Carbs?

[BMDmom]

Hi all

Iv been looking at how much carbs i eat in a week since carbs turn to sugar. Below is what i will consume in a week.

Monday and tuesday were the same at a total of 81.4g of carbs a day.

Wednesday- 67.2g of carbs a day

Thursday - 120g of carbs a day

Friday- 84g of carbs a day

Saturday -127g of carbs

Sunday - 80g of carbs

My breakfast 5x a week is greek yogurt and honey and the whole breakfast comes in at 30g of carbs and 2x a week it is a lot lower as i have fish for breakfast twice a week.

Thursday is higher as i go out with my mom every thursday and i always get there vegan lasagna which i asked thursday just gone and they said it has around 45g of carbs.

Saturday is higher due to me having beef burgers and its the bun and chips that has a lit of carbs in the burgers only have 1g in.

So what do you think is this ok?

[IvanTheHorrible]

Seems OK to me, but remember to make up missing carb calories with fat calories. Otherwise you're just running on empty, and you'll feel dreadful.

A fairly simple method of constructing your meals would be to think about what vegetables you're going to put on your plate, and then add some source of fat to them: say, a cream- or oil-based sauce or dressing, butter, meat, eggs, etc.

For example, instead of thinking "what am I going to eat with my burger?" (a question which doesn't really have a good answer!) start with a plateful of veg that you like, cooked in ways you like, and then see what kind of meat you can match with it; sometimes, it'll turn out to be a burger patty. There's a restaurant I go to occasionally where they serve a huge salad topped with meatballs and a garlic dressing. Awesome.

French cooking contains a wealth of useful ideas along these lines.

[BMDmom in reply to IvanTheHorrible]

Thanks, i always make sure each meal has a fat and protein in there. I learned a lot about fats from reading paleo leap. With all these carbs there is always meat or fatty fish and i cook in coconut oil.

[andyswarbs]

As a general recommendation I would remove all refined carbs from your diet. Research shows that refined carbs can cause a spike in insulin, for example. Also very important adding some meat to that same diet and the insulin spike goes way high! Take away the meat and the spike goes down again.

(So as a guess a burger or sausage that has wheat in it for bulking could be your worst nightmare!)

Whole food plant based diets do not cause sugar spikes except in people who already have sugar issues. For these people they need to concentrate on low-GI foods temporarily while their gut issues heal.

[BMDmom in reply to andyswarbs]

I have never heard anything so stupid in all my life that meat can cause a spike.

You can try all you want but i will NEVER go vegan or plant based. My burger does not have wheat in it , i make my own beef burger from beef that has been grass fed and well looked after.

paleoleap.com/vegetarianism... my sister use to be plant based until she read this link and is now enjoying meat again but like me buys from grass fed local farmers who look after there cows who get to graze in the fields.

[IvanTheHorrible in reply to BMDmom]

Raising meat animals fulfils an important ecological function, as long as it's done right. Well done for supporting those ethical farmers who are looking after their animals and their soil, rather than giving more $$ to the supermarkets.

[benwl in reply to BMDmom]

It does sound strange at first impression. But there is a difference between the glycemic index and the insulin index. And whilst meat won't cause a sugar spike it does indeed cause an insulin spike.

Here's a paper where they measured the insulin response of different foods: academic.oup.com/ajcn/artic...

[BMDmom in reply to benwl]

But in that case every diabetic should be avoiding meat then but yet GPs and nutritionist are not reccomending them to avoid meat. My brother is a nutritionist and he said there is not enough evidence on this and he said there is no reason to stop eating meat. Which i dont intend on stopping eating.

[BMDmom in reply to BMDmom]

After reading this i understand a bit more. marksdailyapple.com/insulin...

[benwl in reply to BMDmom]

I think your brothers point is reasonable. The NHS don't recommend to stop eating meat, but neither do they recommend limiting carbs. That doesn't mean people can't have success with either of those approaches, just that from a public heath point of view the evidential bar needs to be high for it to become the official recommendation.

[BMDmom in reply to benwl]

My brother would agree with that, he already advises his clinets to limit carbs and cutting out all processed food, he eats meat like me but only grass fed and only buys from farmers who have looked after there cows well and allowed them to graze and have no antibiotics or hormones injected. All his carbs come from natural whole foods.

But i found the artical i linked very interesting and helped me understand why meat spike insulin. But im still going to include meat in my diet.

[IvanTheHorrible in reply to benwl]

This is a well-conducted experiment, but they don't seem to comprehend what it is they're measuring. Insulin is merely a control signal. Yes, it does control glucose uptake, but it also regulates fat and protein metabolism. At first sight it might seem odd that we have a single hormone controlling such a disparate range of tasks, but that's just biology being parsimonious: when energy is available, a good fraction of it will be used in anabolic processes, so it actually makes sense to have insulin respond to the availability of both energy and "building materials" (ie., amino acids).

This idea that "insulin resistance" is a pathological state is flat-out wrong, IMO. It's just an adaptive mechanism, modifying the way metabolic power is split between those body systems which are able to utilize it. It only becomes pathological when generalized insulin resistance results in a situation where the aggregate power-handling capacity of your body's organs (muscle, liver, fat cells, etc) is less than the incoming power flow from the products of digestion. In that scenario, blood sugar exceeds its safe limits (because there's literally nowhere for it to go), and when that happens repeatedly, it results in the various problems associated with metabolic syndrome.

[BMDmom in reply to IvanTheHorrible]

Very well said Ivanthehorrible. I think thats along the lines of what the artical i linked was kinda saying. But you explained in more detail.

[IvanTheHorrible in reply to BMDmom]

I just read it, it does! It's nice to see someone actually mentioning glucagon, which operates in a complementary manner to insulin and tends to get ignored in the research. For every 100 papers looking at insulin, you might find one that considers glucagon/insulin as a pair.

[Praveen55 Star in reply to benwl]

benwl

The test results are for very lean meat. The meat that is normally eaten in LCHF diet is chosen to have equal amount of fat and protein. There is hardly any fat in the meat for which insulin score is shown. Protein consumption is quite modest for LCHF diet. And fat raises neither BS nor insulin. When it is combined with protein, it reduces the insulin response further. It is not as simple as you are concluding.

There are people who have been controlling their T2D for over 15 years eating meat + non-starchy vegetables and are in overall excellent health.

DR. BERNSTEIN himself a T1D, has been following low carb diet for last 50 years and maintaining his BG at the lowest end using minimum insulin injection. His carb intake all these years has been 30 gm per day. Also, his protein consumption is higher than what we normally consume. He is over 80 now and in very good health and still active.

[BMDmom in reply to Praveen55]

Very interesting info thank you for sharing that.

[Cooper27 Administrator]

The categories for what constitutes high carb, moderate carb and low carb seem to be completely different depending on where you look! I've seen it classified at <130g, but then I've seen others say moderate carb as being 50-70g.

As far as I've heard though, the magic number of carbs can vary from person to person. While 120g might be fine for one person, the next person might need to limit to 100g. I'd follow the current plan you're on for a few weeks, then if you're not getting the results, try reducing a tad more.

[BMDmom in reply to Cooper27]

Thank you cooper27, yes i think what works\is ok for one is not for another.

I spoke with my brother today as hes a nutritionist and he said my plan look fantastic and he said he can get away with eating more than 120g of carbs everyday and not put weight on but he said my carbs are from natural foods and i Exersice a lot. He said to see how i go to if i stop loosing weight at any point than adjust but he said the most important thing is to listern to your body , your body will tell you if your having to much. And he said that inclueds sugars to. Sticking to natural , unprocessed food is a good start.

[IvanTheHorrible in reply to BMDmom]

Indeed. 'Net carbs' (which is easy to estimate) is just a proxy for 'glycemic load' (which isn't). 100g of white rice or sliced white bread is not the same as 100g of carbs from natural, unprocessed foods.

[Penel]

You may find this a useful article suggesting how many carbs to eat.

healthline.com/nutrition/ho...