I have recently been diagnosed as having type 2 diabetes. My doctor told me to stay on an 1800 calaroie a day diet. Does anyone know how many carbs that would be a day?
All this information is mind boggling to say the least.
Hi Colleen I really just started this journey myself. So i don’t know but I know if i eat what i used to eat My bs goes up if I stay with salad and vegtables they stay low. Sometimes my bs goes to low and i have to have peanut butter or protein. It really has been a guessing game for me so far. I am glad to have found this forum to help me decide what is good for me.
Happy day
Aurora
yes, it is mind boggling isn’t it? so much to learn. I am thinking the best way to figure out carbs is to check your bs 2 hours after you eat and just see what makes it go up and what keeps it down.
Thanks!
Hi, Welcome! I’m new here as of January and have learned a lot. Two books that were absolutely invaluable to me in finding my way down the new path of Diabetes for me are:
The first Year by Gretchen Becker
The Diabetes Solutioon by Dr. Bernstein
You can find them on amazon and at most major book stores. they both give really good advice on how to eat and how to NOT eat.
I would further refer you to an excellent informational website titled
“What They Don’t Tell You About Diabetes”
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/
Good luck,
Michelle
Hi Colleen,
Welcome!
I second Michelle’s book recommendations & the link to Jenny’s site. All are wonderful.
Carbs & calories are two different things. A certain number of one doesn’t translate into another. You can eat a low carb diet that’s relatively high calorie. It depends what you’re eating because low carb isn’t low fat. Restricting carbs is a very effective way to lose weight. It has the added bonus of controlling BG & not leaving you hungry. Eating carbs just makes you crave more. Protein & fats (good fats), since they digest more slowly, stave off hunger.
There are many great low carb recipe sites. Here are a few:
Linda’s Low Carb Menus & Recipes http://genaw.com/lowcarb/index.html
The Low Carb Cafe www.lowcarbcafe.com
Low Carb Luxury http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/index.html
Simply Recipes http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/low_carb/
Low Carb Eating http://lowcarbeating.com/
All of us were told upon diagnosis to follow the ADA guidelines of 45-60 carbs per meal, plus snacks. People eating significantly less than this have far better BG control as a result. I eat 30-40 carbs per day. When I was following the ADA recommendations, I felt terrible & had no control at all. Thankfully, I didn’t do that for long.
Should I count calories also? Or just carbs? Also, 30-40 carbs per day that you did, is that snacks also?
Know how confusing & overwhelming it is. How much weight do you want to lose? If you eat low carb & don’t go overboard on protein, you’ll lose weight.
I don’t snack much. What I usually have for snacks is a piece of cheese or nuts. Around 5 carbs.
I eat 5-6 carbs for breakfast (mostly protein). Lunch & dinner are 12-15 carbs. It’s pretty much protein & lots of low carb veggies prepared different ways. No grains, beans, flour products (bread, crackers, pasta) or starchy vegetables.
I weigh 148 lbs. this is the most I have ever weighed in my life. I am 5’6" and 49 years old. I used to be pretty skinny. Not anymore! Ha Ha!! Would love to loose about 10 - 15 lbs.
10-15 lbs isn’t much at all. Doing low carb will get 10-15 lbs off fairly easily without counting every calorie. Try to keep your ounces of protein per meal pretty consistent from day to day. If you can, try to eat at regularly scheduled times to help your body adjust. Will have to find the on-line protein guide I had to send you. It tells you how many ounces of protein you need based on ideal weight, level of activity, age & gender. Some people eat low carb & then snarf down 12 oz steaks & wonder why they aren’t losing weight.
Forgot to mention fruit. I can’t handle fruit as a Type 1, except for small amounts of berries, but perhaps you can in moderate amounts. Testing to see how certain foods effect you is the only way to know because everyone’s different.
Of course, exercise is critical to BG control.
I have been walking on my lunch hour every other day for 30 minutes. I am building up to an hour if I can. I have been somewhat consistant on this but I could do better. I think once I get my bs supplies that I will be able to see what affects my bs and also watch the carbs.
Glucose meters are our best friends. Seems doctors don’t encourage Type 2s to test as often as they should. I have Type 2 friends who rarely test. The more you test the better. Make sure your doctor gives you a prescription for testing 8 times a day so you’ll have enough test strips.
Getting a good scale is a critical tool. I use an Eat Smart scale & love it! It calculates carbs, protein, fat, sodium & a bunch of other factors for 999 preprogrammed foods. You just enter in a code for a particular food & all the info is displayed. Not for prepared foods, but these have ingredient labels anyway.
If you go to link on the right “Discounts for Members” you can see the EatSmart scale.
If that’s all you’ve got to lose, I’d just try counting carbs, and not worry about the calories for a while. You’ll probably drop all the weight you want, but if you don’t, then you can start tracking calories as well.
My personal limits are under 50g carbs per day (although most days I’m more like 35 or fewer), with not more than 25g in a single meal, and 80-120g protein per day – everything else is fat, and much of it is animal fats, but I couldn’t tell you how much, because I don’t track it. Eating like that, I lost 30 lbs in 4 months AND improved my cholesterol from slightly high to normal. My skin cleared up, too – it hasn’t looked this good since I hit my teens, and I know it’s the carbs, because if I have a cheat day, I break out slightly 2 days later like clockwork.
Colleen, I count both carbs and calories. The carbs are very carefully counted and the calories help me make choices between foods as I do want to shed some weight. But trust me, reducing your carbs to below 100 in a day, you will lose weight. I try and keep my carbs around 50 per day and then realize that some days are a bit higher, some lower. A lot depends on if you work away from home, have a fridge at work, etc. I work hard to be careful with the carbs and then try and remember to be realistic. also, the first month was the hardest. I was hungry at first, reducing the carbs. The books I llisted explain that. But after a bit, the snacks are fine, some nuts, etc. I am type 2 so I can do some fruit but I make sure to eat protein at the same time to keep my BG down. do NOT follow the ADA’s numbers… they allow WAY too many carbs. You will feel really good in another month and it will be much easier to maintain. Come here and chat with us at first, if you need support.
Michelle
here is a discussion about “How many carbs” that had 804 responses! click - here -
Thanks Michelle. Yes, I am starving for sure. If I could find something that fills me up, ya know?
It’s great to test a lot. Can’t imagine why a nurse would discourage you from doing so. We can’t tell what our BG by listening to our bodies. Sometimes you can tell, most times you can’t. Even if you can sense that you may be high or low, you can’t tell how high or low without a meter.
My insurance company will only cover testing once a day since I am not on insulin. I will change the times I test from day to day so I get a look at the big picture.
I was diagnosed 6 weeks ago and just joined this website today. The best thing I did for myself…oh wait…ONE of the best things I did for myself was going to a dietitian. I saw her within a few days of being diagnosed and she gave my life back to me…Until I saw her I was worried about everything I ate (would I die if I eat…fill in your poison). Tremendously helped me understand what I needed to do (and what not to worry about) and, more importantly, my frame-of-mind. Pulled me out of a depression that I wasn’t even aware had settled in since being diagnosed.
Have your doctor recommend one that specializes in diabetes. Based on some of the things my dietitian said, I think she is diabetic.
Although I am not extremely overweight, I have been dropping the pounds quickly and my bs has been very consistent. I look at everything…carbs, fiber, fat content (amount and type) and calories. For me, the order I listed them is the order of importance. However, I believe the whole picture needs to be looked at.
Good Luck!