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Carb Counting

akindrat18

Well-Known Member
Messages
563
Location
Stoke-on-Trent
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Hello all, I'm finding carb counting difficult to do and in need of some advice. Do I weigh the food before or after it's been cooked and how many grams should I be aiming to have per meal as I take 10 units of Novorapid and 36 units of Tresiba.

Also how useful is the Carbs and Cal's book as I have ordered it online and will be receiving it next week.
 
Some foods you weigh before, some after

In order to find out how many grams of carbs your 10 units covers, you need to know your carb ratio. Your DSN might be able to help with that.
 
here you can also look the different foods out and see how much carb there is in each kind of food , just fill in the name of the food .. and click calculate underneath when you know how much it weighs

http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-food-calorie-counter


and yes you need a weight for ALL what you eat , everything counts except the food where there is no carbs in like eggs and many kind of cheese and meats ... and fish... and remember a big man needs much more protein than a woman does so eat lots of proteins as well.. 1 egg is around 7 grams of protein .. so a man of like 100 kg would need 10--12 eggs in a day to have all his proteins from eggs..

yellow cheese is another way to get lots of proteins and then it is better to take more peices and not eat the bread ...


I dont know that book... I use the APP "lifesum" on my iPhone..

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fi...counting.html?referrer=https://www.google.dk/
https://www.freedieting.com/tools/nutrient_calculator.htm
 
Last edited:
@akindrat18 - Well done on starting to carb count.

I'm fortunate enough not to have to worry too much about measuring portions any more, as my body seems to have settled into a bit of a "zone", so I won't make any stabs at this one.

Responding your your weigh before or after cooking, @azure responded she weighs some before and some after. Do you think the which to weigh before and which after could be worthy of a thread of it's own? Methinks if you do decide to create such a thread, it could be worthwhile to make a bit of a list of the sorts of foods you are eating, or want to eat, to give those responding a bit of a starting point?

Good luck with it all, because I feel confident you would benefit from those big number coming down a bit.
 
The Carbs & Cals book is great. It will help you enormously and will show you which foods to weigh raw and which cooked to get the number of carbs in that food. You will have to weigh all your carbs, not forgetting the hidden ones in processed food.
 
Wow how many people here actually weigh their food. Surely the fact that we count carbs is enough and if we eat normal amounts of food and not massive portions then we should not need to weigh it. Quite a few people already struggle with doing LC if think they have to weigh the food it just makes the whole thing to complicated so they may stop bothering with low carb altogether
 


I think most only weigh initially untill they just know by memory how much carb is in each kind of foods and in what amounts; at least thats how I do , I can see about how much I take of each food, and sometimes the weight is even written on the food compared to each serving... when we know from many glasses of milk how much is in it we dont keep measuring when we use the same glass and fill in the same amount every day

my "lifesum" APP can even scan the food from the bar code and make the registering easoer that way too.
 

It depends on the person and their meds. I weigh mine because I carb count - that is, 'carb count' is a short way of saying 'calculate the carbs, apply your insulin to carb ratio, add corrections, etc

@akindrat18 is on insulin and 'carb counting' would most likely improve his control.

@DCUKmod some foods can be calculated both uncooked and cooked, so it's not as easy as having a list as you suggested.
 
I do.. and measure milk and cream into tea and coffee.. obsessive.. possibly but it's my health and no-one else is going to take care of it...
 
@akindrat18 Would you like me to move this thread to Type 2 on Insulin or Ask A Question?

In the meantime, I'll tag @Mep for you as she's on insulin
 

I understand it is possible to find carb values for cooked and uncooked weights in various places. I wasn't suggested you make a list to post up, I wondered whether Akindrat could post up the sorts of foods he was particularly concerned about now, as a starter, then other people could add other foods to the thread, so creating a bit of information in the same place.
 
I weigh the majority of my food and use myfitnesspal app to determine carbs. Of course away from home it is not so easy. However, I am getting pretty good at estimating quantities by eye now.

When i first started my T2 journey I quickly realised that I had been hugely over eating. This together with beer was the root cause of my problem.
 

Do you mean a list of carb values?

I want talking about where to find values - more the actual daily process of carb counting and how we choose whether to use uncooked or cooked weight.
 
I find the carbs and Cals book very helpful. I bought the pocket size one too. Great when you are
On holiday and don't have scales
 
azure said:
Do you mean a list of carb values?

I want talking about where to find values - more the actual daily process of carb counting and how we choose whether to use uncooked or cooked weight.
Click to expand...

No - Carb values are very easy to find.

The OP asked if he should be weighing before or after cooking, to which you responded some before and some after. I just thought it could be helpful to the OP for others who carb count to give examples of which foods they routinely weighed before eating and which after.
 
@akindrat18 - I carb count although really only do the basics. What I discovered though is my carb to insulin ratio is 5 units of bolus insulin to 10g of carb for most of the carbs I eat. They recommend 1 unit per 10g as a starting point. I have insulin resistance though obviously... you may find the same. My endo had me on a set amount of insulin per meal which sounds like what you're doing... I found this didn't quite work for me and decided it's about time I learnt to carb count and work out my carb to insulin ratio. I did this online course which you might find helpful too: https://www.bertieonline.org.uk/admLogin.asp

I wish you the best
 
You can get carbs and cals book app on your phone. It's my bible x
 
I can understand why T1's would weigh their food because they need to know the amount of carbs for their insulin but T2's not on insulin surely just go on what carbs they need to avoid to keep their BG under control and their meter tells them that.
 
Pinkorchid said:
I can understand why T1's would weigh their food because they need to know the amount of carbs for their insulin but T2's not on insulin surely just go on what carbs they need to avoid to keep their BG under control and their meter tells them that.
Click to expand...


Our meter tells us what a certain amount of carbs did to our blood sugar. We need to know what size that certain amount of carbs is. Then we can tailor the amount, through weighing, if our bs levels are too high for that amount.

If we dont know the amount of carbs we are eating, how would we do that? How would we know what amount is safe? You cant just look at a food and guess the size of the portion, unless its a food you eat very frequently, and expect any degree of accuracy.
 
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