Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by jewels on February 12, 2010 at 5:49am

To those eating the 35-40 carbs per day, what do you eat for breakfast?
I have eaten salads in the past, but some mornings, I'm just not into it. I've been told not to do Atkins, you know the whole bacon and eggs only in the morning, and some mornings, I'm starving...
Suggestions?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Melissa on February 12, 2010 at 8:01am

Why not bacon and eggs? I eat low carb (30-50g per day) and I've been eating 3 eggs and two slices of bacon every morning for the past 2 years. If you're not locked into eating something "breakfasty" for breakfast you could have left overs from your dinner the night before or something like that. I've also seen recipes for pancakes made with almond flour or coconut flour which would be low carb, though, I haven't tried them myself. I find that Mark's Daily Apple posts some good low carb recipes (http://www.marksdailyapple.com/category/recipes/), maybe you can find some ideas there.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by jewels on February 12, 2010 at 8:50am

I LOVE bacon and eggs. I've just been told not to do all protein as it is hard on the kidneys and liver.
So, I guess I'm just a tad confused on what to do. To be totally honest, I also LOVE cheese... lol
I'm originally from WI, cheese capital so to speak. LOL
If I wasn't told to eat bacon and eggs every day like you I'd be doing it in a heartbeat. LOL

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Melissa on February 12, 2010 at 9:57am

The guidelines I've seen for the recommended amount of protein you should have in your diet is about 0.8g of protein per kg of body weight per day (or little more or a little less depending on how active you are.) You can do the math based on your body weight to find out how much protein you can have per day and then compare it to what your doctors say you should do to keep your kidneys and liver healthy. You might find that eggs and bacon would fit into your day without giving you too much extra protein. ( For example my 3 egg omelet and 2 slices of bacon gives me 20g of protein)
Best of luck!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Libby on February 12, 2010 at 3:55pm

My dad, (non-diabetic), ate bacon and eggs every night for his tea. (That's English for dinner.) He also ate meat for lunch, drank full fat milk and ate butter. He's now 94 and in great health in a nursing home. He grew up on a dairy farm in the era when fat wasn't the enemy. I think if ALL you ate was protein it might cause some problems but having one meal of protein and eating plenty of vegetables for lunch and dinner is fine. I have a big salad for lunch, consisting of green vegetables, nuts, a small amount of fruit (blueberries or half an apple) and raw sprouted lentils. I find that raw lentils don't raise my blood sugar by much and they fill me up and are tasty.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gerri on February 12, 2010 at 4:05pm

Libby,

My grandmother, who lived to be a healthy, vibrant 93, ate the same way. She drank a glass of buttermilk every night before bed. She also ate lots of vegetables with three veggies at every meal, except breakfast.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Beth on February 12, 2010 at 12:58pm

Hi Jewels. I recently realized that I was slowly gaining weight and that I had never lost the last 10 pounds of my "baby weight" from my last pregnancy 5 years ago, so I tried "the usual" ways of loosing weight. I ate less and exercised more. But, I didn't loose a single pound. In fact, I kept gaining weight very gradually. I thought maybe it was my age (I'm 42). Then, I found this site (TuDiabetes) and read some of the old discussions on this issue and I realized what was happening. I had not made any real adjustments to my insulin. I was still averaging about 35 units (basal + bolus combined) per day. I was having more lows, from the diet and exercise adjustments I had made, and treating I was treating them with extra sugar in one form or another, plus, I had to eat more carbs between meals to cover my extra exercise. If you do that, you won't loose weight. I figured out that the key is to focus on reducing the amount of insulin you use (but not at the expense of good BG control). I gradually started to reduce the amount of carbs I ate per meal, but not drastically. I still eat carbs, but about half of my old 45g/meal, for a total of <100g/day. I can't give up stuff like fruit. In place of the carbs I used to eat, I do eat more protein and veggies. I also started to reduce the meal bolus by 1 unit and replace that with exercise -- a 3mile run in the morning, a very brisk, 20min mid-afternoon walk, and yoga in the evenings. I'm exercising about 90-120 minutes a day instead of my old 30 minutes/day. My sugars were going too low at first, but I gradually reduced my basal rates too and then things leveled out really well. This approach also helped a lot with my wild daily BG swings. Bernstein's theory of low numbers makes sense, but I don't think it's really necessary to take it to the low-carb extreme. I'm a vegetarian and ex-marathon runner trying to raise 2 little vegetarian kids and I just couldn't see how an ultra-low carb diet would work for me. The ideas behind the Walsh Ex-Carb approach that JohnG mentioned are working much better for me. I wanted to loose 15 pounds and I've lost 10 so far (in 6 weeks since I started this new approach). I feel great. Never hungry, lots of energy. My daily insulin dose right now is about 20 units (at least, until I got this cold, but it's on it's way out).

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by jewels on February 14, 2010 at 8:27am

Thanks so much for all the information, advice and sharing your story. I'm taking ALOT of insulin. I am what they consider insulin resistant on top of it all. So it's frustrating. I'm on I think six basal rates throughout the day. I take approximately 39 units basal per day.
I'll have to check out the Walsh ex-carb info.
It is sooo nice to have all this support. They keep suggesting I see the nutritionist but it's the same ole same ole. 45 -60 grams carbs per meal, blah blah blah, yet to cut carbs to 35 or 45 a day just seems too drastic for me.
Thanks so much again for all the information and support. It gives me a place to start.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by jewels on February 12, 2010 at 8:39am

Thank you so much for all the information and advice.
I have in the last two weeks started to cut back on my calorie intake and also increase my exercise.
How do you bike the races while pumping?
I have never been taught or shown how to basal test.
Thanks again for all the information and tips.
It is most appreciated and will be helpful to me in my journey to lose the weight and get into better shape.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Marps on February 12, 2010 at 10:42am

Hi JohnG

I've enjoyed your posts. I'm on MDI. How do you figure out how much bolus insulin you should be at? Is it a formula using your weight? For example, what is 50% in terms of units per day?

I used to be on the pump, so I remember the terminology. But, the MM never had percentages. They only had dialy insulin intake (combining bolus and basal together). I was using around 50 units per day of Humalog (including both bolus and basals)

Now, I'm on Levemir and using 52 units a day, plus several units of Apidra and Humalog to keep my BG down. I'm starting to have really bad reactions to carb intake and for the past few weeks I've been doing some serious low-carbing. My BG numbers are doing better, but I'm not seeing any significant weight loss. I still feel like crap.

I don't need to lose a lot of weight- I look fine. But, for my own desires of what my body should look like, I'd like to lose 30 lbs. Having trouble as many people are.

As for food, I love eating salads and I rarely get hungry- so that's not what bothers me, but as for nutrition, I know there isn't much in a salad. I'm afraid of taking from one good habit to give in to one bad habit. I do about 900 calories per day as it is.

Thanks!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gerri on February 12, 2010 at 11:26am

Hey Marps,

How many units of Apridra & Humalog do you take? Seems that you're injecting a lot of Levemir & using that to control BG.

Basal is usually based on weight, but you know how that goes. It's generally dosed at about 50% of bolus, but again everyone's different.

900 calories isn't much. If you're eating low carb (I've been for over 1.5 years), you need sufficient protein & fat. I lost weight low carbing, too much weight at first, & it's not a low calorie diet. Without enough protein, you'll feel crappy.

Basal testing is easy. Basically, you skip meals & test a lot to see if BG stays level. Lunch is usually a good one to skip, then do the same another day skipping dinner. Of course, if you plummet or rise you'll know it's too much or too little basal:) Don't basal test on days when you exercise, are stressed, sick or hormonal.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Marps on February 12, 2010 at 11:50am

I've been having a lot of issues w short acting insulins. I've been correcting highs with doses like 4-8 units of Apidra. But covering for even a moderate carb meal can be up to 10 or 12 (I've done as much as 20 units) of Humalog, as my carb ratio is very low. 1 unit per 4 grams of carbs. Plus for dinnertime, I'm to take 6 units of Humalog even if my meal has ZERO carbs in it.

I've been adjusting my Levemir intake over the past few days, even splitting my Levemir for the first time two days ago.

I'm at 56 now (without doing any Apidra in the past 7 hours). Think I may have adjusted too high for my last Levemir injection. :(

As for low carb, I eat some meats. And I love peanut butter and cottage cheese.

I guess I'm really confused on the low carb thing. I'm going to have to read the Bernstein's book again- because I'll admit that I only grazed over it. Going to have to really hunker down and READ it.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next ›
• Page