I average about 25 grams per day. I feel so much more energetic and overall healthier and happier with fewer carbs than with them.
I get my energy from protein and fat. Since I have been doing the low carb/ higher fat diet I have lowered my A1c considerably, lowered my cholesterol considerably, and lowered my blood pressure considerably.
I am not only type 1 but also insulin resistant, so when I eat carbs I have to take a ton of insulin to counter those damned evil carbs. So not eating carbs is so much more healthy.
Same here. The last three weeks low carbing both my wife and I feel more energetic. Lots of meat, fish, veggies, fruit. I eat some fruit about 4-5 times a day. I have a list of carbs of each fruit that I eat. Itās amazing how many blueberries it takes to make up just 10 carbs. And they are one of my favorite fruits that I can get here that are generally very tasty. I have given up trying to get good plums, peaches or pears. No matter what store we buy them at they never are very good. For me thatās a bummer because really good plums and peaches are my favorites but there is no point in buying them when they are so awful. (and I am in Calif) Strawberries here are hit and miss and this time of the year we buy them frequently. Red cherries are fair at the moment.
I eat around 70-100 per day now, although some of that is for meat/fat, around 15-20g. I have gone as low as 30 but that didnāt work for me, I felt like I was starving since insulin makes me hungry all the time. I still had a lot of fluctuation and spikes at 30g. A lot of my carbs are from raw veggies and berries. I have eliminated various foods that are hard for me, Iām mostly gluten free and wheat free since wheat has always affected me, no traditional grains such as rice, no grains at all maybe and no starchy foods etc.
@Ahnalira great question!
Seeing everyoneās comment a bit surprised me I have to say! I LOVE bread and so I make sure I incorporate it in all my meals hides her face so u can guess that my carbs intake is a bit high @Terry4 your experience seems very interesting and motivating honestly ( i need/want to lose weight!!) not sure I can cut down my carbs to 30 but Iām gonna try to lower it down a little.
Very interesting replies.
This community is a judgement free zone. We each have different personal blood sugar control goals and we all make different dietary choices. No choice is right or wrong and nobody should feel they have to hide their face. For many of us food is one of the great pleasures in life. If we must give up all our pleasures for the sake of our diabetes then what is the point of life?
What to do about fiber was really one of the most confusing things about carb counting when I was first diagnosed last year. I wish someone had explained it like you did, Maurie!
Edited to add:
I felt like I was given rules to follow in stead of guidelines to use as a starting point. But so much of diabetes management is really āyour mileage may varyā and learning to feel comfortable changing things up as needed.
Anna - Why not just try a lower carb limit and see how you feel? Like I said, I started at 100 grams/day and worked my way down. No one will force you to do this. You do have to be mindful of your blood sugar level, test more frequently and be ready to reduce insulin levels appropriately.
I delayed pulling the trigger on a reduced carb way of eating for a few years. No one likes to change their eating habit. But when you trade what you think are ācomfort foodsā for much more stable and safer blood sugar levels, you may find better blood glucose levels are way more comforting!
@phoenixbound I have a little hobby farm up here in the northwest with a small orchard and raspberry/blueberry patch. Wish I could teletransport you some fruitāapples, cherries, plums, and pears. I think maybe I could support everyone on a 30 gram or lower carb diet throughout the season
I think I have a similar metabolism to yours, @meee. When I dropped from 150 carbs a day to a range of 45ā60, my insulin requirements went down by half. But, when I go below 40-45, my metabolism isnāt happy and it shows up like fatigue and extreme hunger. That said, and also like you, I have eliminated gluten and most grains.
I must say, though, that this thread has really opened my eyes to the possible benefits of even less carbs than I am consuming so I am taking small, incremental steps now to reduce further.
I eat a lot of carbs. Too many in fact, but itās just the diet that I have. I know that I need to lose weight, so I have cut back on my carb intake, but I have enough insulin to cover the carbs, so I donāt really care.
Iāve participated in some workout groups or communities online and the place those folks start is to first figure out how many calories they need to eat per day and then break it down by macronutrient ratios, PRO/CARB/FAT. I think that it makes more sense to do that than to just focus on carbs. If you eat less carbs, you have to make up for it or I think it runs some risk of slowing your metabolism down. Iāve read Dr. Bernsteinās book a couple of times and I admire his spirit and many of the interesting things Iāve learned from it but the ādeck of cardsā protein plus 12 or 6G of carbs doesnāt seem like enough food to me as, when I have paid attention to things and am hitting 50/30/20 and ānailing itā, I am eating a bunch of protein to cover the āmissingā carbs. Most of the time, Iām super lazy about tracking that stuff as it can turn into a chore and ruin the fun.
I watched a four part series today by a Dr. Shallenberger on optimizing mitochondrial efficiency by burning a ratio of 80/20 fat to carb. In the second part, he explains the biochemistry of itā¦which I found fascinating and so am sharing.
I also wanted to update: I figured out how to āback outā of fiber carbs and did the mathā¦ puts me at 35 to 50 grams of carb per day which may explain why I am so happy where I am, right?
I eat about 90 to 110 carbs each day ( 3 meals and no snacks most days ). A very low carb diet was not a good choice for me. Three balanced meals with about 30% to 40% carbs is best for me. High doseās of fat and protein put my BG on a slow boil thatās hard to control and leads to a high percentage of correction insulin. If I do not eat some carbs with each meal then my liver just adds sugar for me and I never know how itās going to react. I have had A1c as low as 5.0 when I stay on target but Iām happy with a 6.0 / 6.2. Some of us suffer from high BG even when we skip carbs with a meal and it leads to us using almost as much insulin as we would if we had just gone ahead and ate the carbs.
Do what works best for you, and also consider feeling good about your meal decisions, it will be part of your daily life. I eat food that I like and makes me feel goodā¦
Makes me think that your basals are too low. And are you SURE that you arenāt getting some carbs in a meal that you think contains none. Either your basals are too low or you are getting carbs somehow, if you are going high when not bolusing.
I donāt eat any foods that are mainly carbs, such as grains, potatoes, rice. I get some carbs from non-starchy vegetables, nuts, protein, sometimes sometmes some berriesā¦ I donāt know how to count these carbs, but I imagine itās about 30 grams?
@Brian_BSC is exactly correct. Just this weekend I fell off the wagon and ate all the white food I wanted. Granted, I enjoyed every bit of it. But today I am back to LCHF with the goal of lower bgās and less insulin.
Absolutely no carbs with a meal = a high BH. I have also been pumping for many years and my fasting BG floats up and down between 70 / 100. I can just think about eating and my BG will climbā¦itās a common phenomena for many when we eat, and some mornings when we get out of bead but itās all
Unpredictable for me. No two days are ever just alike for meā¦just another part of the curse.
So you are saying you are sure your basals are all correct? Sounds counter intuitive to me, given what you just said about getting high without eating or eating a carbless meal. I donāt find the same thing holds true. I have DP, so when I get up, my bg will climb higher than if I kept sleeping in for a while. But thatās not to do with my eating/not eating. It has to do with me not wanting to increase my morning basals beyond what they are, because when I am busy, Iāll naturally drop, and if I go up after rising, Iāll do a small correction bolus. ie, the only reason I go up after rising is that having DP AND not wanting to get to aggressive with my morning (6-9AM) basals , I will tend to climb if I donāt take a couple of units for a carbless breakfast, and more units if I jump off the wagon and have carbs, in which case I bolus accordingly. The only carbs I eat at breakfast now are from fruit. I get far better control than eating the crap I used to eat.
[sorry for the run on sentence but Iām too lazy to edit]
Figuring a meal bolus with a low carb meal can be much more complicated. First, protein can be a big factor, I count half of the protein as carbs. And that protein can be digested over 3-5 hours meaning that a rapid insulin may actually wear off too fast leading to a blood sugar rise after about 3 hours. And also our bodies have a complex hormonal cascade when we eat. The act of eating alone can trigger a rise in glucagon and cause our livers to dump blood sugar. This so called incretin effect is what is likely behind the what Bernstein calls the Chinese restaurant effect. In the end, if you are able to attain your blood sugar goals with your diet then that is all that matters. What works, works.
