Ratios and their meaning

[DeusXM]

I suspect I could guess at the answer but I was just wondering whether insulin:carb ratios have any particular significance aside from treatment usage. It's just that mine seems to be 1:5 which strikes me as rather low compared to most other people's.

[rzrbks]

Most of the articles I found have to do with T2, pregnant women, and onset of menarche--------------none of which, I believe, apply to you.

I know that mine varies based on what I eat and when I eat it.

Caffeine seems to have have a HUGE effect on ratio. I was down to 1:5 for breakfast with coffee, switched to hot tea and slipped up to 1:8 but if I drop caffeine from diet completely, I go back to 1:15 for most foods-----I do bolus for pizza, crisps( all types and flavors), and other fatty "Snack foods."


Oddly enough, I don't have to bolus for sweets.

[duck]

Deus, I've been looking for a solid answer, but have yet to really find one. I've not kept detailed notes, but I don't recall seeing any coorelation between "control" and the ratio, or even someone being "fit" and their ratio. Maybe more important may be the total daily basal, but again, I haven't really taken good notes to make any sort of a hypothesis.

[jen_slc]

I would guess that quite a few of us here have different insulin:carb ratios throughout a 24-hour period which vary based on time of day and type of food. But why do you have a larger ratio (1:5) compared to others? (is that 1:5 all day?) Whatever the reason, you are probably just more insulin resistant and require more insulin to metabolize a gram of carbohydrate, and that resistance can be due to any number of factors: lifestyle, weight, age, fitness level, genetics, hormones, other medical conditions. How is your total bolus:total basal ratio?

[poodlebone]

I suspect I could guess at the answer but I was just wondering whether insulin:carb ratios have any particular significance aside from treatment usage. It's just that mine seems to be 1:5 which strikes me as rather low compared to most other people's.

If you're carrying any extra weight around, that could cause you to need more insulin. Even Type 1's experience insulin resistance. When I started pumping last year I was a lot heavier than I am now. I was started at 1:8 for breakfast & dinner and 1:10 for lunch. I know those changed fairly quickly, and then as I lost weight my ratios changed a lot. Now I'm 1:20 for breakfast,1:22 for lunch and 1:25 for dinner. I think dinner might be wrong and that it's my basal rate around that time that should be lowered, which would bring my dinner ratio back to the 1:20 - 1:22 range. I'm not messing with it for now because I have too many other things to deal with. My basal insulin has also been cut in half since I started pumping, so maybe you should take a look at your long acting insulin to make sure that's high enough...?

[Simon]

Insulin resistance is on a sliding scale and we all have it to different extents. I know one type 1 diabetc who is on a 1:1 ratio.

[DeusXM]

Well, I know it's not my basal. I wake consistantly between 3.5 and 5.5 so if anything it's almost a little too high. I'm not really carrying too much extra weight (I could lose about a stone or so, true, but it's not like I'm huge). Hmm. Just curious really, that's all.

[statdeac]

My insulin to carb ratio declined steadily following dx in 2000 (from 30:1 to about 8:1). Over the past 8 months I have been exercising like crazy, lost some weight and it still hovered around 10:1.

One thing that has made a difference is increasing muscle mass. Since I started lifting weights about 4 months ago, my ratio has increased to 15:1.

Basal is another story. On an average day, I take about 50% more basal units than bolus units.