I am a T2 on Metformin. I started intermittent fasting at the beginning of the year and the results have been incredible. Not only has my HBA1c dropped to 5.3 but my blood pressure has dropped to the extent that I have been taken off a lot of my medication. I do a 48 hr fast on Monday-Tuesday, 24 hr fasts on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and eat normally over the weekends. Needless-to-say I am on a low carb/high fat diet.
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Way to go! I’m glad it is working out for you. 
I have also had great results with intermittent fasting. I just skip breakfast so I wind up fasting about 16 hours. It has lowered my insulin resistance significantly which has in turn lowered the amount of insulin I use. Because of these good results I’m considering doing some longer fasts. I also eat a LCHF diet
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Congrats on your health success using fasting!
Could you describe a little more? Does your fasting pattern mean that you don’t eat anything Monday through Friday? How does your 48-hour fast differ from your 24-hour one?
My eating pattern, if I don’t evening snack, means I fast from after my early dinner until my late morning breakfast every day, about 16 hours. I’ve done many 24 hour fasts as well. For me, it helps keeping my insulin resistance from climbing.
I love fasting. I’ve finally gotten really serious about it and restricting carbs in the past 4 months. All that energy put into food and food preparation is consolidated into shorter periods. Of course I eat low carb / keto.
My A1c has dropped and my variability has dropped. My A1c result from last week was 4.6, which is my lowest a1c since I started measuring a1c (and I have been diabetic and measuring for 9 years now).
The biggest tool that has allowed me to do this safely is my freestyle libre, which lets me see trends and patterns. I found out I need to take 2 units of fast acting as soon as I wake up in order to keep my line flat… I found out just how much variation in insulin requirements happens across the month (and can react).
I typically fast 16 - 20 hours a day. I eat when I’m hungry. I would like to try a longer fast up to 48 hours, but haven’t got to that yet.
When fasting I do still take coffee (with cream in the morning, otherwise black), and broth, and water. If my sugars drop too low, I do correct using small amounts of sugar in the range of 1 - 4 g even while fasting (this has to be done as I’m on insulin and my target is to keep blood sugars in the 70 - 90 range all the time).
I did some 5-6 day fasts last year. It’s not for me. Intermittent works better. Working shift makes it hard to eat on a schedule or even when I feel hungry.
i am interested in trying fasting. i have never fasred before. i am a type 1 and take basal using the omnipod pump. do you have to reduce your basal when fasting for long periods? also, how does fasting effect your digestive system? any problems? thank you for any advice.
Hi. I eat a good supper on Sunday night and then have nothing but black coffee (or coffee with a dash of cream) until Tuesday night. Must admit I sometimes give in and have a snack after work at 5pm on the Tuesday. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I only have the evening meal. Amazed I don’t go hypo but my levels are more stable than they have ever been in the last 14 years. May be more tricky if you use insulin.
Fortunately I only use Metformin so don’t have any insulin problems. I have had far less trouble with diarrhoea caused by the Metformin than I used to have.
I agree that a working life sometimes make it hard but at the same time it distracts me from my empty stomach. Good luck
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I’m curious about energy levels when you fast. I have started a workout program on Monday, Wednesday amd Friday and have a 10,000 step target 7 days a week and I get shakey if I don’t eat before I do the work outs. Does this shakiness stop after you get used to fasting? I’m type 2, just started Metformin last week (2 x 500 1 at breakfast & the other at dinner), waiting to see if there are any changes other than the headaches that seem to accompany the Metformin.
What would you typically eat for your evening meal? Do you eat 3 meals on weekends?
Thanks
When first diagnosed 14 yrs ago I was put on Glycomin in addition to
Metformin and I also worked out most days of the week with resultant severe
lows. At the time I was also eating low carb / zero fat on the advice of an
’anti-fat’ doctor. Since dropping the glycomin and adding a substantial
amount of fat (cream, butter, cream cheese, fatty meat) to my diet I have
had no problems and my energy levels are higher than they have ever been.
At age 73 I’m afraid I no longer work out but I do walk 6-8 km a day to and
from an 8 hr day at work.
For my evening meal I normally have a good helping of stir-fried low-carb
vegetables (or things like spinach or cauliflower in cheese sauce made with
cream cheese) together with meat or fish. This is normally followed by
low-carb dessert of some sort. Over weekends I have bacon and egg for
breakfast, meat and veg for lunch. Supper is often something like soup or
low carb pancakes with meat or cheese filling depending on what my husband
and I feel like. It is never boring.
Good luck. I hope you adjust rapidly to the medication.
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This is great going, Fasting is working for me also and my insulin resistance is also lowered
Glad to hear it. It is well worth the hunger pangs.
You may need to reduce basal slightly with fasting, particularly if your basal was covering some of your meal time requirements. Trial and error and close monitoring…
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Thanks for this thread. Today is my second day of fasting. Yesterday went extremely well except I had a low in the evening due to my forgetting that I had a triple basal rate programmed for my evening time high. Today was better since I deactivated that basal. Yesterday my standard deviation was 5% up until the evening when I had the low. So pretty incredible. Today I went running which caused a low a few hours later so I needed to eat part of a small apple. Otherwise, the fasting is going pretty well. At least I can confirm my basal matches my needs pretty well during the day excluding exercise.
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This makes me glad that I decided to add my bit, for the first time ever.
Keep strong.
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Thank you so much for sharing your experience. That is what makes this board such a great place. Imagine, between us we have probably millions of hours of diabetes management experience.
When we reach out to others to share that experience, we can make a different.
Have a great day!
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Yes, I agree, I have learned so much on this forum. I joined around the same time I was interested in starting the CGM and pump. I knew practically zero about managing my diabetes, despite being Type 1 for decades. Practical experience is like a picture, it’s worth a thousand words! I usually do not contribute though since I don’t feel I have sufficient knowledge in diabetes management.
So, an update on my fasting… I continued to have lows throughout the night. I ended up having to eat the rest of the small apple, and reduce my basal to 1/2 what I normally use for about 6 hours. I’m thinking the low was due to the run, but not sure at this point.
This morning my BG was 75, perfect. I had coffee w/ cream though and now my BG is creeping up, currently at 97, delta +1.5. My normal basal is active. I think I will take a small correction to prevent it from going higher. It seems to be evening out now, 98 now, delta +0.5. I will wait a few more readings to see what it does before I take a correction…
Exercise, particularly of the endurance type, can result in a subsequent low.
For future reference, reduce basal after such exercise, and continue to observe and fine tune.
Looks like you are getting very tight control! Way to go.
I have learned not to make corrections too aggressively when fasting. Slow and very small increment adjustments. I have found I can be more aggressive in the mornings (darn phenomenon), than middle of the day (very easy to crash), and somewhere in between in the evenings…