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Calarories, carbs and fats, your thoughts?

finsit

Well-Known Member
Being a diabetic, you can't eat a lot of carbs. A lot of fat will eventually raise your cholesterol levels (regardless of whether its good or bad). So my question is how you take your daily calories intake? Is there a must daily calorie intake or its just an imaginary thing? I am controlling my D2 with low-carb, so need to understand this from your practical experiences. Is it okay to move to a lifestyle which has fewer calories than recommended, lets say 1000-1200 per day ?
 
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I haven't found that fat raises cholesterol levels. In my case (and my hubby's) it seems that it's the carbs that do that.
 
zand said:
I haven't found that fat raises cholesterol levels. In my case (and my hubby's) it seems that it's the carbs that do that.
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Yes you are in those 75% lucky people I am an LMHR (lean mass hyper responders) and particularly saturated fats take my cholesterol to very high levels, particularly dairy liquid fats.
 
I use to analyse everything at the outset but now I just eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m not. All whole foods. For the most part, ‘zero’ carbohydrate. Continues to keep me healthy, at a constant weight with very little thought ever given to diabetes. I pay no attention to cholesterol as I believe it’s not a good marker of cardiovascular health. Some will agree and others will disagree, but in the end we do what we feel is best for ourselves.
 
That's a good approach Jim and that's where i am trying to reach to avoid regular testing. Despite my belief that cholesterol is not a CVD marker, I am still not comfortable having it north of 300. I am not trying it below recommended range either, so just trying to hold the stick in the middle. The only issue is satiety that only comes with fats. I am a protein lover and regardless of my belief that protein is good, i am still cautious of not eating too much of it either.
 
finsit said:
Being a diabetic, you can't eat a lot of carbs.
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There are different types of diabetes. Having Type 1 diabetes, I can eat as much carbs as I want as long as I dose my insulin appropriately.
 
finsit said:
A lot of fat will eventually raise your cholesterol levels
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It doesn't for me. My total cholesterol has lowered (from 7 upon diagnosis to 3.9 now), and all the components show better values (as far as I understand), and I've been eating more fat than before, not minding to watch the kind of fats I choose.

The main thing which has changed during this time is lowering the carbs, upping the fats and lowering my BG.
So at least for me, it isn't the fats which made my cholesterol high.

finsit said:
So my question is how you take your daily calories intake? Is there a must daily calorie intake or its just an imaginary thing?
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I watch the carbs and eat everything else to satiation, I have no idea how much fat, protein or calories I eat.

The body is rather amazing in that it can tell you what you need to a pretty large degree. If it needs fluids you get thirsty, if it's in danger of too low a temperature you'll feel cold, if it is in danger of damage from heat or a sharp object you'll feel pain, and if it needs fuel you'll feel hungry.
Of course sometimes parts of this system fail, but so far it's kept me alive pretty well.
 
My key cholesterol markers improved on low carb with more fat in my diet.
Research done a while ago on mice showed that a diet of processed fat plus high carbs (think doughnuts, etc as the human equivalent) caused cholesterol markers to rise.
 
lucylocket61 said:
mine is 5.6 Are your cholesterol measures from a different country?
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Yes, in UK, its about 9 something in mmol. As I said i am an LMHR. Check Dave Feldman if you don't know LMHR already. When i went low carb initially my cholesterol went above 11. I managed to reduce it gradually, but my other markers have improved a lot, particularly the ratios.
 
From memory it is around 30% who low carb whose cholesterol goes up, some stay the same and others go down. If you want cholesterol to go down additional carbs will do it. I found weighing the evidence is and being content with ones decision is key. If you believe the Diet Heart Hypothesis then worry and reduce your LDL, if you don't accept that "science" then just live and reduce bigger risk factors: Obesity, High Circulating Insulin and Hypertension.

There was a time when the ceiling was 7, then 6.5 and now 5 (in the UK) for total cholesterol. I find the "science" frankly unsustainable as the correlation with low or normal cholesterol is not conducive of better outcomes - this should have been a slam down the majority of the time.
 
ah, yes. That does alter things a bit.
 
I just stay away from carbs and the foods I don't like, my healthy body takes care of the rest and I let my glucometer and my food diary tell if there is something wrong!

Simplistic, but it works for me!

Why bother counting everything?
I have enough to worry about!

You can over think things!

Stay safe!
 
In Response said:
There are different types of diabetes. Having Type 1 diabetes, I can eat as much carbs as I want as long as I dose my insulin appropriately.
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Also type 1 but as I am keen to avoid insulin resistance, weight gain and am lazy about carb counting, I tend not to subscribe to the myth (imo) that type 1s just need to do some carb/insulin maths and all will be well! For some it is but I think there are many that struggle with the calculations.
 
here comes what Dr. Bernstein says "the law of small numbers". For T1, its very difficult to match your blood glucose peak and your injected insulin peak for several factors, including gastroparesis. The higher the carb quantity is, the harder to get these two curves match. That is why keeping carbs low and using fewer units keep T1 mostly in range without the danger of hypo or hyperglycaemia.
 
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But what Dr B neglects to mention is how it is more complex calculating insulin doses for low carb meals. I tried and needed different insulin doses and different timings for nuts, eggs, salmon, prawns, ... If I eat low/no carb I need to take into consideration the protein I eat. I found it far harder to match the glucose peak with the insulin peak when eating a low/no carb diet and was not willing to go through all the testing f(and remembering) for different types of protein.
I find the insulin peak much easier to calculate with a CGM and insulin pump with "normal" carbs. I speak from experience with my body rather than theory for the "average" person.
 
Hi. First I would forget Calories as the science behind them is weak and calories in doesn't equal calories out as the body metabolises the three main food groups in different ways and we don't eat 'calories' but we eat 'food'. The science behind fat contributing to higher blood cholesterol is also weak (the arguments continue). As I understand it the main metabolism of fats occurs in the bowels and some of the products will end up being stored as fat by the liver but not all, whereas carbs are rapidly converted to glucose in the stomach and the liver may store that as fat or it may be free glucose in the blood which we all know about. I am surprised that you say when you eat fat your cholesterol goes up; are you sure it does and it's not the carbs you have with those fats? In summary, forget calories, reduce the carbs to a level that gives you the right BS and weight and then have enough fats and proteins to keep you feeling full.
 
Everyone is different and if something works for you then it works. I don't take insulin, so i am not in a position to even understand how hard it might be to keep a balance.
 
Read about lean mass hyper responders LMHR that will explain my high cholesterol. I eat fewer than 30 carbs mainly from vegetables.
 
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