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Type 1 Carb counting is hard!

A

AnnJohnston

Well-Known Member
Messages
80
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I've moved hospitals so I've got an appointment for a new DSN in on 7th Feb. Last appt with previous nurse was in Oct. (since then I've also been rediagnosed as Type 1 by consultant. ) ratio given them was 1:10. I've been doing low carb since beginning of jan though and really only having basal insulin but I had carbs last night for burns night and ended up having a hypo. On Tuesday night though I had chicken and cauliflower with no bolus and my reading was over 8 2 hours later. Doing my Bertie online but not made it to the carb counting module yet. My brain is hurting with all this lol.
 
Hi Ann, if you don't already have it buy yourself a book called carbs & cals, it's my bible for carbohydrates. At my clinic they also gave out basic carb counting information sheets, your new consultant might have some for you. Best of luck.
 
I've got the carbs & cals app, I've been doing low carb for a few weeks so I've not been using it as much. Going to have a good look at everything again this weekend. Thanks for the advice
 
It is hard.

My ratio definitely changes throughout the day. I was only diagnosed a few weeks ago and haven't figured out my ratios properly yet. I also low carb and have found that meals with little or no carbs still need a bolus. In fact, more so than a meal with a moderate amount of CHO.

I'm going to be experimenting today. I'll be adding smallish amounts of carbs to meals and see what happens.
 
AnnJohnston said:
On Tuesday night though I had chicken and cauliflower with no bolus and my reading was over 8 2 hours later.
Click to expand...

You might need to look into bolusing for protein, if you are low carbing you body will perform gluconogenesis on protein and it will raise your blood sugar so will need a bolus.
 

@AnnJohnston

Just like most things in life - it gets easier with practice!

I can also recommend the Carbs n Cals book - along with my DAFNE info booklet it has made the transition onto LCHF nice and simple. Only when trying something new does it need a quick flick-through to check on new ingredients; though I tend to check at point of purchase as different brands of food can vary quite widely as to the number of carbs within.

Good luck - you're off to a good start for the New Year.
 
Thank you all. I'm waiting on a date for my dafne course but doing Bertie online in the mean time. I've also ordered think like a pancreas book which should be here on Monday. I've got a lot to learn but I'll get there and I think I'll introduce a small amount of carbs just now to see the difference. Had half a muffin with my eggs this morning.
 
@AnnJohnston I found Google is a good place to go when I want a quick carb count on many different foods. Just type in the search bar: carbs in food name. It shows the result instantly.
 
Soplewis12 said:
Hi Ann, if you don't already have it buy yourself a book called carbs & cals, it's my bible for carbohydrates. At my clinic they also gave out basic carb counting information sheets, your new consultant might have some for you. Best of luck.
Click to expand...
Ps can

Hi, for @AnnJohnston, my ratio also alters throughout the day, so you may experience highs/lows until you get the correct ratio for you. For e.g. breakfast I am 1 unit to 15g carbs, lunch is 1 unit to 20g carbs and teatime is back to 1 unit to 15g carbs.
 
Hi. Carb-counting is actually quite simple once you fully understand what it's about. I think you are already half-way there. You have already been given a carb-counting ratio of 1:10 which is the way many of us started. That means 1unit of bolus to every 10gms of carbs. The first priority is to get your Basal dose right which it may already be. I won't go into detail here but hopefully your DSN will guide you. When balanced it means your blood sugar during the day should stay reasonably stable without food. When you eat, you then have Bolus injections before each meal using the ratio you've been started with. If you have any fears about a hypo you can always start using a slightly lower Bolus and see how you go with the meter and get it right over time. Hopefully your DSN will help you with all of this.
 

Think Like A Pancreas should help. It's great you're doing the Bertie course. My tip is to not overcomplicate things. Basic carb counting is fairly simple.

I agree with those above who suggest it's easier to have a moderate amount of carbs with your meal. It actually makes things more predictable, I've found. If you go too low carb, you need to start bolusing for protein, and taking into account fat, which also changes the insulin needed. There's also the risk of developing physiological insulin resistance.

Find a level of carbs per meal that suits you and aim to be around that level very roughly most days. You can also keep notes about what doses work for your meals eg 150g cooked weight potato, plus meat plus green veg (ie no carby veg) needs X amount of bolus. I do that for my pasta meals - have the same amount of pasta most times. It saves a lot of thought!
 
Thanks everyone again, your comments and advice are much appreciated
 
@AnnJohnston I presume you had haggis last night, and that could be why you went hypo.

I also had haggis and seemed to remember the first couple of times I ate it, I went hypo. I thought there must be a lot of fat in it but it was lower than expected, so I gave all the insulin instead of giving myself a dual bolus (I'm on the insulin pump). My portion of haggis came to more than 20g carbs but I only counted it as 5g. This is quite a difference but I didn't want to go hypo when I was out later, so it was a case of better to be safe than sorry (I could always correct later). I was so glad I made this decision, as my blood glucose remained in target!
 
Also seems the timing is important.In the morning I have to inject ten min.before the meal, not the case at lunch.Dinner too I inject 10 min before, since it is a bigger meal,and I eat fast.Evening is more like lunch.
 
I have a Salter Nutri-Weigh Slim Electronic Scale for calculating carbs. Works really well. Doesn't have every food product but has a lot of normal, everyday foods. Worth the cost in my opinion.
 
@GrantGam thank you, I've got this app. Need to have a good look at it! @dancer yes I had haggis
might need to be a once a year thing if that's the effect it has lol.
 
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