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Why are carb intake guidelines stated as DAILY?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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Anonymous

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I am T2, no medicines, special diets, food measuring or weighing etc. etc. and I eat 'normal' means as I have always done. I am pretty certain that my daily carb intake is way above that of many others. My question is that, if my carb intake is spread over several meals, and my bG after each meal is satisfactory, what is the significance or benefit of a DAILY maximum, and striving to get bG as low as possible when I am already within the guidelines?

I have listed below my evening meals for the last 7 days.I haven't a clue about portion size etc. but as a rough guide, each portion would be about 2-3 ladles full. My bG tends to reduce by about 1.0 every 20 minutes or so (how's that for being precise!) and so I do not feel that I am in danger of damaging persistent 'highs'.

I also did a rather irresponsible experiment when I went slightly hypo at 3.9 in the afternoon. Instead of eating, I sat and waited for an hour and my bG went up to 4.2 which, I presume, tells me my liver has not yet completely given up the ghost!!

Pork curry, peas, carrots, tomato juice, rice, cauliflour, courgettes 6.5

White pasta, courgettes, carrots, parmesan, tomato juice 5.7

Turkey stuffed with ham and cheese, double-breadcrumbed, brocolli, fennel bulb 6.3

Smoked haddock, cauliflour, boiled potatoes, bechemal cheese sauce 6.2

Pork loin steaks stuffed with blue stilton, red lentils, courgette, carrots, bechemal cheese sauce 6.0

Lamb steaks, cherry rice, broccoli, gravy (bechemal with soy sauce) 5.7

Sausages, sweet potato mash, cauliflour, baked beans 7.0

I feel I am 'alone' on this site, as everyone else seems to be low-carbing, setting personal bG targets etc., and I am wondering if I am missing the point or not understanding something?!
 
low carbing has several benefits,
1, and primarily, it does help control BG levels, if yours are satisfactory, then yey!
and 2, it can have a fantastic impact on helping to lose weight, especially if you dont get much excercise
 
ilnar said:
low carbing has several benefits,
1, and primarily, it does help control BG levels, if yours are satisfactory, then yey!
and 2, it can have a fantastic impact on helping to lose weight, especially if you dont get much excercise
Click to expand...

I suppose that I've been low carbing (by my own definition) in having 'tweaked' my overall diet to get from 18st to 13.5st in about 6-7 months, where I have been for a couple of years. Not quite such a spectatular weight loss as say, low-carb diets (been there, done that). I think that, for me, a gradual finding of my 'ideal'? weight worked better than losing a lot of weight over a short period then figuring out what to do next.

We read a lot about low-carb weight loss diets, so I just thought I would share my 'alternative' approach.
 
Hi gezzathorpe, why worry about how many carbs you are eating if you are both losing weight and controlling your bg levels? Your obviously doing something right so congratulations :clap:
 
Hi. We are all different. If you can continue to lose weight to the point where your BMI is about average then you should have reduced any insulin resistance and your blood sugar should stabilise even more. It looks like you still have very good sugar control so apart from getting your weight to be in the right range together with the blood sugar then have the diet that keeps you there. Your food types seem pretty good. Minimise portion sizes for the white pasta and rice. Have raw carrots if you can and watch the sugar in the baked beans.
 
Sid Bonkers said:
Hi gezzathorpe, why worry about how many carbs you are eating if you are both losing weight and controlling your bg levels? Your obviously doing something right so congratulations :clap:
Click to expand...

Thanks! My concern/confusion is about daily maximum intake etc. If my max. daily intake is sky-high (in terms of recommendations), say, should I be concerned? It's daily intake which seems to quoted and referred to quite a lot. If I'm always above that, then I am outside the recommendations. Hadn't thought about daily intake before joining this site. I just hope I AM doing something right!

Sorry to be thick! Maybe I've got a 'hypo' coming. :(
 
ilnar said:
almost a stone a month for 6 months is a rapid loss! well done.
Click to expand...

Ha! note quite a stone a month. I divided the loss of 4.5st by about 28 weeks (roughly) which is about 2lb per week on average. That was slow from my point of view.... nowhere near the Newcastle Diet, for example.
 
.7 of a stone a month is still really good! especially for a full 6 months!


absolutely not!
daily maximums that everyone should follow are (in my opinion) a terrible idea
it depends SO much on how active you are, your weight, pancreatic/liver function,

by all means, set yourself a target, but realise that you will need to change it based on what you are doing!
 
ilnar said:
.7 of a stone a month is still really good! especially for a full 6 months!


absolutely not!
daily maximums that everyone should follow are (in my opinion) a terrible idea
it depends SO much on how active you are, your weight, pancreatic/liver function,

by all means, set yourself a target, but realise that you will need to change it based on what you are doing!
Click to expand...

That's cheered me up a bit! In reality the weight loss was a bit all over the place, e.g rapid initially (probably water more than anything), a couple of frustrating plateaux and a lot less booze. Luckily, I'm a stubborn b.....d and got through. The subsequent problem I had was that, whilst some people told me I looked healthy, others genuinely thought I was seriously ill (e.g. cancer) ... I lie not!
 
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