Anthony,
I can’t even estimate how much insulin it would take for me to eat 200-300 carbs a day. Times I’ve gone over my usual carb intake, though nowhere near 200 carbs, insulin needs didn’t fit my ratio (ratio smaller). I’ve never seen a formula & don’t care to use my body as even more of an experiment, but I wonder if after a certain amount how much less accurate ratios become.
Very interesting. This matches the carbs that I eat. I eat the most carbs for my first meal and then less and less as the insulin wears off. Our diet seems to be very similar and our A1Cs too.
total of carbs consumed in one day( 66 g??? ) alligns with a low carb meal plan …I think I recall reading anything below 140 grams daily is considered low-carb .Helmut, are you taking supplements ?
Indeed , we are all having to take care of the nitty gritty stuff in a different manor and I am pleased with my outcomes .
I take a multivitamin tablet every day.
I think you are very sensible and absolutely correct in every respect. Only question the 130 gram breakfast as you would need a lot of insulin to cover it and would worry so much insulin at once would cause a low later. Never fed DN 130 grams at one time; 95 or 100 once or twice (restaurant food) and it wasn’t pretty, LOL.
Thanks to everyone for all the great replies! I have to laugh at myself . . . because when I started this discussion I assumed that my diet was high carb. Depending upon the definition, my diet IS low carb or perhaps “moderate carb.” Like Anna, my meals are 30-40 carbs with snacks around 15 carbs.
Personally, it’s hard for me to imagine having 130 carbs for breakfast alone – or any single meal, really. That’s 520 calories just from carbs – let alone fat and protein. I realize that we’re all different . . . just commenting here about myself.
V has always been a big breakfast eater - his 130 carbs are 2 slices of toast with butter and peanut butter, big bowl of cereal with peaches and raisins, juice and a chocolate/coffee mix.
I, on the other hand, have yogurt… I’d have to take a nap if I ate what he does.
He only takes 5 units to cover the 130 carbs. He seems to be very senstive in the morning. He takes it after he eats - we’re trying to stop the lows that hit about an hour after breakfast. He’ll often start at BG 90, eat his 130 carb breakfast, take 9 Lantus and 5 rapid and be at 45 an hour later - which, of course, screws up his whole day. Taking the Rapid after breakfast seems to be helping - we’ll know in a hour ;-))
LOL
Yep, nappies for me, too. 
Does he drink orange juice? People may think that I work for Tropicana because I rave about their new lower carb OJ called Trop 50. It’s sweetened with stevia, a natural (plant-based) sweetener and is 50% lower in carbs. It tastes great, too! I’d given up on ever having OJ except to treat lows.
In the “your mileage may vary department” again –
My diabetes educator has me take my insulin 10-15 minutes before I eat breakfast in an effort to stop my mid-morning lows. It’s working pretty well for me.
Isn’t diabetes a trip? We can share our successes and challenges and yet it all comes down to figuring out what works for us. Frustrating and amazing at the same time.
Now I’m really confused… Were you given any reasons why this should work?
I thought I had a glimmer of a clue to how this all worked… Apparently not.
Yeah, it’s a big glass of OJ. Strangely, juice doesn’t seem to work well for him for lows. Candy, now that’s a different story… We are learning not to over-treat. One piece of candy at 9 carbs does wonders. Juice or fruit didn’t work fast enough, so he’d have two, then have to treat the highs.
I’m a Type 1.5 diabetic – late onset Type 1. My pancreas still produces a little tiny bit of insulin (gradually decreasing until it produces none). The theory is that my pancreas kicks out that insulin in the morning in response to breakfast carbs so if Humalog is already starting to work while I’m eating my pancreas is less likely to produce insulin.
Since then, I’ve seen a lot of messages here from people who always inject/pump insulin 15 minutes or so before every meal. It helps keep BGs from soaring after meals.
You have a clue. Don’t worry! This is a baffling condition that’s unpredictable and different for every one of us.
One other thing (besides timing of rapid-acting insulin) that can help with lows that happen about 1 hour after a meal is to make sure you eat fiber and lean protein with the carbs.
Also, if the meal contains a lot of fat, the bg may drop in response to the insulin before all the food is digested and processed into glucose. This often happen with the “perfect storm” food of pizza–high carb, high fat–which may produce an early low but then “catch up” to you several hours later with a high. That’s why people give extended boluses (on pump) or multiple small shots (on MDI) for foods like pizza.
What does your dietician say? As a vegetarian, you might have special challenges in getting all of the nutrients found in meat, etc. (I’m not a vegetarian, so please accept this as an honest question.)
While good A1Cs are important, so is overall nutrition and health. All of my providers have emphasized the importance of an A1C that is close to normal, but when is the pursuit of that goal detrimental? I suspect it is at some point, but have never asked the question.
Katie, I was always advised not to drink juices , except to treat a low …juices are short on fiber and will raise BG’s much faster than fruit , which has fiber …we need the roughage .
Just out of curiosity, what kind of blood sugars does V have 2 hours after that breakfast. Any one of those things would send me souring: 2 pieces of toast, a big bowl of cereal, peaches and raisins, juice and chocolate! All of them together would probabl put me in the hospital…lol
That’s a good question, Tom. I think the pursuit of very tight control can be detrimental if it leads to too many lows which become more likely if you’re trying to keep in a limited range.
Most dieticians don’t know much about vegetarian nutrition. The nutrients found in meat (protein) are well available in other sources such as cheese, soy, tofu, eggs, nuts.
There is the conundrum… We are working very hard to eliminate his ‘after breakfast’ lows. He often goes low 1 hour after breakfast,
We’re learning to inject after eating…
His blood sugar after 2 hours is usually very good, below 120.
The dietician & CDE I went to weren’t helpful about my interest in remaining vegetarian. They pushed soy products which I can’t eat because of thyroid problems. Actually, they weren’t informed about soy & hypothyroidism. Not good condsidering how may people with diabetes also have thyroid issues & how many people are allergic to soy due to it being in so many prepared food products.