The FastDay Forum

A low carb breakfast like a 1 egg omelette with mushrooms, or some almonds, would provide fats and proteins without adding to the already high blood sugar.

Apart from the daily basal insulin what is your regime for regulating blood sugar ?

Hi I am a new member also and have just embarked on my first ever fast day. I am 36 years old and have had Type 1 diabetes since I was 18 months. I have completed a carbohydrate counting course which I hope will make it easier for me to comply with the fasting as I can administer the correct type of insulin in relation to what I am about to eat.

I know the official recommendation seems to be that type 1's shouldnt follow the diet but it appears from the internet that quite a few are! I need to lose a small amount of weight after having a baby almost 2 years ago but I am primarily interested in following the diet to find out does it have a positive effect on my diabetes control and just on the way I feel in general. I am fed up of always feeling tired and rundown and that everything is always such an effort so I am hoping that following the diet improves things.

Just concerned about treating any hypo's while on a fast day...obviously that is going to take me over the 500 calories. Any advice in relation to this would be welcome.

Just concerned about treating any hypo's while on a fast day...obviously that is going to take me over the 500 calories. Any advice in relation to this would be welcome.

Best to avoid them of course, but glucose tablets would be 50 calories or a similar amount of jam etc. There's only 5g of glucose in your bloodstream so fixing a hypo doesn't require a lot of intake.

[carorees]

Hi Stanton and welcome!

It's hard to predict what changes you'll need to make to basal insulin, but it is likely it will need reducing. On the other hand you don't want to worsen the dawn phenomenon. Perhaps leave it until you see how you react. I would guess it's best to start by having similar food to a normal day but in smaller portions. That will make it easier to judge your short acting insulin. You can increase veg though to help fill you up. Don't be too strict about keeping too the calorie allowance at first...it might be best to approach gradually especially if you're not reducing basal insulin.

Hadkins: you might need less insulin possibly due to the amount of weight loss but also perhaps more likely due to increased insulin sensitivity...more efficient transport of glucose into cells is seen with weight loss and with fasting.

I'm sure the reason the docs don't want to recommend fasting for T1D is indeed because balancing insulin is very tricky without very frequent bg testing. Also fasting in a person without diabetes will result in ketone production, when someone with diabetes produces ketones it's more worrying.

Hi, I'm type 1 for 34 years (44 now). I don't use a pump. I'm a DAFNE 'graduate'!! Been doing the fast diet for 7 weeks and have lost just over 14 lbs. I eat very very low carb all the time ( no starch carbs ). Our DAFNE educators told us it was safe to skip a meal ( our background covers us and it's a great way to check if we're having the right dose of background. Therefore on fasting days I have my usual 1 carb, yes one little carb of unsweetened soya milk with strong italian coffee ( 14 g of protein and 140 cals for 250 ml ) and then test at lunchtime, correct my BG if needed, and have my remaining 260 cals for dinner at night. I am in excellent control with BG averaging 5 mmol consistently.

Hi I am also type 1 have been to 13yrs and not using pump, I am on Lantus (background) and novorapid to cover meals. I have experimented a lot on diets but always end up with hypos! This is my first week on 5:2. I was on my 1st fast day yest blood sugars seemed to differ throughout the day. Started off on a wee bit of a high well 10mmol had nothing until lunch - 170 special k then took my full amount of novorapid as I would do normally (on Daphne ratio 7g carb to 1 unit novo) but found around 4pm I had hit a hypo! Ended up with quarter of a bottle of lucozade and felt guilty! Then had my 306cal for dinner again took normal amount of both insulins. Blood count tested 5.4mmol before bed which was ok. Think for me on fast days I will see if lowering my normal amount of novorapid by 1 unit and maybe the night before try lowering my lantus by 1 unit see if this works to stop low mmols. Hope this helps anyone else out there

Hi I am also type 1 have been to 13yrs and not using pump, I am on Lantus (background) and novorapid to cover meals. I have experimented a lot on diets but always end up with hypos! This is my first week on 5:2. I was on my 1st fast day yest blood sugars seemed to differ throughout the day. Started off on a wee bit of a high well 10mmol had nothing until lunch - 170 special k then took my full amount of novorapid as I would do normally (on Daphne ratio 7g carb to 1 unit novo) but found around 4pm I had hit a hypo! Ended up with quarter of a bottle of lucozade and felt guilty! Then had my 306cal for dinner again took normal amount of both insulins. Blood count tested 5.4mmol before bed which was ok. Think for me on fast days I will see if lowering my normal amount of novorapid by 1 unit and maybe the night before try lowering my lantus by 1 unit see if this works to stop low mmols. Hope this helps anyone else out there

Hi Chelsea,

I'm very interested in hearing how things go for you as I'm starting tomorrow and I'm on a Novorapid/Lantus regime, so I'm in similar circumstances, although if I had a reading of 5.4 before bed I would be guaranteed a hypo at night! I feel fairly confident about my Novorapid given I've been on the DAFNE course too, it's just my basal regime I'm concerned about. Ah well, here goes, better have some Lucozade at hand to be safe.

[Tracieknits]

Welcome to the forums, Neillyneil

I've had T1 for 32 years (I'm a51 year old woman) and use Lantus/Novorapid. I want to share something which I've never seen discussed about insulin and dieting. Two years ago I lost 22kgs through diet and exercise and have only put a little back on (which is what I'd like to shift to using the 5:2). The dramatic change for me through that process was the permanent reduction in the insulin I needed, and consequently, my ability to lead what feels like an almost non-diabetic life.

Prior to the diet, my dosage of Novorapid was 10/10/20. Today (on a normal day) it is 6/6/6. Lantus is the same at 20. It's a combination of eating less carbohydrate (obviously!) but also I think my insulin sensitivity has really increased through weight loss, and exercise. The best part of this is that I almost never have hypos and on the rare occasion that I do, they are very soft - no more of those plunging, desperate hypos I used to have. This has had huge benefits for me - my stress levels, my self-confidence socially and professionally, and many others besides.

So although the 5:2 isn't recommended for T1s, I think its benefits will be huge given it increases insulin sensitivity on top of the other benefits of weight loss.

Has anyone else noted these added benefits?

Hello again, everybody!

I'm the OP; I sort of lost the forum and then after that life threw some *&%* at me so I haven't really thought about 5:2 for a while. I had a few goes at fasting but was far too dismayed by the frequent hypos (plus I was trying to do it while breastfeeding once a day!) that I stopped.

Nowadays, I'm not breastfeeding, and life has settled down a bit again. I regained the incentive to do 5:2 and started in seriousness (although with no forward planning) on friday. As before, my bgl lowered throughout the day, but i used my available calories to eat breakfast in the morning and then cereal bars if edging too close to a hypo. My previous attempts had taught me that my body couldn't cope through the night without a good meal/snack before bed (possibly too much lantus for the fast day? I inject rather than have a pump so have to plan in advance which I didn't often!), so i decided to do my fast from 8pm one day to 8pm the next. So I broke my fast with a decent meal.

Interestingly my insulin sensitivity seems to go crazy from only one day of fasting (the reason I'd given up before - I'm more determined now!) and despite injecting only about half the bolus usually required, I still had a hypo at about 11pm. It doesn't stop there though. The following day, I had two almost-hypos (despite having less novorapid), and today, the same thing happened (from expecting my sensitivity to have gone back up a bit so having a bit more insulin with meals). I am now starting my 2nd fast day, and have prepared by having HALF my usual lantus (and hoping it will not take 3 days to adjust like the drs sometimes make out, whilst in the same breath saying that it runs out after just under 24 hours... ) So obviously insulin sensitivity is quite a problem for me.

Anyway, I will try and remember to check back and let you all know how it goes from here on out, if any of you are still around! Oh, I've also started a blog to log everything that goes on this time, so do feel free to check it out... http://fastinganddiabetic.blogspot.co.uk/

Welcome back @Lemele Congratulations on the baby Blimey that all sounds awful I really do wish you the best of luck this time around and firstly hope you get all under control then secondly on losing some weight.

Thanks Sue, it was actually twins and thanks for the well wishes

Twins wow double congratulations.

As you can see I'm going to be around for sometime so we'll do the journey together until you dump me and get off.