I don't bother to count. [I'm not an insulin user so don't need to!]
i just avoid. Some days I am pretty much carb free. others I may have a little. I doubt I ever get up to 100, even on a bad day. It's probably no more that 50.
Hana
No more than 30g/day.
my daily basal is 11 units of novolog and i try to keep my carbs under 30/35 grms per meal. i try and stick w/ high protein(even though i do need to tk insulin 4 protein as well). my afternoon/bedtime snack is never more than 15grms.
i was told by my CDE/nutritionist that you should never eat a carb w/out a protein. the protein slows down the absorbtion of the carb. (i dont know why, but i try and follow this advice anyways)this way, there is no spiking BS highs. seems to work 4 me.
I eat about 20 carbs or so for breakfast (eggs and cheese) then about 60 or so for lunch (usually a salad and soup) and dinner (usually my only hot meal). I've been eating semi-low carb for a bit and my AICs have gone down from around 7 to 6.2. I am not that strict about it and frequently take low carb vacations to make it sustainable. But when eating normal, my BSL average was 160-200 with A1Cs about 7 (as mentioned above). Now the average is ranges around 103-130. The best part about eating lower carbs is i have less severe hypos - the law of small numbers as Bernstein would say..
I was taking 3o units of Lantus split in the morning and night but now i am down to 22!
are you on the pump or MDI? my basal rate for the day is 14 units; but for each meal i try to stick around 3- 4 coverage units. so my total per day stays btw 30 and 40 total units. sometimes i will give myself an extra bolus for a bite of my husbands cookie.
Hello,
It depends on your daily routine and if you are trying to lose weight.
I am 5'4" and about 70+kg (a little clinically overweight) I was advised that 125g of carbs a day was sufficient. I usually aim for about 30g per meal which is a surprisingly small portion really. 2 slices of bread, 3-4spoonfuls of pasta/rice. Then tend to fill up on vegetables and snack on fruit.
Reducing the carb content of my diet drastically reduced the amount of insulin I required, my Lantus was reduced by half and I went from about 10units a meal of Humalog to 2 or 3.
As a result I had better quality sleep, more energy, was no longer hungry or snacking all the time and my BS. control was good.
The Diabetic specialist nurse had always talked about increasing my levels of insulin in order to try and gain better control. The increase worked for a short time and then I would plateau and then have to increase again. Making me hungry all the time.
However after reading an article about 'The Diabetes Revolution' book by Dr. Charles & Maureen Clark -which I later purchased- I decided to combine the carb-counting approach I was on with some of his recommendations about a low-GI/ reduced Carb diet.
All I can say is that I lost weight and felt the healthiest I have in years.
The trick is portion size and filling up on low carb foods.
I hope that's some help :)
Regards, ash
I find I do best if I stick to Bernstein's pattern of 30 per day divided up in 6 for breakfast and 12 each for the other 2 meals. I try to avoid snacking. I think Healthcare professionals are obsessed with snacking because of the risk of hypos in insulin users. I'm really trying HARD to lose a lot more weightt. I've lost about half what I need to, but It's got very hard to shift even a tiny bit now without its bouncing back the next day. [ I know they say not to weigh daily, but for me it's the only way to stop going backwards]
the VLC doesn't leave me either hungry or lacking in energy. I often have carb free meals. My breakfast is generally eggs and dinner protein and green veggies. I tend not tto have 3 full meals a day. Midday, I have something light, such as a carb free boullion or a bit of cold meat. Today, I'm having a few slices of cooked chicken. And a cup of coffee!
Hana
I find it interesting that many of you on insulin pens and pumps are eating the same way and carb limits I do, but I can do just diet and exercise. My non diabetic family and friends wouldn't believe it.
A low carb diet seems to help if one is insulin challenged. It doesn't matter whether you are totally lacking insulin as is a T1 or if you are insulin resistant and requiring more insulin than your body can produce as is the case with most Type2's. The idea is to lower carbs to limit the amount of blood glucose you have to deal with.
I have been a Type 1 diabetic for 46 years now been on Medtronic pump for 6 (not on CGM). I have between 200 and 300 carbs per day that my Endo Dr has recommened. I am 6'1 and weigh in the med 170. At one point I was 250 but after getting on pump and watching carbs the weigh dropped. I do no exercise other then walking my dogs for about 90 minutes per day. A Exersize is hard since I have Multiple Sclerosis and walking more then 1 1/2 miles a balance problem starts My last A1c was 6.7 in late December 2012. I am a 50yo male who lives in NJ with parents since wife divorced me 4 years ago. HAVE A GREAT DAY ALL
I’m with you- 50 grams of carbs is the most I do per meal.
I eat five times a day,Take about 75G to 150G a day dependent on waht am doing,I will also take about 1000 to 2000 cals day again its dependent on day,my final evening meal i eat just protein and non starch and non carb vegetables to keep my BG levels low at night.
15 grams per meal, 0-5 per snack
30 total:6 -12 -12. I am not overweight (24 BMI).
Varies somewhat but about 40 per day.
Sun-Fri150-225. Weekends the gloves come off! Last A1C 5.9, starting pumping Oct 2012.
All that said I guess I average about 60-75 a meal.
Many years ago, the doctors at the Joslin Clinic told me that I was so brittle that I should stop adjusting my dosage (because my graphs looked like a roller coaster!), and eat according to where my blood sugar is. So on a good day, when my blood sugar at breakfast time is below 120, I eat 24 carbs of whole wheat toast (low glycemic index!). If it is in that range at lunch, I eat 20-30 carbs, again, whole grains. The same goes for suppertime. If I am running high, I eat far less in terms of carbs. I snack when my blood sugar is low mid-afternoon, and always have a late-night snack because otherwise my morning blood sugars are too low to wake up to the 3 alarm-clocks that I have set. But, other than fruit when my blood sugars are relatively low, everything is low-glycemic-index. That seems to work best for me. My A1Cs are 6.1 to 6.4, which keeps my doctor relatively happy, since when I aim for lower than that, I have too many severe lows. Of course, it is hard to do when you are cooking for other people as well as yourself - you have to plan meals where you can eat only the protein and low-carb veggies when you need to.
I don't weigh food or measure anything. I simply avoid high carb foods unless it's a TINY portion for a treat. I haven't seen a reading above 6.8mmol/l [122.4mg/dl] on my meter for months so it must work.
my husband and I had a day out today and bought lunch in the Winchester Cathedral refectory. I had a salad, which had pasta and couscous on the plate. There wasn't a better choice available. I left the pasta, ate all the vegetables and a piece of smoked mackerel and a piece of smoked salmon. I did eat about a tablespoonful of the couscous. I WAS careful. I prefer it if there is a plain green salad on offer. the trobuble is that here in England, THEY [ the food police!]believe carbs to be ESSENTIAL and fats the enemy. It often restricts my choices.
Hana
I was diagnosed in June with Type 2 diabetes. I'm 50. My A1C was 10.5 - scary. Since then I've been eating about 90 to 120 carbs per day. I usually have one snack a day of about 10 grams and the other 3 meals are roughly 30 grams. It has worked for me so far.
Hi Manny,
I would should for a lot less if I were you, you may be pleasantly surprised by the numbers you get doing that. I eat about 50g per day(not including low treatments), no more than 25 in a meal. I generally eat 2-3 meals per day. The first one is 9g, the next large one is 25g, the snack meal is around 15g.I go for a walk after the 25g meal to stop spikes. I don't eat any grains, no starchy veggies etc. This has helped me a lot too.