I found that with pumping I was eating more of what I like to eat and just counting the carbs and bolusing to counter act the effect of the carbs on my BG. I used to eat around 225-250 in carbs a day but my weight started to creep upwards and I am a thin athletic guy so this was quite a shock. Now I am eating in the range of 125-150 grams of carbs or around 45-60% of my daily caloric intake.
I am curios to see what everyone has to say because my experience with nutritionists is that you should eat zero fat, no carbs and drink water and exercise several hours a day!!! Oh and fruit contains sugar so that is bad as well!!!
380 a day, my doctor wants to kill me, says normal people don’t eat that much. I always have eaten like this but I must say I started gaining weight about 2 years ago for the first time in 15 years (been 140 since high school) & am at 215 now. I’ve had a pump for 7 years but didn’t gain weight in the first 5 years. My father said he started gaining weight at my age and my older brother did too. So I’m leaning toward getting older rather than a problem with pumps.
My nutritionists told me to eat a high carb diet with lots of brown rice, oatmeal and fruit. She suggested 250g (or about 16 carb “exchanges”). I tried that as first but it didn’t work for me. Now I do a fairly strict low-carb diet- usuallly between 60 and 75 g per day. I stick fairly closely to the Bernstein plan of 6g for breakfast and then 12-20g for meals, with several 4-6g snacks throughout the day. I do 2-3 units of insulin for the meals and my blood sugar is in the normal range- between 80-100 - all the time, including the two hours after eating. For me, it’s worth the effort because I feel great when my BG is normal, with tons of energy. I am newly diagnosed and spent the last 2-3 years feeling horrible. I was sleeping 9-10 hours a night but waking up exhausted. I am still in the honeymoon stage so was swinging wildly between 80 and 180 and back again with every bite of food. Now I feel completely back to normal and I love it.
i like to stick around 100 or less.
I’m usually around 150-200. And probably 50 of that is fiber. I actually eat less carbs now than I did before diagnosis - I often wonder how many I was eating back then. I don’t much care for the meat and am a hopeless fruit and grain addict, so I figure 150-200 is really good for me.
I eat 45 carbs at three meals a day and 15 carbs at two snacks a day.
170 - 200, which is about 35 - 40% of my daily caloric intake (estimating 2000 calories a day).
One thing to keep in mind is that better glucose control will cause weight gain (all other things remaining constant). When we have poor control, our bodies don’t have enough insulin to properly use the glucose for energy, so we pee out the excess glucose and burn fat for our much needed energy. For a T2, weight gain is usually not a good thing, but for a T1 it often is a good thing (indicating better control). Your weight gain may be partially due to better control on the pump.
Absolutely-my last A1c was 5.8 . I am a buyer of food products so I am around food all the time so I did need cut some carbs out. I have also kicked up my biking to 3-4 times a week (min 10 miles) and vigorous vinyasa yoga at least once a week.
Dave,
Now that I can use insulin I eat about 110-120 g per day. That breaks down to a lunch and dinner around 20-30 g and maybe 40 to 50g at dinner plus a nibble here and there. I try to keep my insulin use to a level that if I screw up won’t drive me very low, so for me, that means 4 units max.
Carbs aside, I don’t eat a lot of food, as I’m at the age where the metabolism has somehow figured out how to live without any calories at all and I can gain weight now on intakes on which I would have lost weight on when I was in my 30s.
My A1cs are consistently in the mid 5% range.
Re exercise, I have a bunch of orthopedic problems, including ruptured vertebral discs and tendons that tend to tear, so I can’t do much of anything but stroll around my garden and weed–and I’ve been known to suffer serious weeding injuries. I exercised a lot when I was younger, maybe too much!
As an 8 year old, at dx, nutritionist and endo nurse/CDE told us 180 grams per day, distributed in a prescribed pattern. At 10, she now eats 200, maybe 219 per day. Distributed over three meals and a large afternoon snack, usually. She does sometimes go high (or low) after eating. Wonder if reducing the carbs per meal and adding extra snacks would work better, but then she would be relatively high all day, and we would be watching the insulin more than we do (hard to match insulin with food; sometimes she will digest, insulin still active, and she will drop or vice versa). Adults are allowed to greatly limit carbs. Not hard to eat 200 plus carbs per day, though.
I think I am eating way to many carbs! 65g in the morning and all i have is a bran muffin!! No wonder why my pants are all tight on me. I am shocked to see that some people eat 60 all day! How is that possible? What do you eat all day?
The last time I ate a bran muffin, it was because my endo didn’t believe me when I told her I really needed insulin. I’d been controlling strictly with a low carb diet for years, so my A1cs were good and she did not understand how powerful a tool carb restriction was.
So I ate 1 4 ounce bran muffin (that’s the mini-muffin size) at our local health food co-op, headed over to the lab an hour later, and achieved a bg in the 200s. She said, “What did you EAT??” I told her. After that, no more problem getting insulin.
I still wouldn’t eat a big muffin even with insulin, though. For breakfast I’ll eat one slice of organic whole wheat bread (20 g) with peanut butter which works for me with 2 units of Novolog. Or low carb pancakes made with protein powder, needing no insulin. Or eggs and bacon. Or eggs… Or Ryevita and cream cheese. Stuff like that.
If I’m going to eat something with the kind of carb count there is in a muffin, it better be spectacularly delicious and worth the blood sugar spike. Because I cannot eat that many carbs at once even with insulin and avoid the kind of blood sugar spike that will end up making me hungry an hour or two later.
You might want to check out this discussion thread: http://tudiabetes.com/forum/topic/show?id=583967%3ATopic%3A9608
My nutritionist is not like the kind you’ve experienced. I eat a (Mediterranean-style) diet rich in whole grains, monounsaturated fats (mostly olive oil and canola oil), lots of fruits and veggies, and leaner proteins. I stay away from processed foods for the most part. I LOVE working with and eating a wide variety of good food way too much to be stuck eating a severely restricted diet, whether that be way low-fat or way low-carb.
I average between 120 to180 carbs per day, but will certainly go way above that depending on the food or depending on what the day has in store. Sometimes I’ll eat more or take less insulin if I’m going to go cross country skiing or swimming, for instance. As long as I’m keeping my bgl’s in range, my weight is good, I’m a happy camper. I do make sure I get exercise every day, but certainly not several hours worth - I do about 20-30 minutes of scheduled activity on average, and do other things like find the farthest parking spot from the door at work, use stairs instead of excalators, find fun things to do instead of taking root on the couch in front of the tv.
I have just finished Dr. Bernstein’s book and started applying his low carb regime to my diet. While I haven’t stayed within his 6-12-12 carbs per meal ratio, my daily intake is between 35 - 55g. It hasn’t been easy to stay this low but my blood sugars have had a huge impact from this as far as staying much more within a normal range. I definitley recommend this to anyone who is experiencing the huge swings in high/low blood sugars!
35-55g OMG!!! I am sooo bad!! I consume probably 50g Just for lunch…can you please provide me with the title?
I also replied to the thread that Maureen referenced about my high carb diet. I enjoy food and usually have no problems eating lots of carbs (avg~220 daily.) Although for the most part I stay away from processed foods. It might be easier for me since I didn’t get Type 1 until I was an adult? I don’t know how old you are and I’m sure you don’t want to hear this but my guess is that at least part of the reason you’re gaining weight is because your metabolism is changing with age. I was a size 0 until age 24 and have had 2 “growth spurts” or “metabolism slow-downs” since then, when I went up a size or two and then leveled off again. These were both pre-diabetes. I also agree with what people are saying about gaining weight due to better BG control but didn’t experience this personally, as I was diagnosed before my BG levels were abnormal. btw…my nutritionist experience was useless. The human body shouldn’t subsist on low-fat cheese and canned (portioned out) fruit cups…and neither can I!
Swinging wildly from 80 to 180? If that’s wild then I should be dead. I look forward to a day where I remained in that type of zone. I swing deadly between lower 30’s upwards to the 300’s.
Ideally I’d like 90 but I’ve found ideals aren’t a given to a diabetic. but then again I’m only a couple months in - so what do I know?