First post. Diagnosed as T1 LATA 4 yeats ago at age 56. It’s taken me a while to adjust and I’m finally getting serious. Diet was horrible and used insulin to keep on my crappy diet. Latest A1C was bad 9.5, and had small traces of protein in urine. I’ve now accepted. Going on pump. Started Noom to mainly track and keep to a daily goal. Working well. Down 16 lbs and much better BS control. Is there a general rule of thumb for daily carb intake? I generally try to stay below 50 per day. Don’t know if this is in the right range. Any thoughts?
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Welcome and congrats on the recent progress!!!
There are many schools with respect to carbs. Some people (few of them on this forum, but still a sizable minority) keep a very low carb diet like yours. There is a famous theory that claims significant advantage by staying under 30 carbs per day.
Others believe in moderate low carbs, between 75 and 150 per day,primarily for the convenience of not having major misses in dosing that come with large quantities of carbs. My son is one of those.
Finally, others believe in eating what you want and dosing for it. Interestingly, some of our mist amazing athletes belong to this group, as do some very long standing diabetics.
In the end, you need to pick what works for you best, I think. D is such an individual disease that it can be hard to generalize too easily what works for one to others.
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Thanks for the response and perspective. I suspected that would be the response, but I’m apprehensive of my previous thoughts. I’ll continue with my conservative approach for now and then adjust what works for my personal situation. I’m feel better knowing this forum exists as I’m not always confident in my provider DB support center. Wish the people in the support center had a personal connection vs relating what their patients may or may not communicate. Already found good advice on Dexcom G6 sensor errors and now at least know I’m not the only one having challenges ( my provider said she had never heard of this and even Dexcom was of no help). Thanks again. Day by day I will learn to better manage My challenges. Thanks again.
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Welcome to our community. Its sheer compassion and endless information has been life changing for me. I hope you find here what I have and that you maintain an open mind and continue to be willing to experiment with new management ways/behaviors/choices until you find your groove.
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When I was released from hospital after diagnosis (I was DKA) I was told to eat 60 g carbs per meal plus 2 snacks 15 g each. Haha that probably was less carbs than I’d been shoving in before that but controlling spikes was impossible! Six years later, I usually eat 20-25 g at breakfast and 30 g at lunch and dinner (and extra carbs as needed for activities like mowing etc.) and generally I do okay with my time-in-range.
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Welcome to FUD, and really glad you started to want better control. I think once you have the pump dialed in, that the eating part of the equation will get easier. How close is your basal now? i.e. what happens if you skip a meal? For reference, my son eats 80-120 carbs a day, which strikes him as a good balance of not restricting too many food groups, and not eating like a gluco-normal, but still giving him good control.
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I’m in that first example and follow the advice in the book, Dr Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution, of eating 30 or fewer carbs a day. It is an eye-opening book and has changed my life for the better as well as my non-diabetic husband. I wish I had known about this man and how he treats his own diabetes many years ago.
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Thanks. I read the book a few years back and received a lot of value out of his life’s journey with Diabetes. I never heard a medical professional be so relentless about caring for your feet😄. A lot of great info. Opened my eyes to the “oses”.
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Hi @LatetotheParty. 20+ years ago when I was diagnosed with T1, I was told that we should aim for 30 g of carbs for each meal. But my current opinion is that because we all have different versions of this disease, we need to figure out what works for each of us as individuals.
In my case, I cannot stomach food in the morning, which works out well considering I’m insulin resistant then. I will only eat carbs like bread, rice or pasta at lunchtime and then I usually avoid carbs in the evening meal. Most of my carb intake probably comes from the milk in my coffees 
.
When I was the most strict on my carb intake, I averaged about 80g a day. That worked for me in regards to my i:c ratio and being able to lose some weight after eating about 150g for far too long.
I also know that if I go any lower than that, I end up with major brain fog and hypo far too often.
Hope you find your sweet spot. Be safe!
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Read mastering diabetes.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll plan on reading in the near future.
Take care
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