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Carbs confused!!

snowdrop345

Active Member
Messages
42
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Trying to follow a low carb diet but its very hit and miss. Really need some advice.
What do i look for on nutrition labels?
How many carbs should i be eating in a day?
Is it right that after eating carbs i feel hungry within 10 mins?

Any other help gratefully received. TIA x
 
1) Briefly, look at the carb amounts on the label and ignore the "which includes x% sugar"
2) Pass. Someone else will help.
3) Yes. Or even less than 10 mins, I found before I went on LCHF. Actually I prefer "plenty of good fats" rather than just "high fat."
 
Thank you. Can i succeed in weight loss from this?
 
 
snowdrop345 said:
How many carbs should i be eating in a day?
Click to expand...

You should cut carbs until you manage to stay in whatever target you have set for yourself. Official advice is that you should aim to be less than 8.5 two hours after eating but some people like to set more stringent targets for themselves. If you exceed the target figure then review the meal you have eaten, identify what caused the problem and try to avoid making the same mistake next time.

Eating fewer carbs often results in weight loss. This should not be thought of as a slimming diet. Don't go hungry. Replace the fewer (refined) carbs with more veg or a larger meat portion.

When I refer to refined carbs I am mostly talking about flour and sugar. Rice could be a problem also so have smaller portions and potatoes also may need cutting back on unless you can find a strain which does not spike you. New potatoes are worth a look. You never know your luck.
 
Hi. Ref 2) many on the forum stay well below 200gm/day and many below 100gm, but as Squire says the aim is to get the right BS level with or without medication if needed. My wife who is not diabetic also decided to get her weight down by about 25% thru low-carbing! She has been very disciplined and has lost that 25% and the change in her figure is unbelieveable. She feels great and now finds she can lose the odd few pounds very easily as the body has learned to burn fat and not keep storing it. She eats fat which proves what Jack said 'Eat fat get skinny'
 

Hi and welcome!

I've found it is easier if I eat consistently. Similar small portions of carb foods spread through the day. Not eating any for 2 days, then eating big portions of mash, fruit pie and custard would make me feel much worse than those same foods split between 6 meals.

You're looking for the carb content on food labels. Ignore the sugars. All carbs will turn to glucose when digested. Some just take a little longer.

The amount of carbs you eat is entirely up to you.
Basically, you can eat carbs in moderate to large quantities and likely end up on increasing medication, eventually insulin.
Or you can enter the wonderful world of carb restriction, control your blood glucose by diet, and reduce your chances of increasing medication and insulin massively. You may avoid them for years. I intend to

If you are hungry for carbs a short time after eating, it sounds like you are either eating too many carbs (causing carb cravings), or you aren't eating enough food - are you dieting?
 
Thanks for your reply. Everyone is so helpful. I am dieting, or trying to. I have a thyroid issue too so its not easy!
 
I use my fitness pal it has quite a comprehensive list of foods with carb content and helps me stick to less than 100g a day. It is difficult and a complete change for me as bread and butter were my mainstay if I felt hungry. I have lost 11lb and my bloods are amazing so it does work. Hope this helps x
 
I get totally confused. I think all food we can eat should say on label's suitable for diabetic's like it say's suitable for vegetarian's
 
bevg said:
I get totally confused. I think all food we can eat should say on label's suitable for diabetic's like it say's suitable for vegetarian's
Click to expand...
try this...
don't eat any grain, rice, oats porridge etc
don't eat any grain product, no bread, pasta, pastry, cereal etc
don't eat starch veg..potato, corn etc
don't eat sugary stuff, fruit and juice
first week
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarb101/a/firstweek.htm
craving
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbliving/a/Food-Cravings.htm
 


1 - As others have said. Read the labels. Most of them are measured per 100g.

2 - Some LCHF-ers like do to a very low carb diet. I try to limit myself to 30g per day. Some people like to do 50g per day. It all depends on how much weight you want to lose. You can get by with eating no or very very few carbs. Either way, 30 or 50 is well below the average daily intake, and should launch you into ketosis rapidly. If you're a bit on the lardy side and want to lose lots, limit the amount of fat you eat also, gety our body to eat the fat it's already got stored, and then start topping up good fats when you're getting near your desired weight.

You shouldn't be eating Webers, SU's, Holleys or Strombergs. They're bad for your teeth.

You'll feel weird for a few days before your body settles down again.

3 - Yes. This does happen. Eating carbs provokes an insulin response, which (don't ask me the exact science behind it) makes you feel hungry.

I find that if I have a weekend (every once in a while) where my carb intake is a lot higher than 30g per day (more like 200!!) and then I get back on the LCHF, I'll feel like **** for a few days, and even after eating a good hearty meal, I'll feel hungry a short time after, even after eating no carbs. This is normal, and subsides after a few days. In other words, don't make binging a regular weekend thing, or you'll be spending most of the week feeling like turd!
 
Hi, I try to stay under 100g a day of carbs. That is working for me. I was diagnosed 7 weeks ago. I have an under active thyroid (well a very little thyroid left after 2 surgeries), no gall bladder and a hiatus hernia - so already had digestion problems! I have found that I am not dairy/fat intolerant as I thought because I can eat those foods with no problems now that they are not competing with as many carbs in my system.

I have lost about 7 kilos in that time. I have also bought an exercise bike and a blood monitor (or rather the testing strips). I am fortunate that it has been caught very early - no symptoms - caught in the 40-70 NHS health checks.

I still have 'treats' but they are limited and a self rewards system - and within my 100g. I went to a presentation dinner on the weekend and did eat all 3 courses, it was a set meal - so this week I will choose 'better' options on my Xmas Do. I drank plenty of water with the meal, and exercised once I got home. My blood readings stayed in the 'normal' range, but as I say I am lucky that mine were only just in diabetic range to begin with. I also made sure whilst I ate meals and snacks the rest of the day as normal - they had minimal/no carbs. 'Eat to your meter'.

I have downloaded a free app on my phone "mysugr" -a bit childish but fun if you want an incentive to log blood tests/carbs/exercise.

Always remember to count your carbs - the ones in fruit/vegetables that people 'forget' about.
 
I was diagnosed nearly 4 weeks ago and found this forum almost immediately. After reading up on here and elsewhere I decided to dramatically cut my carbs as I had a pretty high carb diet (far too much bread and pasta). I haven't gone anywhere as low as a lot of people have and I wouldn't describe my diet as LCHF (more Reduced Carb, more veggies!) and haven't suffered any hunger pangs to speak of.

I try and stick below 100g of carbs a day and use MyFitnessPal to do a complete diary of my food consumption. I also use MySugr to track my BS readings, but not for carb tracking as it doesn't offer as much info as MyFitnessPal does

I've found I can have the odd slice of bread or oats without spiking as long as I balance the meal out with some fat / protein (i.e. 2 slices of toast is a massive spike but a sandwich is OK)

Ultimately, the best advice I can give is "eat to your meter", i.e. experiment and see what works for you and what doesn't because everyone is different: Take your BS before you eat and again after 2 hours - if it's more than 2 higher after then you've probably had too much of something that's less than ideal for you (most likely carbs)

As an example, this is what I had the other day:

Breakfast - 2 egg omelette
Lunch - Tuna Mayo and salad sandwich in 2 slices of wholemeal bread
Dinner - Home made Chilli with Bare Naked Rice (low carb rice substitute)

My total calories for the day were 1,348 with 67 grammes of carbs, 63 grammes of fats and 115 grammes of protein and I felt full all day

In the 4 weeks I've been doing this I've got my BS readings down from high teens to consistently in the 5s and 6s and have lost an inch around my waist. I also feel far fitter and healthier than I have for years
 
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I'm not an expert, so I can only say what works for me. I have 150 grams of carbs per day - 40-10-40-10-40-10, the last 10 grams are optional.
It seemed frightening and insufficient at first, then it felt too much (260 grams of potatoes for lunch, for example), now I learned to combine different carbs. Today, for example, I had a lunch of a grilled trout, 130 grams of potatoes and 200 ml of fresh orange juice, and a lot of leafy veggies. Tasty and filling.

I also found very helpful to learn what a 'carb unit' is - in Slovakia, it's 10 grams of carbs. The doctor gave me 'exchange sheet' where I can look up how much I can eat: 1 unit is 20 grams of bread, 65 grams of potatoes, 45 grams of (boiled) pasta, 45 grams of rice, 70 grams of apple, 50 grams of banana...

And it's easy to calculate. For example, you want to buy some snack. It weighs 25 grams and the a label says 100 grams contain 55 grams of carbs. 10 grams have 5.5 grams of carbs, 25 have 13.75 (=1.4 units). So if your diet allows only 1 unit for a snack, you can't eat all of it - you can only eat 16.7 grams of it (2/3).

It looks confusing at first, but after 3 months, I see units everywhere. My Mum was baking Christmas pastry, and it was easy to calculate that the whole dough had 88 units; but she made 220 pieces of it. So one piece has 0.4 units - I can have 2 pieces for a snack without risking that my BG will increase. (Which was quite liberating discovery... Christmas will be extra hard, the traditional meals are not exactly low-carb.)

This way I always know how much carbs I eat, and my BG is under control - my average before meal for last 30 days is 5.8, after meal 6.3 - so quite good, compared to 16 before meal and 24 after meal in September when I was diagnosed.

phil1966 said:
I've found I can have the odd slice of bread or oats without spiking as long as I balance the meal out with some fat / protein (i.e. 2 slices of toast is a massive spike but a sandwich is OK)
Click to expand...
I found the same thing, and asked my doctor about it. She explained that fat slows down the absorbtion of carbs in your blood. Without fat, the carbs from bread are absorbed faster - so the peak is higher, but it also drops back sooner. Fat will cause smaller increase, but for a longer period. Both have advantages and disadvantages - if you eat bread with fat, and after 3-4 hours you have a snack, your BG will start at a slightly higher level than if you ate just bread.
 

thanks for the info - that makes sense. So basically with some fat to balance the carbs, you get a lower spike but it lasts longer and you have to be aware of that with your next meal / snack?
That tallies with what I've been seeing with my BG readings: It definitely takes longer to get my BG down if I've had a sandwich but it only spikes at around 1 - 1.5 above my pre meal level and the spike is generally around the low 7s level. If I just have toast I'm spiking above 10 (which is why I avoid it )
 
Yes, that's how it was explained to me. So if I know I'll have a long meeting in the office, I have a sandwich - so even if I have to skip a snack, I don't have hypo. But when I'm going jogging, in the weekend mornings, I have only bread. Works fine so far.
 
Hi,

Please try;
Food Nutritional Chart - Food Calorie Chart
http://whatscookingamerica.net/NutritionalChart.htm

to check whether it can help.

Easy feeling hungry is the symptom of Type-2 Diabetes you can try foods rich in insoluble fibre.

Regards
satimis
 
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