What's your Insulin:Carb ratio? [Archive]

Emm

10-22-2006, 04:29 AM

Roughly 1u to 15g carbs - but I have to add or take away a unit here & there to balance out some meals like takeaways.
... and various other acts of farting about - it never seems as simple as just 1 unit to 15g!

I have NO idea what my biggest carb meal would be, when I'm being that naughty I close my eyes so I can't see it lol.

SueM

10-22-2006, 05:33 AM

Depends on what time of the day it is and what I am doing.
Winter mths I use 2 units for 60 carbs at breakfast, lunch time would be 4 units for 75/80 carbs and evening meal would be anything between 4 and 7 units for 65/70 carbs and a snack before bed.
Summer mths I tend to use more insulin as not as busy.

But it doesn't matter what everyone else uses you need to use what your body needs

RLK

10-22-2006, 06:13 AM

1 unit for 20 grams is about right most of the time. When the hormones kick in once a month, it creeps up to 1 unit for 13-15 grams. Takeout or restaurant meals skew things even further. I ate a slice of pizza yesterday and 1:10 with a dual wave bolus worked pretty well.
Most carbs at once? Hmmm....any meal bolus over 6 or 7 units tends to me a lot for me. Like Sue said though, its all about what your body demands.

sofaraway

10-22-2006, 06:35 AM

around 1 unit to 15g carb, but i don't really carb count, the most i've injected in a bolus is 9 units, so what that about 140g carb, i think it was an indian takeaway plenty of rice and naan bread

Cyborg

10-22-2006, 06:35 AM

1:6 during the day and 1:5 at night. I consume anywhere from 0 to 100 carbs per meal, but tend to stay on the low side. I bolus for protein, not just carbs...

Stuboy

10-22-2006, 06:47 AM

how the heck do you bolus for protein? im not gonna go there lol, carbs is enough work as it is! ha

Cyborg

10-22-2006, 07:05 AM

For protein, I take 75% of the protein content and call them "equivalent carbs". I do a 30/70 combo bolus over 3 hours. This is not something you can do on MDI, but you could take the 30 part since it is given all at once and all up front. The other 70 percent part of the combo bolus is the part that is evenly distributed over the 3 hours.

I agree, you need to get MDI nailed down along with all your ratios etc, before considering bolusing for protein. The calculation of "equivalent carbs" and the 30/70 combo bolus may not work for everyone.

Check this (http://www.insulin-pumpers.org/howto/pfandbs.html) out... Even fat affects your bg.

Funnygrl

10-22-2006, 07:29 AM

1:13 at breakfast and lunch, 1:10 at dinner

grace girl

10-22-2006, 07:44 AM

I was at 1:8 for breakfast and supper and 1:10 for lunch, but I'm tweaking again, so who knows yet??

JJeenn

10-22-2006, 08:54 AM

I use a 1:8 at breakfast and 1:12 the rest of the day.

Most amount of carbs I've ever eaten at one meal was probably 150-200 once while I was eating out. I took 20 units of Humalog which is a LOT (I almost never take more than 10 except at breakfast when I'm high), it was a combination of a really high blood sugar and eating out so a really high-carb/high-fat meal, not the best combination!

Funnygrl

10-22-2006, 09:00 AM

I think the most carbs I ate at one meal was 150 or something. I was disgusted with myself.

spike

10-22-2006, 09:03 AM

I think the most carbs I ate at one meal was 150 or something. I was disgusted with myself.

LOL! Was it Thanksgiving, or was it a meal at Cheesecake Factory? :) I just read an article about portion size and one of the respondents to the author of the article was a VP of CF. They don't provide nutrition info and claim patrons seldom ask for it. He also said 80% of customers take home a doggie bag, and few folks eat the cheesecake w/o sharing with a tablemate.

Funnygrl

10-22-2006, 09:14 AM

LOL! Was it Thanksgiving, or was it a meal at Cheesecake Factory? :) I just read an article about portion size and one of the respondents to the author of the article was a VP of CF. They don't provide nutrition info and claim patrons seldom ask for it. He also said 80% of customers take home a doggie bag, and few folks eat the cheesecake w/o sharing with a tablemate.
Wow. I think it was actually pizza and rice krispy treat night at the camp I work at ;)

grace girl

10-22-2006, 09:39 AM

I've only been carb counting for a few months now, and so far the most carbs I've had at a meal was 45. However, thanksgiving is fast approaching......

Cyborg

10-22-2006, 09:59 AM

LOL! Was it Thanksgiving, or was it a meal at Cheesecake Factory? :) I just read an article about portion size and one of the respondents to the author of the article was a VP of CF. They don't provide nutrition info and claim patrons seldom ask for it. He also said 80% of customers take home a doggie bag, and few folks eat the cheesecake w/o sharing with a tablemate.

They have carb-free cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory now! And it's good... :star:

lilituc

10-22-2006, 10:25 AM

My ratio is 1u to 14g of carbs and I think the most I had in one meal was 126.

spike, Claim Jumper is another one with big portions that refuses to give out nutritional info. As a carb counter it makes me kind of angry. I've never complained though because I've never seen someone get a good response back from one of these places. Seems like they just recommend something low-fat if you're diabetic. I just want to know how many carbs!

No, I can't order a steak, because I'm a vegetarian.

JediSkipdogg

10-22-2006, 10:28 AM

Right now in the current weather, moon alignment, sea level, I am on....

1:6 for breakfast
1:19 for every other meal 3 hours after breakfast

Then a 3rd factor is I have to change the 1:6 for breakfast if I skip it that day and drop it by about 1 gram each 15 minutes. So if I wake up and don't eat breakfast but have lunch 2 hours after waking, I'd use about 1:14. It's pretty much a guessing game there and I just give and correct later.

As for the highest meal....I'd say somewhere around 200 carbs. It was at a buffet where my pump works overtime.

Dewey

10-22-2006, 10:31 AM

1u : 15carbs, all day....

Cyborg

10-22-2006, 10:32 AM

Jedi, when was the last time you did evening/morning basal testing? I'm wondering if your DP isn't interfering with your insulin to carb ratios.

Dewey

10-22-2006, 10:34 AM

Whoops.....I forgot the highest carb meal I've eaten....:stupido2:

I think it probably was a Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas, probably, and was approximately 150 grams or so of food throughout the afternoon/evening...:s:

JediSkipdogg

10-22-2006, 10:38 AM

Jedi, when was the last time you did evening/morning basal testing? I'm wondering if your DP isn't interfering with your insulin to carb ratios.

About 2 months ago. And what DP? I have no DP because if I eat zero, nothing, nada, my levels don't change at all from bedtime to waking. They change slightly, but not like 40 points down then 100 up or just a steady increase all night. If I eat nothing before bed, I'll wake up wihtin 10 points of what I was the night before. Then I can go to lunch and have it change no more than 10 points as well.

Cyborg

10-22-2006, 11:02 AM

I guess you just have higher insulin resistance in the morning. :hmmmm:

JediSkipdogg

10-22-2006, 11:07 AM

I guess you just have higher insulin resistance in the morning. :hmmmm:

That's the one thing I haven't figured out yet and I keep telling myself to test it. To see if it's higher insulin resistance or a high carb senstivity. I notice when I do correction boluses those work out on occasion, again, not always. What puzzles me though, is I'll be running 80, eat say 50 carbs, give 7.5 units of insulin (leave some off to bring the 80 up) and I'll be running 170 about 3-4 hours later. Yet if I'm running high, and bring the numbers down, I can bring it down perfectly with insulin.

Cyborg

10-22-2006, 12:06 PM

That's the one thing I haven't figured out yet and I keep telling myself to test it. To see if it's higher insulin resistance or a high carb senstivity. I notice when I do correction boluses those work out on occasion, again, not always. What puzzles me though, is I'll be running 80, eat say 50 carbs, give 7.5 units of insulin (leave some off to bring the 80 up) and I'll be running 170 about 3-4 hours later. Yet if I'm running high, and bring the numbers down, I can bring it down perfectly with insulin.

The test is fairly easy to do and it doesn't take long. I'm sure it's covered in the Pumping Insulin book or you can get info here (http://www.insulin-pumpers.org/howto/bgi.html). :wavey:

BlueSky

10-22-2006, 01:27 PM

... I keep telling myself to test it. To see if it's higher insulin resistance or a high carb senstivity. ....
What is the difference between insulin resistance and carb sensitivity? :hmmmm:

Cyborg

10-22-2006, 03:16 PM

What is the difference between insulin resistance and carb sensitivity? :hmmmm:

One is a measure of how much insulin is needed to lower your bg. The other is the amount your bg will rise when you eat carbs. They are related by a formula...

am1977

10-22-2006, 06:28 PM

My carb to insulin ratio is generally 1 to 10, but I think it might need adjusting... esp. @ dinner. My post dinner reading are predictably unpredictable :(.

jen_slc

10-22-2006, 07:35 PM

They change periodically, but right now I do 1:7-1:8 at breakfast, 1:12-1:13 at lunch and dinner. If I snack before gym I do a 1:15.

My highest carb meal? I dunno, maybe 120-150? It was probably a special occasion somewhere! I hardly ever give myself more than 10u for any given meal, I don't like injecting that much!

BlueSky

10-22-2006, 07:40 PM

I have never been able to get the mechanistic carb-counting system to work for me. I am very aware of how many carbs I am about to eat. But I don't apply a ratio to calculate the required bolus. A whole lot of things race through my mind, like how active I have been, whether I have been to the gym today, how stressed I am feeling, whetrher I will be consuming any alcohol, the size of the meal and the carb/fibre/protein/fat composition of it (the carb is usually minimal). A number then pops into my head. I inject the corresponding amount of Actrapid or Novorapid and it it usually isn't far off. :marchmell

poodlebone

10-22-2006, 08:50 PM

Breakfast 1:20
Lunch 1:25
Dinner 1:23

Cyborg

10-22-2006, 08:50 PM

BlueSky, It is a lot easier to be off, when you don't eat hardly any carbs....

BriOnH

10-22-2006, 09:50 PM

1:7 in the morning, and if i dont shoot up it goes up about 30 mg/dl with no food. 1:10 the rest of the day. I ate 300 g of carbs over 1.5 hours over the summer. It was a full grocery store pizza then a jamba juice. Used the pen about 4 times during that meal and never topped 170 mg/dl. I should have marked it on my diagrid :).

BlueSky

10-22-2006, 10:17 PM

..... It is a lot easier to be off, when you don't eat hardly any carbs....

How so? In terms of "the law of small numbers", you can expect to see the opposite effect. The logic goes something like this:

When you eat lots of carbs and bolus with Humalog/Novolog, you are essentially trying to match two short lived and opposing forces. If the amplitude and/or the timing of these two waves (BG and insulin action) don't co-incide the BG level will go either up or down. And the sharper the peaks in the BG/insulin action is, the more dramatic the BG movement is likely to be.

Reducing carbs means that you don't need to use so much insulin. And it almost goes without saying, the less insulin you use the smaller the chances of a mismatch are. Better still, if carbs are replaced with fat, the gradient of the BG curve is reduced. And a longer acting insulin (Regular) can be used to match this gradual BG influx.

The bottom line is that, when you don't eat much carb and get your energy primarily from fat, a carb/insulin mismatch causes only modest fluctuations in the BG level. This is how the 70+ year T1 veterans who are still around to tell the story, handled their control.

The high-carb way of eating makes the whole process a lot more tricky. Modern technology can be used to work around this. But it really isn't that neccessary.

Cyborg

10-22-2006, 10:20 PM

No matter how much you push fats, I cannot believe you eat mostly fats. I think you are in denial about the effects of protein on bg and you won't admit that you eat more protein than fat...

aeromarv

10-23-2006, 08:34 AM

1:4. I've got a pretty high resistance due to quite a bit of musle as well as fat. I'm 5'11", last weigh in was 270lb with a 42" waist.

Most carbs I have ever eaten was 300+ at the lunch buffet at pizza hut. Took a TON of novolog for that one. But magically, I actually kept everything pretty well under control. Was very proud of myself (for calculating the correct bolus, not for eating enough food to feed a medium size family).

modbom

10-29-2006, 06:51 PM

I take 1 unit per 9 grams of carbs. I notice that many of you have different boluses at different times of the day. How long did it take to figure that out ?

Funnygrl

10-29-2006, 08:09 PM

Not very long for me. I started with one ratio, kept needing to lower it, then realized 1:13 worked perfectly at breakfast and lunch, but I was still going high post dinner, so then I just lowered that one too.

barbarac

10-29-2006, 08:36 PM

I do 1:15 for breakfast, 1:12 lunch, 1:10 dinner
1:12 if I eat a snack or anything inbetween

Don't think they were ever quite right though before I went on pump. I seem to jump around an awful lot. Hi and low and back and forth. Was doing pretty good with lots of normal, but off again now for some reason. I really get frustrated with all this. As far as carbs, breakfast is around 35, lunch anyplace from 50-75, and dinner varies a lot. Around 90 is usually an average dinner I guess. I can't seem to get by without afternoon snacks or evening snacks though. I bolus for popcorn, but it still goes way up anyway. Right now I am hi and had a small dinner--go figure.

MJM

10-30-2006, 03:01 PM

Breakfast Lunch Dinner
It works like this for me 1:10 1:15 1:10

During summertime it was 1:15 1:20 1:18

The warmer the day the less insulin I need. And it tends to change without any warning, so I have to keep a close watch constantly. I know heat burns energy so that's one of the reasons.:hmmmm2: