Eating out

I acknowledge it takes the spontaneity out of an evening somewhat, but most restaurants publish their menus online, and if they don't, I telephone. I then plan my choices in advance and dose accordingly.

Having said that, it often takes 20 minutes from odering food to it reaching your table so, just dose once you've ordered.

There are always options or things you can substitute to make it low carb, or get a book like the DAFNE one or carbs and cals that tells you the amount of carbs and portion sizes.

I personally don't do my injection until the food is at the table as you never know what delays there might be

Yes, eating out can be annoying. I get irritated because while everyone else is browsing the menu to see what they fancy, I'm analysing the possible carbs of each item like a machine.

However, I eat out on hols with no problems. My tips are don't order pasta - it normally comes in a giant plate and has a huge amount of carbs which are impossible to calculate. Rice is better because you can visualise the carbs by imagining what you have at home. Potatoes are good too. If you're really anxious order something where you have a no or low carb part with countable carbs eg bread or potatoes.

I always inject when the food's put in front of me. I don't spike too much as I find I eat slower when eating out because we usually talk more and maybe have a glass of wine.

So choose carefully, count the carbs when the meal is in front of you (leaving some if necessary), if you're worried about going hungry then order a side salad (usually nice and safe), and don't forget to count the extras like bread pre-meal, or other nibbles.

Most of all, enjoy your trip!

Brownie1993 said:

I'm starting to hate eating out... You have to make a wild guess of the carbs, and also, which is my question, you can't really know how much insulin to give until you get your meal.

It's recommended that we type 1s inject 15-20 mins before a meal to avoid the spike. But how do we manage this when eating out? It's not possible to do this unless you know the carbs (which you don't cos you haven't seen the meal yet).

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i'm the exact same, eating out is way too stressful that i rarely do it

I've honestly never had an issue eating out

Brownie1993 said:

And if you go abroad, what do you do? I'm going to Barcelona with friends in a few weeks...which I'm pretty anxious about in terms of diabetes.
We're not gonna be planning on what restaurant to go to in advance, probably on the spot there and then.

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The simple solution is to decide how many carbs you are going to eat for that meal and eat to the carbs. Problem solved

I never dose in advance of a meal arriving. You don't know how long it will take .You also don't know whether your dish will be beautiful but miniscule or rather more robust.
If I'm having a starter, this usually has few carbs and I tend not to bolus until the main course arrives. I also don't bolus for a dessert , I usually don't have one. If I do then I will give another dose separately for that (I use a pump now but did the same on MDI. I agree with one of the previous posters that the pace of restaurant meals is often beneficial compared to quick meals at home.
If you aren't used to carb counting then do get a book (or app) like carbs and cals to help.
My big problem with Spain is the lateness of the meals. I don't like going to bed with active insulin.

This is very tricky.

My so far solution has been to stick to restaurants that post their nutritional information of each meal - which means sticking to chain restaurants. Or i try to order a meal i know is low carb, like a baked fish with a salad and veggies. If i do eat at a place without posted information i just make my insulin choice based on the equivalent chain restaurant info and check again 1.5 hours after eating, and then again 3 hours after eating incase i messed up and need to adjust.

In terms of injecting time, at places that are predictable i will inject right after ordering. Because it SHOULD only take you 15-30 minutes to get your food. On Super busy night, i wait until my food is in front of me and then inject and just don't eat it for 20 minutes.

Because of all of this, i have picked a handful of places and meals at each place that i have trialed and limit myself to those places and meals. It sucks, but its WAY better then messing it up in my mind.

At fancy places i wait until the meal is in front of me, and use my best efforts to guess (but also try to order low carb)

My solution is quite simple I just avoid carbs as much as I can which helps reduce the guesswork required to work out how much insulin to take, I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb and most restaurants have a good choice so can generally select something, I just avoid pizza express, Pizza Hut etc !!!

I always inject after eating, otherwise I crash, but that's me. How about this: you "pre-empt" by injecting a couple of units 20min early and work out how much more you'll need when you see the meal. That way you avoid a massive spike and if you have over-injected you can compensate eating some bread (usually a staple in every Spanish meal) or go for a dessert.

Brownie1993 said:

I'm starting to hate eating out... You have to make a wild guess of the carbs, and also, which is my question, you can't really know how much insulin to give until you get your meal.

It's recommended that we type 1s inject 15-20 mins before a meal to avoid the spike. But how do we manage this when eating out? It's not possible to do this unless you know the carbs (which you don't cos you haven't seen the meal yet).

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Practice at home, serve your food out on the plate and guess the carb content, then weigh it and see how far you were out. As mentioned Carbs & Cals is an excellent visual guide to carb counting so you might want to download the app.

As for injecting ahead, unless you know how long your food will take to arrive it wouldn't be advisable, but if its a place where you regularly eat you will get to know how long the food takes to arrive from ordering, but some of the best places to eat are the cavery style restaurants as you can load your plate up with the food of your own choosing.

Don't be put off dining out as food should be enjoyed, its trial & error like most things and if your in doubt about the carb content of a meal under-bolus, if your high later in the evening you can always do a correction dose, better doing that than going hypo and it spoiling your meal out.

I totally agree- diabetes takes the fun out of eating and especially eating out! So much guess work. I try and avoid italian restaurants as the food is so carb orientated. I also look up the menu before I leave the house decide what I'm getting and Bolus there and then.
I have a few favourite dishes that I stick to, and substitute the rice/ pasta for vegetables.
I've found that 7 units usually covers me for mains and starters for most meals ( haven't done dafne yet and carb counting bores me so my approach is a bit hap hazard)
This usually works fine.
Just check two hours later and see how you react.
It does get stressful tho and I'd rather just make my own meals and have peace of mind
Diabetes sucks no denying it

Never ever inject without knowing exactly what you're going to eat first (Lesson learnt on band trip to France. French folk don't eat as many carbs for dinner - staying with a French family severely limits your ability to go sugar-hunting. Result: being woken by (very competent) French ambulance crew at 5am. Needless to say, I nearly died with embarrassment. Carb-counting is good, but, as ever, is a bit haphazard.

in the lovely italian trattorias we eat in italy ( tuscany) every year the food is perfect for low carbing
there are many roast meat dishes too -- pollo ( chicken ) maiale ( pork ) agnello ( lamb ) lombatina di vitello ( veal t bone )

parma ham and melon to start ( melon 4.6 cho per 100 grams )
beautiful and i do mean beautiful bistecca alla fiorentina ( t bone steak ) served with a mixed green salad
( and a couple of glasses of chianti classico )

Fantastic and very low carb

gemma6549 said:

I've honestly never had an issue eating out

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No me neither. I just normally give myself a little more insulin than I think I will need and I am normally ok.

I have had diabetes now for a long time (33 years) so when I see the meal put in front of me I roughly know how much insulin I'm going to need to inject just by looking at what's on the plate. I have to admit I have never carb counted in my life !

I tend to inject when the meal is in front of me because I have on a couple of occasions gone hypo whilst waiting for them to get my meal. Sometimes they can forget your order or they are just slug slow !

I once had such a bad hypo waiting for my meal that I actually got out of my seat and went behind the restaurants deli counter and started to make myself a sandwich (I was that confused)

Didn't go down too well and I got thrown out ! But not before grabbing some beetroot !