@Chris - Not at all. I’ve actually put on 14 pounds in the past 3 months, I didn’t feel well with my original 44 lb weight loss.
At 150 lbs, I only need to eat 600-800 calorie a day to maintain my weight. One of the biggest charades presented to mankind is that someone my size, age & metabolic rate needs +/- 1,500 calories a day to maintain weight. I tried 1,500 cal/day early in my keto regime and it proved to be too much.
I weigh myself everyday as I’m on lasix for CHF / PH. For the past 2 months I’ve maintained 150lbs (+/- 4 lbs) and over the course of those 2 months my average calorie intake has been 690 calories.
What is critical for my losing or gaining weight on LCHF is managing my percentage of Fat vs Protein (macros). My carbs are negligible. If I eat more protein I maintain or put on weight; eat more fat and I’ll lose.
Everyone has a Fat/Protein macro that’s taylor-made for them. And macros change over time. For some, 70% Fat and 30% protein will be adequate to lose weight, for others it might take 80 or 85% Fat. Once you want to stabilize weight, shift to less fat and more protein.
Agree! I have thought about it, but like @MM2 says, I expect uncertainty – in insulin action, carb absorption, effects of even mild activity, etc., etc., so for me, at least, it’s impossible to approach it in a regimented or mathematical way. I can certainly reduce the uncertainties, which is one reason I’m pretty rigorous about carb-counting, because then I get a fairly accurate dose and usually a decent BG outcome, barring the 1001 variables that differ by the day. I’ve found things are actually easier to plan with structured exercise, where I do see trends that can be adjusted for. But “moving around more than anticipated,” like cooking, or having to do a quick clean of the bathroom before someone drops over, is what’s harder to account for in terms of carbs/insulin, and so the lows and the oops carbs I consider inevitable.
Anyway, to answer the question in the heading, I’d say my ratio is 90/10.
Afrezza just levels off most of the time, but sometimes it’s a little lower than I’d prefer so a gulp or two of Gatorade bumps me back into range. Some days it might be more (esp when hiking) and other days it’s less. I’d guess 90/10 though.
I’ve been working to try to reduce both lows and approaching lows while maintaining the same average/st dev. I’m headed in the right direction, mostly by dosing with Afrezza right before or during my meals and doing a quick run in place if things aren’t kicking in as expected. The run in place might sound silly, but it can be pretty powerful. I got a little lazy and was dosing after my meals, but everything works a little better if I dose when I eat (unless the meal has no carbs).
I know a Afrezza is a different animal. I’m sorry if that doesn’t help much.
If you are going to eat a meal and then watch a movie…or if you are going to eat the same meal and then clean the garage in the summer heat…do you bolus the same for those?
Of course. But we’re probably thinking of “moving around more than anticipated” on a different scale.
Do you think this is a bad question? It kind of seems like you might.
@beacher and I made similar comments, but they are just as valid as your way of thinking.
@beacher and I were both diagnosed MANY years ago, before pumps, carb-counting, ratios, BG Testing, CGMS. I’m sure I would have different views if diagnosed more recently.
I’m just curious how often people hit their goalposts and how they define those.
Certainly on days that I’m eating a lot more Oh ■■■■ carbs, I tweak what I’m doing. But how many Oh ■■■■ carbs relative to what they actually planned and bolused for are people comfortable with?
That’s what my question is about. It’s not stemming from anxiety, striving for impossible goals, or any kind of rose colored glasses about everything being mathematical. It’s just a retrospective question that can indicate people’s various approaches and personal boundaries.
And my amount of Oh ■■■■ carbs is usually a pretty good indicator of what my insulin resistance/sensitivity is doing that hormone day or on that new pump site (the insides of my arms are INSANELY effective at absorption so those boluses get cut by at least a third), so I pay attention. It’s a way easier way to know how to change my basal percentage without having to fast and basal test that day.
Absolutely not. Today I went out for breakfast before going on to the farmers market. As usual I forgot to lower my basal before leaving the house. I expected to walk a lot and carry heavy bags, so I had only half of my breakfast bolus. It worked out beautifully, but the “half” was a guess. I didn’t know how much or for how long I was going to be walking beyond “a lot.” “Going to the market” or “cleaning the garage” or “going for a bike ride,” how do you quantify things like that in a carb/insulin/energy-expenditure way? I haven’t figured it out, so for me it’s guesswork, and reacting to what happens, like this morning.
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever thought about it in a comfortable/uncomfortable way. If I have to eat more carbs because my site is super-absorbing or I didn’t judge the amount of activity well or whatever, that can be a nuisance, but since I just eat the meals I’d like to eat rather than eat to a set amount of carbs, I don’t really distinguish between planned and oops carbs.
Not at all! Please don’t think that. I answered the question I thought had been asked. Maybe I still don’t understand the question, though.
I wonder if this is more relevant to those of us with hormones that cause our blood sugar to suddenly skyrocket tor crash for no reason. I mean, I do the same thing, because I need some way of knowing when to change my basals, and I don’t like waiting until my blood sugar is running high or low for a week to do that… I do try to incorporate other factors (is it an expected time for a hormonal shift? Is my site feeling irritated?), but they aren’t always accurate cues, either. I’m currently going through a few of those days where I’m doing everything “right” including sugar surfing as needed and still going high and low constantly. I really don’t know that there are any easy answers to this. I try to eliminate the variables I can, such as eating low-carb and changing infusion sets if there is any doubt. But I still find myself with out-of-range blood sugar more than I would like, and more than the people who manage ultra tight control seem to manage.
When I say planned, I just mean what I counted out after I decided on what to eat. Planned for me just means what I bolused for…not some preset limit or anything.
Like if I bolus for lunch, and just bolused for what I planned to eat on my plate…and then the afternoon went sideways and I needed two juice boxes to bail myself out of a tank…that’s the sort of thing I’m talking about if that makes sense.
I must admit, I don’t count carbs, but just eyeball my meal and guess how to dose. How much, whether to dual or square wave, how long to wait, which foods to eat first.
As I eat, I check dexcom, and if rising too fast, may bolus more, or cancel wave if heading down. If I correlate your oops carbs to the additional tweaks I make, I think it would range from 0-50%
I think this is old habit from my early days of being instructed to use “exchanges” (with fixed dosing), before carb counting was popular.
