Useless Pretty Boy
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 96
Hey, this is pretty much my first post here (though I introduced myself, so maybe that counts as my first). I've seen a lot around about going 'low-carb' and there seems to be quite a bit of animosity on the subject. I was wondering if I could get some explanation on a few things.
Firstly, as a type 1 diabetic, lowing my carb intake does seem to make logical sense. Carbs make blood sugar go up, ergo, taking in less will keep your BSLs down (for reference, my HbA1c is currently 5.4). I read Fergus' introduction to low carbing and it seems very concise and well written, but I was left with a couple of questions, I apologise if they've been raised elsewhere, I'm still learning where to look for things here.
It seems to me that carbohydrates are always referred to in an absolute manner. Really low is below 50g a day, quite low is less than 100g, high is above etc etc etc. But I would have thought that carbohydrate should be given as a percentage of your daily intake. To elaborate: I used to work 12 hours a day, on my feet, waiting tables in a busy restaurant. As such, I reckoned I was easily burning 3000 calories a day, maybe more. My fiancee works in an office at a desk. Even on her most extravagent days, she probably never burns more than 2000. But even now that I write for a living, and so don't expend as much energy, because I'm physically larger than she is, I'd still burn more energy at rest (I think I'm remembering this correctly from GCSE biology) than she would.
So wouldn't low carb for me actually still allow for a larger amount of carbohydrate per day than it would for her? Or is there a reason for it being measured in absolute amounts, rather than percentages?
I wanted to find out what most people do with their days. I've read about this Bernstein character and I honestly think that if I followed his advice about carb intake, I simply wouldn't be able to take in enough calories a day to not shrink down to a rake. I take about twice his daily recommended allowance of carbs as my pre-workout snack. I go to the gym about four or five times a week for two hours at a time and end up with blood sugar levels at about 6 or so after finishing. By comparison, my nightly insulin injection is at a level that lets me fast a whole day without hypoing, so I don't think I can be taking too much insulin.
I'm sorry if this is long winded. I'm just trying to ask if carbohydrate requirement is as absolute as it seems to be, or whether it's all relative? Is the fact that I have to take so much carbohydrate simply down to my body chemistry, or am I missing something? I don't have any diabetic friends to compare notes with, so I thought I'd canvass here.
Thanks for reading.
Firstly, as a type 1 diabetic, lowing my carb intake does seem to make logical sense. Carbs make blood sugar go up, ergo, taking in less will keep your BSLs down (for reference, my HbA1c is currently 5.4). I read Fergus' introduction to low carbing and it seems very concise and well written, but I was left with a couple of questions, I apologise if they've been raised elsewhere, I'm still learning where to look for things here.
It seems to me that carbohydrates are always referred to in an absolute manner. Really low is below 50g a day, quite low is less than 100g, high is above etc etc etc. But I would have thought that carbohydrate should be given as a percentage of your daily intake. To elaborate: I used to work 12 hours a day, on my feet, waiting tables in a busy restaurant. As such, I reckoned I was easily burning 3000 calories a day, maybe more. My fiancee works in an office at a desk. Even on her most extravagent days, she probably never burns more than 2000. But even now that I write for a living, and so don't expend as much energy, because I'm physically larger than she is, I'd still burn more energy at rest (I think I'm remembering this correctly from GCSE biology) than she would.
So wouldn't low carb for me actually still allow for a larger amount of carbohydrate per day than it would for her? Or is there a reason for it being measured in absolute amounts, rather than percentages?
I wanted to find out what most people do with their days. I've read about this Bernstein character and I honestly think that if I followed his advice about carb intake, I simply wouldn't be able to take in enough calories a day to not shrink down to a rake. I take about twice his daily recommended allowance of carbs as my pre-workout snack. I go to the gym about four or five times a week for two hours at a time and end up with blood sugar levels at about 6 or so after finishing. By comparison, my nightly insulin injection is at a level that lets me fast a whole day without hypoing, so I don't think I can be taking too much insulin.
I'm sorry if this is long winded. I'm just trying to ask if carbohydrate requirement is as absolute as it seems to be, or whether it's all relative? Is the fact that I have to take so much carbohydrate simply down to my body chemistry, or am I missing something? I don't have any diabetic friends to compare notes with, so I thought I'd canvass here.
Thanks for reading.