Need to hear from those who are on or have done the Ketogentic diet!

nicnoahshaun

I have been reading up and trying to figure out this Ketogentic diet! I am still unsure if I can do this for many reasons but at the same time I think it could help me. I am a type 1 diabetic and am so tired of the medication\insulin I have to have everyday and dealing with the high and low blood sugars. I pretty much eat low carb but I've never eaten carbs this low. I know that it is supposed to help with weight loss but I really want to feel normal without all of the ups and down. My question is for those of you who are on this diet how has it made you feel and has it worked for you and do you miss your old eating style. I also do not really eat meat so I know that this is going to be hard because of that and have to give up healthy foods that I like. any advice appreciated!

WBB55

I miss my morning oatmeal. I don't miss cookies. I currently eat more meat than I'd prefer.

But I'm not Type 1 diabetes. I'd consult an endo(? -- whatever doctors specialize in diabetes)) before I did something as drastic as keto.

nicnoahshaun

WBB55 wrote: »

I miss my morning oatmeal. I don't miss cookies. I currently eat more meat than I'd prefer.

But I'm not Type 1 diabetes. I'd consult an endo(? -- whatever doctors specialize in diabetes)) before I did something as drastic as keto.

I have been type 1 diabetic for 28 years... And yes I love oatmeal, fruit and pumpkin bread!!!!! lol But at the same time no mater how hard I try to feel normal I'm still fighting the highs and lows and that might be whats going to help me change just feeling better in my body and feel normal.

lau777rie

When starting a Keto diet, you may feel pretty bad at first. The cravings can be maddening. However, after a week or so, you start to loose those cravings. After a month or so, you aren't even hungry most of the time. Before Keto, I thought about food ALL the time. I was always prepping, in my mind, for the next delicious meal or dessert and always looking at recipes. It's amazing not to think about food until you are hungry. I never knew that there was such a thing. Talk about a happy place! Also, after a couple of weeks, joint pain disappeared. It's definitely hard in the beginning. But you can do it! Give yourself 30 days, one day at a time. The focus in Keto is healthy fats more so than meat. Nevertheless, since you don't eat meat, you may want to do some internet searches on how to get in adequate protein. I am not diabetic, but Keto does really help to lower my blood pressure and it also helps a lot with brain function. Even though Keto is thought of by many as drastic, supposedly it is really helpful with diabetes. It's important for you to communicate closely with your healthcare provider because you may have to adjust your meds pretty quickly. Hopefully, you have a doctor that is willing to work with you. Unfortunately, so many doctors are more interested in pill pushing than lifestyle changes and alternative treatments. But that trend seems to be slowly shifting.Very slowly.Stay encouraged and good luck!

KetoTeacher

My son is Type 1, and his Dr said Keto would put him in Ketoacidosis which is dangerous. He said that Type 1 has very little pancreas activity to get you to what we call Ketosis

abatonfan

From another type 1:

Keto diets do not send you into DKA, but keto diets make it a pain-in-the-butt to figure out whether you're urinating ketones because of a keto diet or a pump issue (if you're on a pump) that could send you into DKA if you do not alleviate the situation ASAP. For me, within 3-4 hours of receiving my last insulin infusion, I could be urinating small-moderate ketones even though my BG might not be 250+ yet. So, if I am on a keto diet and this happens, I might be left with the following two options:

• Assume the ketones are from a pump failure (particularly if they're moderate-large+) and begin ketone treatment protocol. Pros: I might save myself from landing in ICU for DKA if it is from a pump issue. Cons: I could wipe myself out of keto if it wasn't a pump issue and instead a high BG combined with the ketones from doing keto.
• Assume the ketones are from my keto diet (trace-small urine ketones) and do nothing (or more likely closely monitor BG and ketones). If I do this, I risk going into DKA (or having urine ketones go to moderate-large+) during the time I am monitoring if it is from a pump/insulin issue.

If you're on MDI and are really good at making sure you take your basal insulin, I could see how keto diets might be less of a pain. Personally, I wouldn't keto simply because I tend to experience pump issues frequently (especially bent cannulas from hitting muscle, though there have been times where the insulin in my pump would simply go bad all of a sudden and send me into near-DKA that way).

Another thing to consider is that if you're having a ton of lows, the carbs you use to bring it up might kick you out of keto (keto is typically under 20g of CHO a day, which is slightly more than the standard 15g the ADA recommends for one round of low treatment, let alone the extra 15-20g post-low snack the ADA also wants us to eat).

If you're interested in keto, Dr. Bernstein's Ultimate Diabetes Solution is a pretty good read (he's also a type 1). Though I don't necessarily agree that you must follow a keto diet for good BG control, I have applied some of the physiology he discusses towards modifying my bolus doses to account for phase-1 vs phase-2 insulin releases (lots of wave boluses)

Personally, I try to keep my carbs to about 50% of my total calories and focus more on choosing carbs that affect my BG less crazily (berries, nonstarchy high-fiber vegetables and nuts/seeds, dairy, and some whole wheat breads versus potatoes, rice cakes, bagels, oatmeal, and sugary snacks/desserts). The big thing that helped me in terms of BG control is making sure my basal is as accurate as possible and really taking advantage of different bolus timing tools so that the insulin action curve more closely matches how the food I'm eating is digested (preboluses, wave boluses, temp basals/super boluses, fat-protein units, etc).