How much insulin do you require on average, and what is your body weight?
I know the lower the body weight, the lower the insulin requirement... but I feel like my daily insulin requirement is still uncharacteristically low.
I (I'm a male) weigh about 145 lbs and take about 25 units per day - I'm on a pump and only use fast acting. I know a girl my size (diabetic for 15 yrs) who takes about 25 units per meal - she's also on a pump! What in the world is wrong with me here? I was diagnosed about 3 years ago... could I still be honeymooning? Does your insulin requirement continue to increase as the years go on or am I just special?
EDIT (more info): I am 6 feet tall. Yes, I am incredibly skinny... I always have been.
My ratio is 15:1 for boluses, but I only require about 0.1 units per hour on average for basal. So total, my basal is about 2.4 units per day, then I usually eat about 350 grams of carbs per day.
I've always thought that it was incredibly low compared to my friends.
You're incredibly lightweight for your age. I don't know your height, but I think if I went by the average of people your age (5'8"-6'3") you're still underweight so maybe that plays an effect on your daily insulin totals. You obviously have a fast metabolism unless you're just hardly eating.
I'm your age I'm 5'11" and I weigh 160 and on the pump I use about 50 units a day with about 24 of that going towards my basal. I'm currently on shots and taking 35 units of Lantus and probably about 8-12 units per meal so that adds up to more than 50 while doing MDI.
Ultimately I wouldn't worry about it if your B.G. numbers are fine. I mean why worry about how much insulin you're taking if it's giving you good readings. There's nothing you would need to tweak in that situation. Eat a more calorie-rich diet with complex carbs and whole grains and I guarantee you will see your insulin requirements go up as well as your weight.
I knew a girl who was my age who played soccer and had an incredibly healthy diet who usually pulled an A1c in the 5's and took like 3 units of fast-acting insulin no matter what she ate per meal. But her control was good so it didn't really matter.
I'm also on a pump, and my basal alone is about 35 units per day, and then I'm on a 1:5 insulin to carb ratio. That totals to about 85 units a day. I tend to be a little bit insulin resistant, especially in the morning, so I think I use a higher amount than normal T1s.
Oh, and I've been diabetic for seven years (today is my anniversary).
Hmm. Does body weight have alot to do with how much insulin you take?
I am on the pump, and my total basal and bolus is always around 35 units. I am really short, but not really skinny!
When I got put on my pump the educator was surprised with how little insulin I took, he said that it was crazy how even after 7 years I don't take much.
I just don't see what exactly body weight has to do with how much insulin you take. But I would love for someone to tell me!
Same, Jenny - I'm a shrimp :) Not sure how height and weight affects insulin requirements. Maybe I'll shoot my doctor a quick e-mail and see what they think.
I use about one unit insulin per hour on basal, and then 1 unit per 10 carbs of food. Needless to say, while my basal units are relatively low (actually usually less than one unit), I use much more insulin than Mad Evans. Sorry that this probably doesn’t help much, but I think it could just be your personal insulin requirements.
I use about .6 units per hour on basal and have around a 13 to 1 carb ratio, and I use around 35 units per day. I weigh 107 and am 5' 3", so I'm kind of small for my height, too.
I am 8 months into my diagnoses(and am honeymooning), and I am now about 22-23 units a day(was about 15, two weeks ago). I am 5'6(just slightly under...) and weigh 126.
Well i feel like like i use so much now. I am 5'7'' and weigh about 150. I know my basal rates are really high but thats what controls me. I use about 85 units a day 65 of which come from my basals. I know i do use more cause of my thyroid condition.
Plus, my doctor said that teenage girls will use a bit more due to hormones.
Wow. This is interesting...some people use so much insulin and some use so little! I think I'm pretty average, though. For 5'5'' and about 140, my basals are about 1u/hour and my carb ratios an average of 1:10. I don't eat a lot of carbs, at least that I need to cover for with insulin, about 190 per day. I usually total at about 43 units a day.
I must be honeymooning... I'm two years in, 5'2" and 120lbs, on a pump. My basal is .4 units per hour (.35 for a couple hours after midnight), and my carb count is 1 unit per 30 grams. So I end up using about 15 units a day (a little less when it gets hot in the summer).
I've been a diabetic for 12 years and I am about 5'6'' tall and weigh around 150. I take Lantus(shots) only 25 units per day. I use a sliding scale of humalog but I usually just need a few units of that a day.
Thanks everybody for responding. Knowing the various requirements of everybody really gives me a good idea of where we all typically are. It's amazing how much variation there is.
Ideen, one of the reasons that it's a good idea to be aware of how your insulin requirements measure up to others is that many types of diabetes are misdiagnosed. Especially MODY (mature onset diabetes of the young), LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults) or Type 1.5, mitochondrial diabetes, and even pancreatitis mediated diabetes. I know a lady with MODY who was taking insulin for years, thinking she was type 1, not knowing that the whole time she could have just been taking pills.
In fact, a continuation of low insulin requirement, like less than 1.1 u/pound/day (which my requirement meets), past the usual "honeymoon" period is part of the diagnostic criteria of MODY.
And Bailey, do you have hypo or hyperthyroidism... or something else? It's interesting to me since I have such an incredibly active metabolism (and hypothy's have typically slow ones) that this may be why I have such a low insulin requirement.
So I've been researching this a lot lately, and it dawned on me that some T1s have a little bit of insulin production left even after the honeymoon period. There is one article that studies basal rates in relation to a positive c-peptide test (some insulin production) vs a negative c-peptide test (no insulin production). Since my basal rate is extremely low (~0.1 u/hr), I assume that I would still have a positive c-peptide test. I'm going to ask my endo, and then see if I can get involved in some research. I know that they are always looking for either honeymooners or T1s who still have a little bit of insulin production left to do research on.
Our son is taking about 16-18 units a day total. He's seven years old, somewhere around three and half feet tall and weighs about 45lbs. His daily intake is about 175-200g of CHO. His CHO has crept up from about 150-175 over the last year and he's gone from the 14-16 total units to 16-18, which is about right for his ratio (sliding, 1:7 in the AM now, 1:30 at supper).