Keep coming in under calorie goal- not good.

Wicked_witch

I know this may not sound like a problem to some dieters, so sorry- this is far from a gloat!

I was diagnosed with diabetes 10 days ago and am using my fitness pal to log my food. I have to keep my fat low- I try not to go over 40g- because of gallstones. I'm finding it very hard to keep my calorie intake over 1200 a day. I'm not starving myself, but am full with the food I already eat. I need to find some nutritious, low fat and very low sugar options so my body will continue to lose weight sensibly without going into starvation mode.

At the moment, I'm having about 1130-1150 calories a day, almost all in fruit, veg, meat or fish, low fat dairy products and cereal products/ bread. I eat about 200g of carbs (I know some diabetics find it is better for them to eat very low carb, but having tried it for two days and feeling hungry and miserable the whole time with recurrence of some of my pre-diagnosis symptoms, it is definitely not for me right now) and 30-35g of fat a day.

I've never dieted before, except for a very silly crash diet before a friend's wedding nearly 20 years ago, so it's all new to me!

l0u1se

What about nuts? They are generally good fat I believe? Or seeds x

Fire_Fox

You really cannot safely do very low carb and low fat together, that would have to be under medical supervision nobody should ever have suggested that. That would essentially be very high protein which can put strain on the kidneys and would likely be low in minerals several of which type 2 diabetics can be deficient in.

Having said that IMO increase your protein grams to more of a balance with the carbs, it slows the digestion and helps stabilise the blood glucose. 200g carbs is ~800cals, 30g fat is ~250cals. I don't see how you are having ~200cals of protein from meat, fish and dairy, are you weighing and measuring or guesstimating? Are you eating a good serving of protein (20g+) at each meal and snack? Are you choosing dairy that is high in carbs like milk?

Wheat is generally a disaster for diabetes, the structure of the starch is easy for us to break down and almost all foods are heavily processed/ very finely ground so there is little digesting to do. Many wheat products really are akin to eating table sugar. Beans, lentils and barley are lower on the glycaemic index so gentler on the blood glucose. Sweet potatoes with skin are better than white potatoes for the blood glucose and are a good source of chromium.

You might eat more .... Low fat soft cheese, plain live yoghurt or cottage cheese with frozen berries, oily fish (vitamin D, omega-3s), whole egg (chromium, selenium), shellfish/ molluscs especially oysters (chromium, zinc, selenium) and whelks (magnesium, selenium, iron), chicken livers (B vitamins, iron, chromium), low salt yeast extract (magnesium, B vitamins, protein). Sorry not sure which of these you will eat, you don't necessarily need loads they are packed with nutrients.

These are really useful
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Chromium-HealthProfessional/
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional/