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Looking for meal plans. Newly diagnosed.

Frenchalps

Frenchalps

Member
Messages
8
Type of diabetes
Type 2
I got diagnosed yesterday and I'm looking for meal and exercise plans. Can someone share their meal plans ? Thanks a lot !
 
You need to have carbohydrates at every meal, protein twice a day, fruit and veg. to make up 5 a day. If you look up the Change4life website there are some great ideas. Also look up the DiabetesUK.org website, extremely helpful. When buying food, check the labels. If you have a good diet, look at portion control...I found my best was to get a good set of kitchen scales and weigh everything...so I had a weight for my handfuls of items or size of palm items. Then with things like pasta I follow the information on the pack...if it tells me that 100grms of cooked pasta is 500 calories, then I am selective in the vegetables I put with it. Products like soya milk, etc will help to lower cholesterol levels, and if you make things like cakes, there are fewer calories and carbs in them than the ones you buy, but as always with things like that, moderation is the keyword. Where exercise is concerned if you do not already exercise, just go out for walks. If you work, try to get out for 20 minutes at lunch time, and rather than going home then going out again, go to the gym on the way home...join an exercise class and work at your own pace rather than attempting to use things like weights machines, and other exercise machines. Always take things easy with exercise when you first start. If you are on facebook, there are loads of support pages. Some advice that may be echoed, do not go and buy specific diabetic food products, they are loaded with artificial sweetner and transfats, as well as being extremely expensive. You are better off creating your own foods from scratch.
 
NO NO NO you don't have to have carbohydrates at every meal !!

I don't know why anyone on this forum suggests carbs at every meal. Carbs become glucose in the body and raise blood glucose (BG). Anyone with a blood glucose meter can test after eating and watch it happening.

You need to get a blood glucose meter so that you can discover which foods raise your BG and eliminate them. If your GP practice e nurse or DSN doesn't want to give you test strips, come back to us.

Forget pasta, forget calories and look at Dr Andreas Eenfeldt's website www.dietdoctor.com/lchf which will explain why Low Carb High Fat is healthier than counting calories, eating cake, etc.
 
Frenchalps said:
I got diagnosed yesterday and I'm looking for meal and exercise plans. Can someone share their meal plans ? Thanks a lot !
Click to expand...
Hi and welcome @Frenchalps

You really have to find out what you can and cannot eat before you can find a way of eating that will suit you.

Other people may tell you what they can eat but it does not mean it will be suitable for you.

Your best plan of action is to avail yourself of a meter, you may get one from your Gp but many refuse to give them to Type2s because of cost and because they think the HBA1c test is a better indicator of how you are coping.

A food diary is also a must so that you can include your blood sugar readings pertinent to a particular food. You may find that by reducing the portion size that you are OK with that particular food or you may have to resign yourself to excluding it from your diet.

Some people can do very well on 150grammes of carbs whereas others have to limit themselves to 20 or anything in between.
The main problem foods are rice, pasta, bread and cereals. If you read around the forum you will get mixed results from posters. (Search for threads concerning bread, porridge and you will see that there are differences in what people can tolerate).

I will tag @daisy1 to provide you with some basic information that will help you and please remember that this is a marathon as opposed to a sprint.

Keep asking questions, keep reading around the forum and it won't be long before you can manage your blood sugars with confidence. We all started where you are now and we know how confusing it can be.
 
Holy moly, eat as few carbs as you can then take it lower!
I'm type 1 and have cut out carbs apart from green veg. I enjoy weightlifting and it has not affected my progress. I lift heavy!
@Celeriac did a fantastic shopping list for low carb lifestyle but I can't remember the thread.
I've been doing lchf for going on 3 years and it is amazing how it stabilises your sugars. My partner is type 2 and has been on metformin without having to increase or use other medication in that time.
You do not need carbs with every meal.
Google Doctor Bernstein
http://www.diabetes-book.com/
He is hard core low carb but it gets results.
Good luck
 
@Frenchalps

Hello Frenchalps and welcome to the forum :) Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. It includes advice on diet and tells you more about carbs which you must eat sparingly. Ask more questions and someone will be able to help.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 150,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

  • Reduce your carbohydrate intake
  • Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)
  • Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

  • structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
  • self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
 
I believed that you are a newly diagnosed T1 when I wrote this, if not ignore the rest !
Actually whether you 'need' carbohydrates at every meal will depend very much on your insulin regime.
With mixed insulins that you take two or three times a day it is probably essential to have some carbs; if this is the case then please say.

If you are, as most type ones are nowadays, on a insulin regime where you take a basal long term insulin once or twice a day (Levimir or Lantus or perhaps NPH) and a bolus with meals (apidra, novorapid,humalog) you can be more flexible.

You will need to learn to count your carbs and learn how to adjust your insulin to what you eat.This will take time and isn't learned overnight.
It's a good idea to try to keep to fairly regular meals/meal types at the start because then you can record it and make sense of the data (if you keep varying time, meal sizes etc then you can't establish a pattern) I do think a detailed diary of food eaten, exercise and blood glucose levels is really important at the start)
Personally,I have had T1 for nearly eleven years. I don't adhere to the low carbohydrate diet that many on this thread have suggested and I have good control.
However, I do control my dietary pattern on a normal every day basis (but am flexible when out with friends or on special occasions or travelling etc;that's where learning to carbcount/dose adjust is important)

For lunch and particularly dinner, about half my plate will be veg, a quarter a protein and a quarter a starch (potato, bread, rice, quinoa, corn etc )
I eat some sort of fruit, mainly berries but also kiwi, pineapple, cherries, peaches in season with lunch and sometimes with dinner. I eat some dairy in the day, (supposed to be 2 portions) Most at breakfast when I have 38g oats with milk ,sometimes with a few berries or/and nuts and in coffee/tea. I sometimes also have a portion of cheese at lunch for the 'protein' or on vegetables.
I eat fish at least twice a week; one oily, one white.
I eat some of the veg raw and some cooked and dress some of them with raw olive oil,
I normally eat less at lunchtime than in the evening (smaller plate!)My doctor would prefer I ate more at lunch and less at dinner:when I do it she's correct but I'm a creature of habit.
I eat about 150-180g carb a day which is about 45-50% of my calorie intake . (I need fewer calories than you because I'm much older)
My everyday diet is very much what I was told to do on diagnosis and it has worked well for me.
I try to exercise for at least an hour a day. I did run marathons but have given that up now , it's now mainly walking (hilly). I find it quite hard to exercise within two hours of eating (but I think that's going to 'advanced leve'!)
 
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