How many carbs do YOU eat

[porl69]

Well I won't go on about the reported reduction in hypos from low carbing... but...

After 48 years with T1D you will never convince me. All I can say is each to their own. What works for 1 doesn't always work for someone else.

 

[Scott-C]

After 48 years with T1D you will never convince me. All I can say is each to their own. What works for 1 doesn't always work for someone else.

Yep, I agree.

I've been playing around with cgm for about three years now.

Because I can now see how bg moves in response to insulin and food, I'm getting safe low a1cs, absolutely no serious hypos, realised how out of date and ridiculous the "law of small numbers" is, and haven't had to restrict my diet in any way at all.

I wonder whether any long term psychological studies have been done on how those happy type1grit kids have done in the long term after years of their parents telling them, no, you can't eat that, instead of saying use your cgm to figure out how to eat that? Long term denial of simple pleasures can't be good in the long run.

 

[Numan]

I have approx 70-80g a day, approx 25 a meal and a snack/treat.

 

[Debandez]

I can vary between 20g and 70g a day. I dont really count these days. I do eat out quite a lot and it's hard to know exactly what goes into everything but i try to make the best choices.

Today for example I had coffee and cream for breakfast (just short of 3g) lunch was kippers (0g) with a black tea. Tonight is a naked chicken kebab with cabbage and a few onions. Chilli sauce a massive dollop of garlic mayo. 0g for chicken. Not sure about donor meat or chilli sauce. But shouldn't imagine there's more than 10g in it. It's my Saturday night treat. Large glass of red (3g).

 

[michita]

Yep, I agree.

I've been playing around with cgm for about three years now.

Because I can now see how bg moves in response to insulin and food, I'm getting safe low a1cs, absolutely no serious hypos, realised how out of date and ridiculous the "law of small numbers" is, and haven't had to restrict my diet in any way at all.

I wonder whether any long term psychological studies have been done on how those happy type1grit kids have done in the long term after years of their parents telling them, no, you can't eat that, instead of saying use your cgm to figure out how to eat that? Long term denial of simple pleasures can't be good in the long run.

Many of us can’t get Libre on prescription so far. I can’t. Law of small numbers is not out of date or ridiculous.... Your numbers are great and admirable but do you really need to attack what other people believe and do... ? We are all doing what we each think best for ourselves?

 

[SlimLizzy]

Aiming for around 100g carbs a day. Unlike many am having a problem with losing too much weight. This is despite eating copious amounts of cheese, nuts, and full fat yoghurt, am also including cream and butter in my diet. Recently added occasional avocado. Dont enjoy it, but if it will help...
By the way this is a before pic. Weight around 54kg, now am 48.4kg

 

[Resurgam]

I average 220g cho per day. A quick and very dirty calc is multiply carbs by 10 to get calories so 220g cho is roughly 2200 cals, which fitbit says I wear off. That's a total of 22 units of fast acting insulin per day. I dont usually alter my basal, and I know I cant take more than 15iu bolus in one go so don't eat more than 150g cho in one meal

But there are 4 calories per gram in carbs, last I heard.
Your 220 gm of carbs equals 880calories, not 2200 - big difference.

 

[DCUKMod]

Ladies and gents- this thread is about how many and what sort of carbs we each might eat, not why we do or don't manage in any other way.

That others do things differently to ourselves is for the individual to reconcile, where they are not asking for advice.

Many thanks

 

[West335]

Down to less than 50g a day now. Still getting cravings but it gets easier to say no every day

 

[BibaBee]

I can vary between 20g and 70g a day. I dont really count these days. I do eat out quite a lot and it's hard to know exactly what goes into everything but i try to make the best choices.

Today for example I had coffee and cream for breakfast (just short of 3g) lunch was kippers (0g) with a black tea. Tonight is a naked chicken kebab with cabbage and a few onions. Chilli sauce a massive dollop of garlic mayo. 0g for chicken. Not sure about donor meat or chilli sauce. But shouldn't imagine there's more than 10g in it. It's my Saturday night treat. Large glass of red (3g).

How much cream do you have in your coffee? 3g sounds a lot for just cream?

 

[Grumpy ole thing]

But there are 4 calories per gram in carbs, last I heard.
Your 220 gm of carbs equals 880calories, not 2200 - big difference.

Calories and carbs are different in different foods; as far as I know there is no way to link them directly. When I was first diagnosed I was underweight my mum would find the highest calorie brands with lowest carbohydrate so that I could eat more (back in the olden days when we had one dose of insulin per day and ate at set times to match the insulin profile).

 

[Emile_the_rat]

Probably way too much, but no big deal as long as I take my insulin. Think amount of carbs are a much more of a deal for type 2 diabetics.

What I wonder is how somone can get 50g or less of carbs a day. It strikes me that maybe someone mix up carbs and sugar (or maybe people just are a whole lot better at avoid carbs than me).Well, for instance, thats just as many carbs as two slices of bread and a glass of milk (an usually breakfast). I eat and dring alot more than just 2 slices of bread and a glass of milk through out the day.

1 slice of bread - 15g carbs = 30g
1 glass (200ml) of milk =10g
And probably 10g more if I put on jelly or something.
So just a typical breakfast and I’m up to 50g.

So I would guess that I could easily eat a few hundred carbs in just a day, as I usually eat what I want

But for all those with type 2 or diet regulated diabetes I would say well done It’s not an easy task to eliminate carbs when there is carbs in almost everything we eat

 

[MikeyJ]

I round up slightly with all workings out to make sure I don’t go over so may well be slightly under but allow myself that much. I haven’t weighed things out exactly for a while now. But roughly My protein bar each day is 10g, 6g for my 2 squares chocolate that I end up with most days - I still have milk in my hot drinks as can’t take to cream and drink on average 4 hot drinks a day. I don’t measure my milk but from previous years of slimming world on average a ‘splash’ of milk for me is about 30-40ml. Based on it being 40 x 4 cups is another 7-8g carb. So I write off 25g each day for the above. Leaving me 25-30g for my lunch/dinner. On days I dont have lunch or just eat meat for it I’m definitely not over 50. But I do use a lot of tomatoes & peppers in my cooking and salads always include cucumber and some onion and they all add up.
Some days I may well be 30-40g, but as a maximum I won’t go over the 50-60g mark. I feel that gives me a bit more movement than keto but is still low enough carb for my BG to be happy

I agree, Keto too strict and meticulous for me currently, I also subscribe to a protein bar and 2 squares of chocolate!

 

[hekrishna]

How many carbs do you eat? I know everyone with diabetes is different and some can handle more carbs than others.

Also what sort of carbs do you eat?

no

 

[DCUKMod]

Probably way too much, but no big deal as long as I take my insulin. Think amount of carbs are a much more of a deal for type 2 diabetics.

What I wonder is how somone can get 50g or less of carbs a day. It strikes me that maybe someone mix up carbs and sugar (or maybe people just are a whole lot better at avoid carbs than me).Well, for instance, thats just as many carbs as two slices of bread and a glass of milk (an usually breakfast). I eat and dring alot more than just 2 slices of bread and a glass of milk through out the day.

1 slice of bread - 15g carbs = 30g
1 glass (200ml) of milk =10g
And probably 10g more if I put on jelly or something.
So just a typical breakfast and I’m up to 50g.

So I would guess that I could easily eat a few hundred carbs in just a day, as I usually eat what I want

But for all those with type 2 or diet regulated diabetes I would say well done It’s not an easy task to eliminate carbs when there is carbs in almost everything we eat

Emile, as a long-standing reduced carber, it gets easier over time. I have full fat yogurt with rhubarb or the like at breakfast, then the calories I might usually have for carbs are replaced by additional protein and fats during the day.

My finds are that fats are very filing, and very rich, in terms of providing my body with fuel, so I can pack away plenty of calories without necessarily upping the carbs.

I'm not on meds, not have I ever been, so to manipulate my blood sugars into a good place it has been necessary to adjust my diet. Once adjusted, it hasn't felt a hardship to maintain that's position. Those using insulin, or other medications driving down their blood sugars have additional options, in terms of blood glucose management.

Some choose to reduce their carbs and usually take less meds, but some are equally happy to maintain their diet with more carbs in and to accept a more intensive management style, whether that be more medication, the splitting or timing of it, or whatever.

As individuals we each make our own choices.

 

[Resurgam]

Calories and carbs are different in different foods; as far as I know there is no way to link them directly. When I was first diagnosed I was underweight my mum would find the highest calorie brands with lowest carbohydrate so that I could eat more (back in the olden days when we had one dose of insulin per day and ate at set times to match the insulin profile).

There is a direct link - if you know how many grams of the macronutrients there are in a food then you can calculate the calories from each and also the total calories.
I was surprised at such a large error in the calculation of calories.

 

[Debandez]

How much cream do you have in your coffee? 3g sounds a lot for just cream?

I use carbs and cals app. Only going off that to.be honest. I do add a good splash.

 

[Debandez]

How much cream do you have in your coffee? 3g sounds a lot for just cream?

To be honest I thought there was less than 1g until I put it in the app. Got a bit of a surprise. So I've just had a Google. I think 3g is way over estimate. Probably less than 1g!

 

[Emile_the_rat]

Emile, as a long-standing reduced carber, it gets easier over time. I have full fat yogurt with rhubarb or the like at breakfast, then the calories I might usually have for carbs are replaced by additional protein and fats during the day.

My finds are that fats are very filing, and very rich, in terms of providing my body with fuel, so I can pack away plenty of calories without necessarily upping the carbs.

I'm not on meds, not have I ever been, so to manipulate my blood sugars into a good place it has been necessary to adjust my diet. Once adjusted, it hasn't felt a hardship to maintain that's position. Those using insulin, or other medications driving down their blood sugars have additional options, in terms of blood glucose management.

Some choose to reduce their carbs and usually take less meds, but some are equally happy to maintain their diet with more carbs in and to accept a more intensive management style, whether that be more medication, the splitting or timing of it, or whatever.

As individuals we each make our own choices.

I can see how this works for type 2 diabetics I know fats gives a slower increase of blood sugar and less chance of a crash later.

But you should not advice or promote that everyone has a choice or additional options if they are on insulin. That is a rather dangerous and faulty advice (if taken wrong). There will always be some amount of carbs in what we eat, and those on insulin does not produce anything by themself so they need insulin to lower their blood sugar. Also fat will be broken down to glucose if you do not eat carbs, so insulin will always be necessary for those who take it. It is different with type 2 that do have their own insulin, because it will lower with time for them if they just wait and eat right.

I might misunderstood your advice, so sorry if I did . I know reducing carbs can help even for insulin dependent diabetics. But we can never stop on medication, because without insulin we will die. So since I must take insulin for the rest of my life anyway, I don’t see why I should go on diet. Because if I take 5, 10, 20 or 40 or more units a day does not matter for me at the end of the day, as long as I be able to keep my blood sugar within a health range. But I do understand if other people thinks differently. I just share mu opinion and choice of life, but that does not make it the right way or answere.

I think it is very important to always have in mind that insulin dependent diabetes as a disease are completely different from type 2. What’s working for a type 2 does not necessary work for those on insulin, and the other way around. The same way, I should never promote that type 2s or diabetics on oral meds should eat whatever they like because it can work for us on insulin. The same way that diets will never work alone for us on insulin

 

[DCUKMod]

I can see how this works for type 2 diabetics I know fats gives a slower increase of blood sugar and less chance of a crash later.

But you should not advice or promote that everyone has a choice or additional options if they are on insulin. That is a rather dangerous and faulty advice (if taken wrong). There will always be some amount of carbs in what we eat, and those on insulin does not produce anything by themself so they need insulin to lower their blood sugar. Also fat will be broken down to glucose if you do not eat carbs, so insulin will always be necessary for those who take it. It is different with type 2 that do have their own insulin, because it will lower with time for them if they just wait and eat right.

I might misunderstood your advice, so sorry if I did . I know reducing carbs can help even for insulin dependent diabetics. But we can never stop on medication, because without insulin we will die. So since I must take insulin for the rest of my life anyway, I don’t see why I should go on diet. Because if I take 5, 10, 20 or 40 or more units a day does not matter for me at the end of the day, as long as I be able to keep my blood sugar within a health range. But I do understand if other people thinks differently. I just share mu opinion and choice of life, but that does not make it the right way or answere.

I think it is very important to always have in mind that insulin dependent diabetes as a disease are completely different from type 2. What’s working for a type 2 does not necessary work for those on insulin, and the other way around. The same way, I should never promote that type 2s or diabetics on oral meds should eat whatever they like because it can work for us on insulin. The same way that diets will never work alone for us on insulin

To be absolutely clear, Emile, I was not suggesting for a moment that people using insulin should low carb and not take their medication. I was saying that we all manage this condition with the tools available to us, which depending on. Us as individuals can include some or all of:
- Diet
- Exercise
- Oral medication
- Non-insulin ijnjectable meds
- Insulin
and in some cases, combinations of some or all of those things.

For me, on no medication, I need to manage my diet and I also use some exercise too. For those taking insulin, for example, may have slightly wider dietary options, provided they match up their insulin doses.

Of course that is very, very over-simplified, but no one solution fits all.

I hope that clarifies the point I was trying to make.