Carbohydrate Counting 2

I would recommend three meals and three snacks a day, because you want to keep your blood glucose (sugar) from spiking too high after meals. Eat a small breakfast knowing that, in a few hours you will be having a snack; do likewise with the other meals. It will seem as if you are eating all the time, but you will not be consuming any more calories.

Below you will find three examples of diving your carbohydrates

This chart is derived from an 1,800 calorie meal plan, which includes 270 grams of carbohydrates. If you are on a 1,600 calorie meal plan you would use 240 grams, a 2,000 calorie meal plan would use 300 grams.

                 ____________________________________________
                 Breakfast             Example 1    Example 2    Example 3
                 or Snack____________________________________
                 Breakfast                    70g                50g               50g
                 Snack                         15g                20g               15g
                 Lunch                         65g               65g                65g
                 Snack                         15g               15g                15g
                Dinner                         75g               95g              100g
                Snack                          30g               25g                25g

               Total Daily                 270g             270g            270g
               Carbohydrate Grams__________________________

Before you start counting carbohydrates, there are a few things you might want to do that would be helpful. Keep a food journal for a couple of weeks. The food journal will give you an idea of what type of foods you and your family like to eat. You may notice foods you can omit and cut back on or foods you need to add for balance. When counting carbohydrates, you only need to know the content of foods you normally consume.
There are many reference sources. You may be able to find a food analyzer - check your Internet. There are books with information on food nutrients. The best source is your food label. All packaged foods have to have a food label listing the main nutrition information. Learn to read the food labels!

Food and carbohydrate amounts on a sample breakfast

         Food                        Carbohydrate Grams___________
         1 slice of bread         15g (The product label is
                                                  more accurate
        1/2 banana (9")           15g (found in your resource
                                                    or on the Internet
        1Cup Cheerios            22g (on the food label)
        1 cup 2% mile            11g (on the label)
        1 tsp. butter                 0g (butter is a fat source)
        1 tsp. sugar                  4g (resource or Internet-could use a sweetener)
        Cinnamon                   0g (resource or Internet)_______

      Total grams of carbohydrates = 67g

      To Turn Grams into Calories - Check the calorie values per gram from the last lesson.

Nutrition in a Hamburger
30g of Fat
38g of Carbohydrates
28g of Protein

Fat, 30g (30x9cal/g) = 270 Calories
Carbs., 38g (38x4cal/g) = 152 calories
Protein, 28g (28x4cal/g) = 112
Total grams or 534 Calories in the hamburger

More next month