what is your carb limit?

Being a relatively new to the diabetic forum, diagnosed Type 2 in June I keep my BG levels almost within limits, keep measuring 4/6 times a day.

I would like to know how people are calculating their carb intake?
Do you write down and calculate each item of food you are eating?

For example, I eat 30 gr of oat porridge every morning (the package says 50gr porridge = 31 gr carb, which would be 18.6 gr carb?)

A slice of bread 11 gr carb and so on?

The odd thing is, that I eat the same amount, same thing every morning, yet it gives different readings each time.
Lowest today 6.2, highest few days ago 8.9 What is going on?

If you get an app like myfitnesspal it will calculate the amount for you


Diagnosed Type II 1998 1 x 80 mg Gliclazide, 4 x 500mg Metformin and 1 x 100mg Sitagliptin - HbA1c - 48 mmol/mol

The odd thing is, that I eat the same amount, same thing every morning, yet it gives different readings each time.
Lowest today 6.2, highest few days ago 8.9 What is going on?

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There are so many variables that go into your BGs that they will never be the same from day-to-day. Variables such as heat (accute), exercise (within the last week or so), stress (from the last day or so), how well you've slept, whether all the medication you've had has absorbed or has been removed by your body at a different rate. Also BG meters are accurate to within 15%, if you take that into account alone, then you're levels are almost consistent.

And yes, what you're doing with the carb counting is correct.

Neil Walters said:

If you get an app like myfitnesspal it will calculate the amount for you


Diagnosed Type II 1998 1 x 80 mg Gliclazide, 4 x 500mg Metformin and 1 x 100mg Sitagliptin - HbA1c - 48 mmol/mol

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I have the app on my Nexus 7, but yet to figure out how it works.
OK, study time. Got as far as the help pages, onwards and upwards. 8)

You also have to take into account the GI of the food you eat. Standard bread has a high GI and therefore the glucose it provides is absorbed into the blood stream much quicker than the glucose from oats which has a much lower GI.

pr126 said:

The odd thing is, that I eat the same amount, same thing every morning, yet it gives different readings each time. Lowest today 6.2, highest few days ago 8.9 What is going on?

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Meter readings using fringer pricks are up and down all the time. Not only will they often vary from finger to finger, because of the way blood circulates, they will also vary because the capilliary blood itself is a mixture of several fluids in unknown proportions. In addition, the meters are manufactured to be within an overall range of 20% for 95% of the readings so, quite a variation there. It is just a rough guide and all you are looking for is a trend as, over time, for every reading which is 10% too low, there should be a reading of 10% too high to cancel it out.

Regarding your lowest of 6.2 and highest of 8.9, you should be able to get that down to say a range of 4.5 to 7.0 with diet and exercise. This would be typical of a 'normal range'. You're not too far off, many people are in the teens. It's still a little on the high side but getting them both down is within sight.

There is also a neat wee app called 'on track which you can add your meter readings, it will calculate your daily/weekly/monthly/3 monthly average and also what your estimated HbA1c. How accurate it is I do not know. It tells me my HbA1c test will be 5.6 which the diabetes.co.uk conversion tells me is 37.7. I will be able to tell you next month after my HbA1c test.

It has a lot of other functions that I don't use right now as it is a learning process for me.

Mark

I managed to avoid becoming a D2 (was well into metabolic syndrome) by switching to a very low carb high fat diet (normally less than 20g carbs per day) and have also nice and slowly lost more than 2 stones in a year. Eat no bread, cakes, crackers etc, no potato, rice or pasta, no fruit and berries when in season (mostly raspberries, occasionally strawberries, blueberries or gooseberries).

Hi ya, most days I max at 30g or under, on my odd day up to 60g. 3 months in I avoid all spuds, bread etc. since last 2 1/2 months never had any double figures. I've lost weight, BG under control and love this change of life. First review in 2 weeks time will tell me if heading in the right direction. Thanks everyone. Regards Andy


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Pez68 said:

Hi ya, most days I max at 30g or under, on my odd day up to 60g. 3 months in I avoid all spuds, bread etc. since last 2 1/2 months never had any double figures. I've lost weight, BG under control and love this change of life. First review in 2 weeks time will tell me if heading in the right direction. Thanks everyone. Regards Andy


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Nice one Andy ! :thumbup:

I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised at the review-I know I was when my HbA1c and lipids started to all fall nicely into place after ditching the starchy carbs!

Best

Paul

paul-1976 said:

Pez68 said:

Hi ya, most days I max at 30g or under, on my odd day up to 60g. 3 months in I avoid all spuds, bread etc. since last 2 1/2 months never had any double figures. I've lost weight, BG under control and love this change of life. First review in 2 weeks time will tell me if heading in the right direction. Thanks everyone. Regards Andy


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Click to expand...

Nice one Andy ! :thumbup:

I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised at the review-I know I was when my HbA1c and lipids started to all fall nicely into place after ditching the starchy carbs!

Best

Paul

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Thanks Paul for your support.


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Yes good one Pez68, the hard part is getting to grips with all of the information and then actually putting it into practice, keep up the good work x

I,m type 2 diet/exercise controlled am find I keep to about 100 gms carb per day with a max of 130 and so far this is fine for me.I try to eat slow release carbs with the odd treat.