Carbs v Cals

Whilst I appriciate calories are a different messurment of food "energy", it would seem to me that if your levels are under control you don't put on weight.
Therefore, would it be fair to say
A) you don't need to calorie count to loose weight
B) people in general should carbs count rather than calorie count to lose weight

My parter is dieting at the mo and he has to count calories in items that us type 1's don't really have to worry about I.e. Tea, salad etc.

What are your thoughts?

I carb count but I seem to put on weight.............

Probably down to an increased resistance to the insulin, which means more insulin and then more weight.....

I think for diabetics and non diabetics, it's a mixture of

1) What types of food you eat
and
2) PORTION SIZE!!!!

It's just that it becomes a bit more complicated / scientific for us diabetics as not only do we have to watch what and how much we eat, but we also have to try to replicate the body's natural BG balancing act at the same time.

I only graduated last week, and I'm aware that as a result of improving my overall BG levels, I could put on weight through fat that that was previously being excreted through my urea, BUT (and this will hopefully be my saving grace!), my actual portion sizes since starting DAFNE are much smaller, I don't snack between meals at all, and I'm using less insulin. I hope the net effect of this will be weight loss.

I am the same in terms of snacking, I dont snack, well, only occasionally at the weekends, in between meals through fear of messing up my BG results.................I eat salads and 4 bits of fruit at lunch Monday to Friday and have a varied meal for dinner...........

I have upped my activity at night, so I am hoping I can lose some weight, but I fear there may be more to it than simply diet and exercise.........

Sadly, that is one of the annoying bits of being type 1 - everyone else just needs to eat right and exercise!
And people think it's as simple as "Oh, you can't have that cake, can you?" !!!!!!

This is why I went vegan. I appreciate it's not for everyone. I was a confirmed omnivore but haven't found giving up meat and dairy all that hard actually. I love vegetables, pulses, fruits, pasta, grains and I can have peanut butter and Jam etc. I do not carb count and I do not calorie account. Of course if I just ate chips all day long I probably wouldn't lose weight.

I think fat is very important. I do have meat occasionally, usually when going out (but not always if I can find a decent vegan option). I do, however, avoid dairy when I eat out. As much as I love cheese and creamy sauces that is where the majority of your calories and carbs lie in many meals.

One of the fat pitfalls with being vegan is Palm Oil which is high in saturated fat. Unfortunately it's used in a lot of vegan and vegetarian products like peanut butter and tortilla wraps. I try to avoid it as much as possible.

On this way of eating I've actually reduced my carbs and fat quiet a bit without really trying because I tend to eat wraps more than bread (although most bread is suitable for vegans), I'm not eating a lot of fat from meat or dairy. Most things I do eat are naturally low in calories.

I've also replaced sugar almost completely with Agave Nectar which I find suitably sweet enough for me. Heck I even made Peanut Butter cookies with it

Anyway, this is just my experience and I can attest that in the last 3 wks I've lost 6lbs and I haven't been hungry, felt deprived, had hypos or had very high blood sugar unless I didn't calculate something correctly.

PS I tend to eat whole food and avoid a lot of processed/packaged soy based vegan replacement food.

'PS I tend to eat whole food and avoid a lot of processed/packaged soy based vegan replacement food.'

That's a biggie for me - I was shocked on my DAFNE course at what some people ate - I wouldn't eat some of it even if I wasnt diabetic!!!

Michaela said:
I do have meat occasionally, usually when going out (but not always if I can find a decent vegan option).

Agreed. You can still get fat on whole food if you eat a lot of fat, but avoiding all the processed foods with it's added sugar, salt, soy (a problem if you have Hypothyroid like me) and fat will be better for you in the long run even if you aren't trying to lose weight.

Michaela said:
(a problem if you have Hypothyroid like me)