Type 2 Diabetes

jonesite

I have Type 2 Diabetes and wondered if anyone has any great tips on keeping blood sugars down using My Fitnesspal? I've started using 30g of carbs in am, 30 g for lunch and 45g for dinner and allowing 15g for two snacks. Is that pretty normal or are there any suggestions?

gogetemrogue

I don't have an answer for you, but I am posting so that your thread doesn't fall off the front page. Hope someone has a good answer for you and good luck!

ssbbg

I think that is a reasonable starting point. I'm assuming you've discussed this with your doctor (and/or this is how you are typically eating now.) (If you've been eating higher carb then some medications (insulin maybe others) might need to be lowered if you are dramatically reducing carbs compared to your normal eating.)

You should track your post-meal blood sugar and see if those numbers work well for you. For example, you may find that your post-meal blood sugar is within your goals for your less than <30 g carb meals/snacks but not your ~45 g carb meals. Look for patterns... don't drastically change anything based on one reading. But if you consistently find, for example, that 45 g carbs lead to extremely high blood sugars (or that you end up having too low blood sugar after your low carb meals) then you probably want to change things.

Hearts_2015

jonesite wrote: »

I have Type 2 Diabetes and wondered if anyone has any great tips on keeping blood sugars down using My Fitnesspal? I've started using 30g of carbs in am, 30 g for lunch and 45g for dinner and allowing 15g for two snacks. Is that pretty normal or are there any suggestions?

Here ya go, great group that's really helpful!
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1772-type-2-diabetes-support-group

meritage4

Exercise makes a huge difference. A recent study from UBCO-that's in BC showed 30 minutes of cardio lowered blood sugars that day and the next. Exercise lets the muscles absorb and use sugar without needing insulin. It's a webinar on End Diabetes Now-Canada's Diabetes.

Ziggy2875

The only way to really know is to test your blood sugar 2 hours after you eat, per the American Diabetes Assosiation your blood sugar should be less than 180 after 2 hours from eating. If you are back down the carb amount is good based on their standard (some diabetes groups/doctors) have different standards. Keep in mind many diabetics suffer from the dawn phenomenon and can not handle many carbs in the morning. Plus different types of carbs can react differently ie your body may not process 30 grams of carbs of blueberries like
30 grams of carb from toast. You will only truly know by checking your blood sugar.

rheddmobile

That's a good starting plan, but as @Zmausnot says, testing is the only way to know what works for you. I find the American Diabetes Association recommendations too broad and try to stay under 140 at all times, with fasting under 100 - anything over 150 and you are actively damaging your body at that moment.

Different people react differently to the same foods, so while counting carbs is a good place to start, testing really helps. For example I ate 46g net carbs of oatmeal with apples and cottage cheese this morning, and was at 88 afterwards, but if I eat a 15g flour tortilla I will peak at about 130. I have trouble with rice, but no trouble with potatoes. And other people are the reverse. If your insurance only provides you a small number of expensive testing strips per day, buy an inexpensive meter with cheap testing strips using your own money - really, is there any better use of money than keeping your feet, and eyes that work?

If you test and your levels are too high, going and exercising immediately will usually bring them down quickly. Doesn't have to be much - a walk or some cycling. Bodyweight squats are one option that can be done quickly anywhere.

One tip for using MFP is that you can customize the columns on your diary so you can see fiber and subtract it to get net carbs. I replaced the sugar column, which is irrelevant, with fiber.

MFP is a great tool for diabetics, and you can definitely do this! My A1c when I was diagnosed was 11, and is now 4.7 thanks to tracking, testing, and losing weight.

EatingAndKnitting

This isn't using MFP, but rather the OneDrop app for Android or iOS (I have only used it on iOS, but I assume it works the same on Android). It's designed to be used with the OneDrop meter and strips, which syncs with bluetooth, but you can manually put in your values with any meter. The app is totally free.

You basically start "eating to the meter", which is tracking how many carbs and what food you had in a meal and seeing how it effects your sugars one to two hours later. Most carbs will have spiked your sugar by that time period, except for beans. I have heard that beans take 4-6 hours to spike. I don't know how true that is though, I haven't yet done the testing to find out.

Every time you eat, log the carbs and the type of carb in the OneDrop app (use MFP to get the number of carbs, net or not, doesn't matter too much as long as you're consistent with yourself). After one to two hours (maybe both, I forget) the app will send you a notification to check your sugar. You check your sugar and put in the number. The app keeps track of it, and averages it out over the day, and so forth.

If your sugar spikes over 140-150, you ate too many carbs in that meal. Make a note that that number of carbs, or that food is not good for you. If you eat that food again, cut back and see what the number spikes up to. Once you find out how much you can eat, make a note of that so you don't eat more than that of that food.

Once you find out what you can and can't eat, your numbers will automatically improve. Also, as you lose weight your numbers should improve on their own as well. My A1C went from a 7 in January of 2017 to a 6 in January of this year. I'm trying to get it down to a 5.9/5.8 by April by losing weight and eating better (I didn't watch what I ate AT ALLLLLLLLL during the three months between my A1C in September (5.9) and January).

If you're a type 2 diabetic and you've changed your diet and it still isn't keeping your sugars low enough, talk to your doctor about a different medication. I can't take metformin, I develop lactic acidosis from it. My insulin resistance was through the roof, so I talked to my doctor about non-metformin medications, and they put me on Fargixa, a sglt-2 drug that filters sugars through the urine. It does increase the risk of yeast infections and UTIs, and you have to drink of a ton of water for it to work properly, but it worked better for me for keeping my sugars lower than metformin did when I could take metformin. There are also injectables you can take that will help, like Trulucity. These are no substitute for eating right, losing weight, and exercising, but they will help keep your sugars low while you're changing your diet and losing weight.

Best of luck to you!