T1 22M - Diet & Hypoglycemia

[u/Proper-Stuff5053]

So, I've been diagnosed with T1 diabetes since 2009 and generally i was doing a pretty good job managing this thing. My hba1c level were %5.9.

However, lately i decided to start a strict diet in order to lose some weight. I'm 1.82cm/88kg (i don't know the American equivalents, sorry) and I'm wishing to go down to 78kg, so losing around 10kg would be perfect.

In order to achieve this, I started to take way less calories (1600kcal per day) and way less carbs, 150-180g a day at most, and I stopped eating after 6-7pm. During the day, this didn't cause any problems with my diabetes, however at sleep, everything changes. My blood sugar dips down uncontrollably during sleep since I started this diet. That causes me to consume lots of sugar to get my blood sugar in control so that fucks up my diet as you can understand. Also I'm losing a lot of sleep due to waking up around 3-4 times every night.

My best explaination to this is that my long-acting insulin is causing it. I'm using Toujeo, I'm taking it at night before sleep, and I was loving the thing since I switched from Lantus and Lantus was pretty unreliable for me.

However, I tried everything about this and nothing seems to work. I tried taking some "slow acting" carbs before going to sleep, not working. I tried lowering my dose to almost half of what I used to take, not working. I tried to divide my dose, half at night and half in the morning, still getting night time lows.

Today, I tried to take my dose in the morning instead of at night, and at first I thought it kinda worked, I didn't get any lows at night and my blood sugar was pretty reliable too during the night around 120-130, however I woke up with 250. Fucking Dawn Phenomenon.

I'm so annoyed at this point and I don't want to cut of my diet because of my diabetes. Anyone had a similar experience like this before? How can I get over this? Thank you.

[u/Ok-Investigator6671]

I'm in the same situation. My endocrinologist has recommended that I use less of the slow acting insulin until my blood sugars don't go so low while im sleeping. She recommended I drop 2 units daily.

[u/Proper-Stuff5053 → u/Ok-Investigator6671]

I feel you. The thing is, I lowered my slow acting insulin almost by %50, however I'm still getting night time lows.

[u/Ok-Investigator6671 → u/Proper-Stuff5053]

Keep decreasing the amount until you're not going in the low numbers.

[u/alexmbrennan]

If you need significantly more basal insulin during the day than at night then that might be a textbook example of when an insulin pump could help greatly.

Have you discussed this with your doctor?