Food Choices For High Calories
Your first step is to find out if your blood glucose is in good control. You can determine this by doing frequent blood glucose monitoring and making adjustments in your management program as recommended by your diabetes doctor.
Your fasting, before- and after-meal blood glucose measurements should be in the normal range for you. Discuss with your doctor what your normal range should be. Also discuss your diabetes medication schedule. To achieve good glucose control, people with Type I diabetes need at least two insulin injections a day and need to use more than one type of insulin (except those using an insulin infusion pump).
Your second step is to review your eating habits and exercise practices. Your diabetes doctor and diabetes educator can advise you on how to coordinate food and exercise with your insulin injections. Your personal food preferences and lifestyle habits can be accommodated in an individualized diabetes management program. There is some particular food to gain weight. Frequent blood glucose monitoring will give you information on how well you are doing in your efforts to achieve good control. Once your blood glucose is under control, weight gain will usually follow without any change in your overall food intake.
Your third step is to eat the right amount of food (calories) needed to achieve and maintain your desirable weight. Check your overall food (calories) intake against the numbers you get from this table. If your blood glucose control is good, and your calorie intake is adequate according to the chart--but you are not gaining weight--then you have to make some additional adjustments. If you are a naturally thin person you may have to add some extra calories to add more pounds to your frame. But do your calorie adding with caution. When you add calories to your meal plan, make sure that your additional food selections come from foods that fit your meal plan. Don't be tempted to eat high calorie sweets and fats--this will do you more harm than good. Make your extra food selections ones that are healthy (complex carbohydrates such as fruits and grains). Don't try to add extra pounds quickly. A gradual buildup will be better for you physically and emotionally. If you are not eating snacks now, then you can add a couple of snacks each day to provide an extra 500 calories or so. This much extra food will allow you to gain about one pound a week. You can also achieve your weight gain goal by eating frequent, smaller meals during the day. Your fourth step is to increase your exercise so that the weight you gain is muscle, not fat. Unless you add extra physical exercise to your life, the extra food you eat will probably be stored as fat. Your body will only create new muscle out of extra calories if you give it a reason to do so by using your muscles. Aerobic activities such as walking, swimming and bicycling can be your best choices for extra exercise.
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