New T2 and confused

[andyp64]

I'm less than a month into T2 and a bit confused about my new food regime. Carbs vs sugar vs fat????
Not ready for anything as exciting as a 80 cal. per day so am doing following:-

• No snacking.
• No choc or sweet things of any sort.
• No alcohol.
• Skimmed milk.

My typical day's meals are now:-

Breakfast (08:30) -
Small bowl of cereal - usually 1 x Weetabix, some nuts, raisons and a spoonful of Jordans. Milk and a spoonful of plant-based yogurt.

Lunch (13:00) -
Small bowl of soup (healthy organic one in pot from supermarket) + x4 Jacobs crackers (dry)
x1 small banana or an apple.

Dinner (18:00) -
Side plate of curry or spag. bol. or some Jamie Oliver concoction (try for mostly green traffic lights).

And that's it! Guessing about 1500 cal. per day????
Along with my meds (see below), I'm walking 1-2 miles a day.
Have lost about six pounds but seem to plateaued a bit.

Any suggestions from anyone on any changes needed?
I know I can do the research myself but that would take me a while.
Can anyone suggest any specific points I can focus on reading up on?

Thanks all in advance,

Andy

 

[Drummer]

Hello and welcome.
For many the care and feeding of Humans seems to be problematic, but I can see that you are going for 'healthy' - unfortunately it is not all that suitable if diabetes arises, particularly type 2.
We can't cope well with carbohydrate - and that includes breakfast cereals, dried fruit, fresh tropical fruit, soups not made specifically to be low in carbohydrate, most things with green traffic lights - as they don't count the carbs, just sugar.
Fat is actually a good thing, if eating low carb.
A type two can eat meat, fish and seafood, eggs cheese, full fat yoghurt - all are low carb.
I chose low carb fruit and veges, under 11 percent carbs is my limit except for an occasional square of 95% cocoa chocolate. I keep packs of frozen mixed berries and vege mixtures all the time, plus fresh stuff in the fridges, and I have lots of things suitable for baking, though I don't do much with them these days.

 

[Leadinglights]

You have fallen into the trap (not your fault) into thinking it is just sugar and things containing sugar which are the problem rather than ALL carbohydrates and foods that would be considered 'healthy' for non diabetics are not necessarily so for Type 2 diabetics.
As Drummer says some of the foods you are having are high carb and choosing low fat is not needed as low fat is often higher carb.
It is a lot to take in when first diagnosed so have a look at the Learning Zone for a better understanding of the condition.
What was your HbA1C that gave you the diagnosis, it will be something above 48mmol/mol but just how much above that will give an idea of how much you need to do to bring it down.
It maybe that cutting out some things or just reducing portions of the high carb foods or making some substitutions will be enough without doing anything drastic.
You want to be focusing on the amount of carbohydrate rather than calories. But well done on your weight loss so far.
Many people do find success from a low carbohydrate approach which is suggested as being less than 130g per day but some people do go lower but that is a good starting point.
If you go through the foods you posted above and work out the TOTAL carbs you had in each meal (info on packets, usually on the back) to see just where you were with what you had.
Some people use various apps for carb values but info is on the internet also by searching for total carb for X.

 

[Kopiert]

Hi @andyp64 . I remember when I was first trying to head my head around everything, it is so confusing.

I agree with @Leadinglights and @Drummer focus of carbs not calories. There is a great book called Carbs and Cals that helps you work out the amount of carbs in your diet. There is also an app, but they have just changed to a subscription model. You can get some free PDFs from their website here . Don't worry about calories. You also seem to have a pretty good BMI - only just above the recommended level (if you trust the notion of a BMI!) - so calories are not your issue. The thing that made the biggest difference to me was a) Cutting out eating between meals b) Cutting carbs (including raw sugars) c) walking...a lot and d) getting a blood glucose meter

Please come back and ask more questions, I asked loads when I joined and it was really really helpful.
Nick

 

[andyp64]

Thanks all for replies - most helpful

 

[Felinia]

Hi
I ran some of the items from your menu through my app and I think the carbs values will surprise (shock) you.

1 Weetabix = 12.9gm carbs
Raisons 10gm = 3.9 gm
Supermarket fresh soup by flavour varies from 10gm to 40gm per half pot
4 Jacobs crackers = 21.6gm
Small Tesco banana = 30.4gm
Apple varies by size from 8gm to 18gm
120gm cooked spaghetti = 37.8gm

Dried and most fresh fruits are high in carbs - berries are best.
I make my own soup of vegetables and stock only - none of the potatoes and added thickeners contained in supermarket soup. My carb count does go up, because I add fibre rich beans like haricot or butter beans.
Rather than crackers, a slice of low carb bread would be less carbs.
Why not try the bolognese with courgetti or cauliflower rice.
Can't comment on the curry except when I have it, I don't have real rice, naan or puppadums but have mushroom bhaji instead, with cauliflower rice

These are just suggestions, and I'm sure you will find foods you like that are lower carb.

 

[Windy]

@andyp64 There's 500ish recipes you can have a look through, with calories and carbs shown if that helps?

I can recommend omellete for breakfast, fills you up, 251cals, 2.7g carbs. I have mine with mushrooms and a tiny bit of strong cheddar cheese. Maybe followed by 50g of blueberries 33cals/7g carbs, or Blackberries 50g, 36 calories, 5.1g carbs. Fresh berries aren't cheap, but I'm not eating much at each sitting, so they last a few days. Also, you can buy bags of frozen berries and defrost some the night before to have with natural yogurt.
Cheers, Sarah

 

[chaoticcar]

My husband hasn't diabetes so I make spaghetti Bolognese for us but I don't have the spaghetti but have a slice of sweetheart cabbage blanched in boiling water or quickly fried to keep the crunch ( cab bol instead of spag bol ) !! I quite enjoy the challenge of eating low carb
Carol