Carb counting/tracking on a spreadsheet

[LucysLostSister]

I’ve looked at numerous apps already and either they’re rubbish/inaccurate or they’re expensive.

I’d rather track on my own spreadsheet but what info do I need to look at/analyse on the nutritional info on food packaging? And do I need to track carbs on items that don’t have such info such as fresh fruit and veg, and if so how?

I don’t trust apps really as I tried some when trying to lose weight before and learned that the databases they used were often outdated/inaccurate anyway, I’d rather do a spreadsheet.

I now have a meter to test and want to marry the results with a food diary to learn which diet/foods suit me best to manage my diabetes.

 

[Drummer]

I have a notebook in which I noted down the low carb veges and fruits, and then I used a set of electronic scales to see how much a portion ought to be - I did use a sliderule to do the calculation but a calculator will do the jop just as well.
I did find that for peas and 'naked' beans I saw rises in blood glucose almost twice as high as expected - 1.8 is the conversion I used. That means a reduced amount of peas, but not green beans for some reason, it is not the pods but the seeds which are the problem.
After a few months I did not need to weigh, or even test that much, as I had settle into the way of eating, and at 6 months was back to normal.

 

[Gwynn]

If you are using Excel and know VBA then it is a relatively straight forward but a lengthy process.

For every food, recipe, meal and day, I track Calories, Carbohydrates, Protein, fibre, Fats, Saturated fats, cholesterol, sodium, solids, fluids.

And more recently vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B13, Beta carotene and minerals Boron, Calcium, Copper, Chromium, Iodine, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Potassium, Selenium, Zinc, Omega 3, Omega 6,

along with body stuff Weight, Exercise, Blood glucose, Blood pressure, Pulse, Oxygen saturation, Temperature.

It's a lot of data well suited to spreadsheets and programming.

BUT

The really tough bit is trawling through the internet many times to extract the basic information required. There's a lot of misleading information out there, a lot of different standards, some different counties using different units and measures, etc etc.

It's a tough ask to do which is why most normal people use the available Apps. I have a background in engineering, IT, programming and design so for me it is an interesting challenge.

Does that help?

 

[LucysLostSister]

Not sure I’ve made myself clear. I only want to track what I’m eating as a food diary and the amount in grams of carbs.

Don’t want to track other nutritional info at this point at least. Need to ease in.

It needs to be VERY simple as not mathematically minded.

Eg

Column 1
1 small slice wholemeal bread

Column 2
(according to package info) carbs 9g

Column 3
sugars 0.6g

I’ll then create an equation at the bottom of numbered info columns to calculate totals for day? As I think I’m meant to be aiming for less than 130g carbs per day? Not sure if that’s a good idea.

So I can spot patterns and identify which foods spike my sugars and which don’t. Which dietary pattern is best for me.

 

[LucysLostSister]

I have a notebook in which I noted down the low carb veges and fruits, and then I used a set of electronic scales to see how much a portion ought to be - I did use a sliderule to do the calculation but a calculator will do the jop just as well.
I did find that for peas and 'naked' beans I saw rises in blood glucose almost twice as high as expected - 1.8 is the conversion I used. That means a reduced amount of peas, but not green beans for some reason, it is not the pods but the seeds which are the problem.
After a few months I did not need to weigh, or even test that much, as I had settle into the way of eating, and at 6 months was back to normal.

Peas are basically a carb/starchy food as are beans and sweetcorn. Learned that when doing weight watchers very high cal for veggies. But healthier than other carbs for other reasons (more vitamins etc) so it’s a balancing act.

 

[bulkbiker]

’d rather track on my own spreadsheet but what info do I need to look at/analyse on the nutritional info on food packaging

Most UK Supermarkets use this as the basis for their nutritional info I think

Composition of foods integrated dataset (CoFID)

McCance and Widdowson’s 'composition of foods integrated dataset' on the nutrient content of the UK food supply.

www.gov.uk

Depending on your spreadsheets skills it could prove invaluable (although to be completely honest I tend to use the supermarkets own websites most of the time).

 

[Gwynn]

@LucysLostSister Ok no problem, just tailor a spreadsheet to suit your needs. From what you have said you seem to have it mostly sorted.

Is there something specific that is giving you problems?

 

[Lucyr]

Myfitnesspal has a free level. Nutracheck you can use the free version to look up the carbs too.

 

[bulkbiker]

It needs to be VERY simple as not mathematically minded.

Ah sorry just saw this post..

If you just want to monitor the carbs then I'd do that.. forget the "sugars" part as all carbs turn to sugar once ingested.

You'll end up with 2 columns food type and amount of carbs then you can just total them up at the end of each day.

I made my own "database" so I didn't need to look them up every time but you might want to weigh some things too so you get a degree of accuracy. 100g of tomato for example has roughly 3 g of carbs..

This is an example from my old diary.




Mine got a bit more complex over time and my 'database' looked like this



That's part of the meats section. I'd just weigh whatever I ate and multiply the grams of food by the listing.

 

[AndBreathe]

@LucysLostSister , I’d urge you to track carbs, protein and fats, and your blood glucose. The protein and fats can become important over time, for instance when you want to either boost, or stem weightloss, depending on your circumstances.

if you are looking up carbs, the protein and fats are likely to be noted anyway, so just a case of jotting it down first time

Whilst you want a decent variety of meal options, you’d be surprised how often some elements, whether cheese, meat (although that isn’t going to be happening for you, as a veggie) crop up and can just self-populate your cells.

 

[AndBreathe]

Myfitnesspal has a free level. Nutracheck you can use the free version to look up the carbs too.

In my personal experience I’d urge caution with MyFitnessPal. Many of the entries are from the US, where fibre and carbs are calculated differently.

 

[Lucyr]

In my personal experience I’d urge caution with MyFitnessPal. Many of the entries are from the US, where fibre and carbs are calculated differently.

I don’t use it myself for that reason, I prefer to pay the £20ish a year for nutracheck which has a UK database. But if someone non technical wants a free option, it’s better than nothing.

 

[LucysLostSister]

I’m just starting out though and need to keep it as simple as possible to begin with. Myfitnesspal I discovered when I tried using it for weight loss ANYONE can update the database with utter rubbish! Totally unreliable

 

[Drummer]

Peas are basically a carb/starchy food as are beans and sweetcorn. Learned that when doing weight watchers very high cal for veggies. But healthier than other carbs for other reasons (more vitamins etc) so it’s a balancing act.

For most people sweet corn has about twice the carb content of peas, but for a few people they will be almost the same.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Not sure I’ve made myself clear. I only want to track what I’m eating as a food diary and the amount in grams of carbs.

Don’t want to track other nutritional info at this point at least. Need to ease in.

It needs to be VERY simple as not mathematically minded.

Eg

Column 1
1 small slice wholemeal bread

Column 2
(according to package info) carbs 9g

Column 3
sugars 0.6g

I’ll then create an equation at the bottom of numbered info columns to calculate totals for day? As I think I’m meant to be aiming for less than 130g carbs per day? Not sure if that’s a good idea.

So I can spot patterns and identify which foods spike my sugars and which don’t. Which dietary pattern is best for me.

Can't remember who it was but someone invented a pen and paper try that 🙂

 

[barbsdee]

Have you tried Carb Manager? It’s free and has food listed from sainsbury, Tesco etc. You can set your goals be it low carb, keto, high protein whatever plan you want to follow. You can even input your own recipe.

 

[LucysLostSister]

Can't remember who it was but someone invented a pen and paper try that 🙂

Pretty much how simple I want to keep it

 

[LucysLostSister]

But I need to know how to count the carbs

 

[Leadinglights]

But I need to know how to count the carbs

Info on packets, shop websites, the internet and a calculator.

 

[LucysLostSister]

Have you tried Carb Manager? It’s free and has food listed from sainsbury, Tesco etc. You can set your goals be it low carb, keto, high protein whatever plan you want to follow. You can even input your own recipe.

Can’t completely set goals without going premium but can keep my own mental note. Seems fairly easy to add - and importantly to me remove items (as I may change my mind about what I’m having) still seems a lot of detail and fluff included which I’m not a fan of