Hi there..

I am a type 2 diabetic and am on insulin and oral med's too. My fastings are
running from 61 to 195 and my four pm's are from 270 to 315. I am trying to
find a good 1500 to an 1800 calorie diabetic diet complete with exchange
lists. I am trying to lose weight and keep my sugar levels good too. If
anyone can help with a good site to find the information, I would truly
appriate the help. I've been checking in on this site for about the last 2
months and this is my first post.

Thank you,
Savvanah

Savvanah...

The world abounds with low calorie diets.

You can go to any bookstore or search Google and find 100's.

What we diabetics need to find is what food plan will control our BG
levels... and calories don't tell the whole story on that. Numbers over
300 are extremely high. Damage is being done to your body. Aim for
glucose control right now. It's imperative.

You will want to call your doctor. Being on both oral meds and insulin
should give you more control that that. Your insulin plan needs to be
revised.

Here's the advice I give all those who want to get control:

The single biggest question a diabetic has to answer is:

What do I eat?

Unfortunately, the answer is pretty confusing.

What confounds us all is the fact that different diabetics can get great
results on wildly different food plans. Some of us here achieve
great blood glucose control eating a high complex carbohydrate diet.
Others find that anything over 75 - 100g of carbs a day is too
much. Still others are somewhere in between.

At the beginning all of us felt frustrated. We wanted to be handed
THE way to eat, to ensure our continued health. But we all
learned that there is no one way. Each of us had to find our own path,
using the experience of those that went before, but still having
to discover for ourselves how OUR bodies and this disease were coexisting.

Ask questions, but remember each of us discovered on our own what works best
for us. You can use our experiences as jumping off points, but eventually
you'll work up a successful plan that is yours alone.

What you are looking to discover is how different foods affect you. As I'm
sure you've read, carbohydrates (sugars, wheat, rice... the things our
Grandmas called "starches") raise blood sugars the most rapidly. Protein
and fat do raise them, but not as high and much more slowly... so if you're
a T2, generally the insulin your body still makes may take care of the rise.

You might want to try some experiments.

First: Eat whatever you've been
currently eating... but write it all down.
Test yourself at the following times:

Upon waking (fasting)
1 hour after each meal
2 hours after each meal
At bedtime

That means 8 x each day. What you will discover by this is how long
after a meal your highest reading comes... and how fast you return to
"normal". Also, you may see that a meal that included bread, fruit or
other carbs gives you a higher reading.

Then for the next few days, try to curb your carbs. Eliminate breads,
cereals, rices, beans, any wheat products, potato, corn, fruit... get all
your carbs from veggies. Test at the same schedule above.

If you try this for a few days, you may find some pretty damn good
readings. It's worth a few days to discover.

Eventually you can slowly add back carbs until you see them affecting your
meter.

The thing about this disease... though we share much in common and we
need to
follow certain guidelines... in the end, each of our bodies dictate our
treatment and our success.

The closer we get to non-diabetic numbers, the greater chance we have of
avoiding horrible complications. The key here is AIM... I know that
everyone is at a different point in their disease... and it is progressive.
But, if we aim for the best numbers and do our best, we give ourselves the
best shot at heath we've got.
That's all we can do.

Here's my opinion on what numbers to aim for, they are non-diabetic numbers.

FBG under 110
One hour after meals under 140
Two hours after meals under 120

or for those in the mmol parts of the world:

Fasting Under 6
One hour after meals Under 8
Two hours after meals Under 6.5

Recent studies have indicated that the most important numbers are your
"after meal" numbers. They may be the most indicative of future
complications, especially heart problems.

Listen to your doctor, but you are the leader of your diabetic
care team. While his /her advice is learned, it is not absolute. You
will end up knowing much more about your body and how it's handling
diabetes than your doctor will. Your meter is your best weapon.

Just remember, we're not in a race or a competition with anyone but
ourselves... Play around with your food plan... TEST TEST TEST. Learn what
foods cause spikes, what foods cause cravings... Use your body as a science
experiment.

You'll read about a lot of different ways people use to control their
diabetes... Many are diametrically opposed. After awhile you'll learn that
there is no one size fits all around here. Take some time to experiment
and you'll soon discover the plan that works for you.

Best of luck!

Jennifer


Savvanah wrote:

> Hi there..
>
> I am a type 2 diabetic and am on insulin and oral med's too. My fastings are
> running from 61 to 195 and my four pm's are from 270 to 315. I am trying to
> find a good 1500 to an 1800 calorie diabetic diet complete with exchange
> lists. I am trying to lose weight and keep my sugar levels good too. If
> anyone can help with a good site to find the information, I would truly
> appriate the help. I've been checking in on this site for about the last 2
> months and this is my first post.
>
> Thank you,
> Savvanah
>
>
>

http://my.webmd.com/content/pages/1/1667_50250
this URL provides a LOT of information about the exchanges

http://ut.essortment.com/diabeticexchang_rsmf.htm
this URL outlines the contents of exchanges in different levels of calorie
diets from 1,200 to 2,200 calories a day (the spacing on the chart is a
little difficult to read)

good luck..... and read Jennifer's advice about "let your meter be your
guide"

kate
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"Savvanah" > wrote in message
...
> Hi there..
>
> I am a type 2 diabetic and am on insulin and oral med's too. My fastings
are
> running from 61 to 195 and my four pm's are from 270 to 315. I am trying
to
> find a good 1500 to an 1800 calorie diabetic diet complete with exchange
> lists. I am trying to lose weight and keep my sugar levels good too. If
> anyone can help with a good site to find the information, I would truly
> appriate the help. I've been checking in on this site for about the last 2
> months and this is my first post.
>
> Thank you,
> Savvanah
>
>
>