Type 2 How Much Low Carbs Do I Need To Aim For?

[jenner68]

I am trying to keep to a low carb diet but how much low carbs do I need to aim for say per meal?. I need to find a balance between low carb diet and having enough energy?

 

[Resurgam]

Ah - you believe that carbs give you energy - it is, after all what the pushers claim.
A low carb diet is going to lower the need for insulin and hopefully your pancreas will respond to the lack of prompting and calm down.
Meanwhile your body will switch to burning fats, which is perfectly normal. It is called ketosis.
The easiest way to judge how many carbs to eat is using a blood glucose meter, and reduce the carb content of meals down to what you can cope with and not spike - people respond differently to different foods, so it is really a matter of fine tuning.

 

[Boo1979]

Low carb is anything under 120g carbs a day however what level works best, from what foods and at what times of day is a very matter - none of our bodies behave exactly the same as anyone elses so the only way to get an accurate answer to your questions is to do a bit of research to find out how YOUR body responds
you really need to be testing your blood sugar response to different foods in order to this out - test your blood sugar before eating and again 2 hours later and see a0 what the difference is ( you ideally want it undefr2mmol) and b) what the final level is ( you ideally want it under 7.5)

 

[bulkbiker]

Two ways of doing it really.. slowly cut your carbs until you find a level that is suitable looking at your meter or (what I did) cut as many as humanely possible, almost all in my case, and see how you go. I found the second course of action suited my all or nothing personality and gave me a bit of a challenge. The major plus was I quickly got into ketosis and found all the benefits of lower blood sugar, fewer insulin spikes(guess as can't measure) and more energy pretty quickly. If you are doing the slow reduction its harder to see the benefits quickly but if you are a slow and steady person who doesn't mind monitoring then it may work for you. Very important to get a meter though and probably keep a food diary so you can record what foods help and which hinder.

 

[britishpub]

...or if like me you like to keep things simple, just stop eating the obvious heavy carbs like bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and everything else that obviously contains processed **** and sugar, and see how it goes.

It might take a few days for you to get used to it, and stop craving carbs, but once you get over that it should be really easy.

I must say, if I'd had to test every time I ate anything and write stuff down I doubt whether I could have managed to get to where I am today, but I do have a good memory, but if you enjoy that sort of thing....

 

[Robbity]

Eating a low cab diet essentially means that you'll be replacing (most of) the energy that you were previously getting from carbs with energy from both dietary and stored fat sources. You need to go fairly low carb to force your body into making this switch.

I'm another who just cut out the obvious culprits, but did it in 2 stages because i was initially advised to avoid sugary food, so cut out sweets, cake, biscuits, jams and sugar itself. A little research told me that all high carb foods were what I should actually be avoiding so then added potatoes,bread, cereals, rice, pasta, etc to my Do Not Eat list. I didn't have a meter until after I found our forum, but by simply cutting out those foods I reduced my HbA1c from just over 60 at diagnosis, to 47 - so just about prediabetic - within three months. Getting my meter and doing some fine adjustments has shown me that I can manage to keep my levels down to bottom end of prediabetic by aiming to eat no more than 50g carbs a day, and still enjoy a wide range of low carb food, and this I've done for over 4 and a half years now.

Since we're all different, we need to find our own levels at which we can keep our glucose both as low as we can and stable, and at the same time eat a diet that's sustainable long term.

Robbity

 

[Terrytiddy]

I am trying to keep to a low carb diet but how much low carbs do I need to aim for say per meal?. I need to find a balance between low carb diet and having enough energy?

Hi @jenner68 as others have said it comes down to what you want. I did the same as @bulkbiker and went straight in. I did Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) and dropped to 20g carbs per day. I also started doing Intermittent Fasting (IF) again straight in at 18/6 ( I never use to eat breakfast so easy for me) At the end of the day its your call. I would suggest getting a Blood Glucose meter and testing before and after meals to see what carbs spike you. Have a look on YouTube at Dr Jason Fung and diet doctor and check the info on LCHF. Very good advice and there is a list of carbs in a lot of foods. Good luck