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How many grams of carbs a day for good control

Andypgy said:
Any thought been told anything from 100 to 200
Click to expand...
Hi @Andypgy , welcome to the forum.

There is no set amount of carbs for good control. Some people are very good at matching their insulin doses to high carb meals, others do much better with lower carb choices.

Do you use an insulin to carb ratio to calculate your doses? How does it work out for you?
 
1 unit to 10 carbs but still not getting good control unless I have a really strict diet that’s hard to stick to
 
Hi Andypgy and welcome to the forums.

Apologies - this is written from my T2 viewpoint and might not be much use to you as a T1.

There's no simple answer to your question in my opinion. First off we're all different and each of us reacts to carbs in different ways. Not all carbs are the same - I can deal with legumes, but the same grams of carbs from pastry sends me high.

There seems to be a sort of agreement that 130 grams/day defines low carb. I think this is probably because that's approximately how much glucose you need, and if it doesn't come in food the body will (eg) use fat stores to produce it.

But it probably depends what you mean by control. For me, for the last four years, that's meant 20g/day. That has controlled my BG at a low-normal level and I've lost about 70lbs. Others have managed the same sort of thing on higher intakes. What is it that you want to achieve?
 
Andypgy said:
1 unit to 10 carbs but still not getting good control unless I have a really strict diet that’s hard to stick to
Click to expand...
How long have you been diagnosed?

1:10 is often just a starting point from where you and your diabetes nurse slowly work out your personal ratio.
Some people need 10 units for 10 grams of carbs, others need 2 units for 10 grams of carbs.
The ratio is often different depending on the time of day as well, for instance, I need much more insulin for the same amount of carbs in the morning than in the evening.

You can ask your diabetes nurse if you can go on a DAFNE course to help learning to adjust your doses to your food.

Home - DAFNE

DAFNE stands for Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating. It aims to help adults with type 1 diabetes lead as normal a life as possible.
dafne.nhs.uk dafne.nhs.uk
 
Hi
Grumpy old hack here been at it for 50 years ......

I can only talk about my own body and its about carbs insulin and exercise combined with blood testing.

Monday to friday my insulin needs are less for my evening meal, where i eat like a pig, because i'm on my feet all day at work.
Weekend i invariably do less so my insulin requirements are greater.

Is it insulin requirement or carb intake??

You can't teach that you have to experiment on yourself by testing and since the libre has become widely available i find it straight forward.

Its not an exact science as my own body is sensitive to exercise even when i was a child i recall going for a check up and they wanted to run some tests as i'd lost half a stone ......the 6 weeks holiday had been dry that year and i played tennis every day for 6 weeks...
Thats all it was...

I wish you well

Tony
 
So many variables to this question..

- How well do you react to carbs in general
- Can you pre bolus to time the insulin with the glucose rise
- What type of carbs - white refined carbs are absorbed quicker than slow release like lentils/grains/brown rice
- How does your body respond during the day, I respond poorly to carbs in the morning vs afternoon so insulin ratio varies because of this
- Do you exercise as this will also affect carb response
- Can you eat fat with carbs to delay the absorption

There is no one size fits all, it's down to your readings and how you respond to them, we are all different so it's down to you to gauge this.
 
I suppose an answer to your question is when the amount of carbs you eat gives you a blood sugar which is always in range, but as we all know that’s like looking for a chicken with a golden egg ,
I’ve been “ at it” over 40 years and still couldn’t say for certain , all I do know is that if I don’t experiment I’ll never find out , have had various professionals over the years explain about various things from carb counting to injection techniques blah blah blah , at the end of the day we have to find out what works for us as individuals , when your newly diagnosed it’s so difficult to actual grasp hold of the experimenting as your told to do this this and this ,and are wary of doing something wrong , totally understandable, but I was told years ago by a great guy , don’t let diabetes become a “ prison sentence “ finding out what works for you as an individual is definitely a step away for the prison sentence in my humble opinion
 
I suppose an answer to your question is when the amount of carbs you eat gives you a blood sugar which is always in range, but as we all know that’s like looking for a chicken with a golden egg ,
I’ve been “ at it” over 40 years and still couldn’t say for certain , all I do know is that if I don’t experiment I’ll never find out , have had various professionals over the years explain about various things from carb counting to injection techniques blah blah blah , at the end of the day we have to find out what works for us as individuals , when your newly diagnosed it’s so difficult to actual grasp hold of the experimenting as your told to do this this and this ,and are wary of doing something wrong , totally understandable, but I was told years ago by a great guy , don’t let diabetes become a “ prison sentence “ finding out what works for you as an individual is definitely a step away for the prison sentence in my humble opinion
 
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