What is your insulin to carb ratio, and how often does it need adjusting?

I was just curious how these numbers vary in different people, and how often they change.

Tags: Food, adjust, carb, change, daily, dose, insulin, is, ratio, what

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Natalie ._c- on January 7, 2011 at 1:33pm

Mine's 1:8, but I am very carb-sensitive, and eat as few as I can manage. So about 65% of my daily insulin is basal, and 35% bolus. Most people seem to go about 50-50.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kari on January 7, 2011 at 1:38pm

I use 1:10. This has varied widely in the past 7 years, ranging from 1:15 to 2:15 (or about 1:7.5). Granted much of the time I've used carb counting I was a teen going through puberty, which I'm sure affects it! Switching from MDI to pumping changed it as well. Even changing pumps, I had to adjust my I:C ratio because of the difference in deliverty rate of boluses and basals between the two pumps.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Holly on January 7, 2011 at 2:27pm

when i was injecting, my carb ratios were
breakfast - no insulin (i didn't eat breakfast)
lunch - 1:4
dinner - 1:5

but now i'm on the pump and everythings corrected
breakfast - 1:6 (i now have fruit for breakfast)
lunch: 1:8 (got changed a year ago as i was hypoing straight after lunch at 1:6)
dinner - 1:5 (got changed about 6 months ago, when i was going slightly higher after dinner)

my total daily dose is normally around 90-100 units, 50:50 basal/bolus
but lately my total daily does is normally around 80-90 units, 55:45 basal/bolus

:)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Zoe on January 7, 2011 at 2:34pm

Mine are 1:7, 1:8 and 1:18. My TDD is around 25, but probably will be somewhat less as I am starting on the pump tomorrow. My ratios have been pretty stable for quite awhile. I look at a page of numbers (4 weeks) at the end of that period and make decisions as to whether anything needs to be tweaked but have stayed pretty steady for months. I have had problems with having to tweak my basal dose every few weeks but I'm hoping that will lessen when I'm stable on the pump numbers.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by jimt1cgms on January 7, 2011 at 2:35pm

Oh if there was only 1 insulin to carb ratio....

Breakfast - 1:10
Post Breakfast / Snack - 1:18
Lunch - 1:12
Dinner - 1:15
Bedtime Snack - 1:20

And that's not even considering the basal rates that change through out the day.
Good thing the pump figures it all out for me, I can't do math on the fly anymore.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Pilcrow on January 7, 2011 at 2:37pm

At the moment I'm on holidays and it's 1:12 at breakfast, and 1:10 for the rest of the day, but when I'm working it is(or at least was two weeks ago)
breaskfast - 1:14
lunch - 1:20
dinner - 1:12

I find myself needing to tweak it about every fortnight.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jan on January 8, 2011 at 12:54pm

DN is a young teen. ICR 1 to 6.5 breakfast; 1 to 7 lunch and dinner, recently lowered from 1 to 8. I changed ICR down and lowered basals for lunch and dinner time period. With higher basals, use 1 to 8. ICRs are far more stable than the basals which change frequently, but only in the evening hours. I do have to adjust basals if I change the ICRs.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kelly WPA on January 8, 2011 at 1:01pm

I use 1:6 for breakfast, 1:12 for lunch and 1:15 for dinner. Mine tend to stay fairly stable and I haven't changed those for awhile, unlike my basal rates!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by adam nash on January 8, 2011 at 1:54pm

breakfast is 1:20
lunch 1:30
dinner 1:15

im young, male, faily active during the day and not overweight so im sure that plays a role in it. my ratios change pretty much weekly and i asked my dr if it mormal for it to change so much and she said yup thats normal :-/

im on MDI but just got my ping and starting that in 2 weeks :-)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Anthony Holko on January 8, 2011 at 3:13pm

I am not sure 1 unit per 4 carbs or 1 per 3.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by FHS on January 8, 2011 at 7:19pm

Between 1:20 and 1:22 for breakfast and lunch.
1:25 for dinner.

It fluctuates a fair bit but not drastically, as long as I follow my exercise program. When I'm off my program for a month or so, it drops to around 1:15. It will bottom out at 1:8 after extended periods of inactivity.