# Calories and other stuff....



## Podgypig (Aug 12, 2019)

OK. So I'm doing my best here, trying to get my head around changing from 10 years or so following hi carb, low fat,  unlimited fruit/rice/pasta/jacket potatoes slimming world to doing low carb.

Tried nutrition mapping everything yesterday and was horrified how big the numbers got so quickly. Felt I had eaten very little and thought I had made good choices...maybe not so.

I totalled up calories, carbs, fat, fibre, protein for each food portion over the day.
Got to 2000 cals, 217g carbs, 80g fat, 23g fibre and 142g protein.

I'm 53, female, fairly inactive ( teacher), 5'2 and a tad under 18 stone. Short, fat, idle, prediabetic, premenopausal.  Got high blood pressure (medicated) and been getting steadily fatter every year despite diet of mainly fruit, veg, lean meat, pasta, no alcohol or fags, monthly meal out, fortnightly chippie night, diet fizzy pop, skimmed milk.

What amounts should I be aiming for? Can't see nurse until next week but feeling panicky since I was told a week ago after bloods hba1c was 44 and need to feel I am taking control and doing something.

Thanks everyone.


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## Drummer (Aug 12, 2019)

For me it is all about the carbohydrate - avoiding anything low fat, and my Hba1c was a lot higher than yours at diagnosis, but now 'just' 42 - but I blame the problem of decades of being told to eat exactly the way you describe.
My carbs are under 40 gm per day, and I eat twice a day. I have a couple of mugs of coffee with cream, and eat meat and fish, seafood, eggs cheese, lots of salads and stirfries of low carb veges, and a little fruit, usually berries.
I am sure that you being only just prediabetic will give you an advantage, and that cutting out carbs should resolve the problem - low carb eating is a powerful tool to lower blood gluocse for type twos.
These days I do eat Livlife bread, as it is only 4 gm per admittedly small slice, but it is a good option to have.
I advise that you make yourself a couple of shopping lists - to use alternately, as that seems to help with variety. I started off that way and even now rarely buy mushrooms and tomatoes in the same week.


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## Podgypig (Aug 12, 2019)

40g carbs! Although today's totals were all lower than yesterday I'm still way way above that.  However, what it is bringing home is how much I was eating before of the "unlimited" and "free" foods. If I feel I've eaten very sparingly on 1700 - 2000 calories I must have been hitting nearer 3000 many days!


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## SueEK (Aug 12, 2019)

Hi and welcome. How you have described your eating habits is what so many of us used to do. I referred to myself as carb queen and thought I was basically ok as I didn’t have a sweet tooth, drink very much, eat lots of fatty foods and was fairly slim. I was wrong. I was diagnosed at a bg of 90 and immediately put on medication. As you are just at the pre  diabetes stage there is a lot you can do to ensure you don’t become a full diabetic. As drummer says low carb is the way to go, don’t worry too much about the calories as we need to get our source of energy from somewhere and as that shouldn’t be carbs it is fat. My carb intake is about 125-150 a day, we are all different . If you like most foods including veg you will be able to do it no problem once you get yourself organised and know what is good and bad for you. A lot of us test to find out which foods particularly spike us, for me it is pasta and bread which really don’t like me, I have most other things but VERY limited with rice, potatoes etc. 
If you are strict with yourself doing the low carb way the weight should come off no problem. Keep in touch and ask any questions you may have x


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## Podgypig (Aug 13, 2019)

Thank you all. The fact some foods affect people in different ways is interesting. I've got a lot to learn!


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## SueEK (Aug 13, 2019)

Podgypig said:


> Thank you all. The fact some foods affect people in different ways is interesting. I've got a lot to learn!


We all learn as we go along, if I knew then what I know now I probably wouldn’t have ended up with diabetes, oh well c’est la vie, upwards and onwards as they say, or downwards in the case of diabetes x


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## rebrascora (Aug 13, 2019)

Podgypig said:


> Tried nutrition mapping everything yesterday and was horrified how big the numbers got so quickly. Felt I had eaten very little and thought I had made good choices...maybe not so.


Hi and welcome.
It also totally horrifies me when I look back at how many carbs I used to eat, both sugars in the form of sweets, chocolate and fruit but also starchy carbs like break and potatoes and it amazes me that you can quite easily survive on about a 10th of what I was eating and even feel reasonably sated with that much less. They key is bulking up the veggies on your plate. I would suggest that you probably still need to keep your fat intake moderated if you need to lose weight. My diabetes suddenly dropped the weight off me although I was eating low fat and low carb for the first 6 weeks which helped bring me down to a normal BMI. I then added fat into my diet which made it much more enjoyable and stabilised my weight. I probably need to cut back on it a little bit now as I think I may be putting a bit back on.
Increasing your activity levels is also important and I really need to push things up a gear now with that, but you will figure out what works best for you.
Whilst it is important to take action as soon as possible, there is no need to panic over a reading of 44. Just take sensible steps. My HbA1c  was 112 at diagnosis, so very drastic measures were necessary and my current HbA1c is still significantly higher than 44, so by all means start cutting your carbs but don't get overly anxious.... stress usually makes BG levels rise, so panicking is not a helpful response.

It takes time to get it all figured out and if you are anything like me, you will take a few wrong paths along the way, but you will get the hang of it through trial and error. A blood glucose meter certainly helps with identifying the errors and making better choices. 

Good luck.


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## Podgypig (Aug 13, 2019)

Thanks Barbara.
I was aware I've developed a wobbly spare tyre in the last year rather than being firm but fat all over. My GP got me a reduced leisure centre membership but unfortunately the times I can go there are kids swimming lessons so the pool is shut or the gym classes are when I'm at work so this hasn't worked for me. Might have to find a private gym as that was a good habit on the way home from work a few years ago when I lived somewhere else.
I went up in the loft at the weekend and dug out my old Wii fit board and EA Personal trainer games as they were quite fun and got me doing my 30 mins daily.


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## Cherrytree preserves (Aug 25, 2019)

Podgypig said:


> OK. So I'm doing my best here, trying to get my head around changing from 10 years or so following hi carb, low fat,  unlimited fruit/rice/pasta/jacket potatoes slimming world to doing low carb.
> 
> Tried nutrition mapping everything yesterday and was horrified how big the numbers got so quickly. Felt I had eaten very little and thought I had made good choices...maybe not so.
> 
> ...


Don’t count calories don’t count protein don’t count fats,
Avoid sugar free alternatives too,
Eliminate all fruit and eliminate every food with any type of sugar in and every food with any form of flour in. Eat loads of eggs nuts none processed meat. Mediterranean type vegetables. 85% chocolate, 100% peanut butter, sugar free jelly.
Don’t go Keto but that 130g carbs a day is a good top number.
Meals will be more filling and more satisfying. 

Garlic butter fish, butternut chips and grilled toms 

Roasted, peppers, onions, garlic, courgette, tomatoes, some cubed butternut dosed in olive oil, Chuck in a load of fresh basil and you can fill your plate with loads of the stuff with two rump steaks, or even some crisps belly pork, tofu thrown in. Point is, your plate will be full and so will you. 3 boiled eggs mashed up with a tblsp of mayo a dash of black pepper is a great protein snack on two multigrain ryvita and it won’t mess up your carbs as there fiber content is big. 

I went from 15 stone to 14 in no time with going to the gym 4 days a week and I’ve been eating 5 boiled eggs a day, a jar of 100% peanut butter a week and 200g of 85% Lindt a week.

Hope there is at least some info there you can use.

L.A


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