You can still eat carbs if you have diabetes. The amount you can have and stay in your target blood sugar range depends on your age, weight, activity level, and other factors.

Counting carbs in foods and drinks is an important tool for managing blood sugar levels. Make sure to talk to your health care team about the best carb goals for you.

The A1C test is a simple blood test that measures your average blood sugar levels over the past 2 or 3 months. A1C testing is part of the ABCs of diabetes—important steps you can take to prevent or delay health complications down the road:.

Work with your doctor to establish a personal A1C goal for you. Eating a healthy diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, maintaining a healthy weight , and getting regular physical activity can all help.

Other tips include:. Medicare , Medicaid, and most private insurance plans pay for the A1C test and fasting blood sugar test as well as some diabetes supplies. Check your plan or ask your health care team for help finding low-cost or free supplies, and see How to Save Money on Diabetes Care for more resources.

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To receive updates about diabetes topics, enter your email address: Email Address. Drink water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages.

Choose foods that are lower in calories, saturated fat , trans fat , sugar, and salt. Learn more about eating, diet, and nutrition with diabetes. Set a goal to be more physically active. Try to work up to 30 minutes or more of physical activity on most days of the week.

Brisk walking and swimming are good ways to move more. If you are not active now, ask your health care team about the types and amounts of physical activity that are right for you.

Learn more about being physically active with diabetes. Following your meal plan and being more active can help you stay at or get to a healthy weight. If you are overweight or obese, work with your health care team to create a weight-loss plan that is right for you.

Take your medicines for diabetes and any other health problems, even when you feel good or have reached your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol goals. These medicines help you manage your ABCs.

Ask your doctor if you need to take aspirin to prevent a heart attack or stroke. Tell your health care professional if you cannot afford your medicines or if you have any side effects from your medicines. Learn more about insulin and other diabetes medicines. For many people with diabetes, checking their blood glucose level each day is an important way to manage their diabetes.

Monitoring your blood glucose level is most important if you take insulin. The results of blood glucose monitoring can help you make decisions about food, physical activity, and medicines.

The most common way to check your blood glucose level at home is with a blood glucose meter. You get a drop of blood by pricking the side of your fingertip with a lancet. Then you apply the blood to a test strip. The meter will show you how much glucose is in your blood at the moment. Ask your health care team how often you should check your blood glucose levels.

Make sure to keep a record of your blood glucose self-checks. You can print copies of this glucose self-check chart. Take these records with you when you visit your health care team. Continuous glucose monitoring CGM is another way to check your glucose levels.

Most CGM systems use a tiny sensor that you insert under your skin. If the CGM system shows that your glucose is too high or too low, you should check your glucose with a blood glucose meter before making any changes to your eating plan, physical activity, or medicines.

A CGM system is especially useful for people who use insulin and have problems with low blood glucose. Talk with your health care team about the best target range for you.

Be sure to tell your health care professional if your glucose levels often go above or below your target range. Sometimes blood glucose levels drop below where they should be, which is called hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia can be life threatening and needs to be treated right away. Learn more about how to recognize and treat hypoglycemia.

If you often have high blood glucose levels or symptoms of high blood glucose, talk with your health care team. You may need a change in your diabetes meal plan, physical activity plan, or medicines. Most people with diabetes get health care from a primary care professional.

Primary care professionals include internists, family physicians, and pediatricians. Sometimes physician assistants and nurses with extra training, called nurse practitioners, provide primary care. You also will need to see other care professionals from time to time.

A team of health care professionals can help you improve your diabetes self-care. Remember, you are the most important member of your health care team. Having to pay careful attention to your diet can be challenging. It can help to work with a dietitian to create a plan that is tailored to your specific situation including what diabetes medications you take , lifestyle, and personal preferences.

If you are overweight or have obesity, losing weight can improve blood sugar control and lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Losing weight — Your health care provider can help you set goals for losing weight. For a person who is overweight or has obesity, a typical goal is to lose 5 to 10 percent of their body weight.

For a person who weighs pounds, this would mean losing 12 to 24 pounds. Losing even more weight can sometimes reduce the blood sugars to the normal range. But even losing a little bit of weight can help improve your health; in fact, cutting back on the number of calories you eat each day can lower your blood sugar levels even before you actually lose weight.

The initial approach to weight loss usually involves eating fewer calories and exercising regularly. There are other strategies that may be appropriate for people who are having trouble losing weight, including medications and surgery.

More information about losing weight is available separately. See "Patient education: Losing weight Beyond the Basics ". Recommended calorie intake — The number of calories you need to maintain your current weight depends upon your age, sex, height, weight, and activity level.

Below are some general guidelines:. To lose 1 to 2 pounds per week which is considered a safe rate of weight loss , you can subtract to calories from the total number of calories needed to maintain weight. As an example, a sedentary man with obesity who weighs pounds would need to eat 10 calories per pound, which totals calories, per day to maintain his weight.

To lose 1 to 2 pounds per week, he should reduce his intake to to calories per day. As you lose weight, you will need to adjust your daily recommended calorie intake accordingly. Avoiding weight gain — Some treatments for type 2 diabetes, such as intensive insulin therapy and certain oral medications, can contribute to weight gain.

The following tips can help you avoid unwanted weight gain:. If you gain more than 2 to 3 pounds in a week, try decreasing the number of calories you eat or increasing the amount of physical activity you do. Do not wait until you have gained a larger amount of weight, as this will make it harder to lose.

Exercise — Getting regular physical activity is very important for good health. Exercise makes the body more sensitive to insulin the hormone that allows cells in the body to take up sugar for energy , which helps lower blood sugar levels.

Exercise can also help lower high blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels. Other important benefits of exercise may include maintaining a healthy body weight, losing weight if needed , sleeping better, and improving memory and mood. Exercise for people with type 2 diabetes is discussed in more detail separately.

See "Patient education: Exercise and medical care for people with type 2 diabetes Beyond the Basics ", section on 'Exercise and type 2 diabetes'. Carbohydrates are the main energy source in the diet and include starches, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, and sugars. Most meats and fats do not contain any carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates directly affect your blood sugar level, whereas proteins and fat have little impact. Eating a consistent amount of carbohydrates at each meal can help to control your blood sugar levels, especially if you take certain oral diabetes medications or long-acting insulin.

There are different ways to make sure you eat a consistent amount of carbohydrates throughout the day, including carbohydrate counting and exchange planning.

Carbohydrate counting — A dietitian can help you figure out the number of carbohydrates you need each day based on your eating habits, weight, nutritional goals, and activity level.

The way carbohydrates are divided up for each meal or snack will depend on your personal preferences, the timing and spacing of your meals, and which diabetes medications you take table 1.

However, even if you do not take insulin, carb counting can help you keep your blood sugar levels from getting too low or too high.

The number of carbohydrates in a particular food can be determined by reading the nutrition label, consulting a reference book, website, or smartphone app, or using the exchange system see 'Exchange planning' below.

If you are eating out, restaurants usually have this information available upon request. See 'Where to get more information' below. For example, some prepackaged snacks contain two or more servings. To calculate the carbohydrate content of the entire package, multiply the number of servings by the number of carbohydrates per serving.

This is because fiber slows the body's absorption of carbohydrates, so less insulin is required to manage blood sugar levels. Exchange planning — With exchange planning, all foods are categorized as either a carbohydrate, meat or meat substitute, or fat.

You can also easily determine the carbohydrate content of your meals and snacks using the exchange system. The table shows a sample daily meal plan based on this system table 2.

A dietitian can give you a more complete list of foods to use for meal planning purposes. The exchange lists also identify foods that are good sources of fiber which can help keep blood sugar levels from getting too high and foods with a lot of sodium which should be limited. A dietitian can help you determine how many servings of each group to eat at each meal and snack table 2 and the typical carbohydrate content of each meal and snack.

Meal timing — Consistently eating at the same times every day is important for some people, especially those who take long-acting insulin or oral medications that decrease blood sugar levels sulfonylureas or meglitinides.

If a meal is skipped or delayed while on these regimens, you are at risk for developing low blood glucose. If you use "intensive" insulin therapy ie, if you give yourself multiple daily injections or use an insulin pump or take certain other types of oral diabetes medications eg, metformin , you may have more flexibility around meal timing.

With these regimens, skipping or delaying a meal will not usually increase your risk of low blood sugar. While foods that are high in fat eg, pizza are OK to eat occasionally, you will need to monitor your blood sugar levels more closely.

High-fat, high-protein meals are broken down more slowly than low-fat, lower-protein meals. When using rapid-acting insulin before a meal, your blood sugar level may become low shortly after eating a high-fat meal and then rise hours later.

If you eat meals that contain more protein or fat than usual, you may need to make meal-time insulin dose adjustments to manage this delayed rise in blood sugar.

Intensive insulin therapy — If you take multiple injections of insulin per day or use an insulin pump, you can adjust your pre-meal insulin based on the number of carbohydrates you plan to eat and your pre-meal blood sugar, similar to patients with type 1 diabetes. See "Patient education: Type 1 diabetes and diet Beyond the Basics ", section on 'Intensive insulin therapy'.

There is not a single optimal diet or meal plan for people with diabetes. The best diet for you depends many different things, including your health concerns, weight-loss goals, and personal preferences.

General recommendations — To help manage the ABCs A 1C, B lood pressure, and C holesterol and promote good health, experts recommend that all people with diabetes aim to maintain a healthy weight by decreasing calorie intake and increasing physical activity and monitor their carbohydrate intake.

The following guidelines for a healthy diet are similar to the recommendations for adults without diabetes see "Patient education: Diet and health Beyond the Basics " :. People with diabetes are advised to avoid sugar-sweetened beverages including fruit juice.

The ideal amount of carbohydrate intake is uncertain. However, it's important for people with diabetes to monitor carbohydrate intake in order to manage their blood sugar levels and adjust insulin dosing as needed.

See 'Carbohydrate counting' above. Eating a healthy diet that contains a lot of the foods you like will make it easier to stick to your plan.