Insulin Resistance and Carbs

agrafina

Everything I've read about insulin resistance indicates that you really need to alter your carb intake. What percentage of my calories should I be getting from carbs, protein, and fat? Currently I'm getting approximately 40% from carbs (down from about 50-55%), primarily from beans, fruit, vegetables, and an occasional "free meal". 20% or so comes from protein. I'm not a big meat eater, and I already feel like I'm eating a lot (twice a day). Right now there isn't a lot of variety in my diet because my husband is out of the country and I'm lazy, so I just sort of fix one thing and eat it the entire week, but also because other than grilled fish, I don't really know what else to eat. He doesn't eat meat other than fish, so dinner has to be fish or beans. The dietician I had talked to also wanted me to eat at least 3/4 c of beans a day, hence the bean salad for lunch most days. I pretty much cut out grains since they are the one food group I pretty much can take or leave (they just don't sound appealing anymore), and cutting them out was the only way to bring my carbs down to 40%. Should I take it lower? If so, what should I replace?

meganjcallaghan

Everything I've read about insulin resistance indicates that you really need to alter your carb intake. What percentage of my calories should I be getting from carbs, protein, and fat? Currently I'm getting approximately 40% from carbs (down from about 50-55%), primarily from beans, fruit, vegetables, and an occasional "free meal". 20% or so comes from protein. I'm not a big meat eater, and I already feel like I'm eating a lot (twice a day). Right now there isn't a lot of variety in my diet because my husband is out of the country and I'm lazy, so I just sort of fix one thing and eat it the entire week, but also because other than grilled fish, I don't really know what else to eat. He doesn't eat meat other than fish, so dinner has to be fish or beans. The dietician I had talked to also wanted me to eat at least 3/4 c of beans a day, hence the bean salad for lunch most days. I pretty much cut out grains since they are the one food group I pretty much can take or leave (they just don't sound appealing anymore), and cutting them out was the only way to bring my carbs down to 40%. Should I take it lower? If so, what should I replace?

if you already have a dietician, I would ask them what they would recommend for carb percentage or whether or not you even need to go lower than that. If your carbs are mostly coming from beans and such anyway they will probably be pretty low glycemic load which is the important bit as far as insulin resistance is concerned.

anviljenkins

I have a meter and tried all kinds of foods then checked my sugar at 1 hour and two hours post meal. The key is to find the "peak"....it may be at 30 minutes even for some foods.

This is of course all my own opinion and not based on anything but what I have observed for myself. I used to eat a lot of Oatmeal, well holy cow at my present weight 806 of old fashioned oats will blow my blood sugar up over 200 at one hour, BUT :-)....if I eat it then go for a brisk walk of an hour or so at an aerobic pace heck my blood sugar does not go over 110.

Cream soups were a bad thing for me too, I got where I looked at the carbs in something that was a prepared food and could almost be certain if it would be "good" or "bad". But the TYPE of carb IMHO means a LOT......sweet potatoes for example do not blip my sugar at all. Brown rice is OK too, I have not tried white rice and testing....I really only eat brown rice :-).

Adding Flax meal to oatmeal also helps with the blood sugar rush....but I never got it totally nailed down so I just did not eat oatmeal until 22 days ago when I signed up here and started walking. In the past if I got my weight closer to correct my sugar issues mostly resolved themselves totally.

Whole fruit of any kind (as opposed to say fruit juice or jam) was totally benign as far as my blood sugar goes.

So again the type of carb, and whether it comes in a "natural package" :-) of fiber and pulp and all kinds of other good stuff....like strawberries IMHO makes a huge difference.

anviljenkins

I really learned a whole lot about carbs and types of carbs when I studied up on the South Beach diet a few years back, that book really has tons of info about Glycemic index. Also I try to ensure that EVERY meal as at least some protein and fat in it, when a meal has fat in it the stomach holds onto it longer, and IMHO it helps prevent a blood sugar spike.

That is probably why the flaxseed meal helps to some degree with the oatmeal...but it is also a laxative so ease into using it on a day when you are near a bathroom :-).

anviljenkins

where I typed "806" I meant to type "80g" or 80 grams.

elsie0o0

I have this concern as well. I'm struggling to be low carb and still low calorie. I am eating vegetables, but I am having issues with achieving the protein goal and my calorie intake. It seems like meat has too many calories, but with my PCOS I really need to limit my carb and sugar intake.

MysteriousMerlin

If you're diabetic, you're likley going to benefit more from eating smaller meals more frequently.

For an adult woman trying to lose weight, you should aim for 45g of carbs or less per meal (x3) and a 15-30g carb snack (x1) per day. That would be around 150-165g per day. If you're maintaining, aim for 60g per meal. I don't watch my sugar intake, just the carbs. You should also aim for at least 25g of fiber per day, it will help regulate your blood sugar better.

My personal aim for carbs is around 135-140g per day (35%) and 98g of protein (25%).