Hi jo. I'll leave it to others to post about meters, I agree with whats been said already. However I note that you are trying to low carb and low fat, and say that this is because you have high cholesterol.
You are at the point where you have to take the giant leap of faith , and understand that dietry fat does not cause cholesterol, it's the carbhydrate the is metabolised by your body that is transformd into cholesterol.
You will find that by keeping your protien intake to about 1gramme per kg of ideal body wgt eg if your ideal wgt is 100kg you will need to eat 100 grammes of protien per day to maintain your lean body mass, adjust your fat intake to achieve the calorific untake you need to give your daily requirements.
by keeping your carbs low, you will get better bm control and you will soon see your cholesterol drop. You can adust your fat types when you get more used to the regime, but don't worry about type of fat too much to start with, just get used to the protien / fat / carb balance.
My average daily intake is 100g protien/ 145g fat / 20g carb the only element that changes is the fat portion . Thats unless I have a treat. but not to often.
Best of luck, its alot easier than it sounds. If I can manage my diet then anyone can.