Am I on the right track?

[Bob1967]

I think I am getting the hang of this now, so far I have just been trying to avoid sugar as much as possible, monitoring (and measuring) everything I eat. I have a fitness app - 1920 calories a day inc 96g protein 240g carbs 30g fiber 72g sugar and 64g fat. I am assuming this is not the correct way to do this but I should be measuring my blood before and after meals to see what food I can tolerate? (meter is ordered) I will ask nurse these questions later today but you guys have been so much more helpful in the last couple of days than the health professionals in the last 4 weeks!

 

[PinkGrapefruit]

Welcome Bob,

Do you know yet what form of diabetes you have? Have you been prescribed any medication?

Tracking your calories and macronutrients is good, as is measuring your before-after Blood Sugar reaction.

We are all different, but you will learn what your body can tolerate in terms of diet/carbs/sugar.

Are you looking to lose weight?

The carbs and sugar grams per day on the face of it sound a little high to me (irrespective of the above). Approx 4grams of sugar are in a cube of sugar.

There are different types of sugar, and I don't fully understand the differences, but generally speaking sugar is sugar, and too much for diabetics and non diabetics is bad for us.

 

[PinkGrapefruit]

Oh yes, and in terms of measuring blood, it depends how many strips you have and can afford, but if you can do a weeks diary of;

Waking/before breakfast, one hr after, two hour after

And then repeat the before, one hour after, two hour after for a day, and keep a diary for a week, then you will build up a profile of your body's response to different foods.

It was quite an eye opener when I first had some sweetcorn in veg soup!

 

[Ljc]

Hi Bob. Hopefully you wont have to wait too much longer to start finding out what type of diabetes you have.
To be honest till you're able to self monitor your own BG you really won't know how the various carbohydrates affect you. I have no idea about the figures you've given except to say I normally don't have that many carbs a day, but you will find out what the various fast and slower acting carbohydrates do to your BG once your able to test.

I hope your appointment goes well today

 

[Bob1967]

Thank you both, When I know which type it will hopefully make things easier, will keep you updated.

 

[Martin Canty]

Hi Bob, it's not just sugar, carbs in general are our enemy.... Some carbs (like sugar) are released into our blood pretty much immediately, others take a while; it's fairly individual as to how the carb sources affect us hence the reason for testing (particularly new foods). Some people tolerate particular foods better than others

 

[HOBIE]

Well done Bob & welcome 🙂

 

[Bob1967]

Thank you, learning one step at a time 🙂

 

[Martin Canty]

One piece of advice that I would give is to cut or reduce carb sources such as bread, rice, pasta, cereals and starchy vegetables, instead replacing them with green leafy vegetables (for example I often have curry served on a bed of spinach instead of rice)

 

[Paul dennison]

Hi after 27 years I've found its best to try and c what works for u some people drink helps some it makes it worse so I say just try and keep an eye on your sugar level that's what works for me hope it might help

 

[pav]

Welcome Bob to the forum. For myself I would be in lots of trouble on top of the trouble I already have if I was to have that many carbs and sugar a day.

When I did my course on type 2 it was recommended to have 135g of carbs a day although many of us still believe this amount is still way too high and even the more enlightened professionals are now on the same thinking. It may be a starting point goal for you to get down to this level in the total amount of carbs and sugar, it's best to look at the total carb content of food and not separate the two as the body treats them the same as it's all carbs.

It's good that that you have a meter on order, if not already asked and depending on your GP practice and what type of diagnoses you will get, it's worth asking if you not already asked to see if they will support you with a prescription for test strips. These days a fair few GP's will only support one or two meters with test strips as there are now guide lines on cost of strips they are allowed to prescribe, in this case the GP practice would normal supply you with a meter, I always ask for two, one for the house and one to carry with me. when I changed docs the supplier of the meter issued me two new meters as my doc supported a different different meter although made by the same manufacture. It was a good job I have two meters as some how the internal screen broke on one of the meters rendering it useless, which was replaced without problems by the supplier.

As for testing I test before I eat and to get a picture of what food is doing to me I test again 2 hours later. If driving and on meds that can cause hypos another set of guidelines come into play from DVLA in that you test before driving and every two hours while driving.

As already mentioned some foods cause problems like the highly processed foods like white bread and pasta, also fruits can be a problem to some this is why a meter is so important as there is no definitive list as we are all individuals and diabetes is individual to us. Keeping a food / levels diary even in the short time will help you identify which food does what to you.

 

[HOBIE]

Some good advice 😉

 

[Bob1967]

Thanks guys, invaluable advice, I am learning lots here!

 

[Maz2]

Welcome to the Forum Bob.

 

[Bob1967]

Thank you,