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How many carbs should I be eating??

E

Eddmar

Member
Messages
21
Hi there, I’m type 2 diagnosed 3,years ago and still getting very high readings. I’m desperate to avoid taking medication like the metformin that was prescribed without trying my best to control it with food first. Didn’t get much advice on diagnosis and although I cut out cakes biscuits sugar in tea etc I feel that probably isn’t enough and it’s more the carbs I’ve still had (thinking I was being healthy!)
I have low sugar but/grain cereal for breakfast or eggs. Lunch is soup, half can of baked beans occasionally with a brown slice of bread and dinner I stick to 1 cup brown rice or pasta or 6 roast or new potatoes with skin on. If I cut carbs even less I’m hungry. Not over weight whatsoever so not wanting to lose weight. What am I doing wrong please? Thanks everyone
 
Welcome @Eddmar. I have a hunch, based on that information, you may not like the advice likely to come your way but top man for wanting to take the low carb non meds route. Some find very low carb hard so they combine low carb with medication. I look forward to reading how you progress.
 
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Eddmar said:
Hi there, I’m type 2 diagnosed 3,years ago and still getting very high readings. I’m desperate to avoid taking medication like the metformin that was prescribed without trying my best to control it with food first. Didn’t get much advice on diagnosis and although I cut out cakes biscuits sugar in tea etc I feel that probably isn’t enough and it’s more the carbs I’ve still had (thinking I was being healthy!)
I have low sugar but/grain cereal for breakfast or eggs. Lunch is soup, half can of baked beans occasionally with a brown slice of bread and dinner I stick to 1 cup brown rice or pasta or 6 roast or new potatoes with skin on. If I cut carbs even less I’m hungry. Not over weight whatsoever so not wanting to lose weight. What am I doing wrong please? Thanks everyone
Click to expand...

Can I ask a bit more info first..

What kind of readings are you getting?

What was your last HbA1c?

No meat mentioned in your diet are you vegetarian?

Oops edit to add Hi and welcome...
 
Eddmar said:
What am I doing wrong please? Thanks everyone
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums.

Well, there's certainly plenty of scope for reducing the carbs in your diet (eg bread, potatoes, rice, grains, pasta, most fruit).

I'm going to link you to @JoKalsbeek 's awesome blog about T2 and diet.

JoKalsbeek's blog | Diabetes Forum • The Global Diabetes Community

And if low carb doesn't work for you then bear in mind that at least 10% of t2s are actually misdiagnosed T1s (slow onset). So unlikely but if diet stops working in the first few years a distinct possibility.

Good luck.
 
EllieM said:
Well, there's certainly plenty of scope for reducing the carbs in your diet (eg bread, potatoes, rice, grains, pasta, most fruit).
Click to expand...

And I forgot to actually answer the main question. How many carbs varies enormously from person to person. Some people can tolerate 150g, others need to go below 20g. Get a meter and eat to it - if your blood sugar goes up more than 2mmol/l 2 hours after the meal you've had too many carbs. But I suspect that it will be quite easy to knock a lot of carbs from your diet, so hopefully you can don't have to go desperately low carb.
 
Thank you very much for warm welcome and advice. It’s very helpful to hear points of view and advice from others. Learn something new every day! I’ll check out what you suggested
 
Hi, it would seem that you base your meals around carbohydrate sources. Try starting with protein sources instead and adding in fat sources and above-ground vegetables. You can then decide which protein sources you prefer. In this way you will feel more full at the end of meals. For example breakfast today was fried egg, mushrooms, tomatoes and buttery, garlicky spinach. Yesterday was cheese omelette. If time is an issue then low-carb toast with nut butter or other toppings is an option.
Have you been following the standard advice that is still given out by some dieticians and DNs?
 
Hi. You could reduce the carbs a bit more and set yourself a limit of perhaps 150gm/day? Minimise the cereal for breakfast and make sure it has no sugar added. Are the baked beans low-sugar ones as the standard ones are loaded with sugar. Soup can also have loads of sugar added and may be high'ish carb. Have fats and proteins to keep you feeling full
 
Honestly, you could eat no carbs at all and be better for it. You're getting high readings because you are eating very high carb foods. I like that kind of food myself, but it's trash. We can't handle carbs. Don't eat carbs.
 
I agree that testing is the best way to go low carb. It is the only way to check how many carbs you can eat without higher spikes.
Many dietitians still recommend the eatwell plate for T2s, not realising that much carb content is bad for many of us. And that brown bread and brown rice have as many carbs as white versions.

You could try substituting 90s bread made with ground almonds for bread - I add a little milled flaxseed to mine, And cauliflower rice made using the oven method is a good sub for rice.
I wasn't so happy with courgetti but am getting used to it - you need to make the sauce much thicker though.
No great sub for jacket potatoes but as I can safely eat more carbs then many here I do sometimes have a small portion of roasted butternut squash. For mash, I have mashed cauliflower, maybe with a little butternut, then butter and plenty of pepper.
 
For the best shot at success you should eat as close to no carb as you can. I follow a keto way of eating, and while I can allow up to about 20g of net carb daily, less is ALWAYS better. It's a radical change in eating patterns for anyone coming from a standard high carb diet (which is just about everyone), but the standard diet is what got us into this mess.
 
Eddmar said:
Hi there, I’m type 2 diagnosed 3,years ago and still getting very high readings. I’m desperate to avoid taking medication like the metformin that was prescribed without trying my best to control it with food first. Didn’t get much advice on diagnosis and although I cut out cakes biscuits sugar in tea etc I feel that probably isn’t enough and it’s more the carbs I’ve still had (thinking I was being healthy!)
I have low sugar but/grain cereal for breakfast or eggs. Lunch is soup, half can of baked beans occasionally with a brown slice of bread and dinner I stick to 1 cup brown rice or pasta or 6 roast or new potatoes with skin on. If I cut carbs even less I’m hungry. Not over weight whatsoever so not wanting to lose weight. What am I doing wrong please? Thanks everyone
Click to expand...
Hi and welcome to the forum. I'll be blunt. You need to unlearn all the healthy eating advice, all the assumptions about what's healthy and what's not. I do mean all. As Type 2 diabetics we are not by definition good at handling carbohydrates. Some of us are better than others at it but we all have the same problem. Eating carbohydrates is therefore going to cause us a problem as Type 2s - just how big of a problem depends on the individual. You can find out what works for you by eating and testing - and, unless your memory is very good, recording what you ate and what the test results were. For me, I found I need to be around the 20g/day mark. No bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit, sugar. That got my BG back into the normal range pretty quickly (wasn't all that high to begin with) and has taken off some of the weight I'd gained in the last eight or ten years. More to be done. It's also reduced all my diabetic symptoms - oedema, tinnitus, unhealed wounds, kidney problems, neuropathy along with thirst and tiredness etc....some of which I've had for the ten years when I was having symptoms but was officially "not diabetic". Best of luck. This works.
 
Hello and welcome,

You've had some very good advice already so I will just add to the chorus. The answer to your question is that it depends on the individual and their goals. It can also depend on the sort of person you are-if you can do moderation or find it hard to stick to it. My suggestion is to calculate the amount of carbs you are currently eating and then decrease it by say 10% or 20% or even more depending on your amount and see the effect on your levels.

Like you I used to eat a lot of carbs. I went very low carb as I wanted to decrease why levels as soon as possible. I love carbs but find it easier to have almost none than to try moderation.

Good luck.
 
What @KennyA just said .
Can't make it any clearer

.
1. You need to unlearn all the healthy eating advice, all the assumptions about what's healthy and what's not. I do mean all.

2. As Type 2 diabetics we are not by definition good at handling carbohydrates.
Some of us are better than others at it but we all have the same problem.

3. Eating carbohydrates is therefore going to cause us a problem as Type 2s -

4. just how big of a problem depends on the individual
Click to expand...

T2D Bingo.
1-2-3-4..."WINNER"
 
KennyA said:
Hi and welcome to the forum. I'll be blunt. You need to unlearn all the healthy eating advice, all the assumptions about what's healthy and what's not. I do mean all. As Type 2 diabetics we are not by definition good at handling carbohydrates. Some of us are better than others at it but we all have the same problem. Eating carbohydrates is therefore going to cause us a problem as Type 2s - just how big of a problem depends on the individual. You can find out what works for you by eating and testing - and, unless your memory is very good, recording what you ate and what the test results were. For me, I found I need to be around the 20g/day mark. No bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit, sugar. That got my BG back into the normal range pretty quickly (wasn't all that high to begin with) and has taken off some of the weight I'd gained in the last eight or ten years. More to be done. It's also reduced all my diabetic symptoms - oedema, tinnitus, unhealed wounds, kidney problems, neuropathy along with thirst and tiredness etc....some of which I've had for the ten years when I was having symptoms but was officially "not diabetic". Best of luck. This works.
Click to expand...
not on O P original post but why do you keep coming up as insulin dependent? Agree with your approach!
 
KennyA said:
Hi and welcome to the forum. I'll be blunt. You need to unlearn all the healthy eating advice, all the assumptions about what's healthy and what's not. I do mean all. As Type 2 diabetics we are not by definition good at handling carbohydrates. Some of us are better than others at it but we all have the same problem. Eating carbohydrates is therefore going to cause us a problem as Type 2s - just how big of a problem depends on the individual. You can find out what works for you by eating and testing - and, unless your memory is very good, recording what you ate and what the test results were. For me, I found I need to be around the 20g/day mark. No bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit, sugar. That got my BG back into the normal range pretty quickly (wasn't all that high to begin with) and has taken off some of the weight I'd gained in the last eight or ten years. More to be done. It's also reduced all my diabetic symptoms - oedema, tinnitus, unhealed wounds, kidney problems, neuropathy along with thirst and tiredness etc....some of which I've had for the ten years when I was having symptoms but was officially "not diabetic". Best of luck. This works.
Click to expand...
Hi there, thank you very much indeed for this invaluable advice. It sounds like I need to go very much back to the beginning and really count the carbs and measure BS and record. I can’t get my head around if a person is eating no carbs or very low then what exactly can they fill up on. As advice is easy on fruit, not too much meat, only handful of nuts so the list gets shorter and shorter and I’m not even meeting my minimal calories hence losing weight I don’t want to. I’m fairly fussy eater which doesn’t help but like most Meat and vegetables. What would be a typical days food for you? thanks again, very helpful
 
VashtiB said:
Hello and welcome,

You've had some very good advice already so I will just add to the chorus. The answer to your question is that it depends on the individual and their goals. It can also depend on the sort of person you are-if you can do moderation or find it hard to stick to it. My suggestion is to calculate the amount of carbs you are currently eating and then decrease it by say 10% or 20% or even more depending on your amount and see the effect on your levels.

Like you I used to eat a lot of carbs. I went very low carb as I wanted to decrease why levels as soon as possible. I love carbs but find it easier to have almost none than to try moderation.

Good luck.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much. So what would you eat on a typical day if you don’t mind me asking? On days when I run 5 miles do you think I could then up my carbs slightly ?? I find I’m seriously lacking in energy if I cut them low so can’t really imagine cutting out completely but I totally get what you mean with the all or nothing approach and cutting out totally. I just don’t get what I can eat!! Even peas contain carbs and now told today Tinned chopped tomatoes are bad as naturally high in sugar! Really appreciate all the advice
 
Roggg said:
For the best shot at success you should eat as close to no carb as you can. I follow a keto way of eating, and while I can allow up to about 20g of net carb daily, less is ALWAYS better. It's a radical change in eating patterns for anyone coming from a standard high carb diet (which is just about everyone), but the standard diet is what got us into this mess.
Click to expand...
Thank you, yes it’s a massive change and wish I’d been told things straight 3 years ago as thought I was doing well cutting out the sugar, biscuits, chocolate etc but clearly not unfortunately. I’m just confused what is ‘safe’ to eat other than meat and veg. I know it’s each persons Personal levels but Feel a bit mind blown if I’m honest. I’m quite a big bloke but not carrying any excess weight. Keto is what I always thought people did to lose weight. Thanks for commenting
 
ianpspurs said:
Welcome @Eddmar. I have a hunch, based on that information, you may not like the advice likely to come your way but top man for wanting to take the low carb non meds route. Some find very low carb hard so they combine low carb with medication. I look forward to reading how you progress.
Click to expand...
Thank you I will keep you posted. It’s been a real eye opener reading the advice on here and not sure I’m going to be up to it but we’ll see!! Thanks
 
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