How many meals a day.

[MichaelUK]

Hiya everyone

Going to give the low carb eating a go since metformin is not bring my levels down low enough i am on 3*500mg per day and my BS reading is between 11 - 14 sometime goes to 16 depending if i eat alittle to much or have something processed.

Only ever been below 11 a couple of time and thats when i have not wanted much to eat so just had 5 pieces of fruit and some nuts for lunch a couple of time and my bs went from 11-12 to 9-10 for those two times.

sorry for the ramble lol

now to the question, how many times do most people eat in a day on low carb diet also do you try to not eat after a certain time of day i.e after 8pm.

I am going to start from today and try keep my carbs below 100g per day and if possible closer to 50g.

Also can any suggest any good recipes or books.

Thanks in advance

Michael

 

[noblehead]

Micheal,

I am type 1 on insulin, I eat around 100g of carbs a day, sometimes as little as 80g and some days 120g, and have my 3 main meals and a snack before bed.

Nigel

 

[Patch]

You'll definitely find that on a lo-carb diet you'll eat less. I often miss meals - I'd NEVER done that before lo-carbing.

Fat fills you up (It satiates). You can eat more fat while lo-carbing than you usually would, without it impacting your BGs (as long as you keep your carb intake down - for me, 50g is the absolute maximum in a day).

Snacking on nuts is a great way to feel full. Alonds, macadamias, pistachios - they're all good. Just remember to avoid (as far as possible) peanuts and cashews. These contain much more crabs than other nuts...

 

[Synonym]

Hi Michael

I would recommend that you stick to the normal quota of 3 meals a day. Some people even find it necessary to increase them to 4 or 5 smaller meals as it suits their lifestyle and needs better. I tend not to eat a full meal later than about 7pm if at all possible but you need to test and keep a note of the numbers in your food diary written against the food you have eaten so that you can note any patterns and can then change things in accordance with your observations.

Your numbers for a fruit and nut lunch are high! :shock: You do need to be careful with fruit as some can shoot your BG levels really high; I am careful of melon and pineapple and cannot touch bananas at all and it might be the same for you - or it might not - so test and see. I usually have to stick to just one piece of fruit at a time or my numbers soar; portion control is vital if you are going to get those numbers down!
As for nuts, some of us use the higher fat items to ensure we don’t lose weight so be careful not to overdo the nuts as you said earlier that you are actually trying to lose some weight.
As ever the best rule to follow is always to test and eat to your meter.

I don’t know if you have seen the advice that Ken and/or Sue, the Forum Monitors usually post for newly diagnosed T2s so will post it for you below. If you follow this carefully it will really help you to get to grips with your condition. 8)

Welcome to the forum. here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics.This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different .

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such a bread, potatoes, pasta and rice also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!

As a Type 2 the latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l.
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.
If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do 30 minutes moderate exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

 

[MichaelUK]

Hiya

Thank to everyone who have posted a reply.

Second day of low carb and i have seen a marked improvement in my numbers, between 9.4 - 13.1, i know these are high but compared to my before numbers which where 14-19 range i am very happy, i guess it just a case of testing,testing, testing and ruling out things that spike my levels.

Plus i am trying to get in 20-30 mins walking each day, this will help.

The fruit i usually eat are apples, pears, banana, satsuma. but like you say Synonym i think banana and maybe satsumas are going to have to go on the not to eat for now until i have a better idea of food that causes spikes.

Many thanks
Michael