[James]

Greetings,

My name is James and I'm 38 years old from Maryland. I recently had my yearly physical and was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes.. I'll have lots of questions and look forward to learning more about my condition and gaining advice from this forum.

James -

 

[Virginia Brant]

Hi James and welcome,

I am also new to the forum. It is questionable as to what type I am however have been treating my diabetes as a type 2 for 2 years now. Was prediabetic for 3+ years so have dealt with the ins and outs, trial and error for quite some time. Again, welcome and feel free to join in or ask any questions you may have.

Ginny

 

[MissMeg]

Welcome to the forum.. You will have no issues finding information and informative people here. Good luck to you and once again Welcome!

 

[James]

Thanks for the replies...

I have a few questions already...

The nurse I met with yesterday went over my diet with me and we discussed blood sugar and which types and how much of certain types of foods I should eat. She told me to stay within 20-40 Grams of carbs per meal and less than 20 grams of fat per meal. This seems like alot of carbs for just one meal....

Last night for dinner I ate about 1 cup of steamed carrots 3 ounces of pork and 1.5 cups of mashed potato's taking into account the milk and butter which was added to the potato's. Two Hours later I checked my blood sugar and it was 70! How could it have been this low? I ate a small brownie and checked it again before going to bed (2 hours later) and I was at 106. This morning before breakfast I was at 108.

1. Is 40 grams of carbs too much per meal?

2. How could my blood sugar be so low after eating all those carbs?

3. How many grams of carbs should I eat per day (including snacks)?

I thought that having diabetes meant no carbs.... Can someone eductae a bit more?

Thanks,

James

 

[Richard157]

Hello James, welcome to our community! I will give answers to your questions but please keep in mind that what works for me might not work as well for you. We are all different. I have been Type 1 for 63 years and I have good control.

1.) I eat 25, 35 and 30 grams of carbs for my 3 meals. Those are averages. I think 40 grams for each meal is too much unless you are very active.

2.) Both carrots and potatoes have many carbs. 1 cup of carrots has 12g and 1 1/2 cups of potatoes has 45g of carbs. Your meal had 57 carbs. That is too many carbs. I would have eaten 1/2 cup of carrots and 1 cup of potatoes. That would have been 42g of carbs. That would still have been too much for my usual meal. I cannt understand why you did not go high after the very high carb meal unless you are not a true Type 2 at this point. It seems your pancreas might have pumped out too much insulin to compensate for all the carbs. Did you feel like you were having a hypo when you were 70? You sound more like you have hypoglycemia rather than diabetes. Was that an unusual situation or is it happening a lot?

3.) I eat an average of 90g of carbs at meals and 30 carbs for snacks. That makes 120g per day. That is less than most people would eat but I am trying to lose weight and a low carb diet helps. I used to eat 150g of carbs per day.

Ask all the questions you want! Good luck to you!

Richard

 

[James]

Thanks Richard for answering my questions...

I was diagnosed type two because my glocose levels were 127 after fasting for about 14 hours. I've been told that I was pre diabetic for the past few years based on simliar results and type two does run in my family. I'm still working on carb counting so it appears that I miss counted the carbs. I didn't count carrots at all as I was under the impression that vegetables didn't count.... Thanks for clarifying this for me. As far as the hypoglycemia goes... The thought had crossed my mind. I do feel tired alot and tend to get shaky if I miss a meal or don't eat enough. Any ideas as to why my sugar was so high after fasting for 14 hours if I am, hypo? I have another appointment with the nurse in two weeks and I'm currently checking my blood sugar twice a day, I take a reading first thing in the morning and then again two hours after dinner. Two days prior to my next appointment the nurse asked me to write down everything I eat and the time I eat, and record my blood sugar four times a day for the 2 days leading up to my appointment. Perhaps we'll get a clearer picture of what's going on once I do that.

Thanks again for you insight.

James.

 

[Richard157]

A fast for 14 hours is unusually long. Do you always do that. I eat a small snack at 10pm, wake up at 8am and et breakfast . That is a 10 hour fasting period. If you go a long time without eating carbs then your body needs some carbs. it is very important that our bodies have carbs, we cannot survive without them. You liver dumps carbs int your system if you go very long without carbs. That is what caused your 127 after the 14 hour fast. The trouble with that is that your liver overcompensates and dumps too many carbs. If you eat a high protein snack at bed time then those carbs will last a long time and should prevent the liver dump. Here is a link that discusses the "Dawn Phenomenon". That is just a fancy name for the liver dump.

Dawn Phenomenon

Richard

 

[James]

A fast for 14 hours is unusually long. Do you always do that. I eat a small snack at 10pm, wake up at 8am and et breakfast . That is a 10 hour fasting period. If you go a long time without eating carbs then your body needs some carbs. it is very important that our bodies have carbs, we cannot survive without them. You liver dumps carbs int your system if you go very long without carbs. That is what caused your 127 after the 14 hour fast. The trouble with that is that your liver overcompensates and dumps too many carbs. If you eat a high protein snack at bed time then those carbs will last a long time and should prevent the liver dump. Here is a link that discusses the "Dawn Phenomenon". That is just a fancy name for the liver dump.

Dawn Phenomenon

Richard

It was really a 12 hour fast as a result of my getting blood work done for my yearly physical. I typically won't go that long without eating... The 14 hour number is from the time I ate my last bit of food to the time they drew the blood. So, is 127 normal under these circumstances or is the doctors diagnoses correct? I'm a little confused. Then to add to the confusion I just checked my sugar levels and I was at 77! This is two hours after eating 1/2 skinless chicken breast (baked), 1/2 cup of mixed vegetables and a half cup of mash pototo's with 8oz of sweetened green tea. I calculated this around 50 carbs because of the sweetened green tea. 77 seems very low two hours later. I almost want to say that it seems like the higher my carb intake is the lower my blood sugar is. How the heck could this be?

I greatly appreciate you answering my questions. Thank you!

James

 

[Richard157]

James, it looks very much like you have hypoglycemia instead of diabetes. If you were truly diabetic then 50 carbs should send your blood sugar through the roof unless you were taking a medication or insulin to avoid that happening. You should see a diabetes expert (endocrinologist) and get a correct diagnosis as soon as possible. Good luck!

Richard