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do you weigh out your food?

hollyslot

hollyslot

Well-Known Member
Messages
167
Location
London, United Kingdom
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I personally do when i am alone, cooking for myself, so that i can know the carbs in what i eat. however, if others are cooking for me (or i am eating with others be it at a restaurant or somewhere else, obviously i don't, i literally just guess how much insulin to take and check afterwards).
I was just wondering what others do?
I am type 1 on MDI.
 
hollyslot said:
I personally do when i am alone, cooking for myself, so that i can know the carbs in what i eat. however, if others are cooking for me (or i am eating with others be it at a restaurant or somewhere else, obviously i don't, i literally just guess how much insulin to take and check afterwards).
I was just wondering what others do?
I am type 1 on MDI.
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Pretty much the same. We cook nearly all our own stuff at home so we make sure we know what the macro-nutrient levels are by weighing out the ingredients and then weighing the finished product and portions.

When out, I guess based on portion sizes, which I've been doing for ages reasonably successfully and use monitoring to adjust if necessary.
 
Depends on the food and how lazy I'm feeling.

Cereal is the funniest one - I don't think anyone has "one serving" of cereal as per the weight specified on the packet. When I first weighed it out I couldn't believe how about 2 spoonful's constituted a "serving"!
 
I weigh at home, or do it on portion size, depending what I've made, and I guess when I'm out. When out, I usually err on the side of caution and, if necessary, correct later.

@pinewood , I agree about the cereal. I just have a double portion ;)
 
I always guess and read any packaging of course. As you need to take account of proteins and fats as well as carbs I feel 'eye-balling' the food as my DN would say is enough.
 
I weigh most carby foods (potatoes, rice, pasta, porridge) at home and if my wife is doing the cooking she does likewise, some dishes like Lasagne & Shepard's Pie I just go from the portion size having learnt from previous experience on bolusing for that particular meal.

When eating out I try and look for any nutritional information, if it isn't available I just guesstimate and err on the side of caution and under-estimate so that I don't go hypo.
 
I weigh carbs at home but guess elsewhere.

On the very few occasions I use a shop microwave meal, I ignore the carbs given and only guesstimate the rice/pasta/potatoes. They seem to total up the tiny levels of carbs in the non starchy foods e.g. tomatoes, peppers etc, which don't affect my BG levels.
 
Pretty much the same!

I have even gone as far as to figure out how many grams of carb are in each 1gram of packaged foods. I write it on the box/bag/label in sharpie and that way when i obtain my weight its a simple multiplication to obtain how many grams of carbs i am eating. It saves you from having to eat in exact 'servings' or having to do the extra maths when you want, say, 62g of chips and the serving size is 50g. Just multiple 62g by that factor worked out earlier and your done!

EDIT - I now also travel with my food scale for vacations so that when I am making food in a hotel, or whatever i can weigh it. You gotta do what you gotta do eh?
 
I look and guess, and I guess I'm not very accurate, going by my blood sugar profile! I used to find this disheartening, but other factors are even more difficult to quantify: stress, illness, exercise.... so basically I rake my zen garden and smile.
 
lizdeluz said:
I look and guess, and I guess I'm not very accurate, going by my blood sugar profile! I used to find this disheartening, but other factors are even more difficult to quantify: stress, illness, exercise.... so basically I rake my zen garden and smile.
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me too i almost always get it wrong when i don't weigh out my food/go to restaurants! it's really difficult as there is so many factors that will affect it x
 
Diamattic said:
Pretty much the same!

I have even gone as far as to figure out how many grams of carb are in each 1gram of packaged foods. I write it on the box/bag/label in sharpie and that way when i obtain my weight its a simple multiplication to obtain how many grams of carbs i am eating. It saves you from having to eat in exact 'servings' or having to do the extra maths when you want, say, 62g of chips and the serving size is 50g. Just multiple 62g by that factor worked out earlier and your done!

EDIT - I now also travel with my food scale for vacations so that when I am making food in a hotel, or whatever i can weigh it. You gotta do what you gotta do eh?
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me too, but i do it with how much carb is in 100g :) and same about taking my scale with me, even if i only use it for breakfast!
 
dancer said:
I weigh carbs at home but guess elsewhere.

On the very few occasions I use a shop microwave meal, I ignore the carbs given and only guesstimate the rice/pasta/potatoes. They seem to total up the tiny levels of carbs in the non starchy foods e.g. tomatoes, peppers etc, which don't affect my BG levels.
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i used to eat a lot of these when i was a young teen and didn't know how to cook (haha) as they're so useful in terms of carb counting :)
 
pinewood said:
Depends on the food and how lazy I'm feeling.

Cereal is the funniest one - I don't think anyone has "one serving" of cereal as per the weight specified on the packet. When I first weighed it out I couldn't believe how about 2 spoonful's constituted a "serving"!
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yeah definitely, 30g is nothing! although i don't eat cereal anymore as it spikes me too much, even all bran!
 
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