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1st attempt at low carb meal

I

imperp

Member
So This morning I ate what I thought was a good brunch. Grilled bacon with fat removed. Poached egg. Mushrooms in a little butter. Tinned plum tomatoes- half a can and 1 slice of whole meal bread. Glucose before food was 5.2 and 2 hours after 8.8. I felt really disappointed at this result. Am I expecting too much?
 
Well, that wasn't a really, really low carb meal.

Leave the fat on the bacon. Fat is good.
Avoid the slice of bread, because bread is not low carb.

The tomatoes are O.K. at about 6 grams of carbohydrate for half a tin.

Not bad for a first attempt.

If you avoided the bread and added in a bit more fat then you would be getting there.
Fry the egg in butter instead of poaching, for example.
You are getting the idea of low carbohydrates but I think you may be still suffering the memories of "healthy eating" advice where you cut the fat off meat and poach an egg instead of frying it to avoid those deadly fats which make you fat. Also noted that you grilled the bacon, presumably to reduce that awful fat.

The idea of low carbohydrate eating is to replace the carbohydrates with other energy sources, mainly fat.
The fat also helps to slow the absorption of carbohydrates and reduces any post meal BG spike.

Don't be discouraged. 8.8 after 2 hours isn't a disaster and your results may well improve as you settle into LCHF.
 

Tinned tomatoes and a slice of wholemeal bread especially in the morning is the reason you spiked by 3.6. Did you calculate how many carbs in that meal? Have a look on the tin and the bread wrapper.

Is there a reason you are avoiding fat?
 
Hi,

Dont wory about cutting the bacon fat.. The bread & tinned toms unfortunately didn't do you any favours..

But fair play for 'avin a go!
 
imperp said:
No. I just honestly don't know what I should or should not eat. I'm very new to this.
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Don't worry. It gets easier and everything will fall into place. The first thing is to read food labels and look for the Total Carbohydrate amount, then calculate how many grams of carbs you would eat in one portion. Your tin of toms and your bread wrapper will have this information on. Your meter has told you there were too many carbs for your body in that meal. Bacon, eggs and mushrooms have very few carbs so it wasn't those items. You could try the tomatoes again without the bread and see what happens, or the bread without the tomatoes. Or try a fresh grilled or fried tomato instead of the tinned. It is all trial and error, and this is where a food diary is more than useful. Record all your food and portion size, record your levels alongside, and look for patterns.
 
If you want to have toast, try Burgen Soya and Linseed bread. Many people have success with that but you still have to test. It is available at most supermarkets. Keep it in the freezer and toast a slice from frozen.
 
You can use a nutrition tracking app like my fitness pal ( theres quite a range of free ones) to work out the total carbs in a meal / recipe / individual food item and then match that with your BS results. If you use MFP, make sure you search for the uk nutritional data as different countries use different measures, just to make life difficul! Say if I was looking for the carb count of tomatoes, Id search for " tomatoes, Uk" or "tomatoes, Tesco's" ( or any other supermarket
 
Hello imperp. Difficult isn't it? I am new to all this as well and the day after I was diagnosed I thought I would eat nothing but fruit! (Very bad move).
As already said it does get easier. Take some time and read. Have a cup of tea, go for a walk and then read some more.
I have gone lchfing since july and it does get better. A lot of people on here have been doing it for a while and are generous with thier time, advice and expertise. Good luck with it all and keep posting.

And my one bit of advice is to keep a diary. Record amount of food, type, time, cooking method and your blood glucose. I also keep a check on mood and health.
 
Hi imperp, your first attempt sounds good to me! Although maybe not the bread. I started on the low carb programm 4 weeks ago and that, and SR metformin, has brought my sugars down to 12.6 2 hours after porridge. I'm finding the low carb program a really good help as it gives the info in bite sized chunks and warns you what to look out for. There's also a food diary which helps you track the number of carbs you are eating. All I can say is, don't give up!! It's not easy being new to this but we will get there. There's so much help and support here from real people living with diabetes that I don't tend to look elsewhere now as there are so many mixed messages.
 
bulkbiker said:
Try having a look here..
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb
loads of free info and recipes
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AM1874 said:
Hi @imperp ..
Have a look at https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb for visuals and lists of what and what not to eat
Hope this helps
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Hello and welcome @imperp . What a great first attempt and well done for trying. I to use the above website and find it very useful. So much food you can eat and enjoy once you get the knack, just avoid the bread. Keep posting lots of lovely people here to help. Have you tried looking at the what have you eaten today thread?. Lots of ideas there x
 
There is nothing wrong with poaching an egg or having it scrambled an omelette or simply boiled cook your food whatever way you want to it does not have to be fried in fat A lot will say you need to eat more fat if you go low carb but fat does not have to come from saturated animal fat and dairy. Because I do not eat red meat sausages bacon or full fat dairy mine comes from good oils like olive rapeseed and coconut olives and I eat a lot of eggs cheese olives and avocados along with a few nuts. Many eat a lot of meat and like fry ups but.the only right way is the way that suits us personally
 
@imperp your attempt was better than my first week of diagnosis, I was eating home made soda bread and home made bananna bread, so good first try.
 
Getting a meter is the real gamechanger.

Once you see what the different foods do to you, it gets easier and easier to avoid the ones that are causing those spikes.

@imperp i agree with the others. That is a fine first attempt, and you learned lots for next time.
You could try swaping the wholemeal for a smaller or low carb bread slice, or any of the other suggestions above.

I think the hardest thing for me was learning that my body doesn't tolerate bread in any 'normal' form. It took a while to accept that scrambled eggs are delicious, even if they dont come on toast!
 
Thanks everyone for the advice and links. Bread will always be a downfall for me. I absolutely love toast. But I will endeavour to have it on a very occasional basis.
 
imperp said:
Thanks everyone for the advice and links. Bread will always be a downfall for me. I absolutely love toast. But I will endeavour to have it on a very occasional basis.
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Is there a Lidl near you? They sell high protein rolls that are delicious sliced in half and toasted (plenty of butter to melt in). They are around 9g carbs per roll and very filling. They freeze well too. There are other low carb breads on the market. Burgen is one.
 
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