Dietician Suggested Low Carb And Low Calorie

I do low carb low calorie. It works well for me. High fat doesnt mean lots of fat. It means proportionally more fat than if you were heating a high carb, low fat diet.

I use the calories i have saved from my carb reduction on fats like butter, full fat milk, cheese, olive oil, goose fat etc. I have around 1400 cals a day. About 350 cals come from carbs.

I see you are a type 1, so this is probably all the advice i can offer. However, if you are eating veggies and fruit, they count as carbs in your total. I dont know about insulin calculations based on low carbing.

I am quite wary about giving someone with Type 1 Diabetes dietary advice but if you are on FaceBook there is a group called Type one grit (you may have to change the one to a 1, not too sure about the correct name).
Also tagging @Mel dCP for advice for you.

Good Luck.

Hi, the TYPEONEGRIT Facebook page is here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/typeonegrit/ - T1G strongly advocates a low carb approach to all forms of diabetes, and follows a book called “The Diabetes Solution” by a Dr Bernstein, himself a T1 of many decades. He recommends a very low carb diet, of 30g a day (6g at breakfast, 12g at lunch and 12g for dinner), high protein and moderate fat - enough to satisfy, basically.

Many people go further still and follow a ketogenic diet, myself included. I eat <25g carbs a day, which turns your metabolism from burning glucose for energy to burning ketones, the by products of fat metabolism. With this level of carbs, you do need to log and dose for all of it - whether veg or salad, I’ve found. Tiny doses, but still. I also need to dose for certain protein. I’ve dropped my HbA1c from 89 at Christmas to 43 in April doing this. It is quite restrictive, but for me the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. If you eat meat (I don’t), it’s quite easy to manage away from home, as you can hit the steak and chicken to your heart’s content!

At 130g carbs a day, you wouldn’t want to be adding loads of fat anyway, as you’re still burning glucose for fuel. So those carbs plus plenty of protein and a small amount of healthy fat - the stuff found naturally in fish and meat etc rather than adding oil and butter to everything - should show some improvement in your HbA1c, as long as you dose for it correctly.

The DAFNE course is well worth doing, even if you choose to eat fewer carbs than the official NHS guidelines recommend. No matter how many you eat, you still need the right ratios, and the course is great for that.

Big caveat - if you reduce carbs, your insulin needs will drop immediately, so keep dextrose tablets handy. My basal needs halved within a week! Basal testing would be a very wise thing to do. I don’t know much about the effects of exercise, but I’d suggest getting your food and insulin matched before embarking on a new activity regime.

I agree with @Guzzler, the Facebook group have posted results for their HbA1c's of 5.7; it is a private group with recognised expertise for Type 1's who want to do LCHF. LCHF has a drug like effect so whilst using insulin extra care has to be taken and cannot be underestimated.

You may also want to read Dr. Bernstein work http://www.diabetes-book.com/. Regarding the use of tracking software, I would say whatever you do, initially log as much as you can (I wish I did) and use the notes section as you can see over time what really worked for you, what you did, how you felt etc.

Mbaker said:

I agree with @Guzzler, the Facebook group have posted results for their HbA1c's of 5.7; it is a private group with recognised expertise for Type 1's who want to do LCHF. LCHF has a drug like effect so whilst using insulin extra care has to be taken and cannot be underestimated.

You may also want to read Dr. Bernstein work http://www.diabetes-book.com/. Reading the use of tracking software, I would say whatever you do, initially log as much as you can (I wish I did) and use the notes section as you can see over time what really worked for you, what you did, how you felt etc.

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What do you mean by a “drug like effect”? I’m a member of the group and no such thing has ever been mentioned. Just curious

Honestly - those HCPs - they like a laugh don't they?

In the book by Dr Atkins which I refer to most often there is a chart which suggests that really active people, with high nutritional needs - athletic males are mentioned as is exercising vigorously and regularly, then they might be able to lose weight on a maximum of 90 gm of carbs a day. I have always found that I could not lose weight no matter how low calorie,as I just collapsed and could hardly move around the house when eating low calories, but on low carb I am full of energy eat well, and still lose weight or size, or change shape - my waist is 10 inches smaller than at the maximum.

Veges, salad and the odd piece of fruit is the way of eating - it reads as though they are setting you up to fail - which is crazy, I know - but you should hear some of the advice I've had over my lifetime of being disapproved of for my weight and my diet.
For a type two like me, who is really lucky not to need meds and can get normal results just from eating LCHF, it is very effective in lowering BG levels, so you'll need to be very careful if you do low carbing seriously - it is a very powerful tool - I was no longer in the diabetic range in 80 days - but I just went for it as I had nothing to lose by eating 50 gm of carbs a day - mind you my metabolism thought that it had stepped off a cliff....

As a type one - I think that you will need to work slowly down to a level which will enable you to stop going so high and also to reevaluate your insulin needs - if you increase protein whilst burning carbs I suspect that you might very well need to include the protein in your insulin needs to some extent, as it can and will be broken down to make glucose if that is what you are using for fuel.
Once I was using fats as fuel I was a lot more stable with BG levels, and a huge difference was not being hungry - I eat two meals a day, and not big ones. I eat a maximum of 40 gm of carb a day, most of it in the evening as I am less resistant to insulin then - another thing I had to learn.

lcarter said:

Hi,

My hba1c is 93. It was 81 last year. I need to bring it down. I also weigh 181lbs and im 5'5 in height. Today i saw my dietician and dn and they suggest low carb approx max 130g carb a day, increase protein, start exercising and go onto myfitnesspal and tell it what weight i need to lose and go by the calories on there. I'm confused as the last time i looked into low carb it was low carb high fat- she said i didnt have to do this and that she herself did low carb low calorie. Myfitnesspal has given me 1390 daily calories. She also said not to log veggies or salads, or the odd piece of fruit unless its not part of a main meal. They want to refer me for a freestyle libre and a pump (tried dexcom just cant afford it) but i need to do the dafne course as the edward course i did was ten years ago.

Just wondering if anyone has any advice at all?

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Many high carb things such as cakes, biscuits, deserts etc are also high calorie, so you may find that reducing the amount of carbs automatically reduces the calories, if you don't compensate too much with increased fat. You could compare the carbs and calories you typically eat now with the targets to see if that is likely to be the case.

Mel dCP said:

What do you mean by a “drug like effect”? I’m a member of the group and no such thing has ever been mentioned. Just curious

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By this I mean it lowers blood glucose so well (food as medicine).

Mel dCP said:

What do you mean by a “drug like effect”? I’m a member of the group and no such thing has ever been mentioned. Just curious

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I'm assuming by drug like, they mean it has an affect on bs levels.

Mbaker said:

By this I mean it lowers blood glucose so well (food as medicine).

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Good to clarify, thanks!

lcarter said:

Thanks everyone. Im trying to cut out the bread, pasta, rice and potatoes.. But I'm still going to eat fruit and have milk... Ive got that book and its great- but it's a very severe way of lowering carbs as he admits he is no carbs- i just need to reduce mine. Thanks again

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Remember I said I wouldnt give advice? Scratch that, one piece of advice on fruit is that if you must have it then eat your fruit do not drink it. Drinking fruit juices or smoothies can promote appetite in some people. Best of luck to you.

lcarter said:

Thanks everyone. Im trying to cut out the bread, pasta, rice and potatoes.. But I'm still going to eat fruit and have milk... Ive got that book and its great- but it's a very severe way of lowering carbs as he admits he is no carbs- i just need to reduce mine. Thanks again

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You'll probably need to have those sugary foods and drinks on hand to use for keeping up your BG levels, as you drop the starchy foods.

Mbaker said:

I agree with @Guzzler, the Facebook group have posted results for their HbA1c's of 5.7; it is a private group with recognised expertise for Type 1's who want to do LCHF. LCHF has a drug like effect so whilst using insulin extra care has to be taken and cannot be underestimated.

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Actually the group focuses more on LCHP (low-carb, high-protein), though there are some who do keto, paleo, LCHF, vegetarians, etc. They also tend to recommend using "R" for meal insulin, though, again, there are others who use humalog, or a combo of humalog mixed with R for meals. R does seem to have a more suitable activity curve to better handle protein gluconeogenesis, and on that diet as a type-1, protein needs to be covered by insulin.

All types of basal insulin used in the group... to each his own as far as that goes, and whatever works best for you and your routine, schedule.

They share recipes, and although somewhat restrictive, a good variety of meals are possible with some substitutions (carb-reduction). Example, low-carb "bread" is possible, made with eggs, egg-whites, almond flour, coconut flour, psyllium, etc...