This is intermittent fasting, and why not. It’s highly recommended for many health benefits. Are you interested in losing weight - and are you losing?
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Negg, unfortunately I have not lost much weight. I did lose 30 pounds in 2016 when I went into a major depression and was barely eating 600 calories a day. My doctor told me that until I get my sleep apnea under control weight loss would be near impossible. I usually bounce back and forth between 240 and 270. I was at one point only eating a thousand calories a day and still maintaining my weight. I have never completely tried low carb though.
From my studies, it would seem to be the wild swings that are much more damaging than a steady slightly high or slightly low. But I am a T2 and no expert! I follow these things because I love my T1 friends and want to help them as I can!
That’s the way to do it, blizzard2014. Should be no problem as long as you minimize/eliminate carb’s. Make sure to get enough animal-food protein too. Probably at least 50 to 60 g in your meal. A diabetic requires more protein, especially branched-chain amino acids (substrate for gluconeogenesis) than a non-diabetic due to the higher daily hepatic glucose production – this is what produces the hyperglycemia, due to the hyperglucagonemia of diabetes. You want to make sure to also have enough substrate for muscle regeneration (mTOR cascade). Otherwise sarcopenia can or will occur.
One meal a day should not be a problem for anyone if eating correctly. I do it regularly, and never eat more than twice a day. It is best for health to eat once a day at most. The cells need time in catabolism, and this is how we evolved. Too little time in the catabolic state is the primary cause of all modern tissue-degenerative pathologies IMO.
Make sure to get enough animal fat in your meal too – you need the energy and as a diabetic cannot afford to include significant carbohydrate (the only major fuel-substrate alternative) in your diet.
You may find that your BG drops by 20 to 30 mg/dL between meals. Mine does when eating once daily. This is normal – your liver is transitioning to the fasted state, and once you see the BG drop the hepatic ketone production is already up quite a bit. Once again, excellent for health – don’t worry about the drop in BG unless you feel a secondary (i.e. adrenaline/epinephrine) response, which you should not (this would be iatrogenic). Any talk you hear about “losing hypo awareness” is BS from people who have no idea what they are talking about. As a T2D I would not expect you to have much problem with glucagon (primary) responsiveness, and this will keep your brain fueled. You should feel nothing with BG in the 50s or 60s (of mg/dL). Long-term T1Ds are generally a different story due to the effect upon alpha cells of a complete lack of insulin signaling for more than 3 to 5 years.
Your bolus insulin (or secretagogue) dose should be dominated by the protein content of your meal – if you can detect the effect of carbohydrate you are eating too much. Although you may not really yet need anything for bolus hypoglycemic agent if you minimize carb’s. Early T2Ds don’t need anything to supplement amino-acid stimulated insulin secretion. If a no-carb mixed meal does not result in a hyperglycemic transient then you don’t need anything (yet). When and if you do I recommend human insulin very strongly, to the exclusion of everything else. Again, don’t believe anyone saying that a T2D does not have an insulin deficit and only suffers from whole-body IR. Nonsense – but if you still possess a non-diabetic AASIS you don’t need a bolus agent with optimal diet. Absolutely NO bolus agent will compensate for carbohydrates in a diabetic. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not understand the islets-hepatic endocrinology. Good luck.
@Mac2 how do you eat enough calories in OMAD? I actually would like to eat this way, but cannot figure how to eat enough calories in one meal.
I do the intermittent fasting thing regularly but not religiously. Most days I just skip breakfast and eat a small lunch of meat and salad, then a small dinner. I seldom get starving hungry anymore. It is more of a “you seem a little hungry. You should eat something.” situation. Blood Glucose control is really great and the weight is slowly but steadily coming off. I highly recommend it.
Very low carb, higher protein, and make up the difference with good fat. The fat component is primarily for satiation and to allow for some variety in the way of eating.
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And I remember reading long ago that the most damage is done by the wild swings that can happen…