How Many Carbs Should A Prediabetic Eat?

One of the most common questions regarding prediabetes is: how many carbs should a prediabetic eat per day?

This is a great question, because compared to other nutrients, carbohydrates have the most significant impact on blood sugar levels, as you can see in the image below.

So, given carbohydrates are a major nutrient to focus on, let us share recommendations from Dr Jedha, DMPs Founder – and these are recommendations proven by science!

Prediabetes Eating Plan: Trust the Science

The amount of carbs recommended can vary depending on where you look. That’s what gets confusing out there on the wild west web, right? One site says this, one site says that.

For example, for years, low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets have been recommended for people with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes. These diets typically suggest consuming 60% of calories from carbohydrate foods.

However, this recommendation has not been based on real science, and evidence (and over a decade of experience) shows that consuming 45-75 grams of carbohydrates per meal is way too high.

If you’re doing this, you’re going to struggle to achieve normal blood sugar levels, which is your goal with prediabetes.

Here at DMP, we’re trusted professionals in diabetes nutrition and we believe in trusting the science!

Science-backed eating for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes suggests keeping carbs below 25.9% of daily calories is the best approach to take.

By doing this, you can:

• Lower A1c back to normal
• Lose weight effortlessly
• Avoid or reduce medication
• And, at the same time address many other related health concerns like fatty liver, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

So let’s look at this practically in terms of how many carbs per day.

How Many Carbs Should You Eat?

As a starting point, your goal is to keep your carbohydrate intake below 130 grams per day.

In our experience working with thousands of members, a daily intake of 50-80 grams carbs, or a maximum of 100 grams per day works the best for most people to reverse the state of their prediabetes health.

Working within these guidelines will help you lower A1c to normal and get all your other health parameters back to normal too!

Here’s what one of our members Cheryl said: 

“Last week I went in for my yearly physical and my A1c was 5.5! The doctor had told me that if I could keep my A1c under 5.7 for a year he would take me off metformin. So… I’m off metformin and you could say that I’m not pre diabetic anymore! I no longer experience tingling in my hands and feet. My blood pressure, and triglycerides are normal. I no longer have UTI’s and I’ve lost weight, and I feel better. Thank you DMP and your sincere staff. You are doing wonderful work.”

Of course, you can start right off with eating 50g a day, and you will get better results. But, the most important thing we encourage, is to make sure your changes are sustainable long term.

You don’t want to go on a ‘crash’ diet and quite literally…crash!

You want to make changes that feel natural and sustainable for you, so that the changes you make a permanent and you don’t end up back at square one.

That’s why we recommend starting at around 120 grams of carbs per day and adjust from there.

120 grams per day can be broken down into around 30 grams of carbs for each meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and 15 grams for two snacks or 10 grams for three snacks.

As you adjust, work on reducing your carbs again and see what works for you best, and how your A1c results are tracking too.

Busting A Few Nutrition Myths

1. Minimize or avoid grain-based foods: You don’t need to eat whole grain foods to get fiber and ‘good’ carbs. Vegetables, nuts, and seeds can provide plenty of fiber, and they are much better sources of carbohydrates.
2. Enjoy dairy: Dairy products, even full-fat varieties, can be beneficial to your health. Cheese and cottage cheese are lower in carbs than milk and yogurt.
3. Become a food label detective: Read food labels and understand nutrition facts panels to make informed decisions about what you eat.
4. Eat the eggs and the yolks: Although eggs contain cholesterol, they do not raise blood cholesterol. In fact, eggs are known to improve cholesterol by increasing the ‘good’ HDL cholesterol. Most importantly, eat the yolks as they contain more nutrients than the whites.
5. Carbs are more important than calories: Focus on carb control for better blood sugar management, because quite surprisingly, when you choose the right nutrient dense food sources and reduce carbs overall, weight loss becomes easier!

Your Practical Action Steps For Carbs With Prediabetes

Start by consuming 120 grams of carbs per day and adjust according to your needs.

Aim for 50-80 grams of carbs per day for optimal results, or a maximum of 100 grams.

Making these dietary changes can help you achieve normal blood sugar levels, lose weight effortlessly, avoid or reduce medication, and improve your overall prediabetes health.

Need extra help doing it? Take Dr Jedha’s clinically proven Prediabetes Reset Program.

Or, get started with our free recommended food list below.