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Low Carbs

supersonic

supersonic

Member
Afternoon to everyone.
As a newly diagnosed T2 I keeping reading about how important it is to be on a low carb diet to maintain low blood sugar levels.
So here's my question
How many grams of carbs per day/per meal, is the recommended amount or is each person different?
 
Everyone is different, we have to find our own way.

Lots of people start at around 100g per day, see how you go and reduce if appropriate.

Testing before and after eating is essential to figure out.
 
Anything below 150g/130g per day is considered lower carb. When you think that a 'normal' diet can have 250g + and sometimes a helluva lot more than that it gives you a little perspective. It helps to remember that you have to find a number that improves your readings and that you are comfortable with. Good luck.

Edited to add.

When lowering carbs per day remember to do it gently, don't do as I did and dive in feet first as this can cause 'Carb flu' also known as keto flu. This is an extremely unpleasant reaction to lowering carbs too much too quickly and while not dangerous (for those not on bg lowering drugs or on insulin) it can be misery inducing for a few days.
 
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I would focus on real food, so as best quality protein and non vegetable fats, with carbs coming from above ground vegetables with berries, nuts and seeds. Then I would adjust as necessary. Now I pay some attention to the number of carbs out of interest, and have reduced nuts.
 
I am eating about 40 gm of carb a day now to try to reduce my weight, but I can eat 50 and not see raised blood glucose. It is something you have to check for yourself as some people are far more sensitive to carbs than others.
 
Hello @supersonic

You might find the dietdoctor.com website helpful for meal planning and to understand which foods are lower in carbs. I eat 20g or fewer per day, but others are successful eating more than that.
 
Personally I have never counted my grams, or calories for that matter. I don’t want to get a calculator out every time I cook a meal.
I avoid potatoes, rice, bread, beer, bananas, sugary stuff, cereals, and limit my underground veg.
I choose filling alternatives so I don’t get hungry.
There are carbs in my diet but probably fewer than 100g per day and as soon as I started my BG levels came down quickly.
I took about 10 days to scale down the intake of carbs rather than one big change.
 
I agree that everyone is different and the only way to find out is to test with a meter. My meter shows that 20g is the maximum I can have in a day. Any more and I have to inject insulin. I was on Novarapid and Lantus insulin. Am hopeful that in the future I may be OK with more carbs. If not - I will carry on as I am as it is unbelievably good not to have to inject insulin.
 
As said everyone is different when it comes to how many carbs a day they eat If you avoid or lower cereal bread potatoes rice pasta and sugar stuff you will find that makes a big difference to you BG levels and may be enough many find that works for them
 
Sometimes i wonder if my carb intake is too low. When diagnoses i probably ate about 10 if that and like Guzzler started the very day of diagnose. Being to scared to eat played a big part in that. Now about 20, maybe 30 carbs a day. Still learning. I wonder if i increased the carbs to 60 if my levels would drop. I read somewhere on this forum that someone did that and it dropped lower. Interesting but still too afraid to give it a go. Plus i'm rarely hungry.:joyful:
 
Hi @supersonic I dropped my carbs to 20g per day, that was easy for me as I didn't have a lot of bread, potatoes, rice etc. I did use to drink beer though or as its called "liquid bread". I've stopped drinking it now. I have been as low as 5g per day but keep under 20g at the moment and have very good Bg levels, they are averaging out at 5.2 ish. As mentioned everyone has different tolerances to carbs so its just a test and see.:)
 
supersonic said:
Afternoon to everyone.
As a newly diagnosed T2 I keeping reading about how important it is to be on a low carb diet to maintain low blood sugar levels.
So here's my question
How many grams of carbs per day/per meal, is the recommended amount or is each person different?
Click to expand...

I just ditched all food with non-negligible levels of carbohydrate straight away. I felt a bit weak and dizzy at times for 2-3 days and noticed some non-dramatic changes in bowel habit over the first couple of weeks.

I don't weigh foods or count carbs or calories. I just eat the following: meat, poultry, fish and other seafood, nuts, eggs, olive oil, cheese, butter, non-starchy vegetables, herbs, spices, occasionally a small amount of fruit or berries, occasionally also seaweed, miso soup, tofu. Tea, coffee, dry wine, milk in tea.
I don't eat breakfast ever and fast between 16:8 and 18:6 always but increasingly from dinner to dinner, which I tend to eat no later than 7.

This, combined with regular exercise, has worked well for me so far, producing a drop of nearly 3% in HbA1c in 6 weeks, significant and rapid weight loss and enormous improvements in my energy levels and mental clarity. Hopefully, this will continue.

By the way, I find the suggestion that the above diet would be improved by the addition of a couple of slices of toast or a bowl of rice to be ludicrous.
 
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