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Type 2 How many carbs?

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dan1jess2

Well-Known Member
Messages
98
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hiya
I just wondered how you know how many carbs you should be trying to have a day or each meal/snack?? I don't have a dietician to see at our doctors and I am unsure, I am type 2 on metformin 2 a day, diagnosed 1st April, I have another 9-14ibs to loose to be ideal weight, it's coming off weekly? Am 5ft5 and 11stone? Thank you Ceri


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We can't answer that question because we all have different carb tolerances and thresholds. You will only discover yours by using a meter. I could say anywhere between 150g carbs and 10g carbs daily. As for each meal, this again varies. Personally I can't have any at all for breakfast, a few at lunch, the majority at evening meal. I don't snack. Total up to 30g a day, often less.

By testing our meals before and a couple of hours after first bite, keeping a food diary including portion sizes, and tweaking meals/foods/portion sizes until we are happy with the post meal levels is the only way to learn. It isn't a simple task, but worth it in the end.
 
Carbs don't really work like calories.

With calories, you work out your basal metabolic weight, eat less than you burn, and (in theory) you lose weight.

With carbs, you find out how much carby food your body can tolerate (it varies a lot from person to person). It can be anywhere from 20g a day, or less to 100s of grams. Others can tolerate more. But the thing we have in common is that we lose weight best when we eat less than our personal carb threshold.

Atkins came up with a good way of finding it. He said drop to less than 20g carbs a day for 2 weeks. If you lose weight, great. Then go up to 25g for a week. Still losing? Go to 30 g. And so on. The point you stop losing, is your personal carb tolerance.

You can do the same with blood glucose. So that is a quicker way to spot your carb tolerances. If your bg stays at normal levels you are below your personal carb tolerance. Drugs may help with this.

The weight loss comes as a complex interaction of hormones, calories, and protein/fat intake. When we drop carbs, we have to eat something - basically fat and protein. And since they are more satisfying and filling than carbs, if we eat lots of non-carby veg, and protein and fat, we often end up eating less and being less hungry than when we filled up with carbs. Which leads to weight loss.

Hope that helps. :)
 
I guess the previous reply is about right however with the news today it seems to blow the whole diet issue out of the water, No Carbs, Higher Fat levels, No Low Fat processed foods, Basically A good old fry up for breakfast plenty of Eggs and Protien seems to be at odds with the preaching of the last 20 odd years An article on Radio 4 yesterday morning summed it up Type 2 was known as "carb intolerant" I guess the wheel turns full circle any thoughts??
 
Agreed with @Bluetit1802. You will only know by testing before and 2 hours after. When it's a new food I'm adding I do a test before, at 1 hour then at 2 hours. Just to see if there is a spike in the middle. Also like Bluetit1802 said. Different food effect everyone different. I personally can handle about 20g per meal as long as it's not pure sugar. If I have a candy bar (or a portion of up to 20g) it spikes my sugars. 20g of multi grain bread is no problem.
 
paultrust said:
I guess the previous reply is about right however with the news today it seems to blow the whole diet issue out of the water, No Carbs, Higher Fat levels, No Low Fat processed foods, Basically A good old fry up for breakfast plenty of Eggs and Protien seems to be at odds with the preaching of the last 20 odd years An article on Radio 4 yesterday morning summed it up Type 2 was known as "carb intolerant" I guess the wheel turns full circle any thoughts??
Click to expand...

That also hit our national news over here in Canada. Although they then piled on a few "experts" and basically told us it was full of manure and to stick to the Canada food guide. If your diabetic this food guide is horrible. But all the dieticians keep pushing up to 250g of carbs a day with 150g as the low side. At least mine does.
 
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