# How many carbs per day allowed....confused.com?????



## Cherrywhite (Jan 20, 2020)

I've just been diagnosed and struggling to work out correct number of carbs per day allowed, I'm an older lady, can anyone help?


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## grovesy (Jan 20, 2020)

There is no one size fits all I am afraid. People vary on how many carbs they can tolerate.


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## Cherrywhite (Jan 20, 2020)

grovesy said:


> There is no one size fits all I am afraid. People vary on how many carbs they can tolerate.


Thanks for info


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## NotWorriedAtAll (Jan 20, 2020)

I am in my late fifties, female and not very active and I was very overweight a year ago and now I am less so but still not very active. I was diagnosed just over a year ago with type 2.
I am about to go for my yearly checks (fingers crossed) so far I have been told I am doing well at controlling my diabetes and I have been managing just with diet and no meds for the last three months or so.
I have a monitor so I can check what my blood sugar levels are.

I started out with a low carb diet - 40 - 60g a day but I also wanted to lose weight and I was struggling with it because it was a 'conventional' type diet with low fat and calorie controlled (around 1500 a day).  So I changed to a full on keto strategy which was high fat low carb and I tried to keep my carbs under 20g a day. 

For me aiming for 20g carb a day works well.
My blood sugars are mostly okay. I have the occasional peak of around 10 - 11 mmols if I cheat or make a mistake but it doesn't happen more than once a month and it quickly goes back to the 5 - 6 mmols mark

I don't always manage to keep under 20g but I am not weighing or measuring carefully - just guesstimating from nutritional info on the packaging of stuff.
I make my own food from basic ingredients most of the time so I have good control of what is in my food and I use alternatives to wheat flour etc my favourites are almond flour and psyllium husk.
I think I have been over-using sweeteners over Christmas and I am going to cut back on them again now.

I think if you do more exercise you can cope with more carbs.

I am steadily losing weight but not fast at all.  It is reducing the same way it went on - over a long period of time without me noticing and without me doing anything specific to make it happen.  I think I was always the sort of person who shouldn't have been eating carbs much in the first place - I didn't really enjoy them anyway and was only eating them because I thought I had to.

I now eat konjac rice and noodles now and then - they are almost zero carb and I have beansprouts when I make Chinese food and I make grated cauliflower rice when I make Indian food and I use the 90 second microwave bread recipe (easily found by Googling) to make bread/sponge cake when I feel I absolutely must have some bread or cake.  I make jam with raspberries/blackberries/strawberries in the microwave and mix in chia seeds.  So I don't feel i go without at all - if anything I have more 'naughty' seeming meals than I used to. But they are not really naughty any more because they don't have sugar or high carbs in them.


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## Ralph-YK (Jan 20, 2020)

I've heard professionals say 120g a day minimum. If you 30/40g a meal, and maybe a snack inbetween, you can easy reach that. Some go for 40g a day. There's a T1 at a Diabetes Support Group I've been to who does ultra low carbs. He's a cyclist and used to carb load.

[Edited]


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## Cherrywhite (Jan 20, 2020)

Thanks, that is helpful


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## trophywench (Jan 20, 2020)

Frankly both before I had Type 1 and since - my normal diet provides around 100g carb.  I'm not huge - no 'big bones' and had a sedentary job.


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## Ralph-YK (Jan 20, 2020)

trophywench said:


> Frankly both before I had Type 1 and since - my normal diet provides around 100g carb.  I'm not huge - no 'big bones' and had a sedentary job.


I forgot, the sort of activities you're doing come into it.


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## ianf0ster (Jan 20, 2020)

Hi Cherrywhite, We Type 2's are all different in the way we handle carbohydrates. Some can get their Diabetes in remission eating as much as 130gms per day, and some need to go down to Keto levels (of under 20 to 30gms per day). But you won't know what is right for you unless you get a Blood Glucose meter and test before and then 2hrs after a meal. That's after 'first bite' in most cases - unless it is a long meal with most carbs towards the end of it.

Unless you can't handle it I strongly suggest you eat real food and eat until satiated (don't go hungry, but don't eat just because of the time of day). This way you should never need a snack - which will increase the length of time you will have low amounts of Insulin in your blood stream.

I use a LCHF 'Way Of Eating' and have been increasing the days I skip breakfast because I'm not hungry anymore in a morning anymore.
I haven't had breakfast for over 5 weeks now  i.e. over  both Xmas and my Birthday.


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## Drummer (Jan 20, 2020)

I was diagnosed three years ago, but seem stuck with a Hba1c of 42, just above normal - even though I eat no more than 40 gm of carbs a day from low carb sources.
Possibly being undiagnosed and encouraged to eat low fat high carb foods is the reason.
I have a meter to test my blood glucose, the Tee 2 from Spirit healthcare, as it seems to be one of the cheapest to use, and when eating a low carb diet I only need to eat twice a day, which makes things easy.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Jan 20, 2020)

Welcome to the forum @Cherrywhite

Hope you’ve been given some food for thought so far (ho ho!)

You might find Alan S’s Test Review Adjust a useful framework for using a BG meter to evaluate how well your diet is working for you at the moment - https://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/test-review-adjust.html


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## ColinUK (Jan 21, 2020)

NotWorriedAtAll said:


> I am in my late fifties, female and not very active and I was very overweight a year ago and now I am less so but still not very active. I was diagnosed just over a year ago with type 2.
> I am about to go for my yearly checks (fingers crossed) so far I have been told I am doing well at controlling my diabetes and I have been managing just with diet and no meds for the last three months or so.
> I have a monitor so I can check what my blood sugar levels are.
> 
> ...



Can you share the jam method/recipe you use as I’d love to have that in my repertoire? Thank you!


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## Drummer (Jan 21, 2020)

I have a recipe - must be US origin as it calls for two cups of fruit, chopped if necessary, then gently stewed. Whilst still warm add one or two tablespoons of lemon juice, depending on the sweetness of the fruit then stir in two tablespoons of chia seeds and allow to stand to thicken. If it seems too thin add up to one tablespoon more seeds. Place in a clean jar with a lid and refrigerate for about two weeks for the seeds to absorb moisture. If you like things sweet artificial sweetener can be added before bottling the jam..


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## Neens (Jan 21, 2020)

Hi @Cherrywhite and welcome, lots of useful information here, hope it helps. 
@ianf0ster thanks for the BG reading info. everywhere I checked BG readings say 2 hrs after eating, so I have been doing that. I am a fairly slow eater but as portion sizes have diminished I can eat a meal @ a PB  however, I will start the timer from first bite now - I guess that will make a difference to the readings. Thought I was doing so well too.


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## Grannylorraine (Jan 22, 2020)

How many carbs per day is a very personal thing.  I aim for 70 - 80 per day, this has seen my HbA1c come down dramatically, lose 2 stone in weight and have more energy.  I allow myself upto 25g of carb per meal, some are not that high, some might be slightly over that.  The amount your body can tolerate will be different so if you test before and 2 hours after a meal you will see by how much your blood sugars rise.  

As said above Diabetes is not a nose size fits all approach, it will take a bit of experimenting to find out what suits you.


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## Ralph-YK (Jan 22, 2020)

With different foods or drinks, the BG peak can be at different times after eating or drinking. (That's why particular things are suggested as hypo treatments. Apparently Mars bars aren't quick enough.) Some things are digested quicker than others.
For example, my old breakfast of mini shredded wheat ( I don't have it anymore) would be 3 or 4 higher at 1-hour than at 2.


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## Jodee (Jan 22, 2020)

Hi Cherry

It would depend what you want to achieve, what works,  if you go too low carbs and you are already bordering underweight this may not be helpful, but if on the other hand you can stand to lose some weight lower carbs may be of help.

If a little overweight and blood glucose needs coming down, my experience was /is

30g carbs max per meal, min 10g carb snack if having something between meals - this plus some sort of daily exercise, even if just short walk out or sometimes I do a 1 mile walk inside using a you tube video.

To help me with carbs and portion sizes I did buy the Carbs & Cals Book  https://shop.diabetes.org.uk/products/carbs-cals  a good guide to have I think.

Since Jan last year I have lost 1 stone in weight.  I started to eat more carbs when I wanted to slow the weight loss up.  My blood glucose came right down until I had to take prednisolone earlier this month, that mucks things up again.

Hope this may help you.


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## NotWorriedAtAll (Jan 25, 2020)

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ColinUK said:


> Can you share the jam method/recipe you use as I’d love to have that in my repertoire? Thank you!


I have a Facebook page I started in August about my Diabetes journey where I keep all my favourite recipes with pictures and methods. I'm not sure if I am allowed to share stuff like that here. If I am allowed I will add the link.

In the meantime - basically I just zap a few berries (or a few rhubarb chunks) in the microwave until they go smooshed (the amount depends on what I am going to use it for - I use about five for immediate use with some whipped cream or in an individual cheesecake and more like twenty if I need it for putting in a sponge sandwich cake (keto of course)
Once they are smooshed I add a teaspoon or so of chia seeds and stir them in and then I have a little taste and if I feel it needs it (I don't usually these days as my taste buds have settled) I add a little sweetener (Erythritol or Xylitol) to taste.  Sometimes I jazz it up with some ground vanilla pod or some powdered cinnamon.

The picture is of a whole jar I made in the Summer from blackberries in my garden.
I stopped making large amounts because it encouraged me to over-indulge and it takes such a short time to make it made more sense to make it as I went along in small amounts.  I make it and eat it within a couple of hours. I read the other recipe here for chia seed jam and I haven't needed to keep it longer than 2 hours and I would be nervous of keeping it longer than about three days because there are no preservatives in this recipe unlike when actual sugar is used.


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