Just how low carb is this?

[Doireallyneedanams]

Since having 2 siblings diagnosed with type 2 (in their 50’s, I’m 30) I switched my diet around and cut out most refined carbs and followed a generally low carb diet. I didn’t count carbs/calories but I was conscious of what I was eating for the first time in a long time. Having tested my own glucose for some time I learnt a lot about what pushes my boundaries.

Anyway, as I’m not a diabetic (yet...) I am sure some of my meals do not affect me in the way they would someone with diabetes, but I am curious just how “low carb” my meal plan for this week would be to some of you folk. The confusion for me comes in when you consider veg as carbs as apart from the obvious (potatoes) I haven’t really cut them out.

A couple months ago I thought I might actually be on the keto diet without realising, yet I do drink red wine (doesn’t affect my glucose, if anything seems to keep it lower) which is apparently a no no on a ketogenic diet.

I have seen things like carrots and peppers spiking some diabetics which just leaves me wondering if these should be limited too.


Beef chilli / sour cream (5% beef mince, carrots, celery, peppers, onion, garlic, chipotle paste, tinned tomatoes)

Chicken roast - broccoli / cauliflower cheese, a couple of boiled new pots, carrots, parsnips

Black bean wraps (black beans, carbzone wraps, sour cream, mixed peppers, red onion, avocado)

Chicken salad (salad & grilled chicken)

Butternut squash, chickpea & spinach stew ( + tinned tomatoes)

Green Lentils (olive oil, tinned tomatoes, FAGE green yogurt)

For breakfast I’ll usually have a couple slices of Livlife low carb bread with peanut/almond & date butter. Skip lunch. And my guilty pleasure is definitely a couple of rich teas which managed to sneak into my diet daily.

 

[bulkbiker]

The only way to know for sure is keep a detailed food diary for a week and weigh and measure everything.
Your carb intake will obviously depend on the amounts of food with carbs that you eat so without measuring its pretty much impossible for us to say.
Your diet as described looks pretty low carb but I doubt it is keto - potatoes, beans, chickpea, lentils and tinned tomatoes are unlikely to put you in to ketosis.
Slightly more expensive way of testing that theory is to buy a ketone blood tester and check your levels.
However its quite an expensive way of finding out if you're not in ketosis as all the readings will say are Lo!

My meter is this one..
https://www.valuemed.co.uk/collecti...n-call-gk-dual-blood-glucose-and-ketone-meter

About the cheapest to run but still just under £1 for each test.. I got the meter free with the 50 strip offer for £39.99

https://www.valuemed.co.uk/collecti...n-you-buy-50-on-call-blood-ketone-strips-here

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Since having 2 siblings diagnosed with type 2 (in their 50’s, I’m 30) I switched my diet around and cut out most refined carbs and followed a generally low carb diet. I didn’t count carbs/calories but I was conscious of what I was eating for the first time in a long time. Having tested my own glucose for some time I learnt a lot about what pushes my boundaries.

Anyway, as I’m not a diabetic (yet...) I am sure some of my meals do not affect me in the way they would someone with diabetes, but I am curious just how “low carb” my meal plan for this week would be to some of you folk. The confusion for me comes in when you consider veg as carbs as apart from the obvious (potatoes) I haven’t really cut them out.

A couple months ago I thought I might actually be on the keto diet without realising, yet I do drink red wine (doesn’t affect my glucose, if anything seems to keep it lower) which is apparently a no no on a ketogenic diet.

I have seen things like carrots and peppers spiking some diabetics which just leaves me wondering if these should be limited too.


Beef chilli / sour cream (5% beef mince, carrots, celery, peppers, onion, garlic, chipotle paste, tinned tomatoes)

Chicken roast - broccoli / cauliflower cheese, a couple of boiled new pots

Black bean wraps (black beans, carbzone wraps, sour cream, mixed peppers, red onion, avocado)

Chicken salad (salad & grilled chicken)

Butternut squash, chickpea & spinach stew ( + tinned tomatoes)

Green Lentils (olive oil, tinned tomatoes, FAGE green yogurt)

For breakfast I’ll usually have a couple slices of Livlife low carb bread with peanut/almond & date butter. Skip lunch. And my guilty pleasure is definitely a couple of rich teas which managed to sneak into my diet daily.

Quite a bit of that is still pretty starchy/carby. Some us us tolerate pulses better than others so dunno how you fare with those. For me, carrots, onion, tinned tomatoes, potatoes, beans/lentils/chickpeas etc have been off the menu for a long time now. Dates are almost pure sugar. I wouldn't call this a ketogenic diet, as I doubt you stick to 20 grams of carbs per day or thereabouts. As for vegetables, some are carbier than others. Mainly pulses and underground veggies are what I avoid, it's the above ground and leafy green stuff that's lowest in carbs. I don't have those anymore either, for other conditions, but when I did I counted all carbs, no matter what foods they came from. A carb is a carb is a carb, to most T2's blood sugars anyway. As you're not one, and I hope you never will be, I don't know how "bad" it is that you still have these. As you keep an eye on your blood sugars yourself, you'll know when your tolerance for carbs gets worse, if it ever does to begin with.

 

[Doireallyneedanams]

The only way to know for sure is keep a detailed food diary for a week and weigh and measure everything.
Your carb intake will obviously depend on the amounts of food with carbs that you eat so without measuring its pretty much impossible for us to say.
Your diet as described looks pretty low carb but I doubt it is keto - potatoes, beans, chickpea, lentils and tinned tomatoes are unlikely to put you in to ketosis.
Slightly more expensive way of testing that theory is to buy a ketone blood tester and check your levels.
However its quite an expensive way of finding out if you're not in ketosis as all the readings will say are Lo!

My meter is this one..
https://www.valuemed.co.uk/collecti...n-call-gk-dual-blood-glucose-and-ketone-meter

About the cheapest to run but still just under £1 for each test.. I got the meter free with the 50 strip offer for £39.99

https://www.valuemed.co.uk/collecti...n-you-buy-50-on-call-blood-ketone-strips-here

Thanks!

I’ve read a lot about insulin resistance over the last year, and during the time I was monitoring my glucose I noticed that after a couple of months of very low carb (back then I was living off chicken salads) I noticed my fasting was higher than it was when I was eating a carb heavy diet. Fasting would sometimes be 5.1/5.2 yet when I was eating a burger and chips for dinner in the initial period my fasting glucose the next day would always be 4.4-4.7. After reading I found that many on a ketogenic diet notice their fasting glucose rise however it wasn’t detrimental or of significant clinical important at all. This is what sticks in mind and what makes me wonder if I was/am in ketosis.

I stopped testing because I was becoming neurotic about it!