The answer to that question is "it depends on what your goals are".

For those that want to manage "without medication" or at the minimal level possible, a couple large studies have determined that you can "NOT Exceed" 130 Net Carbs a day.

Beyond that, depending on how much you are willing to medicate the answer is almost limitless.

There are drugs such as Sulfonylurea's or Bolus Insulin that will metabolize as many as you want to eat.

Of course if the dosage is a little off you can really mess yourself up. My Aunt destroyed her Kidneys trying this method - just eat "whatever you want" and dial up the insulin - it wasn't pretty.

If you follow the Food guide for Diabetes they recommend about 200 carbs a day "with whatever medication is required".

What complicates the matter is Type 2 is a Metabolic Disorder. So while I can generally tolerate about 120 carbs a day and stay in my range, there is a couple members here that can not exceed about 40 carbs a day without having blood sugar problems and others that handle 150 a day and do well.

If you do any (self testing) then you can figure out what "YOUR" number actually is. You figure out the carbs for a given meal, check your blood sugar after, if it's good, eventually you will figure out "how many per meal" you can metabolize and stay in range.

That is the only real way to answer your question. But if you are starting from scratch and willing to make adjustments if necessary, I would try 150 a day - 3 meals @ 40 carbs max and a couple of 15 carb snacks.

@A DiabetesTeam Member yes those are "food guide for diabetic" guidelines with the caveat that the (patient) WILL use medication to deal with the excess blood sugar for eating those guidelines

And for "total health" those recommendations are valid

You have to remember that professionals "treat" - so here, eat this all round healthy "balanced" (menu) and when your blood sugar jacks up we will give you some pills to fix that

There is no "guideline" for "I would rather not take meds or keep them to a minimum"

Although all the major diabetes organizations now at least acknowledge that there is "possibly some value" to low carb diets for diabetics, in particular Diabetes Canada advises that there has been positive results and the diet may be valid but (paraphrased) there is insufficient long term data to prove that it works beyond the first couple of years

My response to that is "seriously"???

They have been preaching the Food Guide with 40 to 60% of total calories from Carbs for about 4 decades and 70% of Type 2's are "totally uncontrolled" - all the "long term historical data" on their current dietary recommendations are SHOUTING - IT DOESN'T WORK and when they see two or three years of positive results that are from a diet contrary to their "non-working method" they say "hang on, we don't how long it will work for"....

The DiRECT Trial conducted for a decade in the UK is now the guideline for Diabetes UK - it determined that carbs should be restricted to 26% of total calories - that equates to about 130 carbs/day in a 2000 calorie diet

That would be cut up into 3 meals X 32.5 carbs and 2 snacks at about 16 carbs each "maximum"

I eat 4 X 25-35 carb meals a day, no snacks, and maintain a Sub 6.0 A1C without any anti-diabetic meds

So at least for "me" the UK guidance works (with a bunch of caveats)

PS - if you want to read some "leading edge mainstream management advice on Diabetes poke around the Diabetes UK website - they are "serious" unlike our orgs - particularly have a look that their "ongoing" IMPACT study/program - an intensive weight loss/sugar management protocol with close doctor intervention for patients who have said "I want to do this on my own" - because the Brits have figured out it's cheaper to prevent complications then deal with them when they develop

Thank you Graham, you have been most helpful

Thank you Graham, most helpful.