Carbs Allowed Per Day Help Please

Resurgam said:

Well - as a diabetic the normal amount of carbs in the usual diet is far too many for most of us.
My personal target at the moment is 40gm per day as I want to lose more fat.
To reach normal numbers for blood glucose and Hba1c I had a maximum of 50gm per day.
I did have a meter to check my blood and I reduced and excluded foods so that my after eating readings were no more than two whole numbers, or less than 8 - but once I reached 8 I found that my numbers kept going down even eating the same amounts.
By checking your weight you can see if you are eating enough protein and fat to maintain your weight - though I find beans and avocado tend to put up my weight, as will small amounts of anything with flour - it is as though the carbs from different sources react differently if I eat them.

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NicoleC1971 said:

Quantity of carbs is a very individual thing based on your own situation and what drugs you are taking if any to manage your diabetes? If its insulin or any drug that encourages the body to make mroe insulin then seek advice from your nurse to adjust dosage.
If you are not taking meds you could start by noting down what you are eating now typically and then changing one meal at a time. A useful way to evaluate the current situation would be to think of the golden rules of carbs:
1 QUANtITY How much carbohydrate are you eating? (portion size as it relates to a cupped hand perhaps). See point 2 re changing the proportions of your meal so that you are eating less carbohydrates but are not going hungry and are getting enough calories to maintain your weight.
2. QUALITY What quality is it? e.g. white sugar, cakes, biscuits or brown rice, wholegrain breads or berries and green veg (a spectrum from highly processed foods which will rapidly increase your glucose levels through to carbs that are very fibrous and won't have a big impact on your blood sugar). Note that the wholegrain breds, rice and pasta will have an impact on your blood sugar but not as much as white carbs!
3 COMPANY What company are your carbs in? e.g. do you eat them with protein foods and fats which will slow down their absorption into the blood glucose? Can you eat more of the fat and protein foods to keep you full?
4 TIMING The timing of the meal may be important too e.g. hormones at breakfast make the body more likely to overreact to carbs with too much insulin and added resistance from the stress hormone cortisol. Annoying if you love your toast and cereal but there are great low carb options to swap in.
Also are you snacking? When eating a carbohydrate snack e.g. biscuit, banana, crackers... you will be getting your body to produce insulin to deal with the carbohydrate. Everytime you do this you will be increasing insulin resistance and thus making your diabetes worse. You may find that if you are eating more fat and protein that you feel less hungry in any case!

Re weight maintenance you may find you do lose a little weight but bear in mind that this may be belly fat and that is a good thing with regards to diabetes type 2. A tape measure is probably a better check than the scales for this reason!

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NewTD2 said:

It really depends on how much your body can tolerate.

For me, I can tolerate 80-120g of carbs per day and achieve fasting bg levels between 4.3 to 5.5.

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Terrytiddy said:

Hi @wasdale as mentioned its down to what you want to achieve and how you can cope with low carbs. I have a lot of weight to loose 157Kg and blood glucose of 16.6 at start of May. I went on Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) and initially reduced my carbs to 20% per day. This was easy for me as didn't have a lot of carbs from food, most coming from beer (that has now stopped). I do 18/6 fasting every day with no food from 20.00 till 14.00 next day, with only black tea, coffee and water during fast. I've now reduced my carbs to 5% or less per day. To date I have lost 2 1/2 stone and Bg are 4.5 average over 7 days. Only exercise I do is walking the dog. Good luck on your journey.

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