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With your current T1D management tools, do you notice that your blood glucose levels are impacted if you do not eat on a certain schedule every day?
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I can’t think of a time when I have not eaten on schedule. Meal times may vary by and hour or two every once in a while, but I have not noticed variations in my blood glucose levels.
Meals are generally at the same time each day, but when my levels drop, I know it’s time to eat!
When I eat dictates the insulin I need not the other way around. I have never scheduled meals for certain times
I’m a musician and music teacher. My schedule does not stay the same every day. That said, on my two longer teaching days (until 7:30 or 8 in the evening), when I don’t have time for a meal break, I have been having more lows.
I’ll preface this with I am a T1D and have been for 42 years. About a decade ago, I began showing signs of insulin resistance and gained about 100lbs. Last year, I started on insulin sensitizers and have lost abt 58. I find that on Victoza, I don’t feel the need to eat- sometimes for days (I do eat for nutrition) BUT THE POINT- both while on the pump, and when I switched to Tresiba, I can fast for 24 hours or more and my BG will not vary more than 20 mg/dL the whole time. Applying this to when I do eat, so long as I bolus correctly, the timing of my meals has no effect on my control.
Only very occasionally.
I’ve setup my pump to deliver 8 or 9 different basal rates within any 24 hour period and it does a good job of keeping my blood glucose level ‘on an even keel’ whether I eat or not. This, however, doesn’t work so well for me during warmer Summer months as the heat potentiates the effects of insulin action and I sometimes lose consciousness if I don’t repeatedly check my blood glucose levels. (The main ‘problem’ here is that I also have a sleep disorder, called narcolepsy, where the sufferer falls asleep ‘at the drop of a hat’ so I don’t hear my pump alarming to inform me when my blood glucose level is falling.)
Yes, especially when I eat a later-than-normal dinner, or when I eat a later lunch with normal dinnertime.
Generally, timing is something I can work around without travel. The glaring exception is when I travel to a time zone 5 hours different. The first few days I find consistent and dramatic lows right after breakfast when I visit England. My body seems to be running its own independent rhythm.
My first reaction to “with . . . management tools” is to proffer the question, “Is T1D manageable?”
And before the overabundance of CDE’s, MD’s, scientists, medical professionals, and the think-they-are medical professionals come crashing down with savage denials; I would gently suggest that man, machines, and algorithms all age and deteriorate. Even education materials age and deteriorate.
I eat what I want, when I want, and in the quantity, texture, and temperature that I want. The 75-year old digestive nerve, however is not the same as the 65-year old digestive nerve, nor the 55-year old digestive nerve, nor the 45-year old digestive nerve. Therefore, I keep plugging along with the best scientific guesswork available.
Ha! Spot on
I answered “other”. I have never eaten on a certain schedule everyday. Especially now with work and parenting, my meals are whenever I can squeeze them in. Haven’t tested it specifically but I assume like all variables this makes my BG harder to predict and manage.
I’ve never really eaten on a schedule as I eat when I am hungry. I will sometimes notice an impact and I also know when these changes typically happen and can be prepared.
The beauty of the pump is no longer eating on a schedule. I can even fast without difficulty.
What schedule? This disease has it’s own schedule, and after 15 years I can’t figure it out, The endo practice at OHSU is no help – they still refuse to accept the reality that protein affects BG.
One thing I have learned is that there are multiple variables that effect blood glucose levels. Sometimes I just can’t determine the reason for a high or low reading.
ON a pump and don’t eat on a schedule ever since. all good
My glucose levels are pretty much perfect on the days I don’t eat for any reason, as they should be, because I’m just receiving basal insulin on those days. Those days usually for reasons like a colonoscopy or pre/post surgery.
I use a tandem pump with control IQ and find that I can pretty much eat meals at any time except close to bedtime and even skip meals without any negative affect on blood sugars. I was also able to do this to a bit of a lesser degree with my old Medtronic pump which had no automated delivery system. Alterations in sleep schedule however make a huge difference in my blood sugars.
I never eat on a certain schedule. I always bolus for food when I will be eating hopefully prior about 20 minutes. Prebolusing is my most difficult task but I try.
I had to say “yes, always” because I haven’t “fixed” my basal rates yet… both of my 4s (4pm and 4am) run low. So, if I don’t eat dinner or pay attention to 4pm, then I will go low. Also, if I don’t have my blood sugars at a certain level when I go to bed, I will get those lovely alarms in the middle of the night.
I thought I had my 4am fixed earlier this year, but for whatever reason, it’s back to going low. *sigh (Possibly _what_ I’m eating at dinner is the culprit, now.)
I said sometimes. Mostly I notice if I eat breakfast later than normal. During the week I eat at 6am. On Saturdays, sometimes I have to work and I do it early, and by the time I check prior to bolus, I’m high. Reading others, not eating doesn’t seem to affect them. If I eat lightly the night before, then I will definitely go low on basal alone. I notice when I fast for blood work, I will usually go low unless I turn my pump off, and then when I don’t eat breakfast, I will be high by the time my blood work is done. So now I bolus slightly before I go. I guess because I’m LADA , I still produce some insulin? And I don’t use CGM.
My activity is so different every day that I many times need to tweak my insulin by giving a correction bolus or by eating something small to raise the blood sugar. CGMs are very helpful to help keep sugars from going too low or high throughout the day.
I can’t afford a pump, so I try to keep the same meal times, same bedtimes, to eliminate at least some variables. The CGM is very helpful. If the CGM says I’m trending high, and if it’s at least 2 hours (preferably 4 hours) after my last lispro (Humalog) bolus, then I inject at least 0.5 units lispro via syringe. Stress definitely raises my blood glucose levels, but how to quantity stress? I try to minimize stress by journaling, exercise, meditation, yoga, avoiding “shoulda, woulda, coulda” self-talk, finding something for which to be grateful every day, and permitting my self to just goof off or to procrastinate. Delaying a meal results in a low bg. After eating a delayed meal my bg will go high. Skipping meals is a no-no for me.
If I dont eat breakfast and bolus within 40 minutes of getting up in the morning, my blood glucose level starts to climb and will continue until a correction bolus is needed.
I said sometimes. Dinner is the big one for me. I don’t have to eat at a specific time, but if it’s going to be 8:00 I’ll have to have a snack of a few carbs (a handful of nuts, a small cookie) to stay above 70 until dinner.