hypoglycemia

[Randiman1]

Originally Posted by karen77

Hi Randiman1

Nice to see a fellow Type 1

My levels have been fantastic since I started this a few days ago, I was always high as a kite before (not good!)

Having a hypo at the moment though, and I would normally have lucozde but i don;t know what to have now i'm on atkins, any ideas what would be least damaging?

Thankyou in advance

Hello Karen!

How do you currently take your insulin...pump or a long lasting and fast acting insulin? I personally don't like the pump. I was on it for a few years, but just found that injections are better for me. I have much better control with the injections then the pump. I also had problems losing weight on Atkins with the pump b/c it would be continuously giving me insulin, when the a major point of the diet is to decrease your insulin levels...

Sorry got off subject. To try and ensure that I don't go low I cut way back on my insulin. I NORMALLY take 1 unit of fast acting insulin (Humalog) for every 10 grams of carb. However now if I don't eat 10 grams of carb at once, then I simply won't take any insulin. It is kind of scary at first to not take your insulin, but I just check my BS and it is always in the correct range. If I am correct you said that you took 8units of insulin today (?) I don't know how long you have been doing the diet, or what your "sliding scale" is, but that seems like a lot of insulin for being on Atkins. As I said though you are probably correct, I just don't know how high you are on the rungs of Atkins, or what your insulin to carb ratio is. Everybody is different though. I know if I took 8units at once during any meal of the day I would definitely go low.

There are two ways that treat a low, and they depend on the situation, and how low I am. If I am borderline low, or I can tell that I dropping then I will simply eat some meat or cheese. However if I am extremely low....<70 then I will take 2 glucose tablets. I know they are not "atkins" friendly, but with this disease and diet they are the most reasonable way to bring me up. 2 tablets are 10 grams of carb, which is good for me b/c when I am low I just want to eat everything in the kitchen. I have picked through my kitchen so bad before that I would be ashamed for anybody to see me. But when you’re low you have to treat it. It can be very scary!

I tend to go low mostly at night..while sleeping! (man does it get old!) I realized that I was going low due to my insulin amounts (mostly my long lasting), so I decided to cut back on that as well and my lows have stopped. The long last and carb to insulin ratio for the fast acting all depend on your size and how subjective you are to the insulin, so this is something that changes for everyone. I have found that I lose weight I need to decrease my insulin amounts also.

*I don’t recommend decreasing your insulin levels on your own, unless you know-how to properly. I have taken several courses to learn more about the disease and have worked very closely with great doctors to be able to control myself. I would suggest seeing your doctor if you continue to have several lows, because your insulin levels most likely will need adjusting. If you don’t want to see your doctor, then play around with it yourself and see what levels your body is comfortable with.

I hope this helped , if not then please feel free to ask more questions!!!!

[karen77]

Hi Randi

Thanks for replying.

Up until 5 days ago when i started this diet ,I was having around 7 injections a day 6 fast and i slow at night. The fast amount was 14 units each time and the slow 26. Over the last couple of days I have taken between 8 -10 units of fast in total and reduced my night time to 21 which i am ecstatic about.

This is my main reason for Atkins to be honest , I'm not massively overweight but soon will be if the insulin requirements keep going up which is what has happened steadily over the last 8 years of being diagnosed. I knew all along that reducing the carbs was the way to go but actually stopping myself eating all the things I love was just impossible I thought. I always wondered why didn't I crave chocs instead of carbs? At least that way I would know I'm not allowed them!

I came out of the hypo with about 3 nuts and 2 dried gogi berries, it was all I had that was almost suitable - apart from the glucose tablets! Which of course I will take next time instead of falling over almost! My hypo's sound exactly like yours, mainly early hours of the morning, trying to find chocolate or biscuits , mostly both! Once my tounge stops tingling I've probably consumed more calories than the rest of the day. Not good is it?

Actually I weighed myself this morning , and I haven't lost a single ounce even though I have been following the diet closely and haven't cheated once. I find this remarkable considering how 'good' i've been. How long were you doing this before you lost?

Karen

[Randiman1]

I really think that our insulin injections have something to due with our slow weight loss. With non diabetics there bodies have the option to not release insulin when they don't need it, where as us, we inject it b/c we "know" we need it, and then most likely end up going low. So when most people's bodies are not releasing insulin all of the time, we are forcing our bodies to take insulin....I hope this makes sense. I have no proof to this theory of mine, but I have heard of a lot of type 1s having the issue of slow weight loss, and this is the only reason I can think of.

The first time I did atkins (back in 2003) I lost 50lbs in about 2 months....which was great, however I didn't necessarily do it the healthy way. For the most part I only took my long lasting insulin and didn't worry much about checking my BS or taking insulin when I didn't think I needed. THAT IS NOT THE RIGHT WAY TO GO!!!!! At the time I had only been diagnosed for a barely a year and was still going through the denial phase of the disease, and I was really upset because I gained 50lbs once I start taking insulin! Now I take much better care of myself. I check my BS regularly and make a game out of how low I can get my A1C....last time it was 6.8, so I was really happy!

To honestly answer your question...while doing Atkins currently, and taking my meds correctly my weight loss has been very slow. Tomorrow will be the beginning of my week 4 and I have only lost about 7-8lbs. I do stay positive though, because this is a life change that will be better for my life. I gained my weight from the injections. I never had a problem until I start taking insulin. *Side note* I don't understand how a majority of type 1s are extremely skinny, but yet insulin has the opposite effect on me! That has always bothered me! *side note over*

I just strongly encourage you to stay with the diet even though it is slow for us. I would be sure to check everything that you are eating to ensure that there are no hidden sugars anywhere. Not all meats are without sugar. I also must say that even though the Scale isn't moving (oh yea, I was on my TOM for about 2 weeks of this, so that might have slowed me also), I am noticing inches gone and changes in my body. Trust me this works, and this is one of the best diets for Diabetics. Although Type 1s will never get off meds, this diet can greatly reduce the amount that we take!!!!! Which will save us TONS OF $$$$!!!!!

[karen77]

Hi again

I'm the same as you, had no problem with weight ( i was always extremely slender maximum 115 pounds for years before diabetes) until I started injecting. Then the weight started going on, slowly but surely and this is when I realised that I would have to do something or I'm going to end up like a typical Type 2 diabetic i:e too big.

I think all the type 1 people who are still skinny are very lucky, either that or they are not injecting!! Lol..but seriously I know there are people who need far more or far less insulin than myself.

You are right about it being a lifestyle change, the continual high levels were driving me mad, constantly tired, no sex life, thinking about food too much, and just injecting to counteract the food which is sooooo wrong!!

I am going to be examining food labels etc for hidden sugars. Actually I had a protien shake for breakfast today as I didn't have time for bacon and eggs and the net carbs were 0.7 so was this ok?

[Randiman1]

Originally Posted by karen77

Hi again

I'm the same as you, had no problem with weight ( i was always extremely slender maximum 115 pounds for years before diabetes) until I started injecting. Then the weight started going on, slowly but surely and this is when I realised that I would have to do something or I'm going to end up like a typical Type 2 diabetic i:e too big.

I think all the type 1 people who are still skinny are very lucky, either that or they are not injecting!! Lol..but seriously I know there are people who need far more or far less insulin than myself.

You are right about it being a lifestyle change, the continual high levels were driving me mad, constantly tired, no sex life, thinking about food too much, and just injecting to counteract the food which is sooooo wrong!!

I am going to be examining food labels etc for hidden sugars. Actually I had a protien shake for breakfast today as I didn't have time for bacon and eggs and the net carbs were 0.7 so was this ok?

The carb level of your shake sounds ok, but I don't know what all was in it, or what rung of the diet you are (sorry if you have stated this before). Hummm...a shake does sound good though, so would you mind sharing what was in it and how to make it?!

Thanks!

[karen77]

Hi


The shake was premade and the ingredients are : Milk protein, sunflower oil, whey protein,cocoa powder, mineral blend, loads of vitamins amd soya.
It contains 20g protein and 0.7 net carbs. So much easier than cooking first thing!!

[SwissMiss]

Hi Anne, I'm a Type II Diabetic... actually currently and thanks to Atkins Pre-Diabetic. I haven't experienced hypoglycemia on this diet, not when I started and not 3 months into it. Though I did experience the first 2 weeks to be very difficult... challenging...as my body and my mind was missing the carbs the first couple of days... and I was extremely tired. Anyhow, I noticed that eating regularly 5 -6 times a day (meaning breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and late night snack) would really help me to feel well and my blood levels actually already positively changed after only 5 weeks on the diet... my doc was very impressed, as was I.

I have to admit, that the first 2 weeks I ate whole weat crackers for breakfast (with the eggs) , which were very high in fiber and therefore had very low netcarbs. Atkins allows that in the book "Atkins Diabetes Revolution". By the way, have you read that book? It's fabulous and explains everything you need to know about Diabetes and how the blood sugar work and what the Atkins diet will do to improve your life and actually become healthy.

[speedyturtle]

Hello, I never felt so tired in my life as when I did induction carb levels. My hypo needed me to have some more than 20g of carbs to fell like the gravity had not increased in the world. and to lose weight I had to stay around 20g over 20 I stopped losing, I stopped atkins and gained weight back but also gained energy. I am going to back to atkins and start anew trying 40g and see how I go from there. I know it is a healthier lifestyle than what I am doing now. It may just take longer to lose weight, hmmm patience is really hard.

[dishchair]

40g carbs would work better for you it is still low carb