Diabetic....Carbs, what to eat???

daltem

I am diabetic nod have no clue how the whole carb/sugar per meal thing works.
Does anyone have a diet or plan they follow?

BigLifter10

Of the people I know personally who have diabetes....they all were required to see a dietician so they knew how to eat. Your doctor gave you no advice on this topic? Or if he/she did, what did it consist of?

Azuriaz

Whatever you decide, tell your doctor. For example, if you were to drop your carbs significantly your medications would probably need adjusting. That's not a bad thing, as the adjustment would mean less medication (this is assuming you are Type 2, not entirely sure about Type 1).

Purplebunnysarah

I had gestational diabetes with my last pregnancy, which isn't quite the same but is similar. When I was diagnosed I was "taught" how to read nutrition labels and then given target numbers for carbs, fat, and protein with each meal. It worked out to about 2000-2200 calories per day. I remember breakfast was 45g net carb (total carb minus fibre), lunch and supper were 60g net carb, and three snacks per day of 30g carb each. I can't remember what my fat & protein targets were. I was also supposed to walk for 30 minutes after each meal although it was winter and very icy out so I usually wasn't able to.

You should be referred to a nurse-nutritionist/dietician (I can't remember which is the good one) by your endocrinologist. Until you do that, don't do something dumb like cut out all carbs/sugars. Just try to pick carbs that are also high in fibre and lower in sugar. Pair with a lean protein and do some moderate exercise after meals. That should hold you over until you get put on a formal meal plan.

Azuriaz

Just leaving this here:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=da1vvigy5tQ

abatonfan

Did you doctor/endocrinologist give you any information? Have you been referred to a certified dietitian and/or a certified diabetes educator?

I assume that you're a type 2. If you have a meter and test strips (if not, Walmart's ReliOn Prime meter is the cheapest one I found -it is 18 cents per test strip compared to the $1.18 per test strip for name brands, and the accuracy is the same), get used to testing a ton. Though the American Diabetes Association recommends consuming 45-60g of net carbs (total carbs minus fiber minus sugar alcohols) per meal and 15-20g net carbs per snack, you may notice that you may need to eat fewer (or can eat more) carbs per meal. The best thing to do to find out your carb "allotment" per meal is to accurately track how many grams of net carbs you are consuming in a meal, testing your blood sugar before eating and then testing your blood sugar 1-2 hours after eating.

The before-meal reading will be your baseline, and the 1-2 hour reading is used to see how much your blood sugar "spikes" during the meal. Based on your targets (The American Diabetes Association recommends post-meal spikes of under 180mg/dL, while some other organizations recommend that type 2's minimize their spikes to under 140mg/dL), you can then see how your body tolerates that amount of carbs per meal. If, for example, you're constantly going into the 200s while consuming 45g of carbs during breakfast, you might lower your breakfast carbs to around 30-35 and testing again, while if you're staying right at 120 while consuming 45g of carbs during breakfast, you might test again while eating 55-60g carbs to see if you could eat a little bit more without experiencing a huge spike.

jgnatca

Learning to plate my food, all macros in proportion, was the best newbie advice I received.

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/planning-meals/create-your-plate/

That and eating on a schedule and logging my food. At least log long enough to recognize the food and your reaction in the couple hours afterwards.