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What do we class as Low Carb ?

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tubamanandy

Well-Known Member
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108
Apologies, so many questions this morning...

What do we class as a Low Carb diet ? Over past months I've found low-carb is not that easy, my low carb is around 50g/day but I am unsure if this level is low enough to make any real difference ? I dread to think how many carbs the `average` person has but it could easily be way over 100g/day.

I know going Keto is <20/day but is my self-imposed amount of 50g/day good enough to lower my BG ?
 
I think 100g and under is considered low carb. Have you got a meter? self testing before and two hours after a meal will help you find your personal carb threshold.
 
@tubamanandy we are all different, 50g a day might work for you, or it might not. Best thing is to test before and after meals to find out!
You may be shocked to find that the AVERAGE carb consumption is nearer 300g per day. There are a lot of different opinions on what a low carb regime is, so I am going to duck that debate
 
Good morning I am currently on 80/100g per day and have been for a year,and its worked well for me,just exercise and no medication,but I am now going to up my carbs to 120 per day as I feel that for me personally 80/100g was not enough,to day I am going to have my first homemade meat pie,greens and a spoonful of mash for a year,I shall test before and then an hour and 2 hours after to see what my favourite meal does for me,but I think that everyone id different,if it works out alright I shall have this meal once a week
 
Because we are all unique and have a different tolerance level to carbs then we have to find the level that (a) lowers our bg to a level we are happy with and (b) to a level that we are comfortable having as a lifestyle habit.

I started with 100g and worked down to where I am comfortable which is around the 35g mark. As has been said testing is key.
 
I eat about 80 gms a day my hba1c is normal at that rate although my fasting is pre diabetic sometimes.
 

Are you testing? If not you are working blind. IMO it is very important to test to see what effects the food you eat has on your bg. I eat to my meter. I don't count carbs or anything. I do fast in the mornings because I've done that for 40 years.

I test immediately before eating and then again at 1 hour and 2 hours. (I have a libre so it's no hassle to test if I was to finger prick then I'd miss out the 1 hour). I set myself the goal of bg below 7.5 @ 2 hours after eating. Other people aim for a rise of no more than 2 from the pre test to the 2 hour test.

By testing it gives me some control over my diabetes both physically and mentally. It gives me choices over what to eat.
 
Everyone above is right. We all have different levels of carb tolerance, so it is a matter of finding yours. Testing before and 2 hours after first bite and looking at the rise from before to after will help. If you see a rise of more than 2mmol/l there were too many carbs in that meal. Initially, whilst learning, it is FAR more important to concentrate on keeping any rise under 2mmol/l and preferably less. What the actual levels are at this stage isn't as important. Keeping a food diary with all the ingredients and portion sizes, and recording the levels (rise) alongside will help, and enable you to look for patterns and discover what your personal danger foods are - so you can reduce portion size or eliminate.

I started at 120g and worked my way down from there.
 

Depends if you want to start from the top.. lowering as you go or if you are an all or nothing person like me in which case I found it far easier to cut out as many as I could intending to add some back in the future then deciding that I didn't miss carbs at all so never bothered. Very happy being keto.
 
I was lucky?! when diagnosed as I was only just into pre diabetic territory, however I asked for the blood test due to blurred vision and a strong family history of type 1 and 2 diabetes. So I guess th hat is why I'm more tolerant of carbs than others. However I started a lot lower and the highest percentage of mine are vegetables, mostly above ground, but I do include the odd carrot and onion.
 
Low carb numbers I have seen vary between 30 and 130 grams per day. Circa < 50 I think is considered Ketogenic territory and is clearly stricter than the upper range. If you are looking for Ketosis ketone monitors are relatively cheap to perform tests (and some function as blood glucose monitors as well).

I have no idea where I am at, but I don't eat potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, grains and have always avoided direct sugars that are obvious - I will resolve to measure.
 
I think that it is far better, and probably easier to focus on the amount of carbs a person can eat rather than on a set level - the amount of exercise taken can cause a small variation, but just like Dr Atkins advised that a person finds out their own level of carbs for losing weight (called CCLL in his books) by adding in carbs from the Induction level of a maximum of 20 gm per day, maybe there should be advice to find - what could be termed a CCG10 - a personal carb count for keeping blood glucose under 10 at all times.
I tried for a CCG8 and that seemed to turn things around fairly swiftly.
 
I think whatever method works is good. Some people found that dropping carbs fast, then maybe adding them worked well for them.

For me, as I have more than one health condition to consider too, I found that dropping suddenly caused a lot of problems. So I went back to around 120g spread over the day, kept testing and adjusting and dropping the amount slowly, until I was able to balance my diabetes and other conditions well enough for me. I also found that some carbs spike me more than others, which was a surprise, as I had thought that a carb was a carb was a carb. My body doesnt agree : )
 
There is a page on this website that explains the various styles of low-carb: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diet/low-carb-diabetes-diet.html.

Here in America, the recommended daily allowance of carbs for a non-diabetic person is between 225 and 325 grams per day, depending on total calorie intake.

We are all different, and it depends to some extent on how big a blood-glucose turnaround you are looking for. I went straight for a very-low-carb diet and it worked for me (see signature).

Good luck.
 
I don't have type 2 but this is something that I have run into a lot. I eat something like 50-75g of carbs a day. Some people have told me that this is insanely low carb and will lead to my developing insulin resistance, I'm a total disaster, it's awful, etc.

Some people have said it's a totally sensible amount.

The worst thing about diabetes is the total lack of reliable information.
 
The problem is that we are all different, so there is no straight answer to anything, that why testing, for me, is so important
 
I don’t think putting a number on it, is particularly helpful.

You need to find out what you can eat, and also what you can’t.

20g of a particular carb that your body can’t process or tolerate are far worse than 70g of carbs that your body can.
 
Visit Dr Bernstein's site http://www.diabetes-book.com for lots of helpful articles and little videos, or even buy his book "Diabetes Solution". I thnk most of us would see him as givng very reliable information, though of course everyone gets things wrong from time to time. In case you don't know, Dr B is T1, diagnosed at 11 and now still thriving at 83. He actually trained and qualified as a Dr in order to get a handle on his own condition. He has treated quantities of patients and appears still to be doing so. His book is quite expensive, but not for what it is, which is a sort of bible, 500+ pages hardback, nice clear print (which is helpful to my ageing eyes but probably won't specially appeal to you). I hesitated a while before buying, but now wish I'd got it earlier. Dr B certainly won't reproach you for eating too low carb!
 
Some people find there is a “carbs no man’s land” somewhere between 40g and 150g, so, for example, they may feel well eating under 40g, or over 80g but not in-between. It also takes time for our body to get used to very low carbs, and we do need a little more salt when very low carb (stock cube in mug of hot water works well.)
 

I agree his was the first book that I read. When I looked at his diet my thoughts were I can't do that. I can't give up peas as well. In reality I did give them up and have only recently started eating them again (no probs).

I must go back and re visit it.
 
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