• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Low carb help...

D

DonnaC-T

Well-Known Member
Messages
295
Location
Essex
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi
I started carb counting about three months ago. I'm now eating between 60-100 grams a day, I'm not sure if that's low or not.
But, my sensitivity to carbs seems to have been effected. Or I never noticed before!
Is this normal? Bread/ pasta etc all causing big rises.
I'm worried that if I cut it all out, then protein comes into play.
Thanks x
 
Not sure what the protein problem is do you have a health problem arounnd that?
You should have 1gram of protein/kg body weight my PT informs me and l have seen that around here some folks do 2/kg. To be honest it is hard enough trying 1 for me.

The items you speak about will cause rises they are high carbs dont eat them dont get a rise.

You are middle carb l would say. l have 20 -30 gram carb a day none of the carbs you mention are in my diet they are high carb so why waste my limit on them my BG is between 4.9 and 5.5

My bread treat is 2 crackerbread a day at lunch love em they are chewy.
Pasta pre problem was only occasional but l know in low carb someplace l saw substitutes.

When l was diagnosd l started to drop carbs but still got high readings then thought this is nuts get your finger out do it properly if a problem stop. So far no problem never feel hungry like l used to pre or post diagnosis loosing weight and BG steady.

MID
 

What's your bs after eating these?

I don't low carb, but seem to be able to stand the odd sandwich or meal out within a large spike.
Normally I'll eat carbs that are low GI, and eat to my meter, but if I can't, I'll eat the best type of food (for me) that's going.
 
I had a slice of toast, cauliflower, sprouts, kiwi, cheese and sardines. It went from 6 to 13.8.
Pasta sent it up to 14.
What do you have instead? I don't want to overdo protein and have to bolus for that too. X
 
Hi Donna,
you may need to quit grain. Use common sense and your monitor, at least that is what I do. Grain is worse than even proper sweets for my bg readings.

I think it is normal for diabetics to get sky-high bg readings from most things with grain, including rice and corn. I am pre, so don't get quite as high readings as you, and I do really try to avoid getting high readings! I do high fat, low carb as far as I can. It works.

Oh, forgot to say I try to keep under 20 grams of carbs per day, but can occasion allow me up to 50. That means a lot of fat!
 

Sounds good to me!
 
So what do your carbs come from?
I seem to be able to manage minimal potatoes so I think you're right on grains. Today I've had 60g, 20 breakfast which was blueberries, yogurt and a tiny bit of granola. Lunch about 12 which is cauliflower, sprouts, cheese, grapes, walnuts and Brazil nuts. Dinner about 30, omelette mathison sausage, peppers, onions and a sneaky hash brown.
Breakfast and lunch are the same every day.
Currently I'm going low about two hours/ 2 1/2 after breakfast but fine pre lunch. Post lunch is fine.
At the moment I just want to eat chocolate and crisps. I won't buy I'm finding it hard this week.
 
Not all has carbs but an average day for me.

Breakfast...2 scrambled eggs

Lunch....Crackerbread x 2 a day with butter
spring onions
yogurt full fat 100g with raspberry 50g 1tsp chia and flax seed
60g chedder
pepporoni (6 slices) or 56g tuna

Dinner ......Veg aprox 50 to 100g (cauli/broccoli/cabbage/spinach etc like that)
Meat or Fish
Hellman full fat 1

Goats milk 250ml at night it helps me sleep

15ml Single cream in my coffees

Seeds snack sunflower/pumpkin force myself to eat a few of them them as good for a lot but l am not hungry.
 
Hi Donna,
I'm a Type 1. When I switched to low carbing I found my sensitivity to carbs went up. This seems to be quite common to other Type 1s who have made the switch. I too noticed that protein affected my levels, but I think this was because I've tightened my control and I just didn't notice it before.
 
Sam,
Do you bolus for the protein?
I'm not sure I want to get to that point. X
 
Donna, the trick is to go high fat and cut out carbs. I am still trying to come to terms with my monitor so don't really know how things work jet. I do know grains are no good though.

I try to get at least 150 grams of fat every day, but not too much cream. Olive oil, butter, fat bacon and other fatty meats, fat fish and cheese of course. And nuts. Too much protein can raise bg as well, so I cling to fat.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
DonnaC-T said:
Sam,
Do you bolus for the protein?
I'm not sure I want to get to that point. X
Click to expand...

Only when I pig out on it - excuse the terrible pun! If I have more than a chicken breast, then I'll see a rise 2-3 hours after eating, but it is only a modest rise of 2-4 mmol/l. So I wait until then and give myself a unit or two. It's not very often I'll have more than a chicken breast sized meat portion, so it's not a big problem for me.

I've read that in the absence of carbs around 50% of the protein will be converted into glucose.

A great experiment would be to go and have a mixed grill, only eat the meat and watch what happens! Seriously though, the only way that you can tell is to try it and test to see what happens. If you need indulin, then either take some or cut back on the protein a bit.
 
Thanks for that. There's so much to think about.
It wouldn't be more than a chicken breast or tin of sardines, two egg omelette so I think that should be ok then. I do check two hours after eating so I should see if there's any rise.
Thanks so much x
 
No probs. Make sure you compare the two hour post meal reading and your next pre meal reading. If the latter is higher than the former, then protein has probably been converted into glucose.

The amount you're eating though, you should be ok, but everyone us different so test to make sure. x
 
Hi Donna!

I'm LADA and I am very sensitive to carb - but again, grain is much worse than potato for me even if it is the equivalent carb count. Going low carb didn't increase my sensitivity to carb - quite the opposite in fact - I went low-carb because of the sensitivity. I agree with Sam, except to say that the amount of protein you can eat without the 3 - 4 hour spike will depend to some extent on your size. I am only 5 foot tall and just over 7 stone, and a chicken breast portion of protein can spike me. I think Sam has said that he is over 6 foot tall, so he will obviously be able to eat more protein before spiking.

Smidge
 
I've eaten a mixed grill with no carbs. I've needed 4-6 units of fast acting insulin to deal with it. The rise on blood sugar also took about an hour longer.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…