Hi, I'm a newbie, advice please!

Hi and welcome! Not had much experience with GD - well, I am a man! :lol: However, I have quite a lot of experience with diabetes.

seahorse10 said:

I know there's no direct correlation between bs and calories

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You're right, but there IS a very extreme relationship between carbohydrates and BS (you'll see us refer to BG, blood glucose) You need to eat what's right for your baby, but modifying your cabs is the way to control BGs. You say you don't eat much; you don't need to restrict your food intake in cals to control BGs, just the carbs. That would also control your weight. You don't need to go low carb, particularly while you're pregnant, but being careful about the type of carbs you eat (cut down on the starchy ones) and reducing the total carb intake a little will probably do wonders. People with more experience of GD will I'm sure be along soon. Obviously, the health of your baby and yourself will override any diabetes advice that is in conflict. Carb content can be seen under "nutritional info" on the packaging of most food stuffs, or can be looked up on the internet for loose food. Remember, all fruit and a lot of veg has carbs too. The GDA of carbs for a women is 250grams; you could perhaps see how a limit of 150 affects your BGs SUBJECT to your medical team saying that's OK for the baby. This sort of diet would also be good after the baby for keeping the demon diabetes at bay!
By the way, you won't go into Ketosis on the level of carbs I'm talking about. That normally only occurs with very low carb intake, less than 30 grams a day I believe.
Good luck

Hi, I've had 8 babies now, and GD for at least 4 of them. If you are hungry, you need to eat more! I found a low carb diet with lots of protein was very filling, and I didn't feel hungry. A good typical diet was omelette for breakfast, with cheese and onion and mushrooms, then salad with meat or fish at lunch, then for dinner I would substitute a pile of broccoli and cauliflower for the starchy carb the rest of the family had. The collins gem counting carbs book is very useful to look up which foods and drink are low carb. The new atkins diet book also has low carb meal ideas, which I found helpful. You sound quite slim, so I don't know why the Dr was putting the scarers on you.

Exercise reduces blood sugar, and illness can raise it. It can be a bit random at times too! It isn't just food you need to think about, but activity too. Oh, and if you skip a meal, your liver dumps a heap of sugar into your blood, so it increases. :roll: If you can manage a walk or something each day, it helps enormously, and being fit for the birth always helps with that too. Hope it all goes well - do let us know!

Whether a patient has been diagnosed with diabetes or is in the pre-diabetes stage, it is never too late to make healthy changes. Maintaining a diet that is low in sugar and fat along with regular exercise will help you combat this disease. you should also maintain your blood pressure under 130/80.