Macro requirements in DM

Talk to your medical team or go to diabetes.org

I'm not sure most diabetics today (especially those not on insulin) are advised to track so closely

My husband is type 2 diabetic. he was initially on Metformin and now just on diet control

He saw a diabetic educator - both the educator in person and the literature he brought home say the obvious things like keep sugar intake to a minimum and minimise high carb foods like bread and chips.

But no specific advise about weighing or measuring in grams.

Without trying to give you specific advice (I'm unqualified), I'd make a general observation: Sometimes, when an individual has important specialized dietary needs, percentages may not be the ideal starting point.

Think about it: At the same percent, someone eating lowered calories to lose weight is going to estimate needing a lower actual amount of carbs/protein/fat (in grams) than someone who's otherwise exactly the same (age, weight, etc.) but eating at maintenance calories.

Example: At 1200 calories, 25% protein would be 300 calories from protein, or 75 grams daily (protein has about 4 calories per gram). If that same person were eating 2000 calories, 25% protein would be 125g protein daily. That's a pretty big difference, y'know?

Protein and fat are essential nutrients, so if we want to shoot for maximum odds of good health, we each would ideally get certain specific gram minimums of those whether we're losing, gaining, or maintaining. Someone who has diabetes will also add needs to manage carbs more thoughtfully than many other people do.

Just adopting some standard percentage is a way of approximating macronutrient needs, and probably works fine for someone without specialized needs, who doesn't cut calories super far (too aggressive weight loss).

But with specialized needs like yours? Hmm, I'd be looking for advice from a registered dietitian, a certified diabetes educator, or at least one of the well-respected diabetes support sources. Even if they suggest percentages, it will be with better recognition of your situation.

Even for myself (not as specialized from a health standpoint), I estimated my needs for protein and fats in grams, then set my percentages to hit close to those gram goals, rather than just adopting some standard percentage. The percentages were different when I was losing weight, vs. now, when maintaining (so on higher calories), because of how the math works out.