Mastering diabetes and OMD

Hi all.
I have been on the Mastering diabetes diet for 8 months. I’m not a die hard but I’m 90% consistent.

I also recently have decided to go intermittent fasting because I’ve been gaining weight since I went on a hybrid pump. 2 years ago.

My thing is that while doing normal 3 meals a day, my insulin needs came lower. And I average about 6-7 units per meal.
On days where I do one meal a day usually on weekends, the same exact meal causes a huge spike where I need 10 units. Sometimes an additional 1-2 later on.

I know that eating fat will cause insulin resistance. Does anyone know if burning your own fat also causes resistance.? I’m baffled by this experience.

I don’t fast, so can’t really help you. You might get a good answer on the Mastering Diabetes forum.

Ok I’ll try that

In the past when I tried eating low-carb (keto), I would stick to it pretty well but then when I would eat something NOT keto (pizza, candy, etc), my numbers would skyrocket and were difficult to get down. I wondered if it was due to higher levels of fat circulating in my system - I think that is the premise of Mastering Diabetes, right - that if you eat less fat you’ll need less insulin and will be able to control carbs better?

That lifestyle just didn’t last for me. Now I eat a vegetarian diet - it is not vegan and not low fat, but my numbers have been easier to manage.

2 Likes

Yes that’s what I was getting at, but I’m not eating keto too anything, I’m just fasting, but that means I’m burning my own fat and maybe I’m also passing ketones because of that. So it could be ketones causing insulin resistance. But ketones are a byproduct of losing weight, so it’s unavoidable. I kind of thought fasting would make me insulin sensitive. But it’s the opposite. However I’m still using far less insulin by fasting. I just wish I knew how to dose it so I can stay in range. Seriously I have never bolused 12 units at one time and I’m kind of scared to do that even though my calculations show I needed that much. But today I ate lunch and then at dinner I repeated my same dinner and I actually went low. So really it HAS to be the ketones there is no other explanation. However I don’t know why no one warned me of this there are enough people eating one meal a day for this to be a known thing, unless my metabolism is just whack

3 Likes

Hm, that is odd. I have been doing intermittent fasting on and off for years (currently doing 16 hours at a time for Lent, so not long), and have not had this issue. If anything because I’m working on losing weight, my body has been using my insulin MORE efficiently so I have been decreasing my doses.

I did try OMAD and it didn’t work for me because I’d eat SO MUCH at once that it took forever to digest and I’d have highs for hours after.

I don’t know where you heard that about insulin resistance, or that intermitent fasting is recommended for a PWT1D/LADA to lose weight. Neither is true.

Nothing you eat will raise insulin resistance unless it first raises your BG high - and it isn’t a permanent effect. Gained weight because excess glucose is stored as a fat by the liver will. That fat is stored as an emergency supply and a long term supply for when lack adequate food supply. It gets released when your BG drops OR when there isn’t enough insulin to metabolize it.

When that happens, the brain signals the endocrine system that it doesn’t have enough insulin to keep running efficiently, and the liver reconverts the emergency fat. If it persists, the body will start to break down other fat and protein, converting them into some glucose, ketones and other things that you don’t need and can’t store, so they get flushed out by the kidneys. That extra boost of liver-released glucose while you continue to eat or not take adequate insulin keeps your BG elevated.

btw If you are “on” a hybrid hybrid closed loop pump and gaining weight you are eating too much. If the pump is set up correctly, it won’t give you more insulin than your CGM sensor says your BG is.

When you fast your gut empties. That means it’s wide open for food to be digested faster than it would be if filled with stool and fiber.

There’s no special diet for type 1 or LADA diabetics. Insulin doesn’t make you gain weight. Taking too much insulin or at the wrong time makes you hungrier. Eating too much and taking insulins to match makes you fatter.

You either eat what your body needs in the quality and quantity it needs, and match your insulin to the body’s response, or you don’t. That’s not just life as a PWD it’s life for everyone. You just need to be more responsible for managing it than a person with a healthy pancreas does.

If you eat only what what your body needs, your weight will rise or fall until you are at the optimum weight for your activity level. Unless you’ve been a glutton, that takes time months per pound, not weeks. If you fast or binge you throw off your body’s balance. You will lose water and minerals, and increase the level of ketones in your blood. None of those are good things.

With T1D or LADA you can not be on a proper, sustainable diet "90%"of the time.

You either eat in a way that is enjoyable, satisfying and adequate all the time or you will not stay with that mix of foods and quantities. A HCL pump give you some flexibility but the more that you bend away from what your body actually needs, the worse the response you will have,

I follow The Mastering Diabetes plan for eating and I have since 2017. By lowering fat my insulin resistance has dropped dramatically.

When low carbing I ate 30 carbs daily, and now I eat about 275 healthy carbs daily using a bit less insulin. I only eat about 15% fat. My insulin resistance is very low now.

If I start eating too much fat or too much food I will gain weight.

1 Like

This is my experience too Marilyn. I think there are new ways of thinking regarding insulin, resistance and weight.
Fat intake definitely cause an in crease in insulin resistance. Or call it insulin sensitivity. Not a diagnosis. Just a reality.
I did testing on my own with this idea. Fat intake makes me need more insulin than when I eat no fat or less fat. It’s just a reality.
When we eat low carb it doesn’t matter that we are insulin resistant because there are fewer carbs to deal with.

When I fast I definitely have a lower insulin sensitivity. I need more insulin to manage carbs. I think it’s the ketones that do it, but I don’t know for sure.

One awesome thing thst I never expected, while I’m fasting I can exercise more and never go low. That’s right no carbs or any food for 24 hours and I can hike for 5 miles and need no carbs my sugar stays normal and in range. It’s an unexpected thing. I’m learning more about how my metabolism works all the time.

1 Like

My carbohydrate-to-insulin ratio is now 1-30. When low carbing my ratio was 1-3. My insulin sensitivity was improved by removing most fat from my diet. My insulin resistance is lower. I can now eat about 10 times the amount of carbs I was eating when low carbing.

1 Like

I don’t want to argue biology or metabolism with you. I have a degree in biology, but I don’t understand metabolism quite well enough to debate it. I know the basics because I studied it but in practice it works a little differently.

Fat and lipids in the form of triglycerides do not convert into glucose like you suggested. They are also not converted into carbohydrates.
C55H104O6+78O2 → 55CO2+52H2O+energy this is basic inorganic chemistry equation. Basically fat is metabolized to produce carbon dioxide a bit of water and energy.
Our livers help to facilitate this energy we call ketone bodies. And the metabolite is removed by urination

That is simple high school level chemistry.
Insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance are the same thing.
If you have high insulin sensetivity it means you have low insulin resistance. They are just referring to the same thing in the negative.
Insulin resistance as a diagnosis is a separate thing and it simply means that your insulin resistance has reached a point where your body can not make enough insulin to over come it and glucose builds up in your blood. But I was not talking about that.
I was referring to the normal process of insulin resistance where your body’s muscles and fat cells resist insulin when they become saturated. But other things cause it to become worse or better, exercise reduces it and fat increases it.
It’s a known fact. Saturated fat also is the worst contributor.
Every mammal has a normal insulin resistance flow as a factor to regulate glucose metabolism and to allow our bodies to switch from burning fat to burning glucose and back again.

I just want it to be clear that that there is one term for both the normal process and the disease or condition.

It’s this process that is interesting to me because my experience is unexpected. That’s all I was saying when I posted this thread.

I just had to correct your statements about how our bodies break down fat because I know how the chemistry works and I don’t want people to be read that and think it’s true.

I don’t want an argument although it feels like it’s headed in that direction.
I do low fat high carb because it works for me and I use less insulin on it. I do intermittent fasting because it helps me keep my sugar level and I lose a little weight and I feel good when I fast. That’s really the only points I wanted to get in to.

I accept you don’t see it that way and I accept that so we need not go back and forth on this. There are just too many erroneous statements that you made for me to address them all. I suggest readers ask an expert or doctor or scientist to get an explanation