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Carbs Counting

It takes a bit of getting used to, weighing and measuring everything if you need to be accurate. I've been doing it so long that I can judge most foods as well as understanding how they affect my BS so I only weigh low carb cake ingredients and ne w recipes..
I used the lowcarbprogram app in which you can enter the foods and it calculates each meal and total for the day.
I'm sure there are similar phone apps or a hard copy book depending on what suits you.
 
It’s a lot to get used to. Me and my dad must have been taking to the dietitian for about an hour earlier trying to understand the carbs counting. I have scales at home so will have to get used to measuring out my meals.
 
Yeah I have the book and I’ve been recording my meals on the app. I was able to show the dietitian my app earlier what I had been eating so she could explain why I had a hypo at work.
 
It seems a lot to begin with, but it will soon become so routine that you won't think anything of it. DAFNE courses (or their equivalent) are helpful.
 
If you make your own meals there are also scales that have the option to enter the type of food you are using and instead of, or in addition to a weight in grams or ounces will tell you the nutritional value of that amount of food, eg. grams of carbohydrate.
 
The scales I got were from a store called Lakeland I think. Most of the time I’ve just been used to getting the food from the freezer, putting the food in the oven and then recording the carbs on the app after I’ve had my food.
 
I think you'll get used to it. I've been counting everything (not just carbs) I eat since 2017 and now it's second nature and doesn't take me long at all anymore. I don't weigh everything though because some things I've weighed so many times I know what x grams of such-and-such looks like and in my case I don't have to be super accurate -- if I'm out by 5 g it doesn't matter for me and it probably averages out anyway. I weigh some of these things maybe once a week to recalibrate myself. Other things I never reweigh because, for example, I use the same glass to pour my morning milk into and it's not going to change from 125g to something else (I mostly weigh liquids as well instead of going by volume -- depends on what data I have).

Packaged items are obviously easier because there's a label. I find dinner the hardest (apart from eating out, see below) but I have all my regular recipes in an app with the carbs etc already calculated. Took a while to put them in initially but I just did it as I went along and they're all there now.

I have to admit, though, that I still haven't mastered the art of eating out. The big chain restaurants and fast food are ok because they publish their nutrition information. The smaller places... I don't know what to do but I rarely (sometimes not even once a year) eat out so I'm lucky in that regard. I generally find somewhere that'll sell me a chicken sandwich (lol, so much for variety) because I know it'll be around 40 g of carbs. I can also eat meat pies because the AU food database has an entry that's an average for all takeaway meat pies. Pity I don't particularly like meat pies. I don't know what else to do. If my DN gets me count carbs, and I hope she does, I might have to come up with a better plan. I'd be interested in knowing what others do when they eat out
 
I have the same problem when I got out as when I’m trying to put the carbs in it might not always be what’s exactly the dish I’ve eaten. I normally find that I go for the closed item that looks like the food. I figured out that a subway footlong sub is 82g of carbs though.
 
Hi,

There are some really good apps out there to help with all the carb counting, some with many common food labels already imputed for your convivence. just scan a bar code and done, it sure helps at first. I would suggest my personal favorite one, but I am new on here and I am not sure about the rules on suggesting apps and stuff, but just go to Apple or Google play store and search "Carb Counting" and plenty will come up.

Thanks
 
diamonddamaris said:
I have the same problem when I got out as when I’m trying to put the carbs in it might not always be what’s exactly the dish I’ve eaten. I normally find that I go for the closed item that looks like the food. I figured out that a subway footlong sub is 82g of carbs though.
Click to expand...
I was once told there are 10g carbs in every inch of a baguette/sub.
It is an approximation but a pretty good one unless you have very carby fillings .
 
That does not seem right, if the baguette is filled with food then surely the carbs would be higher, a white rice baguette would be a little on the carby side, not sure how tasty that would be either haha
 
In Response said:
I was once told there are 10g carbs in every inch of a baguette/sub.
It is an approximation but a pretty good one unless you have very carby fillings .
Click to expand...
Oh yes i understand now, just the bread per inch is 10g, ok that makes sense!
 
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