Wow all so low !!! I’m on 1 unit for 3g carbs !! And i workout several times a week and have a normal weight. Are we talking about the same units (I’m on novorapid shots) ?
Perhaps i’m eating to much carbs: I have 20 units for breakfast, is that remarkable for any of you ?
I use 1 unit humalog per 15g carb. with each meal…I am very insulin sensitive…have tried more and go too low too fast!!! I will correct 3-4 hrs later if I am a little high. 1 unit of Humalog will lower me 60-70 pts. WITHOUT food, and WITH food 50 pts. It also depends on the carb…what others have said sends then sky high dosen’t seem to do that with me??? Breakfast is small for me, luch is my largest meal, and dinner average.
I see that you are from Belgium. I live in Hungary and the insulin here used to be a different concentration. They recently switched from U-40 to U-100. Check and see what the concentration is on your box.
Right now my body is out of whack. I had three babies so close together and I’m trying to lose all the pregnancy weight I gained over 6 years (I’ve lost quite a bit). Toward the end of my pregnancies my ratio was much MUCH higher for example a meal that I would normally eat before all the pregnancies that would only take 6 units of insulin would take 30 units at the end of a pregnancy. I’ve been doing weight watchers along with treadmill and now my basals are also getting out of whack. I’ve been trying out 1:15 and 1:10 but then there are times that certain foods throw me off (either spiking immediately or unfortunately the whole wheat pasta last night that didn’t show up in my blood sugar levels until 2 am which was about 8 hours later??? which really doesn’t make sense to me why it took so long to show up in my blood sugar levels).
My problem is the whole wheat pasta that takes forever for my body to digest - I often forget about using the other features of the insulin pump (dual bolus and square wave bolus) as I love to just do the quickie manual bolus.
10g for 1 unit in the morning than its 9grams per unit
Kristin,
basal rates may be some kind of indicator but I think it should be based on post prandial BGs. If BGs are too high after meals, then you are not getting enough insulin and should lower the insulin to carb ratio (maybe try 12). If BGs are too low, then you would raise the insulin to carb ratio to get less insulin (maybe try 14). I like making small changes. Most of us are pretty sensitive to insulin so it may not need to be a big change. Does that make sense.
I have different rates throughout the day. Breakfast 1:12, lunch 1:10, dinner 1:13. But seems I’m constantly making adjustments and lately, I have been questioning my carb counting skills. I feel like I know how many carbs I’m eating but when I go to enter it into my food database, it is very different than what I came up with. The ratios seem to work well based on what I figure I am eating but probably would get me into trouble if I based it on what my food database says. But since this is working fairly well for me I am hesitant to change it.
Ah, mine is 100/U/ml. So that’s why my ratio is higher, most of you all have 40 units/ml ?
Then 3g carbs/unit would be 8g right ? that still looks low in comparison
No we also use U-100. We are all different. You perhaps are just more resistant to insulin.
How much long-acting insulin do you use per day? Is it about the same as the total units of Novorapid that you take each day?
Yes, I will try watching for these patterns. Thanks!
1 unit to 6 grams if i’m not active
1 unit to 8 grams if active, such as working where i’m constantly moving
1 unit to 12 grams if i’m heading to the gym to seriously work out
34 units of lantus in the morning
hmm absolutely not. I use 11 units of long acting insulin (levemir ±11 hours) and somewhere around 40 u of fast acting.
I should say that the doctors and professors who treat me, are aware of these numbers and have never commented about the fast/slow balance.
It’s not a rule, but a general guideline. If you are using so much fast acting insulin, it could be that your fast acting insulin is covering the role that your long-acting insulin should. Or it could be just that your insulin needs are different.
I see that your A1c is quite good. If your blood sugar levels are good, without too many lows, then there probably isn’t a reason to change anything. But it seems strange to me that you use 4 times more fast acting than long-acting.
There is a great book, called “Think Like a Pancreas”, which explains the different ratios and how they are best calculated. I learned a lot from that book.
Hey Josh,
One of the beauties of being on a pump is the varying carb ratios thorughout the day. Mine are as follows:
12am - 11am - 8/unit
11am - 4pm - 12/unit
4pm - 10pm - 7/unit
10pm - 12am - 14/unit
My endocrinologist gets my stats via Medtronics CareLink system. Then every week or so, he has my pump coach call with changes. They are still tweaking my basals and boluses.
8 grams per unit of apidra for breakfast and supper. 16 grams per unit for lunch. 12 units of lantus at am and 16 units of lantus at bed time.
I am 1 unit to 6 carbs all day and 1 unit will drop me 25 points, we all need something different, I seem to have become more sensative to insulin since I wwent on pump, because I used to use 50 units of lantus a day and about 60-75 units of novolog, now I only use about 80-100 units of novolog in a 24 hour period, I know a teenager with type1 and uses 80 units of lantus and about 140 units of humolog a day, I thought I used alot
I’m 5g/unit, thinking of taking to my endo of insulin resistance, I just started to take Chromium picolinate to see if it works an my insulin works better. Any ideas? I’m 5’9, my weight is 185, my Body fat is 15% (normal rage) I exercise 3 days a week, I’m a Spinning Instructor, my HC1 is 6%, so I don’t know whats happening. I’m using humalog in my pump, I’m gonna try novolog and see how it works.
25g/unit in the morning 30g/unit for the rest of the day and higher if I eat following intense exercise. I get delayed lows
4 units for every 15 grams 
My son started at 30 carbs : 1 unit, then 15 carbs: 1 unit, NOW after 4 years he is at 5 carbs: 1 unit. He is 14 and in puberty. Need I say MORE??? Nancy