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When you are giving a meal bolus, how accurately do you count carbs most of the time? Select all statements that you identify with frequently.
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I’ve been on a pump and counting carbs for over 20 years, so I either know the count in most foods or can guesstimate carbs in a given meal.
The webpage wouldn’t let me pick more than one so I selected looking up carb counts in an app or web search. There are several that I’ve memorized, though, and I keep a cheat sheet for foods that I eat often. I do guesstimate, sometimes, though, if I don’t know the exact portion size.
I chose other because there wasn’t an option to pick more than one. After so many years, some foods I just know. Some that I don’t eat as often, I may still have to look up to know for sure and sometimes, like at a restaurant, I have to make a guess and watch the CGM for adjustments.
GRAM SCALE and Calculator are indispensable!! (and most of the other answers also)
I selected several of the options because most of them apply. If I am cooking at home, I can calculate the carbs from each item. If I eat at a restaurant, then I have to guestimate the various items. Sometimes, it cab be nothing more than a wild ass guess.
Some things I know how many carbs to put in my pump, and it’s not always the carbs in the food. Some foods act like more or less carbs than they really are. Other stuff I look up. Some stuff I estimate by looking up and guessing how much I am eating. That’s usually at a restaurant, at home I can use a scale. If it’s a sweet at a restaurant, I go by size. I figure it’s mostly sugar, so I look at it and imagine how many teaspoons it is. Then I take a little bit and make whoever is with me eat the rest.
At home, with foods I eat often, I’ve memorized the carbs and usually get it pretty close. With some foods, I use Calorie King to look them up. Eating out is the wild card. I know which kinds of foods have more carbs than others, and use that to make a guesstimate for my bolus. Then I follow my sensor and bolus more if I see my glucose headed north.
It’s pretty much a guestimate for me most of the time. I have to consider things like alcohol and its effect on the carbs (delays them acting), and certain carbs like pasta which metabolize over a longer period. I usually just keep a watch on my CGM reading and adjust as the day or evening wears on.
When at home it is easy to know carb count or google it.. But eating out or ordering in is difficult. Restaurants often add ingredients that have hidden carbs like sweaters, thickeners, or breading.
I used to measure and count carbs very accurately but found insulin timing to be far more important. I have discussed this with a number of other healthcare colleagues and many of us have found this to be the case. It seems fine to estimate the carb count then use a pre-bolus sliding time scale, anywhere from immediately before to 90 minutes before carbs depending on BG. Seems counter to what we have always thought but it may have to due with glucagon and glycogen stores in the liver.
I don’t always think about the carbs, but rather how many units did or didn’t work last time I ate something like it. For instance, Chinese food… I just pre-bolus 10 units, then bolus another 10 when I start eating. That’ll keep me from skyrocketing, but sometimes I need another bolus later and I eyeball that depending on my BG trend. Another everyday example is my coffee in the morning. Bolus about 2 units when I start drinking it and I’m good to go.
The power of Guesstimation has been good for me, as well as going by the numbers constantly and right before a meal.
Breakfast $ lunch at home is very easy for me to know the exact number of carbs for meals I regularly eat. The exception to that is the apple [one of at least three fresh fruits I eat every day] at lunchtime which can range in carbs between 13 and 28 carbs depending on variety and size- experience has helped me with a good, educated quess. Supper is totally different, yet I can usually come up with an accurate estimate having lived with diabetes for over six decades, and began counting carbs in the 1970s. Restaurants, during non-pandemic times where we would eat a couple if times a week are more of a guessing game. during pandemic isolation my wife has become more creative [great for a gal well into her 80s] with supper, depending on the expanded stocks of foods our daughter has been delivering to our home. but despite this challenge, I’ve been able to maintain my TIR at +90%.
Home is easy. Out I just do 90 grams because I can do anymore than that – will go low before I go high. Then I either increase my basal (have a high energy and low energy setting) or know within an hour I need to bolus again for about 1.8 – 2 units more. Works.
I have been carb counting for so long that I ~ more or less know ~ the exact amount for certain portion size foods I eat on a regular basis; other wise I guesstimate, read labels, or look an unknown something up on an app like Calorie King.
My breakfast is always the same so counting carbs is not an issue. During the week I do not eat lunch so no issue, and dinner is generally meat and vegetable so again easy. Weekend lunch when we go out to eat is more of a guessing game. After 25 years I have most items that I order down but there are always wild cards.
I have made a list of carb content on my phone for the meals I eat and refer to that. Eating out (remember when we did that?) was always more difficult. I had to wait for the meal to be delivered. My wife was a dietitian and has been a tremendous help.
I always just guess based on experience, and then titrate subsequently based on my reaction after eating. Obviously I generally avoid foods that I know to be problematic (like Pizza) and I do eat the same things for breakfast and lunch every day. Since I seem to be quite variable (exercise is one factor having a big influence), I find this empirical approach allows me to reach my goal of staying at or below an A1c of 7. Of course during the pandemic, eating out has not been an issue — and that is always the hardest thing to manage.
I have memorized how many carbs/g are in different types of food that I eat frequently, but I still have to weight them. When I don’t know the amount of carbs in a specific food, I google it or look it up in a food tracking app. I like the food data central from the government the best. I liked it better about five years ago before all the brands were put on. That data is on their container. Other: When eating out I it’s east to stick to chain restaurants as their nutrition is up on the internet. Otherwise I have to ask questions about whether or not sugar is added. I don’t worry about vegetables, I can roughly guess rice, potatoes, soups can be hard and sauces are are impossible.
I mostly look know, or look it up., or my partner is doing the cookng and they tell me. Some things have to be guestimated because maturity and species mean that a one-size-fits-all ‘100g of this has X carb can be out, and you won’t know until its cooked (if then) – so personally I pre-bolus and leave Control–iq to deal with it..