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Long term type 1 needing low carb advice

smc4761

smc4761

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,041
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all,

I have been type 1 since 1981 and have pretty much stuck to same foods, diet, carb counting for most of this time.

Visit to hospital last week gave me a shock as I was the heaviest I have ever been, around 102 kg. I dont tend to eat a huge amount of calories, typically 1500 per day but do have around 180 g of carbs, mainly bread, potatoes, pasta or rice. Dont really drink beer any more but have a few gin and diet bitter lemons per week

I am a 56 year old male and looking to drop my carbs initially to around 120 g per day

Lots of info out there and lots of conflicting things as well.

Would I still be OK to eat porridge for brekkie, typically 5 spoonfuls made with just water and milk with a little salt?

What do others have in the way of carbs for lunch and dinner. I know I can eat meats, fish, cheese, veg, eggs, What about adding some carbs to that . Would around 30 g of carbs be OK for each meal and what sort of things?

I know I also need to do some exercise, and intend to build up slowly starting with some walking. I am aware that I will need to test regular and adjust insulin both short acting and my Levemir.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Celeriac makes a great lower carb mash, chips and also can be grated/finely chopped to make a good rice substitute. I have that quite a lot with my evening meal, it’s fibrous and doesn’t need so much insulin, I find.
 
Hi, I eat porridge for breakfast, 45g jumbo oats made with 170ml unsweetened almond milk and throw in 60g raspberries when I'm about to eat - 30g carbs, at the moment I have 40g carbs for lunch, a wholemeal sandwich and a nature valley protein bar, dinner is 30g which is 150g charlotte potatoes, pile of veg, meat/fish/omelette with mushrooms either grilled or roast and either 1 or 2 squares 90% chocolate x
 
Thanks for the replies so far, really appreciated. From reading numerous discussions on this forum my understanding was mainly that I really need to stop eating bread pasta and potatoes, especially as I am trying to lose some weight. Is that not the case???

Just a tad confused
 
Its completely up to you what you do, none of us can tell you, you may try going low carb and find that its not 'right' for you, low carbers don't usually eat much bread/pasta or tatties but it depends how low carb you want to go
Also it may adjust your insulin needs
Some people find that in the absence of carbs, the protein they consume needs covered, this can be extremely difficult to judge timings etc as protein converts much slower, therefore I wouldn't go for completely eliminating carbs right away xx
 
Just a quick update spoke with dietician today and she advise not to drop carbs completley which I pretty much guessed anyway. She is happy for me to continue with porridge in morning due to its slow release.

Said if i wanted breads wholegrain and ones with seeds are not great but better than white breads

Just a quick one that came to mind after I spoke with her. My son takes Whey Protein after he works out in gym. He said I should try that to help increase my protein levels. It is very low in carbs <2 g per 30 g serving and around 25 g of protein. Seemingly it is pretty disgusting with water but with milk it tastes fine. Obviously I will have to include the carbs in milk if I do go down that route.

Anyone had experience of using Whey Protein shakes

Oooh this is a steep learning curve
 
smc4761 said:
Just a quick update spoke with dietician today and she advise not to drop carbs completley which I pretty much guessed anyway. She is happy for me to continue with porridge in morning due to its slow release.

Said if i wanted breads wholegrain and ones with seeds are not great but better than white breads

Just a quick one that came to mind after I spoke with her. My son takes Whey Protein after he works out in gym. He said I should try that to help increase my protein levels. It is very low in carbs <2 g per 30 g serving and around 25 g of protein. Seemingly it is pretty disgusting with water but with milk it tastes fine. Obviously I will have to include the carbs in milk if I do go down that route.

Anyone had experience of using Whey Protein shakes

Oooh this is a steep learning curve
Click to expand...
Never used it but to try and avoid the carbs of the milk you could try using unsweetened almond milk rather than cows milk as it doesn't have carbs xx
 
Thanks for the quick reply. I need to keep some carbs in my diet and I am aiming for around 30g per meal, so not overly concerned about the carbs in cows milk

I am quite lucky that rarely do i feel hungry so dont snack as such
 
I can recommend LivLife low carb bread, from Waitrose. It’s only 3.8g a slice, it’s lovely!
 
For protein shakes I would look into Optimun Nutrition Gold Standard. They are the best tasting with water that I have tried. The chocolate mint is the best that I have had, cold water and it's actually really nice at 2g of carbs per shake. Now, I have not tried this since diagnosis so not overly sure how it would effect you in terms of the protein, but worth a try.
 
Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated

week 1 and I am enjoying my new diet, I have had 1 potato and no bread or pasta and too be honest not really missing them a great deal----yet

As a type 1 diabetic for many years, my initial goal is to half my number of carbs in each day. the majority of carbs in at moment is my porridge in morning, the rest mainly coming from veg and cracker breads/ryvita wholegrain multi seed.

Now the weekend could be a slight problem. I do like my takeaway at weekend, got to have some guilty pleasures:)

Typically I will have either a chinese curry with rice, or a jalfreizi plus rice from Indian. I am confident in being able to adjust my insulin dose accordingly. Question really is it OK to have a "blow out" once a week
 
Found a really good website with all UK information. Gives details on carbs as well as calories and protein etc. It can be quite specific as well, eg type in Sainsbury granola and it brings up the exact product

https://www.fatsecret.co.uk/
 
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