does anyone find high blood sugars while following a high fat / low carb diet?
Yup a few hours later! So frustrating! It’s very hard to bolus for low carb/high fat meals on MDI. This problem seems to be worse at night so I tend to eat most of my fat in the morning and no more than about 20 grams at dinner.
I eat about 30-40 carbs, 80 grams protein, and 80 grams fat day.
thanks! i am new to this diet, i got lots of help from joeynicole, but i can use all the help i can find. what does your typical day look like, meal wise?
Maybe try mini-boluses to account for the fat and protein? Check out the TAGgers group here, or google TAG (total available glucose). Basically you give yourself a small amount of insulin, for a certain percentage of the fat/protein you eat.
I was always wondering why a steak dinner did send my BG high at night. TAG is the answer. I was only looking out for carbs. No doctor ever mentioned the fact that protein and fat raise BG too. Just not as fast as carbs. But equally as high. I deal with high fat/protein with an increased temp basal. I keep the temp basal running as long as needed. I don’t make the effort of counting anything.
i was always taught that more insulin = more weight gain…if i do small boluses through out the day on this diet do you think i will gain weight? i was vegan before this, so the entire thing is a bit schocking to me haha. but i do enjoy it and i have heard WONDERFUL things…i want to see weight loss and more blood sugar clontrol.
Hi -
You don’t look at all heavy from your picture! I wouldn’t worry about weight gain while trying a new diet and insulin regime. There is just so much one can do without going mad.
Maurie
well thanks, i’m not heavy, i work out and eat healthy, i have managed to maintain a healthy weight of 135, i would just like to make sure that i do not gain back the weight i have lost.
I also believe that TDD is a proxy for weight. I have a friend who is a volume eater. She tunes her diet so that she can eat the most volume. Even if everything that tastes good has been removed (at a high price). I rather eat less and stay with the tasty stuff. I understand that for some people portion control is hard. Throughout the week I control portion size and number of meals. On weekends I make up for lost ground. Bottom line: If I want to lose weight I eat less. I have never been on a diet other than EH (eat half).
I didn’t know that low carb and high fat were a problem! I’d always heard it was high carb and high fat that make for a difficult combination (pizza being the classic). I don’t eat low carb, but moderate - under 100 a day. I do sometimes eat a fairly low meal, but don’t know that I add high fat to it. What would be an example? All I can think of as a vegetarian would be vegies roasted with cheese on top which I haven’t eaten recently. Just out of curiosity do you intentionally eat high fat due to some idea about the effectiveness of combining this with low carb? Or do you eat high fat to keep yourself from feeling hungry? I’ve heard talk about low carb high fat before and never was sure which it was.
Zoe, alot of people doing low carb replace the carbs with protein foods – meat generally has fat. With TAG, you bolus for both protein & fat but protein generally has a higher percent than fat.
I lived 36 years with T1 diabetes believing that only carbs raise BG. This makes me a moron. Is there a word for my doctors who told me so?
No, you are not a moron but now you know, never trust a doctor! If I told you what word I use for doctors, I would be banned from TuD.
That anything but carbs raises BG was so left field. I know that docs know only a little about a lot. That is OK. But where did the myth come from that diabetics only have to watch out for carbs?
I have always accounted for everything, I just did not know there was a formula to do that until I found out about TAG here. Even if they did not know that before, you would think they understand now and quit perpetuating that myth!
Nesting level exceeded. I cannot reply.
+1 for Kelly.
When I eat lower carb meals, as a vegetarian I tend to just have more vegies, like for example stir fries. Also, I read on another thread that only 5 ounces of protein needs to be accounted for. Is that not correct? I think that would say that carbs are still the majority of what we have to account for. I also find it a bit confusing that people seem to refer to protein and fat interchangeably.
I do OK not account for anything but net carbs and I would guess that works for most people who don’t go low carb. If you usually eat about the same proportions of carbs, fats and proteins then your carb ratio will be lower (maybe 1:12 instead of 1:15) than it would be if you counted the protein and fat separately but your total dose will be about the same. If you are only eating a small number of carbs then a small error in the carb count leads to a big dosing error but if you are eating 40-60 carbs per meal then a miss by a few carbs isn’t as big a deal. This is one case where the theory of small numbers doesn’t work the way you would expect.
Maurie
I haven’t read all the replies, so sorry if this has been posted. A lot depends on the type of fat and what you are eating along with it. There is a ton of complex science behind it, but it depends on what type of fat, how long the hydrocarbon chains are, hydroxylated, saturated, ect. Your liver breaks down the fat through gluconeogenesis into pyruvate which is a more effective method of running energy because it bypasses the insulin receptor and the first stage of glycolysis. Since your body doesn’t need the glucose, it will keep it circulating. Also fat is a high yield energy food. One 18 carbon chain of fat yield 148 molecules of ATP (energy) whereas one molecule of sugar produces 48 ATP. Therefore you don’t need as much fat to produce lots of energy. I can go more in depth if you want.
SuFu
Hi Andrea, My name is Cindy, My daughter Kate is Type 1 diabetic, She is 17years old and is struggling with managing her diabetes in the last year. Increased AIC and wt gain. She is pretty compliant overall, however seem to be more insulin resistant in the last year or so…Anyway, she is having a challenging time. She does not know anyone with Type 1 diab…I am hoping to introduce her to this site.