I’ve been a Type 1 diabetic for 12 years. For 11 of those years, my blood glucose numbers looked like the graph below – 164 mg/dl average +/- 46!
It was not unusual for me to see blood sugars in the 200’s or 300’s on a daily basis and weekly low’s in the 40’s from overcorrecting to bring those numbers back down. I could never find a middle ground. I was exhausted and burned out trying to chase the highs and lows day after day.
In November 2017, after a talk with the cardiologist, I started to lower my carbs a little at a time. I found some good low carb dinner recipes and my husband agreed to try them with me. I noticed immediately that my night time numbers started to improve and my sleep was a little bit better too.
I was visiting a lot of T1D websites at the time looking for more information and a lady there messaged me and recommended a cookbook by Carolyn Ketchum – The Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen. I ordered the book, read it cover to cover and within a couple of days decided that if all low carb recipes were that good, I could definitely do this low carb thing!
By January, my non-diabetic husband and daughter (who was becoming insulin resistant) were seeing the improvements in me and they both decided to try going low carb with me. We have been a low-carb household ever since and all three of us have had significant health improvements.
Within one week of being under 20 carbs per day, my blood sugars were already averaging 100 mg/dl – around the clock!!! I had never had blood sugars so steady. I was amazed and I was feeling better than I had in years. I couldn’t believe that nobody had ever told me about this or encouraged me to even try! I reduced my basal downward each day for the first few weeks as my body adjusted. I went from taking 2 units of insulin per hour around the clock to .9 units per hour and some days a little less. My past 90 days A1C is now 5.2 and my blood sugars are averaging around 96-97 mg/dl. I also have a SD (Standard Deviation of 12 which is incredible.
The other fun part – the weight loss. I lost 5 lbs that first week and it has steadily been coming off ever since and I am down 120 lbs since starting in January 2018. (Our combined family weight loss for the 3 of us is 200 lbs) I don’t get hungry. I haven’t craved sugar since the 2nd week in and it feels amazing. I have no desire to go back to eating the Standard American Diet. I don’t miss the carbs, the grains, the vegetable oils – I really, really don’t.
Important Information:
This blog is about my own personal experience. It is not medical advice and I am not a medical practitioner.
For anyone considering low carb or keto, I recommend that you educate yourself as much as you possibly can before doing this. Your personal health and safety should always come first.
Find a doctor or health care provider that supports low carb that can guide you through this process. There are endocrinologists and general practitioners that do support low carb.
Do not do this without medical guidance Talk to your doctor or health care provider first. Ask for their help. There can be serious complications.
If you are on a an insulin pump, you need to know how to change the settings on that pump yourself. Educate yourself and thoroughly understand your basal rates, insulin sensitivity, carb ratios, and dosing.
If you are following the recommendations by Dr. Richard Bernstein MD (Diabetes Solution) and doing multiple daily injections (MDI), you need to know how to do that correctly as well. Read the Book.