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Daily carbs

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nobody can answer that for you I'm afraid, it's a case of testing your blood sugar levels throughout the day and seeing what effect it has on you personally as an individual, everyone is different unfortunately
 
I regard myself as lucky to be able to keep my BG levels around normal and my Hba1c at 42, but I keep to less than 40 gm of carbs per day in order to do that without medication.
We are all different, and some can eat some foods, some others - though all in moderation.
Having a meter is a good idea - the Spirit healthcare Tee 2 is the one I got, as it is cheap to buy the strips for it.
 
As above. 80 - 100 carbohydrate suits me if spread reasonably evenly over three meals. There are other demons afoot with diabetes. If you are going down the meter route, you have to work out how to get a perspective on the numbers so that is you can confidently sort out the carb effect from anything else that might be going on.
 
I asked a very similar question when I was first diagnosed, and eventually aimed to have no more that 90gm per day, fairly evenly spread. I've just started measuring before and after meals, as my GP wanted me to try diet and exercise only first. However, initial results show that even that is too much for me, as my results have a low of 7.1 and a high of 10.5. So it looks like I will end up on Metformin, or have to reduce the carbs even more. As Drummer says, we are all different and it's a question of trial and error.
 
You might find that a bit of tweaking and changing might help.
I was seeing higher numbers in the morning so I have just 10 gm of carbs for my first meal, and then the rest later - usually in the evening as I can go all day and not be hungry.
My meals are not stingy. I have huge salads - some prepared stuff, tomato cucumber sweet pepper, red or yellow, celery, beetroot, a few walnuts, coleslaw, radishes - whatever is in the fridge, and a mug of creamy coffee. I have stirfries, mushrooms, green peppers, courgette, aubergine, or my, becoming famous, cauliflower cheese.
Adding meat, fish, seafood, eggs or cheese provides the missing calories. A bowl of frozen berries with cream a couple of times a week seems to be a good dessert - though sometimes I make up a double strength sugar free jelly and when it has cooled I drop in a whole bag of the frozen berries and some chia seeds, to bulk things up a bit.
Some people try to get low carb by small amounts of high carb foods - I think it is easier just to drop them entirely and eat low carb foods in normal sized meals.
 
I would say that's very low Bob, probably not enough for a strapping lad. Would your body be able to manage on 100g carbs, it depends how active you are. I'm only a littlun and 100g carbs wouldn't be enough for me, I would fade away. We all have different metabolism I've lost a stone in weight since January just doing lower carbs. and continue to lose weight each week very gradually. My blood glucose is also down.

See how your body feels on that amount, carbs spread throughout the day, at meal times. To bring blood glucose down quickly if its too high, lower carbs is best + exercise 🙂.
 
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But carbs do not equate to energy . Once fat adapted Humans work very well indeed.
 
Drummer said:
You might find that a bit of tweaking and changing might help.
I was seeing higher numbers in the morning so I have just 10 gm of carbs for my first meal, and then the rest later - usually in the evening as I can go all day and not be hungry.
My meals are not stingy. I have huge salads - some prepared stuff, tomato cucumber sweet pepper, red or yellow, celery, beetroot, a few walnuts, coleslaw, radishes - whatever is in the fridge, and a mug of creamy coffee. I have stirfries, mushrooms, green peppers, courgette, aubergine, or my, becoming famous, cauliflower cheese.
Adding meat, fish, seafood, eggs or cheese provides the missing calories. A bowl of frozen berries with cream a couple of times a week seems to be a good dessert - though sometimes I make up a double strength sugar free jelly and when it has cooled I drop in a whole bag of the frozen berries and some chia seeds, to bulk things up a bit.
Some people try to get low carb by small amounts of high carb foods - I think it is easier just to drop them entirely and eat low carb foods in normal sized meals.
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Thanks. I had switched to trying LivLife bread as recommended elsewhere, but am going to cut it out at breakfast, and just stick to poached egg with grilled mushrooms and tomatoes. I too have huge salads with all sorts of veggies, or home made veggie soups at lunch which I top up with protein. Virtually all my carbs are in the veggies! I have been told by my allocated dietician, not to have fruit at all with main meals (which doesn't make sense to me), only as a mid morning or mid afternoon snack. Previously I was making the sugar free jelly and having frozen fruit with Greek style yogurt as a pudding.
My planned food today comes to only 856 calories of which 58.5gm is carbs (inclusive of 37.7gm sugars and 17gm fibre). Poached eggs with mushrooms, tomatoes and grilled bacon: Tomato and red pepper soup with a chunk of Wensleydale cheese and slice of LivLife: HM turkey and vegetable mince with Brussels sprouts, runner beans, cauliflower rice. Plus I take a daily Benecol, Fybogel (both GP prescribed), various medications and supplements for joints/bones, and 170ml skimmed milk. Today I shall make up a bowl of roasted Mediterannean veggies with protein noodles and tuna to have for lunch during the week. I also do stir fries with low salt soy sauce and 5 spice powder. So as you can see I don't starve!!!
 
Not sure what my carb intake is as it is very confusing ?
So my typical daily diet consists of Breakfast a 3 egg 2 bacon rasher omelette with a mug of tea full fat milk , lunch is a homemade salad , lettuce, cherry toms , spring onions , cucumber, half an avocado , a radish , half a small beetroot , a few olives , 2 small cream cheese filled cherry peppers, 1 boiled egg then dressed with mayonnaise and a tin of tuna .
Dinner is normally meat or fish with green veg , butternut squash chunks or courgette spaghetti
dessert a few strawberry's and blackberry's with a spoonful of extra thick double cream
and normally I have 2 medium costa latte's throughout the day .
Not sure how good this is but my levels have been coming down along with my weight
 
Golly @Billy Bob, that's hardly any carbs at all! Probably only the berries and the lattes have carbs, and berries don't have much compared to most other fruits. You should do well if you can keep that up, not everyone can sustain a diet with so few carbs. But if it’s working for you then carry on!
 
Hi Sally it is difficult sometimes especially when we are out as most takeaways are not carb friendly .
I haven't eaten bread , rice , pasta or potatoes since the end of may . My wife has been really supportive and followed my diet with me but I am trying to give her more carbs as I think she is beginning to suffer in her energy levels .
My ultimate goal is to try and reverse this ?
 
Billy Bob said:
Not sure what my carb intake is as it is very confusing ?
So my typical daily diet consists of Breakfast a 3 egg 2 bacon rasher omelette with a mug of tea full fat milk , lunch is a homemade salad , lettuce, cherry toms , spring onions , cucumber, half an avocado , a radish , half a small beetroot , a few olives , 2 small cream cheese filled cherry peppers, 1 boiled egg then dressed with mayonnaise and a tin of tuna .
Dinner is normally meat or fish with green veg , butternut squash chunks or courgette spaghetti
dessert a few strawberry's and blackberry's with a spoonful of extra thick double cream
and normally I have 2 medium costa latte's throughout the day .
Not sure how good this is but my levels have been coming down along with my weight
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Hi Billy Bob, I hope you don't mind, but I ran your typical daily diet through my app, because I was curious to see your carb levels and calories. Your cals came out at about 1900 per day, and carbs between 65 and 82 gm per day (roasted squash is much higher than courgetti). It's surprising just how many carbs are in some veggies and full fat dairy. My diet is similar, but without the full fat and lattes, as I have high cholesterol and can't take statins. Like your wife I find my energy levels are not great, so I aim for 80 - 90 gm carbs per day. My cals are around 1200 and I'm not losing weight, which I need to!!!
 
Thanks Felinia as I said I'm not up on what my carb intake should be but just looking at my bloods I think I'm doing something right ?
 
Well, I've been monitoring my bloods before and after for just over a week now. I'm sticking to my calories (1200pd) and carbs (90gm pd) pretty much, the blood results for breakfast and lunch have fallen slightly, but evenings are definitely higher. It was 11.7 pre dinner, and 11.5 two hours later. I think today was because I actually had a mid afternoon snack of yogurt, which I have not had before. I'm pretty much convinced now that diet alone is not working (even though I have lost 12 pounds), so I'll need the Metformin. I still feel totally exhausted, with several people remarking on how tired I look, and yet again I needed a sleep this afternoon. I'm keeping a diary for my next appointment in 5-6 weeks for the Diabetes nurse.
 
I suspect that you are falling between two stools as you are eating a fair amount of carbs, so using those as fuel, but running out, and you don't have fats enough to go into ketosis.
I was eating low fat 'to lower cholesterol' for almost two years before diagnosis - it did not go down, rather the reverse, but then I changed to low carb and the natural fat which comes with meat, and my cholesterol went down - a delayed reaction according to the nurse.
 
Drummer said:
I suspect that you are falling between two stools as you are eating a fair amount of carbs, so using those as fuel, but running out, and you don't have fats enough to go into ketosis.
I was eating low fat 'to lower cholesterol' for almost two years before diagnosis - it did not go down, rather the reverse, but then I changed to low carb and the natural fat which comes with meat, and my cholesterol went down - a delayed reaction according to the nurse.
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What you say makes a lot of sense. I've not had any official guidance of what is low carbs, just suggestions from this forum, so I plucked 90gm pd out as midway between the Diabetes UK low carb of 130gm pd, and people saying to stick to <20gm per meal. I shall be glad to get my training course in 10 days, and my next diabetic nurse appointment in 5 weeks, instead of blundering along.
 
I am a skinny type 2 very carb intolerant so I eat lots of full fat yoghurt ,double cream ,cheese ,butter on vegetables and in scrambled eggs .My cholesterol levels came down from over 7 to 5 and my energy levels are ok for a 76 year old woman ,which all goes to show that we are all different I eat to my meter and I think that is the key and also how you feel in yourself
Carol
 
My goodness, aren't we just all so different. My readings shot up from 7.6 to 11.7 after a full fat yogurt, and I haven't been able to have full fat anything for years without my cholesterol going way up! Even on a very low fat regime and Benecol (I can't tolerate statins) my cholesterol is 6.
 
Felinia said:
My goodness, aren't we just all so different. My readings shot up from 7.6 to 11.7 after a full fat yogurt, and I haven't been able to have full fat anything for years without my cholesterol going way up! Even on a very low fat regime and Benecol (I can't tolerate statins) my cholesterol is 6.
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What type of full fat yoghurt did you have? You need to read the labels and look for Natural unsweetened yoghurt. If it was a full fat, fruit or vanilla yoghurt it may well have had added or natural sugars from the fruit. Many of us here buy Milbona Creamy Greek yoghurt from Lidl. It comes in a litre bucket and only has 3.2g per 100g carbs. This is the lowest carb content yoghurt I have found so far and tastes yum!

It is very easy to make the wrong assumptions because carbs and calories and no added sugar etc are all very confusing.
Full fat milk actually has slightly less carbohydrates than skimmed or semi skimmed because fat does not contain carbohydrates and it is the fat which is skimmed off, so the less fat there is the higher the percentage of carbs and vice versa. Same with natural yoghurt. Once you buy anything which is flavoured (even with natural fruit) or has ingredients other than just milk, will have more carbs. Low fat natural yoghurt has more carbohydrates than creamy natural yoghurt.
 
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