Lowering carb intake - newly diagnosed T2

[roconnor1994]

Hi all, I was diagnosed only 4 days ago now and am on insulin and metformin. I’ve been reading a lot lately about lowering card and sugar intake- what I would like to know is what is a decent carb intake level? How low is low? Yesterday I had roughly 80g carbs for the whole day- would people say this is too much or too little? I know Pasta is a lot of carbs but if I had a portion for dinner and that was my only main carb intake for the day could I do this? Sorry if something similar has been posted but as I said I am very new to this! So any advice is great

 

[adrian1der]

Hi @roconnor1994 There is no correct answer to your question as everyone varies. You need to find out by trial and error. What was your HbA1c at diagnosis? This will help us tailor answers to your questions. And welcome!

 

[Inka]

@roconnor1994 Anything under 130g a day counts as low carb so your 80g certainly isn’t excessive. I think you’re on insulin? If so, you should be careful about reducing your carbs as it could cause you to drop too low. You’d be better aiming to eat a similar amount every day until your insulin dose has been sorted. Once your blood sugar is under control, you can look at your diet more closely.

 

[Kaylz]

Please do not look at drastically reducing carbs when you've only just started on insulin, they have probably based the dose on what you eat so reducing what you eat like @Inka says is likely to cause hypo's, it would be by far safer waiting until you know a bit more about things before attempting anything xx

 

[Ljc]

Hi @roconnor1994 , welcome to the forum. Are they sure you are actually T2 . You r profile state you are 26, though you can develop T2 at that age it is a bit unusual.

Firstly as you are on insulin @Inka is quite correct in warning you about being very careful about reducing carbohydrate intake as hypo’s (low blood glucose) can be dangerous, esp if you haven’t been told how best to deal with them and signs to watch out for .

Ok back to my first point , sorry fir all the following questions , only answer if you wish to.
What insulin(s) are you on.
How did you come to be diagnosed.
Did you lose weight without trying.
What was you Hb1ac.

 

[roconnor1994]

Diagnosed through a blood test - had all the symptoms, tiredness, peeing a lot, always thirsty! My Hb1ac was 93 at time of diagnosis
The insulin is abasaglar

 

[Ditto]

Hello and welcome. 🙂

 

[Drummer]

Are you on a fixed dose of insulin?
You should have got information about how to eat to cope with it.
When unmedicated a type 2 cad do low carb and rely on their metabolism to sort them, and itself out, but when on glucose reducing drugs, you need to be very careful and go with what they allow you to do.

 

[Kaylz]

Are you on a fixed dose of insulin?
You should have got information about how to eat to cope with it.

I can assure you it doesn't quite happen like that right at diagnosis and things are even more different just now