Carby question

[ladybird64]

I'm sorry but I need some advice on the issues of carbs and I apologise if it has been asked before.
I have found low carb, no carb, low fat-low carb, high fat-low carb ..

.if anyone can follow and understand it all they are better people than I !!

At present, I do not wish to low carb, too complicated for me. I know that I need to reduce portion sizes of bread, pasta etc but without the risk of starting WW3, roughly how much daily carb should I be aiming for and how do I count it up? I do know it's an individual process and we are all different but if I had a vague starting point it would help.
I guess it is easy to work it out when you know how but what about things that don't come in a pack with the info on the side? A portion of mash or two boiled spuds..spaghetti..how can I measure them? Even the ones with all the printed info..I don't even know how to calculate them.

I started today with a bg of over 9 after yesterdays bingeing, 2 hours after I had my lunch of green salad and a yogurt I managed to get it down to 6.5.

Felt hungry so had a cup a soup..low calorie so can't do too much harm..bg shot up to 11.0 !!
I read on the packet is said 17.5 total carbohydrate so am guessing that is a bad'yun..this business is like a blasted minefield at first isn't it? :evil:

As always, all help appreciated or if you could point me in the direction of a relevant thread, that would be good too.

 

[catherinecherub]

The trouble is Ladybird that we can only tell you what works for us.
IMHO try halving the starchy carb portions that you are eating, if BS are still high then try 1/3rd. If it is still high then that carb is not for you. Some can eat anything in smaller portions, some cut it by a half etc. but some cannot eat any at all.
There is a good book,Carbs and Cals - A Visual Guide. It is presented in pictures as opposed to words and illustrates a portion of food on a plate and tells you how many carbs it is. It also does this with a bigger portion of the same food. It includes potatoes and most other things you can think of that have a carb value, even treats.
I only ever counted my carbs twice and I have been a diabetic for nearly eight years and have achieved good control from learning and testing for a few months.
The important thing when you start out is testing because even though you may only be eating a small portion of food containing carbs it might be that your own body cannot tolerate that food.
Hope this helps.

 

[donnellysdogs]

I would recommend that you purchase a book called Carbs & Cals & Protein & Fat...this is the latest edition..the earlier edition which is slightly cheaper is called Carbs & Cals -available from Amazon.co.uk. This gives you easy visual carb counting visually with different size plates and also weights of food...

Only you know if and the qty of weight loss you may want to do, and exactly how much exercise you do, and whether you are sat down mainly all day or up and active....some people can take as few carbs as 30...some can't and wouldn't want to, some take more than 135 carbs, others wouldn't want to do this.

You have to find out what raises your levels and what lowers them...we all vary so much..some can eat bread others can't, some can eat ryvita-others can't.....

I think you will struggle with anything if you are having days of 'slipping', especially in the first days of diagnosis. Try cutting portion sizes....and keeping things in moderation...a day of slippage I believe may well impact the next day as well on your levels and your body wanting more-because it had more the day before......me personally, I won't go without anything, eg normallyeverything I eat is pretty much fresh and /or home grown, homecooked food.....however if somebody visits and buys a frozen gateau for us all to share-I won't go without...I just have a smaller portion....

I don't think I have helped much, but please don't give up...as there will be more help coming along...

 

[ladybird64]

Thank you both for replying.

I will try and get hold of this book as it seems like it will be useful, have had a look on Amazon already.

I do understand it's an individual process, I just feel a bit lost at the moment and I'm trying to solve this "problem" by rushing to get bg's down..I guess the truth is I'm still kind of hoping that it will all go away.

I am under a lot of strain looking after my daughter full time (see other posts for explanation!) and get very little time to concentrate on my own wellbeing..not complaining or making excuses, just being honest so I guess it's inevitable that I will occasionally get overwhelmed with it all.

On the positive side I am a stubborn cuss so will keep on trying.

Thanks ladies

 

[jopar]

Not sure what type you are..

Carb counting seems complicated and time consuming when you start, because sort of it; it takes time to weight foods, look up carb amounts etc.. But then you start to remember carb amounts for your regular ingreidents, and find you are more able to guessimate quick well..

A couple of tips

Electronic scale with tare/zero facility, and that you can see the read out with a dinner plate sat on it, makes life a lot easier..

Noting the carbs, per 100g and carbs amount for your normal portion on a piece of paper that you regularly use, stick this on the inside of your cupboard door, for ease of referance...

Once you got your eye in on your carb counting, you can ease back but still do regular stints with weighing to keep your eye in..

Use your BG meter to help determine portion size, if your BG raises too much then reduce portion size if causes too much problems, then it needs to go on the NO list or perhaps the treat list..

We are all human and do need to have a treat every now and again...

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi Ladybird,
I will try and help you understand individual.

If you came to my house for lunch and I dished up a meal that I know would not raise my blood sugars then you may think, "OH great, if I eat the same as Catherine then my blood sugars will be fine". That is not true because we are different people and we cannot assume that because someone else can eat something and it is alright for them then it will be alright for us to. Your blood sugar rise may be higher than mine.

You may go and lunch with someone else, they dish up a meal suitable for them and you end up with blood sugars that are too low.

Does that make sense?
If somebody is using insulin then they adjust the amount of insulin by counting the carbs in the meal and injecting accordingly. (I am sure that some ~Type 1's may not agree, I am doing the best that I can guys ). They don't always get it right and the same meal may have been OK when they ate it the previous week. Complicated it is and we are all different.

You will find that just when you think you have grasped it then something is changing and your blood sugar is either too high or too low for no apparent reason. That is the nature of diabetes, it tries to beat you all the time. It may be that your fluid intake is too low, you have been very energetic or have had a more sedentary day, you may have a cold coming, you have experienced more stress. There will come a day in the very near future when you will know you have cracked it but take it at a pace that suits you. Nobody is judging you but I think you are being too hard on yourself.

Hope that helps,
Ask away at anything you don't understand and if it is still not clear then ask a question about what is bothering you from the explanation you have been given.

Compare it to having driving lessons. The first lesson is a complete mystery to you, well it was to me, and then it gets easier and easier. After you pass the test it is then that you realise that you are on your own, nobody to guide you. and I personally think that is the most scary time. The difference with trying to mange the diabetes is that you are here and there is always someone to help you.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Hi Ladybird...

Its only my opinion but I think that finding foods and a diet that are sustainable to you over a period of weeks without getting exasperated at results will help you....so if for example you had a breakfast of 2 pieces of white bread previously, try brown bread, try bergen bread, try 1 slice instead of 2...same with salads, roast potatoes,jacket potatoes, pasta etc...

If you find foods that you enjoy..then the blips in eating patterns will become less...and also to try having a tall glass of water before a meal or when you want a snack...no calories and makes stomach fill fuller....I do this before my evening meals....I also make sure that I have slowed my eating down and enjoy my food...what I could bolt down in 5 minutes can take me 20 minutes now...

If at the end of the day when you have tried doing this for a while and your levels aren't coming down...then you may have to either have meds/or change meds......

I know I sound as if I am lecturing, and I really don't want to...but you need to keep positive...what's the saying ...Rome wasn't built in a day!!!!'......I write so often on here that our bodies don't take easily to change...especially if they have had a few decades of not so good eating habits.....your body and brain will be thinking 'what the heck is happening here??'.....it's natural......it's not just food this happens with..it's life...we don't all take to moving house well, changing schools, changing our routines, divorces, changing jobs etc...the list is endless....but after a while we adapt to the change..but the process can be hard...

All I'm actually just trying to say...is...make moderate changes initially, putting extra pressure and stress on yourself (and I have read posts about your daughter etc...) could throw your levels higher..

 

[Dougie22]

Hi,

As a newby myself, I had much the same questions.

I decided to keep a really, really detailed food diary for a week with testing around every meal to see what was happening. This involved noting the calorie count, carbohydrate grams and salt equivelant (for my BP) of absolutely everything I ate.

Well I couldn't keep it up for more than a week. I had to retain all packaging, work out what percentage or multilple of their standard portion (or 100g) I'd had. I needed a set of scales and a calculator. For unpackaged foods, I needed scales again and the Collins Gem calorie and carb counter. Then added everything up. I also took a meter reading before and two hours after every meal. I'm recently retired or I couldn't have managed it. The effort was extreme.

.......but I learnt an awful lot, I lost 5 pounds that week, and I found out what a lot of foods do to my BG levels. For the very fist time, I had some idea of how much carb I eat (on this regime, 120 to 170 a day which I think qualifies as moderate, certainly not low - I saw a table somewhere on here), for the fist time I found out that I eat (on this regime) about 5g of salt per day (and my BP is starting to come down on this).

So useful but intensive. I'm going to try another go soon.

One point to make is that I tend to eat the same two or three breakfasts, maybe eight or ten choices for lunch, and the same things feature reasonably regularly for dinner. So if you are the same, you only need to do this for a relatively short period to build up a list of meals that you're happy with as a starter for ten.

 

[Dougie22]

Here's something surprising that I learned.

Ever noticed that the calorie count for baked potatoes is different for that for boiled potatoes and wondered why (it's the same potato, right?)

Well, it turns out that the 100g figure refers to the cooked weight (so weighing them before you put them in the oven is no use!)

Think about it....one retains the water content, one dries out....so 100g cooked is different from 100g raw!

Why doesn't anybody in the diet industry tell you this in GREAT BIG LETTERS.

Only one more thing in my voyage of discovery.

 

[Bluenosesol]

I try to stay at about 30g per day.

All the best Steve

 

[donnellysdogs]

Dougie..

I have just printed off the food diary spreadsheet from here..not to analyse the cabrs, as I have been doing that for all my adult life...but just to check my fat and cal intake....I too like you eat pretty much the same things over a period of time, so my list fits on a double sided A4-dpendent on summer or winter.... I have never analysed so much detail in this...but I have already found it very useful. I always say here that I eat moderately.. and very minimal processed foods...but the finer detail I find interesting and it will just be done as a one off, unless for some reason (can't think of one) that I suddenly eat processed foods as the main part of my diet....