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Did someone say no such thing as a silly question?

M

Margarettt

Well-Known Member
Messages
367
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
All the low carb alternatives I ordered are starting to arrive and its exciting.....cheesies and 100 percent chocolate and brownies. There are even 0 carb peanut butter cups.
I think someone said to only eat three meals and I understand I could have them at the end of a meal like a "pudding". To be honest I'm finding my meals really filling right now and that's not particularly when I want them. I want them tea break time at work when everyone else is on the biscuits or 8pm when everything is tidy and the dishes are done and I'm sitting to a last cup of tea. Does it make a real difference? If it does I'll happily stick to mealtimes. Most things are zero carbs, some are two or three. Do I test them before and after like meals?
 
With new stuff, even some zero carb, I check the first time I have it before and after. Odds are it'll be fine in my limited experience to date, but always worth checking anything with artificial sweeteners especially, as some people can react differently to certain ones from what I've read.

Good question on the eating times, will be interested in the answers.
 
I always feel, everyone needs to do what is sustainable for them. I have two meals a day, breakfast and evening meal, but I have two coffee breaks in between, a black coffee and a low carb snack.
 
I tested a lot in the beginning - I realise now it was often too much. My approach these days with something new is to test the first time or two and once I'm sure I know what's going on not to bother too much.

I eat one meal a day in the evening and often have some cheese, salami or olives at around 1-2pm. I rarely test for anything I cook and prepare myself because I already know (from earlier testing) what it will do. If you're eating something that says it's zero carb and you've confirmed that by testing, why test again? To be honest, many things with 2-3 carbs simply don't show up reliably on testing, because the impact of the carb is outweighed by the meter's allowable variation and inaccuracy.
 
The reasoning with eating fewer times a day is that each feeding causes a rise in insulin, to deal with the glucose. Insulin is a fat storage hormone, a fat burning suppressant and elevated levels contribute to our underlying Issue of insulin resistance. By spacing out it’s stimulation by eating less often we allow it to reset to baseline and do so for longer and thus minimise our exposure to high levels.
 
I second testing even the so called zero carb treats. Many use artificial sweeteners or other ingredients we aren’t exposed to often. I, for example, spike with maltitol as much as I do ordinary sugar (as do many other). In fact im better with sugar as I don’t get jelly belly with that as I do maltitol. Yet stevia or erythritol I’m just fine with. Sadly many low carb/keto goodies use maltitol as it’s cheaper than better cleaner alternatives. The lesson here is that not all sugar alcohols (polyols) are equal.
 
I get the 8pm with feet up and a cup of tea thing, I have 3 meals a day no snacks but I do have my square of 85% choc at “feet up” time usually around 8.30 and I enjoy it better than I would any other time of the day- I savour it where I think if I had it any other time I’d just eat it.

Your lifestyle is your lifestyle no one else’s, yes it’s best not to snack but if that’s what keeps you on the right track and your BS is fine then you do you. Snacking on sweet tasting stuff though doesn’t help to change your palate and may make it harder to reduce sweet cravings, maybe try some savoury low carb snacks instead and keep the sweet ones for an occasional treat

I don’t have a sweet tooth at all but in the beginning I did snack on a bit of cheese or pork scratchings but I dropped of snacking pretty quickly without noticing probably because I wasn’t hungry.
 
KennyA said:
I eat one meal a day in the evening and often have some cheese, salami or olives at around 1-2pm
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Thanks Kenny. I see lots of posts with people eating one or two meals and I'm struggling a bit to get my head around it. Last weekend when breakfast was 9am rather than 7am I really wasn't ready to eat at lunchtime. I not forced but pushed myself to eat yoghurt and berries at 2.30pm because in my head I was thinking "if you skip it you'll end up eating dinner at 4pm at not make it till 7am tomorrow" I hadn't actually considered something "snacky". I think that next week I will consider taking an egg and a bit of cheese to work rather than a big packed lunch and its there if I need something. Again thank you.
 
This may be a really silly question but does it follow that if you've had a "safe" meal several times where the numbers have either stayed the same or dropped, having that meal with the low carb treat at the end then testing would be a reliable test? Thanks
 
lovinglife said:
I enjoy it better than I would any other time of the day- I savour it where I think if I had it any other time I’d just eat it.
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Yes ! I intended and allowed for two squares at the end of a very low carb dinner but when it actually came to it one square was perfect and I put the second away. I only mention it because in 40 years of calorie counting its a first.
 
It's easy when you're not hungry because you (me) ate properly at your last meal. It works very well for me and I can easily go 24 or 36 hours without eating at a stretch. 18 hours from last meal in the evening until "breakfast/late lunch" next day is normally 16-18 hours. Snacking doesn't feature. I've found a big difference between hunger and appetite.
 
Seems reasonable to me if you dont want to test it totally separately. So long as you can identify what is causing a reaction then it’s practical imo.
 
One problem I see reported for Low Carbing is that our body learns to adapt to the low carb by adjusting our metabolic rate. So we compensate for lower carbs, and when we eat a carby meal then our metabolism is slow to react, and our sugar levels jump more than expected. so having the occasional lowish carb treat is actually keeping our body on its toes, and is not the guilt laden NONO we perceive it to be. It is actually needed.

t is the same ussue that fasting suffers. If you fast at regular times, then the body gets used to it, and it loses its effect. Intermittent fasting alters the times and durations of the fasts for this very reason.
 
I've always been one to snack rather than eat large meals - now I save mine for bedtime, and maybe a slice of low carb/keto cake instead of lunch if I'm hungry.
I do take low carb cake into the Town Hall when I'm doing a full day of appeals. They serve me a plain salad with one protein (ham or one egg or cheese) for lunch instead of the mini Indian foods or mini quiches and sandwiches everyone else gets but it is the most boring salad ever, and then every else gets cakes.
 
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