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Carb Counting

tpaz

tpaz

Well-Known Member
Messages
173
Location
Canada
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Other
Dislikes
Cardio exercise
Let me preface this by saying I know that low carb is the way to go for most people, this however, is for those who do carb :)

How do you carb count exactly? My nurses have been insistant that a slice of bread, for example, isn't the 10g of carbs it advertises, it's really only 5g, because it contains 5g of fiber per slice. So essentially, to bolus correctly, I would need to bolus for 5g, not 10g.

Is this how everyone else does it too? I'll be honest, I find that this is true for some foods, but not all. Those that it is true for are few and far between.

Just as a side note, I'm really frustrated by what I believe to be incorrect carb counts on packages. You say 8g only? My blood sugar begs to differ
 
tpaz said:
Let me preface this by saying I know that low carb is the way to go for most people, this however, is for those who do carb :)

How do you carb count exactly? My nurses have been insistant that a slice of bread, for example, isn't the 10g of carbs it advertises, it's really only 5g, because it contains 5g of fiber per slice. So essentially, to bolus correctly, I would need to bolus for 5g, not 10g.

Is this how everyone else does it too? I'll be honest, I find that this is true for some foods, but not all. Those that it is true for are few and far between.

Just as a side note, I'm really frustrated by what I believe to be incorrect carb counts on packages. You say 8g only? My blood sugar begs to differ
Click to expand...
say now the package of brown bread is 17g of carbs per a slice, i do the insulin to match 17g if not i'm sure my bs would spike.
 
Type1Lad said:
say now the package of brown bread is 17g of carbs per a slice, i do the insulin to match 17g if not i'm sure my bs would spike.
Click to expand...

Yes! Thank you for this. I do this and it works well. This makes me wonder if my carb ratio off or are the nurses wrong? Should we really be subtracting the fiber? I was told that the fiber simply "doesn't count". It apparently is just waste and (sorry for the squeamish) leaves our bodies as waste. It just doesn't sound right to me.
 
Are you in the us? Because I think the way nutritional info is labelled is different in the us vs uk - in the uk we don't have to subtract fibre (we just use the total carb figure) in the us they do, I think. So just take that into account on thinking about who is right your nurse who knows about the nutritional labelling rules where you are or people in the uk who don't! There might be a pretty good reason why what we do is different...
 
@catapillar is right. What you need to count are the net carbs and there is a big difference how food is labeled in North America and Europe in this respect.

In Europe you just look up the carbs per 100g and that's it (these are already net carbs)

In North America however you need to subtract fiber from carbs to get the net carbs.

A good example is avocado. If you search for "avocado carbs" on Google.com, it will return 9g of carbs per 100g. If you dig deeper, you will find that 7g of the 9g is fiber. So, there are just 2g of net carbs in 100g of avocado and that's what you need to bolus for.

Now, my own question: when they say 100g of avocado, is the pit included? :(
 
catapillar said:
Are you in the us? Because I think the way nutritional info is labelled is different in the us vs uk - in the uk we don't have to subtract fibre (we just use the total carb figure) in the us they do, I think. So just take that into account on thinking about who is right your nurse who knows about the nutritional labelling rules where you are or people in the uk who don't! There might be a pretty good reason why what we do is different...
Click to expand...

This makes sense now. I'm actually in Canada, but yes I believe the US and Cabada have similar systems.

I think I'm just having a hard time as my #s have been all over the place lately.
 
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revive@2
 
Hi Tpaz! I'm in Canada also (Calgary, Alberta). I subtract the fibre from the carbs for my bolus. The biggest thing I'm still tweaking and fiddling with is the glucose index and the high fat combination... aka the pizza effect! If I was to take a full bolus for pizza I would go low because the carbs hit my system long after the insulin does so I normally do a split dose for pizza.
 
tpaz said:
Yes! Thank you for this. I do this and it works well. This makes me wonder if my carb ratio off or are the nurses wrong? Should we really be subtracting the fiber? I was told that the fiber simply "doesn't count". It apparently is just waste and (sorry for the squeamish) leaves our bodies as waste. It just doesn't sound right to me.
Click to expand...

If you've been given carb ratios according to the method your nurses have given you, then use that as they may be using different calculations.

I have a diabetic friend in Canada and as far as I know they use total carbs (ie they do not deduct fibre). Maybe there are different systems in different areas?

All I could find was this:

http://www.diabetes.ca/diabetes-and...esources/diet-nutrition/carbohydrate-counting

which appears to show the total carbs in bread, etc.

An interesting question. It'd be good if other Canadians (and maybe those from the U.S. eg @TorqPenderloin ) could comment on what they do.
 
C-Mack said:
Hi Tpaz! I'm in Canada also (Calgary, Alberta). I subtract the fibre from the carbs for my bolus. The biggest thing I'm still tweaking and fiddling with is the glucose index and the high fat combination... aka the pizza effect! If I was to take a full bolus for pizza I would go low because the carbs hit my system long after the insulin does so I normally do a split dose for pizza.
Click to expand...

Hello there!

Yes, I was told that fibre doesn't count - that it's just eliminated as waste.

But my ratios have changed since I posed this question, I'm now at 1:5, some days even 1:3. Like today :(

I've luckily not had the issue with pizza yet, although I've only tried with 2 multigrain, thin crust slices, and I don't eat meat, so maybe it helps not having meat on it? I had Mexican this past weekend, and had no issue, but again, my portion size wasn't big.
 
azure said:
If you've been given carb ratios according to the method your nurses have given you, then use that as they may be using different calculations.

I have a diabetic friend in Canada and as far as I know they use total carbs (ie they do not deduct fibre). Maybe there are different systems in different areas?

All I could find was this:

http://www.diabetes.ca/diabetes-and...esources/diet-nutrition/carbohydrate-counting

which appears to show the total carbs in bread, etc.

An interesting question. It'd be good if other Canadians (and maybe those from the U.S. eg @TorqPenderloin ) could comment on what they do.
Click to expand...

It's fairly standardized across Canada, I believe. But my nurses actually ended up changing my carb ratio, so I'm just needing more insulin now, or my sensitivity has decreased.

I will add though, that we don't have many high fibre breads and such things. They are just hitting market in the last year. I know that when I went to the US last year, I saw a ton of hi fibre, lo carb and sugar free items in grocery stores.
 
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