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Guidance regarding amount of carbs per day

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
@Pina 87 is pretty high. If it helps to put it into perspective, the threshold for a diabetes diagnosis is 48, so you are nearly double that. A normal reading is below 42 and people who get a readings in the 42-47 range are considered at risk of diabetes or "pre diabetic". Some of us made it into triple figures before we were diagnosed, so it could be worse but you would not want to go there.

You have done incredibly well to lose so much weight. Congratulations on that.
It is worrying not knowing how well you are doing and it can be really motivating to see positive results and for that reason many people self fund a Blood Glucose Meter, so that they can physically see how they are doing on a day by day, meal by meal basis and that really helps to keep you on the straight and narrow, but also enables you to tailor your food to your own body's response to carbohydrates, so that you might perhaps be able to have a spoon or two of rice with your chilli and not cause too much of a rise in your Blood Glucose levels. Or you might be able to have a small portion of pasta once a week. Testing your blood before and 2 hours after a meal will tell you whether you ate too many carbs in that meal. Some people need to keep their levels of carbs very low to stay in range but others can get away with quite a bit, so it can be very different between two people who both have diabetes. A meter will tell you what you can and can't get away with, so it is a really valuable tool in managing your diabetes and relatively inexpensive to purchase @approx. £15 for a basic one. If you want more info on that we are happy to help. It takes a lot of the guess work and uncertainty out of what your next HbA1c is likely to be.
 
Thank you for that, I think I will just buy a blood glucose meter myself, and go from there..... x
 
Pina said:
Thank you for that, I think I will just buy a blood glucose meter myself, and go from there..... x
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Music to our ears, @Pina ! Do you need any links to the cheapest, and the best way of using it, and how to achieve painless fingerpricks?
 
My Hba1c was 91 at diagnosis and 47 80 days later, then 41 at 6 months.
I was eating no more than 50 gm of carbs a day, from low carb veges.
 
@Pina before you make a purchase it is important to factor in the cost of testing strips of which you will get through an awful lot in the first few months. They become a much more significant financial factor than the meter itself, so it makes sense to purchase a meter which has the cheapest test strips because they are not universal. For that reason here on the forum we recommend the SD Gluco Navii or the Spirit Healthcare Tee2 as the test strips for these meters are £8 for a pot of 50. Most other meters have test strips which cost twice that and sometimes as much as 3x that price. Since you will get through numerous pots of test strips, it makes significant financial sense to go for one of these meters, unless money is of no object for you.
I know you didn't want advice, but I am hoping I am saving you money by giving it anyway.
 
Everything I eat seems to spike my sugar. I chose things that have a 0 or no higher than 1 in front of it per 100 grams. What am I doing wrong?
 
rebrascora said:
@Pina before you make a purchase it is important to factor in the cost of testing strips of which you will get through an awful lot in the first few months. They become a much more significant financial factor than the meter itself, so it makes sense to purchase a meter which has the cheapest test strips because they are not universal. For that reason here on the forum we recommend the SD Gluco Navii or the Spirit Healthcare Tee2 as the test strips for these meters are £8 for a pot of 50. Most other meters have test strips which cost twice that and sometimes as much as 3x that price. Since you will get through numerous pots of test strips, it makes significant financial sense to go for one of these meters, unless money is of no object for you.
I know you didn't want advice, but I am hoping I am saving you money by giving it anyway.
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Pina said:
Thank you, I will have a look x
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Why are you buying these things, they are all free on the NHS.
 
All The Little Kitties said:
Why are you buying these things, they are all free on the NHS.
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Sadly not. Most CCGs advise that Type 2s do not need to test, unless on insulin or meds like Gliclazide that can cause hypos, so strips are not available on prescription to many T2s. It is very unusual for T2s to be given them otherwise.
 
All The Little Kitties said:
Everything I eat seems to spike my sugar. I chose things that have a 0 or no higher than 1 in front of it per 100 grams. What am I doing wrong?
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So what are you eating now, if it is all <2% carbs? How much of a spike?
 
Pina said:
Type 2 don't get blood sugar testing kits at our surgery. I don't think all surgeries give them away.
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Wow, I got everything. Needles, strips (sugars and ketones) duel monitor, sharps box. On insulin and metformin. Didn't realise it wasn't free for everyone, that's shocking.
 
All The Little Kitties said:
I had porridge and shot up by 6 points
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Oats are about 60g of carb per 100g!!
Are you sure you are looking at the total carbs figure, usually on the label at the back of the packet? I think you may just be looking at the sugars.
 
All The Little Kitties said:
That's all I've been told to look at is the sugars.
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No - it is the total carbohydrate that you need to look at, "of which sugars" is not relevant. Ignore traffic lights, they are useless for a diabetic.
Carbs are sugars and starches. Starch turns to glucose, So that is why the porridge spikes you!
 
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