I need 3000 calories per day

[Dave with T2]

This is my first post. I was diagnosed Type 2 in May but saw it coming since April.

Chasing remission through diet and exercise I have seen my weight drop from 14 st 5 lbs to 11 st 8 lbs. I have not followed any extreme diet but stopped eating between my 3 meals a day and now eat smaller portions. I feel very well and take two 3 mile walks daily.

However, I now need the weight loss to stop. Fitbit tells me I am burning about 3,300 calories per day and though that may be an exaggeration I do believe I need to consume perhaps 3000 calories per day to prevent further weight loss. At an NHS diabetes course I attended yesterday the dietician advised limiting carbs to 135g per day which is only 540 calories worth. This is unrealistic if I am to consume 3000 calories across 3 meals per day.

I appreciate that most of us with Type 2 are initially trying to lose weight but would welcome advice from forum members who have got past that phase and are now eating to maintain weight with a very active lifestyle. What proportion of your calories come from carbs, fat and protein? How many calories do you aim for at breakfast lunch and dinner?

Thank you

Dave

 

[lucylocket61]

Most of my calories come from protein and healthy fats. They are your friends. What are you currently eating a day, what was your hba1c, and are you on any meds for diabetes?

3000 Cals a day is a lot. Even my 6' 6" husband doesn't need that many. Why do you need so many?

 

[Deleted member 543160]

In general fats have double the calories of carbs and protein, are you taking this into account?

Like @lucylocket61 my (generally two small) meals consist of mainly of fat and protein. with around 20-50g carbs a day limit, sometimes less. While I have also needed to lose weight my main aim as a T2 has primarily been to control my glucose levels, and I've been able to do both by relying on fat as my main source of fuel. I've never had the need to consider calories at all.

 

[Dave with T2]

HbA1c coming down:

61, 58, 46, 41

No medication.

I need 3000 calories because of the exercise I take. 2500 recommended for average man so an extra 500 seems reasonable given I am walking 6 miles a day on a hilly golf course.

Fitbit reckons I use about 3,300 per day but I don’t know how accurate it is. The point is I am still losing weight and want to stop.

 

[lucylocket61]

HbA1c coming down:

61, 58, 46, 41

No medication.

I need 3000 calories because of the exercise I take. 2500 recommended for average man so an extra 500 seems reasonable given I am walking 6 miles a day on a hilly golf course.

Fitbit reckons I use about 3,300 per day but I don’t know how accurate it is. The point is I am still losing weight and want to stop.

I suggest upping your fats, and having your thyroid checked.

Can you give us an idea of what you eat in a typical day?

 

[Daibell]

I think you are worrying too much about Calories as the body uses each food group in different ways and a calorie can have any combination of those food groups. Much better to set the carbs at a sensible level which your dietician has done which will help keep BS down and then have as many fats and proteins as you need to keep you feeling full.

 

[Win71]

This is my first post. I was diagnosed Type 2 in May but saw it coming since April.

Chasing remission through diet and exercise I have seen my weight drop from 14 st 5 lbs to 11 st 8 lbs. I have not followed any extreme diet but stopped eating between my 3 meals a day and now eat smaller portions. I feel very well and take two 3 mile walks daily.

However, I now need the weight loss to stop. Fitbit tells me I am burning about 3,300 calories per day and though that may be an exaggeration I do believe I need to consume perhaps 3000 calories per day to prevent further weight loss. At an NHS diabetes course I attended yesterday the dietician advised limiting carbs to 135g per day which is only 540 calories worth. This is unrealistic if I am to consume 3000 calories across 3 meals per day.

I appreciate that most of us with Type 2 are initially trying to lose weight but would welcome advice from forum members who have got past that phase and are now eating to maintain weight with a very active lifestyle. What proportion of your calories come from carbs, fat and protein? How many calories do you aim for at breakfast lunch and dinner?

Thank you

Dave

Have you had thyroid checked? I have underactive thyroid, so i am exhausted most the day, if you have over active you will lose weight fast, request thyroid test (yep more bloods) and check with DN on how it effects T2

 

[EllieM]

Fitbit reckons I use about 3,300 per day but I don’t know how accurate it is. The point is I am still losing weight and want to stop.

What are your blood sugars like?
Unintended weight loss is a red flag for T1. Have you had cpeptide and/or GAD tests to confirm that you have T2 rather than the much rarer T1?

Otherwise, as others have said, maybe you just need to up your fat/protein intake?

 

[MrsA2]

I spent a day walking with 4 friends earlier this year. We all walked the same route, at the same time and pace. They were all wearing fitbits. At the end the fitbits gave steps of 8,000, 11,000 ,13,000 and 14,000.
I know steps are not calories but if that the variance in measurements I won't be using one.

 

[EllieM]

I spent a day walking with 4 friends earlier this year. We all walked the same route, at the same time and pace. They were all wearing fitbits. At the end the fitbits gave steps of 8,000, 11,000 ,13,000 and 14,000.
I know steps are not calories but if that the variance in measurements I won't be using one.

I have a fitbit because that was the cheapest way to get a watch that would sync with my dexcom. It's pretty consistent with the same number of steps when I repeat the same walk. Of course, different people have different step sizes so I can well believe that a tall person might take far fewer paces than a shorter person? But I agree, not sure how much credence I'd put in its ability to calculate calories expenditure....

 

[EBe66]

No personal experience with a fitbit, but I would suggest to be weary trusting these gadgets. A friend of my claimed to walk 30.000+ steps a day while working as an order picker. When he switched to an apple watch this number "magically" more then halved. As did the calculated calories. Most of these calorie calculation tend to be way, and I mean way of. We like to believe the higher number of course. But if you have or can get your hands on some other device, compare them. The differences can be shocking. For calorie calculations your weight is pretty important, a person walking 10.000 steps while weighing 56 kg uses a lot less calories than a person weighing 112 kg's. If you enter your weight once and forget to update it when you loose weight...
Ever sat on a cheap exercise bike with a manual tension adjuster? No matter if it's on the litest settings or the hardest, x number of rotations of the paddles is a calorie. Sure...
"Needing" 3000 calories a day because of a 6 mile daily walk seems pretty much. Everybody is different but I cycle an average of 170km a week and walk about 15km per workweek (on the flattest ground in the world) and do it on less then 1000 calories a day and can only wish I would loose some weight. The 2500 for a man is a pure theoretical value in my humble opinion.

limiting carbs to 135g per day which is only 540 calories worth

Here I think you are more or less suggesting other food components then carbs have no calories which of course is far from correct. Like others have already pointed out the caloric contents of fats is way higher then that of carbs.

Edit: By the way, this cycling I tend to do with 4-5 gadgets. Care to guess how many of them give the same numbers at the end of a ride?

 

[Marie 2]

I would be really suspicious of possibly being a type 1.What happens with a type one is they can eat extra food and lose weight. That's because you don't make enough insulin to actually process your food so some goes through you. Unwanted weight loss is a common red flag of type 1. Lifestyle and diet changes can work at first because as an adult onset you still make insulin for awhile, until you don't make enough and eventually it stops altogether. That can take years.

I'm not saying you are. We all can have different metabolisms. But I would suggest if the problem doesn't seem easily fixable you might request a C-Peptide test and an antibody test. A C-Peptide test if low or low normal, is a sign of being a type 1 because you aren't making enough insulin. High or high normal is a sign of type 2, because you are insulin resistant and make extra insulin to try to make up for it. An antibody test if positive is a sign of type 1, although a few type 1's don't have the antibodies and don't make insulin and they don't know why.

 

[Geordie_P]

First, like the others mentioned above, I think it's worth getting checked for T1 if possible. After that, if you're just T2 and struggling to keep your weight up, then I'd simply go heavy on the bacon, butter, eggs and cheese. You'll soon go over 3000 calories a day like that. Walnuts, almonds, pistachios- all ludicrously high in calories as well!

 

[HSSS]

I would be really suspicious of possibly being a type 1.What happens with a type one is they can eat extra food and lose weight. That's because you don't make enough insulin to actually process your food so some goes through you. Unwanted weight loss is a common red flag of type 1. Lifestyle and diet changes can work at first because as an adult onset you still make insulin for awhile, until you don't make enough and eventually it stops altogether. That can take years.

I'm not saying you are. We all can have different metabolisms. But I would suggest if the problem doesn't seem easily fixable you might request a C-Peptide test and an antibody test. A C-Peptide test if low or low normal, is a sign of being a type 1 because you aren't making enough insulin. High or high normal is a sign of type 2, because you are insulin resistant and make extra insulin to try to make up for it. An antibody test if positive is a sign of type 1, although a few type 1's don't have the antibodies and don't make insulin and they don't know why.

Whilst I agree with all you said it and there is a small chance this could be the case it is important to note before @Dave with T2 panics, as many might, that he says he is eating smaller meals and cut all snacks. I’m guessing they are all low fat too as is mainstream advice. In which case it’s far more likely to simply be not enough food if they are really small and lacking in healthy natural fats.
@Dave with T2 Some of us eat as few as 5-10% of our calories from carbs and as low as 20g a day. Others eat more, up to the 135g advice. It all depends what level achieves the blood glucose results we need rather than weight. Essentially we don’t typically restrict calories overall or in most cases even count them. We just eat unmessed with proteins and unprocessed fats (not vegetable and seed oils) until we’re full and have enough energy for our lifestyles. We adjust these for weight maintenance and even gains leaving carbs alone

 

[jackois]

I'd download the MyFitnessPal app, input your height, weight and set a weight loss goal of zero and see what it reccomends as far as calorie intake required...

I use it and it automatically alters calorie allowances for exercise as your weight reduces.

 

[HSSS]

I'd download the MyFitnessPal app, input your height, weight and set a weight loss goal of zero and see what it reccomends as far as calorie intake required...

I use it and it automatically alters calorie allowances for exercise as your weight reduces.

All well and good for simply making calculations and storing lists if that’s all you need.

The problem with type 2 though is we don’t process carbs as the text books say we should if we were metabolically healthy and a calorie of carbs does very different things to us than a calorie of fat or protein does as a result.

 

[MargaretR]

J l/' . L l l l”

 

[Redshank]

Well done with bringing your blood sugar down
Your Fitbit suggests you need 3500 calories. You are losing weight.
Do you know how many calories you are actually eating?
I lost weight that I didn't need to lose so I did an accurate food diary for a while - weighing food counting calories and carbs in my diet. I found that many days I just wasn't eating enough even though I didn't feel hungry.
I found that for what I ate I lost weight at 2000kcal, gained weight at 3000kcal and generally maintained weight at 2500kcal. This also helped me see what food worked for me interms of maintaining weight and controlling blood sugar. I adjusted my diet and then didn't need a food diary. My weight and blood sugar has been stable for about 4 years since then.

Best of luck

 

[Antje77]

J l/' . L l l l”

Say hello to your cat from me!
How nice of him/her to chip in.

 

[lovinglife]

Link to a page on the main site, it works out your basic metabolic rate then gives you a calculation to work out calories you need to maintain weight. Not the holy grail but it will give you a good idea of your calorific needs

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/bmr-calculator.html