Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Deannan on January 28, 2013 at 10:33am

Hi! I am Lada too! You do need to count your carbs and use the ratio as Zoe said, but I have been able to find a stable baseline and just take a couple units more when I am eating a higher carb meal or a beer.

You will gain a little weight back. When you were running that high, your body was burning your muscle and fat as it wasn't getting enough sugar as there was no insulin to convert your carbs to energy. Now you actually have insulin to convert the carbs you consume to energy, instead of your body eating itself so to say.

Insulin needs to act on carbs recommended about 45g per meal to function, so don't eliminate completely. But as anyone should stick to the whole grain/wheat ones and not white ones and no pure sugar. This is important for anyone.

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Permalink Reply by gap2368 on February 28, 2013 at 12:53pm

I lost about 25 pounds then put on insulin in December I gained about 5 pounds and have not really gained or lost any more weight ( it may go up or down 2 or 3 pounds is all)

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Permalink Reply by sebabella on March 1, 2013 at 10:38am

It's also important to consider the type of carbs. Avoid heavy carb foods with lots of fat as they are more difficult to gauge their effect on your blood sugar, at least to begin with (i.e giant plate of pasta or pizza). As you get more and more comfortable with carb counting as others have suggested, you're food options will increase!
Good Luck! Always feel welcome to come back with any questions.

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Permalink Reply by Tabacblond on March 20, 2013 at 3:33pm

Had the same expeience -weight, I've lost 6 kg, and I am 180 cm long, so I was skinnyyy
I gained it back in a month. I am too scared of carbs but now even fat and proteins set me off. I need to make them into considerations otherwise I get high in 5 hours after Novorapid is gone.
I hate all this experimenting. On a very low carb diet I've developed ketois rash the same I had prior DX, and now I need to go upp in carbs. This leass me to be very hungry all the time and crave carbs. It's like an evil circle. Food is no longer fun. I hate it all together

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Permalink Reply by Annie on March 20, 2013 at 4:30pm

My heart goes out to you as a new convert to our "club". I was diagnosed about a year and a half ago with an A1C of 14.9. I've always been thin, but I got down to 113 lbs (I'm 5'5"). Yes, it is totally normal to gain back weight, especially water weight. We are dehydrated when we are diagnosed as well as losing nutrients. I was SO worried about gaining too much weight as well. A year and a half later I am 119 lbs and definitely look better than I was pre-diagnosis. I eat as many carbs as I want.....usually.

The big thing is to learn how your body reacts to different carbs and then match it for different situations. For example, I eat lower carb (~30 g of "easy" foods for me) when I am flying or driving a long distance because I can't get up and exercise. The opposite of that is when I go hiking. I want to have enough carbs being continually released, so I eat the kinds of foods that just "hang on" for me: bagels, fatty-carb food, etc. I have figured out how different foods and exercise affect me by using a Dexcom. It has saved my life many times and taught me so much!

I was obsessed with figuring out how many carbs to eat for quite awhile. In my own body, I've observed that I can keep my blood sugars more stable by eating a combination of foods with differing types of carbs and the quantity is less important than the diversity. For example, if I eat an apple my blood sugar will rise more quickly than if I eat fish tacos. I have a hard time bolusing for fish tacos because I will go low before I go high, even if I stagger insulin delivery using my pump. So I eat both and the apple carbs "cover me" before the fish taco carbs kick in. Don't be afraid to eat carbs, but be smart about it. The tough thing and magical lesson about type 1 is that everyone is different. You have to learn your patterns, and then match it to your situtation (as mentioned above). It is like a science experiment, a very long one that never ends :-p. I've gotten much better at this, but I am still learning with "new" foods and "new" exercises.

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Permalink Reply by Annie on March 20, 2013 at 4:32pm

I also resisted an insulin pump because I thought it would be a painful psychological reminder of my diabetes. However, I am on the Omnipod and I love it! It allows me to not eat everything at once and to be able to stagger insulin deliver for fatty foods. Just a thought...

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