#Macro meal planning cheat sheet how to

You can find how many carbs foods have by reading food labels. Tracking your food intake and your blood sugar before and about 2-3 hours after your meals for a few days can provide useful information for you and your diabetes care team to see how different meals impact your blood glucose so you can determine the right amount of carbs for you. To get started, you’ll want to figure out how many carbs you are eating at your meals and snacks now.

Everybody's insulin response is going to be different, and we don't want to make the diet more restrictive than it needs to be to manage blood sugars.

#Macro meal planning cheat sheet how to

During the sessions, you'll determine your carb needs and how to divide your carbs among your meals and snacks. This service, when provided by a dietitian, is known as medical nutrition therapy.ĭiabetes self-management education (DSME) sessions also may include creating an eating plan. They’ll work out an eating plan specifically for you. In order to figure out how many carbs you should be eating, schedule an appointment with your RD/RDN or CDCES. How much carbohydrate each person needs is in large part determined by your body size and activity level. How many carbs should I eat?Īs for the ideal number of carbs per meal, there's no magic number. A registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN/RD) or Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES) can help you figure out what works best for you. So, there are a few ways to go about it and it’s really about personal preference, but remember that the best carb counting method for you is the one that addresses your medication and lifestyle needs. Still others use the Diabetes Plate Method to eat a reasonable portion of carb-containing foods at each meal by limiting whole grains, starchy vegetables, fruits or dairy to a quarter of the plate. While some choose to stick with traditional carb counting, there are others who do a more basic version of carb counting based on 'carbohydrate choices,' where one “choice” contains about 15 grams of carb. While people with type 2 diabetes who don't take mealtime insulin may not need detailed carb counting to keep their blood sugars in line, some prefer to do it. This advanced form of carb counting is recommended for people on intensive insulin therapy by shots or pump, such as those with type 1 and some people with type 2. You will use what's known as an insulin-to-carb ratio to calculate how much insulin you should take in order to manage your blood sugars after eating.

If you take mealtime insulin, that means first accounting for each carbohydrate gram you eat and dosing mealtime insulin based on that count. People taking oral medications may use a more basic form of carb counting than those on insulin.Ĭarb counting at its most basic level involves counting the number of grams of carbohydrate in a meal and matching that to your dose of insulin. To avoid blood sugar spikes, it helps to eat a consistent amount of carbs at meals throughout the day, rather than all at once. Type 2: Because people with type 2 diabetes are resistant to insulin and may not produce enough of it, it’s important that you be mindful of your carb intake.To do this, you have to know exactly how many carbohydrate grams are in your meal-cue carb counting! Type 1: If you have type 1 diabetes, your pancreas no longer makes insulin, so you need to take background insulin as well as offset the carbs in your food with mealtime insulin doses.How carb counting can help your blood glucose control depends on your treatment regimen and whether or not your body makes insulin. If you have diabetes, the process doesn't work as designed. In people without diabetes, blood sugar levels rise after eating but the body's insulin response keeps levels from rising too high.

When foods and drinks with carbs are digested, the carbs break down into glucose to fuel our cells, and the body's blood glucose, or blood sugar, level rises.