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How Many Carbs per day

PatsyB

PatsyB

Well-Known Member
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3,054
Location
Notts
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
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Diabetes
I am told different things about how many carbs a type 2 should have daily..... so am asking in here
what is the recommended carb intake per day should a type 2 Diabetic Lady have
 
PatsyB said:
what is the recommended carb intake per day should a type 2 Diabetic Lady have
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Unfortunately it's one of those "how long is a piece of string" questions. People vary dramatically. The only real way to find out is to buy a blood testing meter and test your blood sugar before and after meals. If your blood sugar goes up too much you'll know that you need to reduce the carbs.....
 
Counting carbs is not like counting calories, no difference between men and women but every difference between us all.

Lower carb is considered to be anything under roughly 130g per day. How much lower than that you go depends on how you personally react to carbs and to the medications you take. Do you keep a food diary? Testing against your meals is the only way to go to learn how many carbs per day you and your meter are happy with.
 
Agree entirely with @EllieM

I can only add most seem to be under 130g, many under 80g, a significant number under 40g, and quite a number under 20g. (See as stated a piece of string answer)
 
Personally I keep to between 30g - 50g/day. However @PatsyB be careful with reducing carbs quickly as I think if I remember rightly you are on insulin. You risk hypoing if you aren’t careful about balancing your insulin dose against carbs eaten.
 
There’s no “should have”. That is to say, there’s no minimum requirement. The maximum is personal choice based on many variables.
 
I see everyone recommending to eat to your metre when this question comes up. But how do you decide what an okay reaction to a meal is?
I see opinions on this vary quite widely too with some seeing 8.0 - 10.0 mmol if they test at the one hour mark and not being phased as long as it returns to 6.0 - 7.0 mmol by the 2 hour post meal point, but then others strive to keep their levels between 4.0 and 6.0 at all times.

There is some evidence of cellar damage happening once the blood sugar rises beyond 7.8 mmol, isn't there? (Can anyone provide links to the literature that explains this?)
 
As the OP is on Insulin I think there needs to be advice from low carb Insulin users for it to be relevant and safe. Hopefully someone like that will respond.
 
Cocosilk said:
I see opinions on this vary quite widely too with some seeing 8.0 - 10.0 mmol if they test at the one hour mark and not being phased as long as it returns to 6.0 - 7.0 mmol by the 2 hour post meal point, but then others strive to keep their levels between 4.0 and 6.0 at all times.

There is some evidence of cellar damage happening once the blood sugar rises beyond 7.8 mmol, isn't there? (Can anyone provide links to the literature that explains this?)
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Without derailing thread, link in my signature discusses that very thing.

(Just to add the 140mg/dl figure on the dcuk site = 7.8, mmol )

https://www.bloodsugar101.com/must-you-deteriorate
 
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Cocosilk said:
I see everyone recommending to eat to your metre when this question comes up. But how do you decide what an okay reaction to a meal is?
I see opinions on this vary quite widely too with some seeing 8.0 - 10.0 mmol if they test at the one hour mark and not being phased as long as it returns to 6.0 - 7.0 mmol by the 2 hour post meal point, but then others strive to keep their levels between 4.0 and 6.0 at all times.

There is some evidence of cellar damage happening once the blood sugar rises beyond 7.8 mmol, isn't there? (Can anyone provide links to the literature that explains this?)
Click to expand...
Which is why it is important to say again that one should choose a level that one is happy with. No use striving for particular levels if it makes you miserable in the long term. As is oft said here, this is a marathon not a sprint.
 
Mr_Pot said:
As the OP is on Insulin I think there needs to be advice from low carb Insulin users for it to be relevant and safe. Hopefully someone like that will respond.
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I was thinking about that too with the hypo risk for those on insulin so they usually recommend slightly higher levels, don't they? Better to eat fewer carbs and try to reduce insulin if you can though, right?
 
so between 30 and 50 being careful to watch the sugar levels
 
PatsyB said:
so between 30 and 50 being careful to watch the sugar levels
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@PatsyB you appear to have quoted the level of carbs I have found to suit me. I am not on insulin so am not at risk of hypos. You need to work with your health care team to learn how to adjust your insulin if you are going to start reducing your carb level.
 
Do you take a fixed dose of insulin or do you adjust it to suit your meals and current bg levels? That’s going to have a big bearing on whether you just reduce carbs and adjust as you go or need to seek medical advice on dropping your doses...
 
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