This is a great Diabetic tool

jwilson56

I recently have been to a diabetic dietitian specialist after a couple of frustrating years of trying to lose weight while keeping my A1C down. I was keeping my calories down and trying to eat what I thought for a diabetic. She helped me straighten out my diet and it seems to have helped.

First I have used MFP for while and it is an awesome free tool to keep track of your diet. I was tracking my calories pretty well but always tried to stay away from carbs as most people have told me to do since becoming diabetic in 1994.

After consulting with the diabetic dietitian she affirmed what MFP has for the ration of carbs, fats and proteins at around 50%, 30% and 20%. She suggested that I eat 25% of my calories at each meal and spread the 25% over some healthy snacks.

Some more information she gave me was that you really do need to eat carbs to lose weight as well as balance your blood sugars. These should be complex carbs or natural carbs like fruits and vegetables.

Next the fats you eat should be the 'good' ones as much as possible. These are 'monounsaturated' fats found in nuts, some oils and flaxseed. Avoid transfats like the plague. Salmon is a great source (wild caught not farmed).

Last proteins are only 20%. These should come from lean meats and cheese.

As you know one nice thing about Myfitnesspal is that is does all the math for you. It tracks everything and totals everything by the day. My wife and I feel better with this new balanced diet and the weight is finally starting to come off again after it seemed to stall after the first month or so we started using MFP and we also felt wore down. I also find my blood sugar numbers I am recording since the change are best they have been in years.

It all comes down to the proper balance with a little exercise like a walk for 15 minutes after a meal.

I hope this helps as it has helped me a lot.

John

bacanbit

HI John - I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes April 1985. It has been a long journey and I have struggled with my weight for most all of it. Thank you for the post, it is encouraging.

Cherie

michaeloro

Great post.

I love MFP for diet and excercise


On a side note. I recently found a great app for tracking glucose and a1c, its called ontrack. It can email you a bunch of different kind of tables and graphs.


Comes in handier than writing it down on paper everyday for my Dr to look at.