Hi thanks, yes my meter is happy ish I think. My fasting BG is around 5 or 6,, pre meal usually around 6, post meal around 8. GP wants me to aim for an A1C of around 52, and my predicted is 50 so think I'm.ok. I don't need to lose weight in fact I need to gain (lost loads when my BG went super high) which is one reason I'm not wanting to do keto. So really you don't eat carbs at all? Would you class yourself as keto or low carb? I'm really interested in trying to keep the carbs right down, but need to balance that against needing to put on some weight! Thank you, I shall keep reading all the lovely food you guys are eatingThe quick answer is that most of us "eat to our meter". In other words we've found out over time what our individual bodies can tolerate and worked that in to our lives. Me, for example I'd like my bg and my weight to be a little lower but I also have a family to feed and a life that is both stressful and socialable! I stopped counting carbs about 6 months in and just keep clear of them (mostly).
Different individuals will have different amounts of carbs, but most of us would say we are low carb, I think.
What does your bg meter tell you? Is your bg happy at 50g a day?
And hm means home made
And ff means full fat, occasionally fat free, just to be confusing!
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What have you eaten today? (Low carb forum)
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Thank you.
Like @MrsA2 said, your meter will tell you how many carbs you can handle.
Anything below 150 grams a day is considered low carb according to many sources, but it's highly individual how we react to carbs.
And it also depends on what kind of medication we're on, if any.
For myself, I'm a T1 (insulin dependent), and I found eating high carb meals makes managing my diabetes way more difficult than low carb so I eat low carb most of the time.
But I did work out how to dose and time my insulin perfectly for two craft beers a night, which would be impossible for diet controlled T2's.
It all depends on your own individual metabolism and treatment.
I'm officially T2 but that's under review, I've had a very bad couple of months weight loss, sky high BGs. Now on insulin and off meds. Before that had 3 years of quite high BG and 3 years of lovely normal BGs on Glic. Now having tests to rule out ?LADA. Obvs panicking about all the harm I may have caused to my body over the last couple of months and really wanting to tighten up my BGs and post meal spikes. As I'm still new to insulin I'm still getting used to it and it's profile within my metabolism, but I really want to reduce carbs but at the same time regain some weight as I feel horrible atm. Will take some inspiration from the food you guys eat and start looking up some recipes!
JenniferM55
Well-Known Member
Welcome @ATB123. I'm quite fastidious about about keeping an account of my macros, I need to be otherwise I could easily slide and make excuses, it's a slippery slope that I've been on too many times that I'd like to admit. I'm into losing weight so I try to stick to under 20g carbs a day, my aim is to lose 2.5kg every calendar month, so far this month with just one or two days to go I need to drop anther 0.25kg. It's a game I play (some months I've actually put on weight 
). If I don't hit any targets then it's not the end of the world. I know that I've got to tweak the fats that I'm consuming, but I do love food cooked in butter. I'm sure butter is holding my weight loss back. Through monitoring closely I highly suspect artificial sweeteners have also stalled my weight loss quite a few times so I now tend to avoid them like the plague (except for the low cal tonic that goes with my daily tipple of gin - we have to 'bend' a little sometimes 
).
This thread is great, meals that are eaten looks to be cleanly cooked from scratch and I'm very grateful for the inspiration. Promising myself to participate in this thread is a sort of accountability I need. Do hope you join in, we can all learn and aspire each other.
). If I don't hit any targets then it's not the end of the world. I know that I've got to tweak the fats that I'm consuming, but I do love food cooked in butter. I'm sure butter is holding my weight loss back. Through monitoring closely I highly suspect artificial sweeteners have also stalled my weight loss quite a few times so I now tend to avoid them like the plague (except for the low cal tonic that goes with my daily tipple of gin - we have to 'bend' a little sometimes ).This thread is great, meals that are eaten looks to be cleanly cooked from scratch and I'm very grateful for the inspiration. Promising myself to participate in this thread is a sort of accountability I need. Do hope you join in, we can all learn and aspire each other.
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Thank you! I will definitely join in! It's actually quite encouraging to see how good you all are with your diets and the inventiveness around food. I've been just serving up normal dinners but not eating too many of the carby things myself, just need to get my head around insulin. Where do you guys get all your food ideas from?Welcome @ATB123. I'm quite fastidious about about keeping an account of my macros, I need to be otherwise I could easily slide and make excuses, it's a slippery slope that I've been on too many times that I'd like to admit. I'm into losing weight so I try to stick to under 20g carbs a day, my aim is to lose 2.5kg every calendar month, so far this month with just one or two days to go I need to drop anther 0.25kg. It's a game I play (some months I've actually put on weight
This thread is great, meals that are eaten looks to be cleanly cooked from scratch and I'm very grateful for the inspiration. Promising myself to participate in this thread is a sort of accountability I need. Do hope you join in, we can all learn and aspire each other.
maglil55
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I wish I could get over my phobia of bones in kippers. I do like the taste, but like mackerel, I can always find a bone. I even found 2 in my so-called boneless sea bass yesterday.
Annb
Expert
Tried to respond to this but, once again, the site refuses to let me reply with a full answer, so I'll try to put it in as a separate post. Not working. I think the site must have crashed. I'll come back to this later and see if it's working.
maglil55
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I try to stick close to 30g or less daily. I record everything I eat/drink to keep track of the macros. Like the other responses, I keep track of my BGs, particularly if I've introduced a new food/recipe. I still have weight to lose as well, but it is a slow process due to my disability.
There are loads of really good keto/low carb Web sites for recipes. One of the favourites is diet Doctor. Others? I breathe I'm hungry, the low carb londoner, jenniferbanz, lowcarbyum to name but a few.
Annb
Expert
The site just woke up.* What I was trying to say was:
The only way to eat zero carbs really is to have a carnivore diet, ie meat and eggs. Everything else, even milk and cheese have a small amount of carbs - even tea apparently. I am T2, insulin dependent, and I try to stick to less than 20g carbs daily, but often fail to keep them so low. It isn't easy and it doesn't fit with the recommendations of local health professionals. On this, over a long period I have managed to get BG down to where those professionals want it, but not where I want it (generally in the 8s-10's) and I have managed to lose a bit of weight, but not as much as I would like. I suspect that I should really be on a carnivore diet but would need to take supplements and haven't really gone that way yet.
As others have said, it is individual. What suits me, most certainly wouldn't suit you, or anyone else on this thread. It's a matter of juggling with the food intake and the insulin for me - not always successfully.
Ideas come thick and fast from people on this thread and some have their own collections of recipes to suggest ideas from. Others (like me) just make it up as we go along. See what is available and do something or other with it.
Breakfast today was some home made sausage and 2 fried eggs.
2nd meal will be salmon and some salady kinds of things - heavy on the salmon, light on the salad.
I hope that will be enough for today, although, maybe because of the colder weather, I am more hungry these last days than in the past. If a snack is required it will be cheese or h/m ham.
*Maybe it's my wifi, not the site at all.
The only way to eat zero carbs really is to have a carnivore diet, ie meat and eggs. Everything else, even milk and cheese have a small amount of carbs - even tea apparently. I am T2, insulin dependent, and I try to stick to less than 20g carbs daily, but often fail to keep them so low. It isn't easy and it doesn't fit with the recommendations of local health professionals. On this, over a long period I have managed to get BG down to where those professionals want it, but not where I want it (generally in the 8s-10's) and I have managed to lose a bit of weight, but not as much as I would like. I suspect that I should really be on a carnivore diet but would need to take supplements and haven't really gone that way yet.
As others have said, it is individual. What suits me, most certainly wouldn't suit you, or anyone else on this thread. It's a matter of juggling with the food intake and the insulin for me - not always successfully.
Ideas come thick and fast from people on this thread and some have their own collections of recipes to suggest ideas from. Others (like me) just make it up as we go along. See what is available and do something or other with it.
Breakfast today was some home made sausage and 2 fried eggs.
2nd meal will be salmon and some salady kinds of things - heavy on the salmon, light on the salad.
I hope that will be enough for today, although, maybe because of the colder weather, I am more hungry these last days than in the past. If a snack is required it will be cheese or h/m ham.
*Maybe it's my wifi, not the site at all.
Glad to hear they are looking into T1 (LADA is T1), the quick weightloss with high BG is more associated with T1 than with T2.
What insulin(s) are you on? It makes a lot of difference in dealing with carbs if you're on long acting only, on a mixed insulin, or on both long acting and mealtime insulin.
It's likely you will regain some of the weight now you're on insulin, as long as you eat enough calories.
derekhansen
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- Type of diabetes
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- Treatment type
- Diet only
I was only diagnosed 3 weeks ago. Type 2, with a GI of 49. The Diabetic nurse I saw prescribed no meds at the moment, but try a low carb diet for 3 months and come back after having more blood tests. I don't have a blood sugar meter/testing thing and the Diabetic Nurse didn't mention it.
I have been trying to maintain an intake of approx. 50g of carbs a day but have been averaging around 65g. I am steadily losing weight. 5 kg since starting the low carb lifestyle 3 weeks ago.
Today I have had the following to eat so far. A pork sausage in a low carb wrap, an apple and about 30g peanuts. Later on I am having sea bass and salad and then some Greek yoghurt with some mashed strawberries and chia seeds mixed in.
I'm on Abasaglar 8 units and Novorapid 3 units with each meal. She did mention a mixed insulin but it wouldn't have worked for me as I rarely eat breakfast! I'm still trying to find my way with it, but my BGs are loads better already, I think I developed a real anxiety around eating anything when my sugar was so high. I think it's going to be a case of trial and error. My BGs after food do still go up so I may need to increase the fast acting or reduce the carbs, which is something I'm keen to do, but first I think I need to recognise what food does what. I really don't want to have a hypo so I'm going slowly and carefully. I have the feeling 50g of carbs a day is a bit too much looking at what others are doing, so will try and reduce.
Thank you all for the ideas, I am going to look on some websites suggested and get some ideas.
Welcome aboard @6 toes .
You too @ATB123 I can’t add much to all the helpful comments the others have posted. My weight has been stable for over 6 yrs but I find that if I eat a lot of dairy ( double cream in particular) or nuts, the weight will start to creep up. That might be something you could consider? Careful with nuts though, some of them, like cashews are a lot higher in carbs than others.
I hope they get to the bottom of your diagnosis soon.
You too @ATB123 I can’t add much to all the helpful comments the others have posted. My weight has been stable for over 6 yrs but I find that if I eat a lot of dairy ( double cream in particular) or nuts, the weight will start to creep up. That might be something you could consider? Careful with nuts though, some of them, like cashews are a lot higher in carbs than others.
I hope they get to the bottom of your diagnosis soon.
I'm very glad to hear you're on separate basal and bolus insulins, this means you'll learn to adjust your insulin to the foods you choose to eat or not eat.
The more you test and log both numbers before/after eating, and amount of carbs eaten, the quicker you'll be able to learn how much insulin you'll need for what type of meal.
Be prepared to find out the insulin to carbs ratio may be different at different times of the day.
It all starts with your basal, that's your basis and it should keep you more or less level when you're not eating. If the basal dose is wrong, finding the right mealtime dose is almost impossible.
All this will take time, slowly and carefully is the way to go!
You will get hypos, and you will treat them and get on with whatever you were doing before you went low. Just make sure to always carry your meter and some sweets or glucose tabs.
I think your priority is working on getting the dosing right, not necessarily go ultra low carb. 50 Grams a day is very low carb, and I think most of us on this thread are averaging 50 to 100. Most are not on insulin, and most are struggling to not gain weight, quite different from your own situation.
And in a desperate attempt to appear somewhat on topic: So far, I've had two slices of low carb bread (4.2 gams a slice), one with butter, marmite and cumin cheese, one with liverwurst.
Currently I'm having a beer (15 grams of carbs) and I'll have a second one too, adjusting the speed of drinking to my Libre graph. Which says 3.9 at the moment so I'd best speed up a little.
I have a plan for my evening meal, but also a feeling I won't be bothered with cooking, we'll see.
@ATB123 , I think this is about as far as I can stretch derailing this thread before getting a telling off from my former colleagues. So if you have any more questions on insulin use, what about starting a new thread? Or maybe you'd like a moderator to move your post I quoted and my reply to a thread of its own?
Annb
Expert
Recently bought a kilo of cashews to experiment with recipes but note that they are roughly 1/3 carbohydrate so a very little goes a long way.
Ha thank you I thought this was the right place cos my question was really about eating low carb. But will take your advice on board, I'm managing fine with insulin so far, and I'm just so happy to be feeling well again, I want to capitalise on that and get my diet nailed. But your advice is taken, will do a lot of testing and experimenting with lower carbs, got lots of ideas already from the sites suggested!I'm very glad to hear you're on separate basal and bolus insulins, this means you'll learn to adjust your insulin to the foods you choose to eat or not eat.
The more you test and log both numbers before/after eating, and amount of carbs eaten, the quicker you'll be able to learn how much insulin you'll need for what type of meal.
Be prepared to find out the insulin to carbs ratio may be different at different times of the day.
It all starts with your basal, that's your basis and it should keep you more or less level when you're not eating. If the basal dose is wrong, finding the right mealtime dose is almost impossible.
All this will take time, slowly and carefully is the way to go!
You will get hypos, and you will treat them and get on with whatever you were doing before you went low. Just make sure to always carry your meter and some sweets or glucose tabs.
I think your priority is working on getting the dosing right, not necessarily go ultra low carb. 50 Grams a day is very low carb, and I think most of us on this thread are averaging 50 to 100. Most are not on insulin, and most are struggling to not gain weight, quite different from your own situation.
And in a desperate attempt to appear somewhat on topic: So far, I've had two slices of low carb bread (4.2 gams a slice), one with butter, marmite and cumin cheese, one with liverwurst.
Currently I'm having a beer (15 grams of carbs) and I'll have a second one too, adjusting the speed of drinking to my Libre graph. Which says 3.9 at the moment so I'd best speed up a little.
I have a plan for my evening meal, but also a feeling I won't be bothered with cooking, we'll see.
@ATB123 , I think this is about as far as I can stretch derailing this thread before getting a telling off from my former colleagues. So if you have any more questions on insulin use, what about starting a new thread? Or maybe you'd like a moderator to move your post I quoted and my reply to a thread of its own?
shelley262
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@ATB123 well done it must be complex balancing your insulin with keeping carbs low. It's definitely much easier to experiment when you are type 2 and able to manage it with low carb. I've eaten low carb - mainly keto - for 6 years now and love eating this way it works for me.
@derekhansen and @6 toes welcome to this thread it's a great place to get ideas and also keep an eye on what you're eating.
Today
10ish two boiled eggs and black coffee
1ish unpasteurized Wrekin blue and gambazola cheese and four small garden tomatoes with toasted Hey lo bread (0.3 g of carbs per slice) and kimchi and sauerkraut. Followed by a few garden berries and yoghurt. @PenguinMum my photo below of lunch happens to have included my favourite egg cups bought years ago from the Birmingham Christmas market and id used them for breakfast so on the side. @DJC3 I'm with you too on egg cups love them.
5ish salmon in lemon butter with cauliflower cheese and two glasses of dry white wine. Just had 90% chocolate with decaffeinated coffee. Out in Brum tomorrow as going to see Frank Sinatra the musical which is premiering there so will be catching up on the forum on Sunday.
@derekhansen and @6 toes welcome to this thread it's a great place to get ideas and also keep an eye on what you're eating.
Today
10ish two boiled eggs and black coffee
1ish unpasteurized Wrekin blue and gambazola cheese and four small garden tomatoes with toasted Hey lo bread (0.3 g of carbs per slice) and kimchi and sauerkraut. Followed by a few garden berries and yoghurt. @PenguinMum my photo below of lunch happens to have included my favourite egg cups bought years ago from the Birmingham Christmas market and id used them for breakfast so on the side. @DJC3 I'm with you too on egg cups love them.
5ish salmon in lemon butter with cauliflower cheese and two glasses of dry white wine. Just had 90% chocolate with decaffeinated coffee. Out in Brum tomorrow as going to see Frank Sinatra the musical which is premiering there so will be catching up on the forum on Sunday.
filly
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Coffee and cream
Coffee and unsweetened almond milk
Beef and Coppa
Peanut butter
Smoked salmon and a little Herring.
Coffee and unsweetened almond milk
Beef and Coppa
Peanut butter
Smoked salmon and a little Herring.
LivingLightly
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A low carb lifestyle need not lead to weight loss if you do not have surplus weight to lose. It’s about balancing macronutrients for your needs. Increasing your intake of healthy fats (like butter and extra virgin olive oil) together with high quality proteins, compensates for the reduction of carbs; a balance which should keep you energised and feeling full.
maglil55
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A diabetic nurse that doesn't produce the dreaded plate! Congratulations on having a nurse who recommended low carb. Your weight loss will help you, as does exercise of any description. I'm not surprised a meter was not mentioned. Mostly, they're not keen to dish them out to T2s. A lot of us just self fund.
Your food looks fine. I couldn't eat a whole apple. About a slice is the most. Berries are the favoured fruits for low carbers.
Welcome by the way.
