Carb counting is a pest and definitely something I wish I could ignore.
However, it is a necessity that I have found my way around through practice.
- I started by learning what has lots of carbs (bread, pasta, cake, ...), what has no carbs (cheese, fish, meat, ...), what has a few carbs which when injecting can be ignored (most vegetables) and a few things in between such as fruit.
- I read food packaging ... when it has some. I am a big fan of cooking from scratch and avoiding cellophane wrapped apples (and the like) so much of what I eat is not labelled.
- I don't use carbs and cals because I was famished by the time I found the food I was about to eat in the book/app. I use Google "carbs in..." (and remember
@GrantGam's comment about US sites including fibre ... which we don't digest)
- I do not try to be overly precise. The only way to accurately measure how many carbs are in a meal is to burn it and weigh the remaining carbon. Everything else is a good approximation: carbs in fruit and veg vary according to how ripe they are, how much sun they got, what the soil was like; sandwiches vary according to how much filling someone put in them; even packaged stuff varies as you may have the slice of cake with more fruit in or how the lasagne was may not be thoroughly mixed before it was poured into the packet.
- I accept I will get it wrong some times so I test and correct.
It definitely gets better over time.