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Is there a place to easily find the measure of carb unit/grams that the Freestyle Libre 2 uses?

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ShugShug

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Hi all - Just trialling out the Freestyle Libre 2, and already had some wonderful advice here on a practical matter of removing one at the end of it's cycle.

When I input into the log book for meals and snacks , how do I do I work out what the portion or grams are? Is there a web site anywhere with the information for common foods , or do I have to do the leg work of reading the packaging and weighing things on scales etc?

For example, this morning I had porridge and frozen cherries and yoghurt. Of a very average portion. How do I go about quantifying that?

And bearing in mind this is just a trial period, the information isn't being fed back to my GP or diabetes clinic, so what would be the benefit of inputting the carbs accurately? Does it give more information to me when it has more daily data to compare against , or is it literally just a log book for me to refer to and then I can work out what causes spikes etc?

Thanks in advance
 
ShugShug said:
what would be the benefit of inputting the carbs accurately?
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It would allow you to see how much carbs your body can deal with without going high if you're managing your diabetes with diet only or with medication, so it can be a great help in working out where your diet needs adjusting.

It can be very helpful with finetuning insulin doses if you're on insulin.
ShugShug said:
When I input into the log book for meals and snacks , how do I do I work out what the portion or grams are? Is there a web site anywhere with the information for common foods , or do I have to do the leg work of reading the packaging
Click to expand...
Personally I prefer doing the leg work myself.
But I know that many people have good experiences with Carbs and Cals, both the book and the app.
 
Even though I'm currently on fixed doses of insulin (although that may change after last night's fiasco) I count the carbs using Cronometer. I use only the USDA and NCCDB (or whatever it's called) databases for whole foods but if the carb content varies much by what's published in the Australian database I create a custom food. I don't care so much about vitamins and minerals which are pretty close usually anyway so I create custom foods by copying a USDA or NCCDB food and adjusting the macronutrients (protein, carbs, fat) manually. It sounds like a lot of work but it wasn't really. It's a bit more tricky for packaged foods but even then it only it doesn't take that long to enter a custom food using the food label. Personally, whatever I use I'd be inclined to check what's in the database and how it compares to other published sources. I eat mostly whole foods so after the first few weeks I don't have to manually add stuff as much

I hope that my DE let's me fine tune my doses based on carbs which is why I've been counting them since I've been on the Libre even though I don't have to. There's been some surprises along the way as well. E.g. 20 g of carbs at breakfast spikes me a *lot* more than 44 g of carbs at lunch. I don't know why (I have less insulin at lunch as well but the numbers don't lie), but I've moved my yoghurt, for example, from breakfast to lunch because it doesn't affect me so much at lunch
 
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Thanks all - I am not on insulin, just pre-diabetic and mt doc suggested trialling these and seeing what patterns and insight I get and then return and have another consultation.

So, I am just getting to grips with it all at the moment and want to learn about the effect of food on my body etc. The logbook on Libre Freestyle 2 just has a few unanswered questions for me, but I've been reading lots on here and learning so much
 
For a Type 1 counting carbs is second nature. We need to know how many carbs we are eating at a given time so we can inject accordingly.
For yourself it would be a very useful exercise in learning how many carbs each food item has (there are some surprising shockers out there) so you know what your body can sustain. Most carbs can be found on the backs of tins/packaging and on the internet, or the carbs and Cals book. In my early days I made a big chart to stick on the wall and each new food I worked out and wrote up. With different sections for each food type. It then became easier to input on my blood chart (no Libre in those days) that chart still resides on the back of a cupboard door. Though I rarely refer to it these days. If ever I cook a new dish with lots of ingredients, I always set out to work out the total carb content and make a note of it.
 
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