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Carbs

L

Lauralee

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I can't seem to eat carbs at all without my sugar going up.
 
What meds are you on for the diabetes @Lauralee and can you give an example of the kind of blood glucose rise you get, with numbers and timings (ie how long after eating)?
 
Lauralee said:
Don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I can't seem to eat carbs at all without my sugar going up.
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Welcome to the forum
First things first, what was your HbA1C and are you taking any medication. You say your blood glucose is going up, how and when are you testing and what level do you get.
Everybody's blood glucose goes up and down throughout the day and night mostly in response to what you eat and the exercise you do so whether what you are getting is higher than you might expect from what you are eating is what the issue is.
What sort of food are you having?
 
Inka said:
What meds are you on for the diabetes @Lauralee and can you give an example of the kind of blood glucose rise you get, with numbers and timings (ie how long after eating)?
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I'm on gliclazide and insulin morning and linigliptin and insulin evening , 2 hours after evening meal round about 9 to 10
 
Lauralee said:
I'm on gliclazide and insulin morning and linigliptin and insulin evening , 2 hours after evening meal round about 9 to 10
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That’s not bad @Lauralee With insulin, your blood sugar is supposed to be back in range by the next meal, so being 9 or 10 at two hours isn’t anything awful. Even with insulin, carbs will raise your blood sugar. How is it overnight and when you first wake up?

What insulin do you take (full name inc any letters or numbers after the name)?
 
Then it sounds like you’re doing ok on the regime you’re on. Do you count the carbs in your meals to ensure you eat similar amounts every day? That will help give consistency.
 
No I've never counted carbs just try to stay away from rice, pasta potatoes etc how do you go about counting carbs
 
Lauralee said:
No I've never counted carbs just try to stay away from rice, pasta potatoes etc how do you go about counting carbs
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It’s just a way of keeping track of the amount of carbs you are eating, and keeping tabs on the portion sizes that work for you. It doesn’t have to be by weighing it, if you use the same serving spoons you can often do it by number of spoonfuls. Adding up the total carbohydrate content of meals can be handy to give you an idea of where the main sources of carbs are in your meals.

Give us an idea of typical meals and some of our friendly T2 folks might be able to offer some suggestions. Lots here aim for a total intake per day of below 130g of carbs. But some find their diabetes prefers it slightly less than that.
 
Oh… and an other thing that occurs to me is that it might be helpful for you to understand how Lantus works @Lauralee

It’s a long-acting insulin analogue, which releases gradually over something like 20-28 hours (the precise duration can vary slightly from person to person). So it’s a sort of slow trickle of extra insulin to help support what your body produces, but it’s not really intended to work on a specific meal-by-meal basis. It’s more working in the background over the course of the whole day, including overnight.

So you aren’t taking the insulin for your meals, as much as to help your body process glucose levels overall. It may be that your own insulin’s ‘first phase’ is slightly impaired (this can happen in T2), so you may see a rapid rise soon after eating, which is then mopped up by the second phase insulin as that is released a little later. Aiming for meals with a slower/steadier release might help even out some of those wobbles?
 
Hi, as above an idea of what sort of foods you are eating might help.
Beware of hidden carbs, eg: most below ground root veg and lots of fruit are high in carbs, eg: banana and exotic fruits, pineapple, etc. Plus most "ready made" / ready meals" can be high carb.
If you have not already done so, check out the learning zone on this website and also the eatfreshwell website and the sugarfreelondoner website, for lots of good diabetic friendly info and recipes/food choices. The carbs and cals book (written in conjunction with Diabetes UK) is worth a look too.
Cheers
 
Whatever you do @Lauralee don’t make radical changes to your diet because if you did do that, your Lantus doses might need adjusting to avoid highs or lows. If you find a particular meal ‘works’ (works well for your blood sugar), then maybe jot down what you ate including quantities. If you find a particular meal doesn’t work, then look at tiny reductions in the carbs (tiny to avoid hypos) and then another tiny reduction if needed.
 
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