Carb Counting - scales?

[David Wass]

Hey,

I know this has probably been covered a 100 times. I'm going on a Sadie course soon so I can get a insulin pump and to stop my dawn phenomenon too but was advised to get scales to count fruit mainly as the rest I can get off Google my fitness pal carbs and cals etc. Can anyone recommend a decent nutritional scales please. If i have to pay a little more for a decent set I don't mind especially if it helps more. Thanks in advance .

 

[rockape37]

These are what I use, Salter glass 1150 they come with a 15 year guarantee. Measure in grams, ml, Lb oz, and fl oz.
They are a flat scale and you can Tare weigh your bowl etc. I think they cost me about £15 off the web. Ive seen the same scales in shops like Dunelm for about £19.
Even if you paid that higher price its well worth it for the quality and long guarantee and they are British too.

Just used mine to weigh my usual oats and sultanna breakfast as I do every morning.

Regards

Martin

 

[rockape37]

Can you enlighten me on the Sadie course? As I've never heard of it.

Regards

Martin

 

[urbanracer]

Can you enlighten me on the Sadie course? As I've never heard of it.

Regards

Martin

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Profess...assured-local-education-course-in-Eastbourne/

 

[rockape37]

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Profess...assured-local-education-course-in-Eastbourne/

Thank you, i had actually just found it lol.

Basically its a DAFNE course.

Regards
Martin

 

[catapillar]

I don't know what nutritional scales are?

I just have a bog standard digital scales that can be reset to zero after I've put my plate.

You can google the carb content for the fruit (or whatever else you are weighing) and you will find the answer for carbs per 100g = Xg of carbs. Divide X by 100 = X/100. Put the thing you are weighing on the scales, it will tell you it weighs Yg. Y x X/100 = the number of grams of carbs in what you have weighed.

E.g. 30g strawberries. Google says 8g of carbs per 100g of stawberries. 0.08 x 30 = 2.4g of carbs in 30g of strawberries.

 

[CarbsRok]

I don't know what nutritional scales are?

Nutritional scales are the ones that have the built in carb values. They all come with the disclaimer that they are not medical scales which gets them out of trouble for the inaccurate carb values show.

It's best to stick to ordinary scales they weigh in grams and work the rest out yourself or use carbs and calories to make a judgement call.

 

[azure]

I agree with @CarbsRok I have a very good set of digital scales (Salter) that I know are extremely accurate. I then just weigh whatever I need to and use the carb info from the packet, my carb book or, most of the time, from my head (that'll be my Mastermind specialist topic - carb values : D )

 

[GrantGam]

I'm with @azure and @CarbsRok, Salter make very good, robust and affordable scales. This is the one I own:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Salter-1036-Electronic-Kitchen-Scale/dp/B000ZNM51O

Grant

 

[noblehead]

Salter do make very good digital kitchen scales, but the one I'm using at the moment is from Argos and it's from their value range, only cost around £7 and been using the scales for the last 2 years

 

[David Wass]

Thanks for all your help. Payday I'll be getting one for sure. My diabetic nurse/dietician showed me scales where food type is already added in to the machine i.e orange grapes peas so you weigh the foid select foid type and it lets you know how many carbs are in the particular type of food. Is that excessive lengths or more helpful?

 

[GrantGam]

Thanks for all your help. Payday I'll be getting one for sure. My diabetic nurse/dietician showed me scales where food type is already added in to the machine i.e orange grapes peas so you weigh the foid select foid type and it lets you know how many carbs are in the particular type of food. Is that excessive lengths or more helpful?

That would probably leave you with a lot of inaccuracies. Unless you input the data yourself?

For example, there are hundreds of different brands of rice in the supermarket. Each one will have a different amount of carbs per hundred grams won't they? So there's already an issue with the scales your DSN has shown you. And they're probably more expensive...

It's easier to read the back of the packet, weigh your food, and work out how many carbs are in your portion size.

Grant

 

[CarbsRok]

Thanks for all your help. Payday I'll be getting one for sure. My diabetic nurse/dietician showed me scales where food type is already added in to the machine i.e orange grapes peas so you weigh the foid select foid type and it lets you know how many carbs are in the particular type of food. Is that excessive lengths or more helpful?

Those scales(nutritional) are fantastic only if the data input is correct in the first place but if the makers have made a mess of carb values then you are up a creek with no paddle. It's cheaper quicker and easier to just use an ordinary set of scales and work it out yourself as already mentioned.

 

[staffsmatt]

I can get off Google my fitness pal carbs and cals etc.

I think I'm right in saying this (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm not!) but if you Google carbs for something you get the American version which lumps fibre into the carbs (that is if you go with the info shown on the search results page)...

For example I googled carbs in an orange and got:

Per 100g
Total carbohydrates 12g
Dietary fibre 2.4g

So the carb values that I would be injecting for would be 10g....

Something to watch out for...

 

[azure]

@staffsmatt Yes, it's important to look for a UK site as the U.S. measures carbs in a different way.

For fruit I usually use an average size carb count and adjust accordingly eg I know what size apple is considered 'average' so if I have a larger/smaller apples, I just adjust my insuoin accordingly but don't bother to,weigh the apple. The only fruit I do,weigh is bananas as the 'average' banana listed is actually tiny and most of the ones I buy are much bigger.

I find it easier to measure fruit by unit than by weight eg one average apple is 15g carbs, etc, apart from the bananas and also dried fruit.

@David Wass Unless you have special circumstances, I'd say nutritional scales were a waste of money. Accurate digital scales and a good knowledge of carbs is far more useful. Your carb knowledge will grown by experience.

 

[staffsmatt]

Yes, it's important to look for a UK site as the U.S. measures carbs in a different way.

Sorry I probably wasn't being clear. while you're spot on I was referring to the info that is displayed before you actually go into a oage (the info from Google itself as shown in the attached).

This seems to be USA information even if you search from Google.co.uk which has tripped me up a few times when I was in a rush / not paying attention...

 

[azure]

Ah, I get you @staffsmatt Yes, that can be very confusing at a quick glance. Nothing's ever simple, eh?