How should diabetics eat to lose weight? Experts teach you how to do this without hurting your body

A proper diet can not only achieve the goal of controlling weight, but also balance nutrition. The difference in dietary arrangements between obese diabetic patients and general obese patients is that they must first follow the various principles of diabetes treatment and slowly reduce their weight to a normal range while controlling total calories, which is also very important for the treatment of diabetes.

Total calorie control

Intake of more calories than expenditure is the root cause of obesity. Therefore, when planning the diet for obese people, we must first control the total calorie intake so that the calories supplied by the diet are lower than the calories actually consumed by the human body, creating a negative calorie balance and consuming the long-term excess calories until the weight returns to normal.

Achieve nutritional balance

Within the range of calorie restriction, reasonably arrange the intake of protein, fat and carbohydrates to ensure adequate supply of minerals and vitamins.

[Protein]: At least 50% of the protein should come from high-quality protein contained in meat, eggs, milk, and soy products. Being a vegetarian is not good for your health, but you should also not eat too much protein, because eating too much protein will inevitably increase your fat intake and easily lead to excessive calorie intake.

【Fat】: Fat produces a lot of heat and must be limited. In addition to limiting the fat contained in meat, eggs, milk, and soy products, the amount of cooking oil used also needs to be limited. Therefore, avoid eating fatty foods in your diet and control the amount of cooking oil to 10 to 20 grams per day.

[Carbohydrates]: The amount of carbohydrates you eat should be reduced appropriately, but not too low. Diabetic patients who eat too little carbohydrates are prone to diabetic ketoacidosis.

[Minerals and Vitamins]: You should consume enough fresh vegetables and fruits every day. Vegetables are rich in dietary fiber and water, and are low-calorie foods that can satisfy your hunger.

Pay attention to cooking methods

Food preparation mainly relies on low-oil cooking methods such as blanching, boiling, stewing and mixing. In order to reduce water retention in the body, you should also limit the amount of salt intake and develop good eating habits.

[Control the amount of food intake]: Eating too much or being too full at each meal can easily promote fat synthesis in the body, which is not conducive to weight loss. Generally, it is enough to eat until you are 70% to 80% full.

[Eat less snacks, sweets, and sugary drinks]: Most snacks are high in calories, and contain a large proportion of sugar and fat, such as biscuits, cakes, chocolate, mousse, French fries, potato chips, etc. It is best not to eat them. In addition, commercially available beverages and hand-shaken cup drinks contain sugar, so it is best not to buy them.

[Chew your food slowly and thoroughly]: This allows the food to mix fully with saliva, aiding digestion and absorption, and can prolong the meal time, allowing you to feel full even if you eat less.

[Combined with exercise]: Appropriate exercise is very beneficial for enhancing physical fitness and immunity.

Calorie calculation for daily diet of obese diabetic patients

Most obese patients consume excessive calories in their daily diet, which causes the excess calories to be converted into fat and stored in the body. Therefore, prescribing a reasonable calorie intake for obese diabetic patients is a crucial first step. On the one hand, we must follow the dietary treatment principles for diabetes, and on the other hand, we must take into account the principles for treating obese patients.

Refer to Table 2-1, multiply your ideal weight by the coefficient in the table, and calculate the calories B you should consume. If you can accept the calorie level of B, then make a diet plan based on calorie B; if the calorie difference between B and A is too great and difficult to implement, then choose a transitional value between A and B that you can accept at this stage, and after adapting for a period of time, gradually transition to calorie B.

A 35-year-old female, 159cm tall, 70kg in weight, a taxi driver, suffers from diabetes. Based on her daily diet record, she estimates that her current calorie intake is 2400kcal and makes a diet plan.

The patient's BMI=31.5, which is moderately obese.

The nature of the work is of moderate labor intensity.

The current daily calorie intake is 2400kcal.

Refer to Table 2-1, 54×30=1620kcal.

The patient said that he found it difficult to accept the sudden increase in his diet to 1620 kcal, and finally made a diet plan based on a daily diet of 2000 kcal.

After taking in 2000 kcal per day for a period of time, monitor changes in body weight and blood sugar, eat small meals frequently to avoid diabetic ketoacidosis due to a sudden reduction in diet, and then gradually reduce calorie intake to 1600 kcal per day. Due to the nature of the work, which requires long periods of sitting, it is recommended to increase the amount of exercise.

How do diabetics lose weight correctly?

For obese diabetic patients, too aggressive weight loss methods or losing weight too quickly are harmful rather than beneficial to the body. Because I have diabetes, it is particularly important to prevent hypoglycemia. I try to eat small meals frequently to avoid blood sugar fluctuations.

Exercise is also important for obese diabetic patients. They should design an exercise plan according to their physical condition and implement it thoroughly. Exercising too vigorously is likely to cause an acute hypoglycemic reaction.

For obese diabetic patients, it is necessary to combine diet therapy, drug therapy and regular exercise so that they can lose weight correctly and effectively control blood sugar.

Recipe Planning Example

A male executive, 178cm tall and 85kg in weight, has the following one-day diet plan.

Energy Nutrients

Carbohydrates: 1825kcal×55%÷4≈251g.

Fat: 1825kcal×25%÷9≈51g.

Protein: 1825kcal×16%÷4=73g.

Converted into food

The man's eating habits

1. Breakfast: 250ml whole milk and one egg.

2. I like to eat rice for lunch and dinner.

3. Eat an apple after lunch and dinner every day.

Carbohydrates: 251-51=200g.

The only commonly used foods that can provide insufficient carbohydrates are grains.

【Food Amount】

1. Food

1) One 25g food replacement provides 90kcal, 19g carbohydrates, 2g protein and 0.5g fat.

2) 200÷19=10.5 (portions).

3) 25×10.5=262g (or 263g), actual application is 250g.

2. Fish and meat

Protein: 73-45=28g.

3. Remaining

Calories: 1825-1610=215kcal.

Carbohydrates: 251-241=10g.

Fat: 51-37.5=13.5g.

Protein: 73-72=1g.

4. Supplement

Cooking oil: 15g, calories: 135kcal, total calories: 1745 kcal.

Three meals distribution

What to do if you always feel hungry?

Hunger is a symptom of diabetes. After treatment, as the condition improves, the hunger feeling will also decrease. When you first start dietary therapy, your food intake will be significantly reduced, and your gastrointestinal tract may not adapt. However, after a period of adaptation, the feeling of hunger will gradually subside. If you feel very hungry, you may want to take the following measures: eat more low-calorie, high-volume foods, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh green leafy vegetables, etc.; eat small meals frequently, leaving a small portion of the main meal as a snack, and choose low-calorie foods for snacks, such as vegetables, protein, skim milk, etc.; for the main meal, you can choose whole grains instead of refined rice as the staple food, which can produce a stronger sense of fullness; put less salt in the dishes to make the taste lighter, which will help reduce excessive appetite; slow down the speed of eating and chew thoroughly.

This article is from the new cultural creation "Dietary Convenience for Diabetes Meals"