How many carbs...?

Low carb is really what suits you to get your blood sugar levels down.
There is a lot of recommendations, it all depends what you want to achieve.
At first you do need to reduce the amount of carbs slowly until you believe that your levels are coming down, what you are experiencing is carbs cravings. Once you get under 100gms for the day, your are low carbing.
Have a read around the low carb forum and I've no doubt that somebody will be along with links on what to eat and recipes.
It is also important to reduce your plate size.

If you sign up to myfitnesspal you can easily work out how many carbs you are having and it keeps a record for you. It's a bit of a bother at first but gets easier when your favourite foods are all in there. ,

According to the book "Eat Fat" by Dr Trudi Deakin a low carb diet is less than 130g a day or less than 26% of calories from carbs. I managed to stabilise my BG's at a good level on around 80g. but as nosher has said, this level is personal to each of us.

So I would cut down gradually and see where that takes you. As regards bread, personally I don't have any, but a lot of people here do. You need to test with a meter really to know whether you can tolerate it or not.

If you are hungry you can add fat to satiate you. I tend to add cream or butter to most things so that I feel more full.

I have been doing this since last March. I started on 126g carbs. This was reduced to 96g in April as it wasn't working for my BS. In May it went down to 75g. Since then I have come down through the 60's, and since January this year I have been consuming on average 50g a day in an attempt to improve matters even more. I have never suffered carb flu or hunger, so doing it gradually worked for me. I couldn't have gone cold turkey, I would have given up and fallen off the waggon. But that is me.

I eat bread, but never more than one slice (14g carbs in mine) and only with something fatty, usually 2 poached eggs and butter on toast. With salads I usually just have half a slice buttered, but again a lot of fat such as salmon or/and cheese. I like to keep any rise under 1.5mmol/l no matter what I eat, although sometimes I am up to 2mmol/l after certain meals, but back down to base soon after that.. All you can do is try your bacon butty and test before and at 2 hours and see.

Remember, carbs make you hungry - fat fills you up.

I don't know Muggle, you need your before level. As it stands, it means nothing at all. It is the actual rise that matters at your stage in this game.

So that was a rise of 0.3, which is nothing at all. Looks OK to try again and test again to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Very promising though!

Muggle71 said:

1 hour after my bacon sarnie my bg was 8.1. 2 hours after its down to 7.9. Is this ok?

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7.9 is under the T2 8.5..so it's good...for a bacon snng I would test at 3hr too for a late spike
a lot try and get back to normal levels and that is 6.6 @ 2hr
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045524.php

Muggle71 said:

Hi, just wondering how many carbs are classed as low carbs? Is it ok to eat a slice of brown bread if that's the only carb you will eat in a day? Yesterday I don't think I had many at all. I was constantly hungry. Today the hunger isn't as bad but I have the worst headache ever. I was wondering if a bacon sandwich is an ok lunch? One slice of the bread I have in (warburtons seeded) is just over 16 carbs per slice. Is that suitable?

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according to Dr Trudi Deakin on the Xpert course, Low carb is below 120g carbs and ultra low carb is below 50g
What I did was just ate at the level I felt comfortable at & tried to pare that down over time.

Muggle71 said:

Thanks, I wasn't sure if I needed to cut them out completely...

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Every food has some carbs, even lettuce. You can't cut them out completely! You need to use your meter to find your personal tolerance level, which could be anywhere between 20g and 120g.

Muggle71 said:

Thanks, I wasn't sure if I needed to cut them out completely...

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this is a way of living, not a "Gotterdammerung Kommando" suicide diet ! We have to live this life!

Unfortunately you have to work out for yourself how many carbs you can comfortably eat - there's no "one size fits all" as it depends on, for example,
(a) how our individual bodies can cope with handling carbs
(b) whether we need to to lower our glucose levels, reduce our weight, or both

There is information on recommended blood sugar levels here, which you can use as guidelines and, if you wish, to set your own (realistic) targets. Using your meter before and after meals will tell you how you are doing in relation to these figures, and you can then adjust your diet and carbs accordingly.

But whatever, you have to decide on a carb level which (still) allows you to eat a healthy diet, and that you will be able to keep to in the long term if necessary, as it may not just be a quick fix but end up being a new lifestyle, as CollieBoy has so charmingly explained it!

Robbity