[dano]

How many T1's on this site: Count the carbs per meal and calculate your bolus insulin dosage based on your glucose reading, prior to the meal, and the number of carbs consumed during the meal?

If you do this: Can you tell me how that you learned to do this?

[dano]

I will try to start this off:

I count carbs every day at every meal. I do this in order to calculate my bolus insulin dosage. It works very well for me, as I have lowered my A1c from 11.3% to 6.9% in a four (4) month period.

I learned to do this from doing research on the internet. Below is a link and I hope it helps you as well.

Carb Counting 101

[thunderin]

I count my carbs at every meal. I learned from the VA and from research online. For most foods it really helps, starches are still a problem however.

[dano]

thunderin;

Welcome to the Forum!

Thanks for the info. Yes, starches are a problem for me as well. They say to stay away from any thing white and that is working pretty well for me, so far. This includes: sugar, flour, bread, pasta etc.

[kmadson]

I count carbs for my meals as well... When I first got my pump I was in a class with a dietician who taught me all the tricks for measuring carbs even if I do not have a nutrition facts with me... It has helped me out a lot learning how to count carbs from a dietician.

[dano]

kmadson;

Thanks for the information!

Could you possibly share the tricks for measuring carbs even if you do not have the nutrition facts with you? I would be interested in knowing this.

[kmadson]

Yeah... Just a couple of the things that I was told by the nutritionist was stuff like...

1. All meats and fish have no carbs (So I personally eat a lot of that haha)
2. A cup of pasta is usually around 45 carbs (You just have to get used to what a cup looks like on a plate or bowl)
3. 1 piece of bread usually is 15 carbs
4. A potato that fits in your palm is around 15 carbs
5. And lastly just getting to know the foods that you personally eat... I tend to eat the same kind of food, so after many years of carb counting I can look at a plate of food in front of me and recall how many carbs are sitting in front of me. Practice makes perfect, especially when it comes to counting carbs...

[dano]

Yeah, that is what I thought.

You are right, since I have been carb counting for sometime now I can pretty much tell what a plate is. I eat some of the things over as well.

When I first started I measured some foods out. The thing that surprised me the most was a cup of spaghetti. There is a lot of pasta there!

Thanks for the info!

[kmadson]

Yeah the food that was crazy for me was eating a bowl of cereal... The combo of the actual cereal and milk adds up to quite the staggering amount of carbs, and that took me a while to realize I would have to be giving myself around 6 units of Novolog for one bowl of cereal! I have a 15:1 carb to insulin ratio as well, so you can do the math on that one...

[dano]

Yes, I had to re-think the cereal for breakfast as well. I decided to go with one cup of chex (corn or rice) ceral with 1/4 cup of skim milk (28.7 carbs total). I find that if my fasting blood sugar is in the range that I like to keep it (between 70mg/dl and 90 mg/dl) I can get by with taking the calculated 2 units of NovoLog. My ICR is 8 and my ISF is 30.