Calories...

[Catrin]

I do keep track of my calories expenditure via my HRM, and I keep track of everything via "Lose It". That app really makes it easy. My blood sugar is always variable, but given my lack of cardio work over the winter due to my recovery period - my blood sugar control has been slipping. Time to tighten it back up! I have gotten in trouble in the past from gaining weight through not eating enough - and our bodies get used to it so it becomes more difficult to recognize when we are hungry.

She did give me quite a lot of information - she said my diet is fine for days I don't work out & she also strongly recommended Nancy Clark's books. My diet is not bad, not by any means, but it needs tweaking. I just didn't think my calories intake was all that low...

We discussed my activity level and the kind of riding I plan on doing this summer. I do not have her calorie recommendations yet, but she is going to send me a couple of calorie guidelines to follow based on where I am in the season - for ride and non-ride days.

She also changed my carb/protein/fat percentages - not much - but a little - and I am going to do more carb counting to make certain I get enough. The diabetes has made me carb-shy - but of course we really do need a certain level of complex carbs off the bike!

I will see what calorie range suggestions she sends me, and will try them unless she doubles them - but I will certainly adopt her advice to at least maintain a NET calorie intake of at least 1,200. She knows her stuff where sports nutrition is concerned, it is just hard to change things

[shootingstar]

I'm not perfect at all about high glycemic (and I still eat desserts) carbs but it does help that I heard it from 2 physicians.

One of them was my sister who is a doctor. She lost 50 lbs. herself when she got a blood sugar reading edging her close to diabetes 2. So she did adopt a different diet that was lower in glycemic index. She also took up jogging several times per week.

It does mean cutting out alot of bread and white rice from diet.

Of course things became more challenging, weight control wise, when she had 2 children, which included watching her diet closely so that she didn't get gestational diabetes while pregnant.

so the vigilance never goes away even if you think you have conquered it.

[Catrin]

No, that vigilance never goes away with blood sugar issues. I cut off high-glycemic carbs long ago...but we also still have to get enough carbs of the appropriate kind. My problem is I don't get enough... I am supposed to get 50% carbs in my diet and it is challenging to get that much... (50/30/20 carb/protein/fat split)

What I get on the bike just doesn't count - and I get a LOT on the bike. I learned the hard way last summer about how important that is - but of course I do enjoy very long rides and I am also prone to true hypoglycemia as well.

Intense exercise is the other part of my anti-diabetes campaign, and the length recovery period this winter meant that I couldn't really do ANY real cardio work for almost 3 month. I think my current blood-sugar issues are actually more related to that - and as I ramp my exercise back up that should change

It isn't diet or exercise, it is both/and

[Melalvai]

I'm not convinced that the 50% carbs recommendation is founded in anything at all. As far as I can tell it's just a random number with no evidence to back it up. Anyone know of actual research on this?

[limewave]

I would give it a try for awhile too. You may be surprised. Give it a go for 30 days, see how it goes. You can always cut back to 1500 calories a day if it doesn't work out.