there was a thread here last week sometime about intermittent fasting and how it helped bg/a1c and i did a bit of research and would like to try it. the 16 hour fast is done and then you break the fast and have an 8 hour window to get some food down you.
the suggested hours of fasting are from about 8pm till about noon the next day. this works well for a lot of people, as not many like to go to bed hungry and you can also have dinner with family/friends or socialize.
and then you sleep lots of those fasting hours, get up in the morning and then break the fast a couple of hours later.
i can see this happening on a pump, as you can dial down your basal if youre going too low while in the fasting state. i dont have a pump or cgm AND I CANNOT GET EITHER, so please do not suggest ājustā getting a pump/cgm/newest techno D gadget.
my questions:
i would be doing physical activities-running, weights, crossfit type class, walking dog for an hour in the park. if i go low during the fasting state, i would have to break the fast with some glucose tabs. that doesnt count as breaking the fast, right?
IF YOU DONT HAVE A PUMP/CGM, have you done this with t1/insulin dependency and how did you deal with lows?
i can imagine things will get easier with time, did you have to lower your basal overnight/during the day?
anything else you can tell me that you found surprising when you started IF?
Hi. I do intermittent fasting combined with low carb. Much lower daytime basal. In fact some days (depending on hormones), i have little to no daytime basal and just use fast acting for corrections. Nighttime dose still necessary and varies - hormone influenced too. No cgm.
I am not on a pump or CGM, and I never eat breakfast. I carry sugar at all times to correct my BG upward if I get more exercise than usual. I donāt know if this is considered ābreaking the fastā but it is the easiest way for me to manage. I eat two meals a day (lunch and early supper), plus a late-night carb-free snack. I did not lower my 24-hour basal but I use less total daily units of insulin because I eat less. The reason for me to start skipping breakfast was that I have more energy for exercising and doing work when my stomach is empty and I am running on background insulin only.
I do use a pump and CGM but I have done intermittent fasting when I was on MDI recently. I generally find that my basal insulin keeps me steady when I fast. I donāt hesitate to use glucose tabs if needed. Fingerstick more often until you get some more experience but I think itās entirely doable.
I am on MDI have routinely done Intermittent Fasting (IM). What I usually do is either skip lunch (12 hour fast) or skip breakfast and lunch (24 hour fast). I work hard to get my basal set so that I keep a totally steady blood sugar during fasting. I focus on getting my basal to get my best achievable morning number (I have wicked Darn Phenomenon) and not go low during the day, particularly before meals. It turns out that regular IM is in itself a ābasal testā so you can use bouts of IM to experiment and make adjustments to your basal as needed. I would recommend that you could start with a shorter fast and work up to a longer fast.
Hello Brian! Thanks for answering. today is my first day, so I have started with a 13 hour one just to see what would happen. I met a friend in the centre for breakfast-to break my fast. I had to eat a glucose tab before to get there but walked the 3km and back fine.
tomorrow is when things get dicey-gym, cycling to and from work. well see how it goes.
i just wanted to leave a comment to say how this 16/8 IF is going. I started two and a half weeks ago and so far my bgs have been fantastic. i have lowered my basal from 18 units a day to 14 and though i thought the transition would be really hard, it hasnt. i am eating the same lowish carb way and am not hungry. it is actually making me eat even healthier as there is no time for much other than protein and healthy fat. there is still time for dark chocolate of course.
i am still working on getting my basals in line and now that the heat has really kicked in in andalucia-103F the past couple of days-i may need to lower it more. the first week i didnt do much exercise apart from walking the dog and cycling to and from work, but this week and last week ive been adding in AM exercise in the fasted state.
