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How low is low carb?

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Paulgoldie

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diabetes
My question is exactly this. How low is low carb?

As a type 2 diabetic what is the maximum carb intake I should be looking to have each day?
 
Paulgoldie said:
My question is exactly this. How low is low carb?

As a type 2 diabetic what is the maximum carb intake I should be looking to have each day?
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Hello,

There is no answer to your question in all honesty. What is low carb for you may be moderate to high for the next person and vice versa.

Some eat as little as 20g per day (about a slice of white bread) whereas others would say 130g is low carb.

What is your need for a low carb diet?Depending on what it is you're after (weight loss, better BG management or both of the aforementioned) - the optimal daily intake can vary. Your optimal daily intake also heavily depends on how active you are.
 
Eat to your meter .. My low carb was 20g a day ... now I don't count any carbs and my bs is in the normal range .. but my food choices and taste has changed.
 
The 'standard answer' is that anything below 130g of carbs a day counts as low carb, but that isn't very helpful. 130 g looks very different to a 6' 3" 15stone muscley gym bunny compared with a 5 foot slim sedentary woman... So I'm afraid we all need to find our own personal carb tolerances - by eating to our meter.

I can never see the point of reducing or restricting the diet unless we need to (assuming we aren't eating junk food and empty calories, of course :) ). But many of us learn, by experience, that the lower the better.
 
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Paulgoldie said:
My question is exactly this. How low is low carb?

As a type 2 diabetic what is the maximum carb intake I should be looking to have each day?
Click to expand...

it would very from one person to the other...

I personally can eat about 70-90 carbs a day and have relativly normal blood glucose like in between 5.5 and 6.5 most of the day or even lower because of rather high level of excercise 3 days a week...( but I take metformin 2 x 850mg/daily)

a lot of diabetics can only eat about 20 grams of carbs but are maybe then on no medication at all
 
Without drugs and managing by diet I can probably eat around 30/40g of carbs per day - I swim most days for 30 minutes. Today nothing ha gone to plan, who knows what the FBG will be.

But, the important thing is to learn what suits you. Most people find a meter helps them, they can then test their FBG in the morning and understand how different foods affect you.
 
When I was diagnosed I went as low as I thought was possible (as few as possible). Since then I have never really increased my carbs and to be honest don't miss then but as my dear friends above have said it depends on you and how low you think you can go. One good thing to remember is that carbs are not necessary for survival - that's just fat and protein.
 
I have switched from gliclazide to forziga in the 2 last months and take in conjunction with alogliptin and metformin. I am pleased with switch as sugars are now always between 5 & 7 and I've lost a stone in weight but I am now suffering bouts of thrush as the forxiga makes me pee the excess sugar.

I have been having around 100g of carbs a day but I'm thinking this may still be too many and it is this that is causing the thrush, hence what constitutes low carb!
 
I never counted daily carb intake, but after the T2 diagnosis I don't think I went above 130 gms of carbs daily. My fbgs are usually around 6.3 now. I might get lower fbgs if I went lower carb but I'm happy with 6.3, which gave me an HbA1c of 39 at last test, in the non-diabetic range.
 
Prem51 said:
I never counted daily carb intake, but after the T2 diagnosis I don't think I went above 130 gms of carbs daily. My fbgs are usually around 6.3 now. I might get lower fbgs if I went lower carb but I'm happy with 6.3, which gave me an HbA1c of 39 at last test, in the non-diabetic range.
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Do you get your monthly HbA1c's from your doctor? Curious.
 
bulkbiker said:
Do you get your monthly HbA1c's from your doctor? Curious.
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I don't get monthly HbA1c tests. I used to have annual test as I have hyperthyroidism, and that was how I was diagnosed T2. Then had the 3 month retest. The next test was after 12 months, which was in September.
Because my GP was concerned about my total cholesterol reading (6.1), though my ratios were ok, she said I should have my next HbA1c in 6 months.
 
Prem51 said:
I don't get monthly HbA1c tests. I used to have annual test as I have hyperthyroidism, and that was how I was diagnosed T2. Then had the 3 month retest. The next test was after 12 months, which was in September.
Because my GP was concerned about my total cholesterol reading (6.1), though my ratios were ok, she said I should have my next HbA1c in 6 months.
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Oh I see, so you extrapolate your HbA1c numbers in your signature from your average FBG readings? The blue ones are the actuals.
 
Carb tolerance is individual. Eat to your meter to discover the level which helps you control your BG.

If you eat under about 50g per day, you will probably be in ketosis, which has certain advantages. The appetite suppression means you naturally want to eat less, which tends to mean weight loss. That means reduced insulin resistance, and in turn better BGs.

I stopped eating grains, potatoes and other starchy vegetables and sugar. With a little bit of determination and all the information available online, it's not that hard to do. And it means my carbs are between 20-30g, without needing to count them.
 
Prem51 said:
I never counted daily carb intake, but after the T2 diagnosis I don't think I went above 130 gms of carbs daily. My fbgs are usually around 6.3 now. I might get lower fbgs if I went lower carb but I'm happy with 6.3, which gave me an HbA1c of 39 at last test, in the non-diabetic range.
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When I read everyone's glucose they are all quite a lot lower than mine. It really worrys me because the lowest mine are is in the morning 6.2-6.7 and I'm pre diabetic or so the Doctor says.
 
Morning readings are usually the last ones to come down. It's better to measure before and then 2 hours after eating to see the changes in your blood sugars are. This will be caused by what you have eaten and from that you can gauge it if was a "successful" meal or not. You should be aiming for ideally a rise of less than 1.5 mmol .
My morning readings took about 6 months of very low carb eating to come down significantly and I still get the odd high one (6.1 this morning for example). Don't fret just keep cutting out carbs and you will see some results. It just takes a bit of time for our bodies to adjust.
 
bulkbiker said:
Morning readings are usually the last ones to come down. It's better to measure before and then 2 hours after eating to see the changes in your blood sugars are. This will be caused by what you have eaten and from that you can gauge it if was a "successful" meal or not. You should be aiming for ideally a rise of less than 1.5 mmol .
My morning readings took about 6 months of very low carb eating to come down significantly and I still get the odd high one (6.1 this morning for example). Don't fret just keep cutting out carbs and you will see some results. It just takes a bit of time for our bodies to adjust.
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Very good advice
 
Lilliepop said:
When I read everyone's glucose they are all quite a lot lower than mine. It really worrys me because the lowest mine are is in the morning 6.2-6.7 and I'm pre diabetic or so the Doctor says.
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What you have to remember is that we're all different, and you can't judge your body's behaviour by other peoples'. Just don't fuss about it - be more concerned with your watching your pre and post meal levels which you can manage effectively.

My morning/fasting levels remained highish in spite on my other levels coming right down, and they stayed higher for nearly two years. Coming off long term statins and (possibly also equally long term corticosteroid eye drops) helped reduce them, but they were beyond my actual control. However diet has definitely played a part in helping them stay lower now and I find a nice fatty supper appears to keep my liver happier overnight and less in need of doing a morning dump to help me start the day.

Robbity
 
I can go with 15-20g of carbs a day when I'm not at the gym normally around at 50g when pigging out.
 
When I was first diagnosed, I cut down to less than 20g a day (sometimes less than 10). This got my blood sugar under control and had the side effect of helping me lose a ton of weight (over 8 stones). I now eat more carbs because while low carbing was suiting my blood sugar, I couldn't stop losing weight!
I have now adopted a grazing regime with strict eating to my meter: I use a freestyle libre and basically eat something as soon as it shows my blood has dropped back down into the 5s.

This has stabilised my weight (I weigh just over 10 stones and have maintained that weight for 6 months) but does require a lot of work and discipline to make sure my blood sugar doesn't get elevated. I also run 5K most days which will probably help with my control

In total, I can now eat up to 200g of carbs a day and maintain blood sugar control: my morning readings are in the mid 4s and my last HbA1c was 39 (non-diabetic range) so what I'm doing definitely works for me.
 
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