It’s not often that you hear of someone with Diabetes who is a competitive body builder, and I think that I have found the reason for this, my only hope is that I can get around this and continue to do what I love…naturally.
I am 18 years old and have type 1 diabetes, I was diagnosed when i was 2 so I’ve lived with it my whole life. I have been lifting for about a year now and started to eat huge to gain more mass, only to run into a problem which this small article/thread will explain to you!
A little history of my diabetes.
Notice I say “my” although some of this information may pertain to the generalities of Diabetes, I am focusing on myself. Throughout the years I have kept pretty good care of my diabetes always having my AC1 in the goal range of 4-7%. An AC1, for those of you who don’t know, is the measure of the average amount of Hemoglobin in your blood over a 3 month period. If an AC1 becomes out of control and is higher then that of the goal range for an extended period of time small arteries and capillaries may become hardend starting in the extremeties and working it’s way through the body. My AC1 was proclaimed to be an 8.3% which I am working to bring down.
To take care of this Type 1 must inject themselves at least 3 times a day to keep the sugar level under control. The body reacts to this in a negative way and a positive way. The negative is that the area of injection along with insulin that did not get absorbed by the blood stream causes a fat build up around the site. This causes the next injection to be less useful because the fat molecules then absorb more of the insulin and it never makes it to the bloodstream.
This is avoided by different sites of injection, including: arms (triceps) legs (quads) Stomach (stomach) and last but certainly not least the glutes (ass). By doing this it has allowed me to focus my injections and disregard any bias besides poor insulin or wrongful measurements of insulin. The positive is that blood sugars are reduced, and that leads to a healthy lifestyle!!
Measurment scales
The way I have been giving Insulin is in through 2 types of insulin, a long lasting (NPH) and a short acting (Lispro~2 Hours) but we’ll focus on the short acting. When eating, a ratio is followed in terms of carbs/units of insulin which is 10:1 for every 10 carbs that are injested 1 unit of Lispro is given. 30 carbs=3 units. 72 carbs= 7.2 units. When measuring blood sugar it is measured in Milimoles or mmol. and should also be between 4 and 7 when checked on a glucose meter. Another meter is followed if sugars are raised above 7. 8-10~ 1 unit of insulin, 11-13mmol 2 units etc.
Eating
Until I found this site I had been eating like a regular person, not to healthy, and not too huge, I found this site and started to find myself packing 2 lunchs, and eating double the cereal. I put on a solid 6 pounds in 2 weeks which I liked and want to keep doing.
The Problem
The Problem that I have is that when I started to eat huge I started to have massive carbs resulting in many units of insulin. This soon resulted in the insulin not being able to handle the carbs and higher blood sugars as a result (reaching 23.5mmol). I started to give about 40 Units of insulin a meal not only in carbs but in corrections as well (syringe holds 50 units). This made me angry and I stopped eating huge because I would rather lose muscle then lose my man piece though some may disagree. I soon started to increase my ratio going from 10:1 to 8:1 but nothing resulted and I found myself in a corner. I am now eating high caloric foods like pop tarts (800 cals~4 only 140 carbs=14units of Insulin) and pizza pops (~1000cals ~4 only 90g carbs = 9units of insulin.
The Solution?
So for a bulking diet, (a)do I only want high calories? Can I eat my pop tarts and pizza pops and not worry about only getting moderate carbs? (b)Do I need to have large carb intake along with high calories and more needles? If the answer is (a) do any of you have any foods that you eat that are low carbs and high calories? if the answer is (b) do you see any holes in my thinking?
are there any endocrinologists with advice? I tried to go see a dietitian at a diabetes clinic but she only told me to eat healthy fats, I think Dr Berardi hit the nail on the head by saying “a dietetics degree is a bachelor’s level certification” I hope this thread doesn’t die out in 2 days and you guys can give me hand on this one. Mr. TC Luoma?? you said you enjoyed endocrine articles any advice from the pros?