially raise blood sugar. Dr. B talks about this in his book. If you are distending your gut and/or your body has started the digestion process it can spike your blood sugar. Protein breaks down to glucose, just at a much slower pace and I think its about 36% of the protein converts to glucose.

It would probably be good if you listed out what you are eating, your insulin requirements currently, etc, so people in the group could maybe help you with that part. On a podcast that I was listening to recently about lchf, Nora Gedgaudas stated it sometimes takes people up to 6 weeks to fully adjust. Be patient, it will happen!

#3

I have had to do ALOT of experimenting with LCHF diet to get it right. I find that if my blood sugars are under tight!! control I do not feel more hungry than I should. If my blood sugars are swinging about, even a little, I find that I start to get cravings and feel like I need to eat more often. I gained about 5 kg eating LFHC this year, but it is starting to come off now.

The biggest thing for me in being able to more easily control my food intake has been getting my basal rates correct on my pump and keeping carbs quite low, under 60grams a day. It is a daily chore sorting everything out and getting it right and somedays I know you just feel like you can't be bothered, just take it easy on those days, but keep the blood sugars under control. And once you do get things working better it does get easier :)

#4

How did you discover you need symlin?

#5

Being thin is a part of my identity. I feel like everything is sliding away right now. I understand that low carb is a way to go, but I feel like weakest link not being able to feel full on “deck of card size” protein. Going 30 carbs a day was perfect controlling my hunger, but I’ve developed ketosis rash that went away only if I added some carbs back.
And I feel cranky all the time. I hope it gets easier…

#6

I find nothing makes me hungrier than havin eaten a lot the previous day. I'm LCFairly HF and eat SMALL meals, often only once a day. It's the only way I can manage my weight. I find my BG stays down well this way too.
It's true I'm rarely hungry. I do keep pretty well and active [ I'm 66] I monitor my BG daily [at my own cost, because the NHS won't fund test strips for stable T2s and I monitor my weight on a digital scale. I know weight can chamge quite a bit from day to day, but I watch the trends. It is much harder for T1s, but small portions and minimal snacks being careful to use minimal insulin works for m T1 husband.
Hana

#7

I'm sorry that you are feeling so hungry. You might look at Jenny Ruhl's book, The Truth About Low Carb Diets, which points out that many people find low carb helps them get over the mental problem caused by diets that are high carb, the constant messaging from the brain, "Eat, Eat!" I haven't had nearly as much trouble sticking to low carb as I have had dieting in the past to lose the weight I put on from Insulin Resistance.