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Am i like the only person who doesn't carb count?

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Estellaa

Estellaa

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I have noticed with majority of posts you all carb count?
However i don't, does this make me strange aha?
🙂
 
Well, I know the principles, but don't really carb count. My diet is pretty boring and consistent so I know pretty much how much insulin I'll need for a particular meal, and taking into account my pre-meal number plus whether I've been exercising etc. The only time I attempt carb counting is if I try something new - even then I tend to base my dose on a similar sized/type of meal.

So no, I don't think you are strange - if you are, then so am I! 😱 😉
 
Estellaa said:
I have noticed with majority of posts you all carb count?
However i don't, does this make me strange aha?
🙂
Click to expand...

....I wouldn't be able to maintain good control if I didn't, hence why for 12 years I guessed, sometimes I got it right...often I got it wrong! After 4 years of carb counting and just as importantly knowing my insulin/carb ratio (wildly different for me depending on time of day) my control is so much better and my A1c is much,much better. Everyone is different..... but I will always carb count from now on.
 
I don't either, it took my doctor 6 years to send me to meet DESMOND and I get mixed messages about carb counting from the surgery
 
You certainly won't be the only one, but I think it's impossible to get good control on MDI without doing some carb counting.

The entire principle behind MDI is that you inject an appropriate amount of insulin at mealtimes to cover the carbs you are eating. If you don't know how many carbs you're eating, you can't possibly know how much insulin to inject. Granted, if you've enough experience you can suitably eyeball food and judge it, but without carb counting, it's a bit like walking across your living room with your eyes closed. You might roughly know where everything is, but unless you look, you are probably going to end up with a bruised shin and a broken TV.
 
DeusXM said:
You certainly won't be the only one, but I think it's impossible to get good control on MDI without doing some carb counting.

The entire principle behind MDI is that you inject an appropriate amount of insulin at mealtimes to cover the carbs you are eating. If you don't know how many carbs you're eating, you can't possibly know how much insulin to inject. Granted, if you've enough experience you can suitably eyeball food and judge it, but without carb counting, it's a bit like walking across your living room with your eyes closed. You might roughly know where everything is, but unless you look, you are probably going to end up with a bruised shin and a broken TV.
Click to expand...

.....couldn't have put that better!! .....however you don't realise until you get used to carb counting.....it's like saying you don't need reading glasses.... although you are still holding the newspaper at arms length! 😉
 
I don't really count carbs but I have learned the habit of simply being aware of them and I eat a slightly restricted quantity - seems to work but I am aware that I eat less carbs than is "normal". I know a loaf of bread has to last nearly a week and I have small portions if I have rice or potato.
 
In 2001 I went on the NovoPen and was told I could now eat as normal people. I went through the carb counting when first diagnosed in 1987 when I injected twice a day (breakfast and dinner) with a mix of Actrapid and Monotard. In those days you had to carb count otherwise you would be too 'high' or too 'low' if you didnt. These days with a NovoPen things are much better. Although I eat healthy food I will eat cake, ice cream etc. These 'treats' are thanks to the NovoPen.
 
Austin Mini said:
In 2001 I went on the NovoPen and was told I could now eat as normal people. I went through the carb counting when first diagnosed in 1987 when I injected twice a day (breakfast and dinner) with a mix of Actrapid and Monotard. In those days you had to carb count otherwise you would be too 'high' or too 'low' if you didnt. These days with a NovoPen things are much better. Although I eat healthy food I will eat cake, ice cream etc. These 'treats' are thanks to the NovoPen.
Click to expand...

Are we talking about two different reasons to count carbs though? On fixed insulin doses you had to make sure you had the right carbs to match the insulin doses (and at the right times too), whereas now you count the carbs you want to eat in order to decide how much insulin you need to cover it.
 
Sounds like great guestimation Austin!

Having a few years experience under your belt can help make it easier. I have to say I am far less precise than many seem to be (especially in the evenings, where generally the whole family meal is counted/measured but portions are judged by eye) - but then again I make far more errors at that time of day!
 
Having a few years experience under your belt can help make it easier.

Thats exactly so, over time comes confidence.
 
I must admit that I tend to guestimate, too, based on occasional bench mark meals at home, when I can weigh food. Fortunately, most of the produce we get from our garden (eggs from ducks, various veg and berries) is vey low carbohydrate. We make our own bread, so that's pretty constant - the only variable being how thick I cut my slices.

I will be volunteering on a week long trail run in Wales in September - food (breakfast, packed lunches for the hill / midday check point, snacks & soup on arrival at overnight camp, evening meal, drinks whenever camp kitchen is open) will be provided for all racers & marshals, all vegetarian, and portion size will be basically what you want to eat. As participants provide their own plates / bowls / mugs, I might check what my normal portions look like in the crockery I'm taking, but otherwise, will take a chance. There's no way I could bother with carrying a set of scales, and that would cause interuptions to meal queues.

I reckon that using techniques to improve guestimates of carbohydrate content of food is the key to a happy life - there are so many other variables, including exercise / stress / sleep hours / meal times / weather etc, that there's no point being ultra accurate in one factor, when it's impossible to have the same level of accuracy for other inputs.
 
Copepod said:
...I reckon that using techniques to improve guestimates of carbohydrate content of food is the key to a happy life - there are so many other variables, including exercise / stress / sleep hours / meal times / weather etc, that there's no point being ultra accurate in one factor, when it's impossible to have the same level of accuracy for other inputs.
Click to expand...

Pretty much my approach. Whilst I may know approximately the carb content of my meals, nearly all of which I prepare myself, I will make a guess on how to adjust based on the other main variables you outline. Most of the time I seem to get it right, as witnessed by my HbA1c in the 5s practically since diagnosis. I accept, however, that I'm pretty lucky in that I may be getting a helping hand from my partially-functioning pancreas. I also have a good general routine which helps, keep carbs in meals fairly constant and around 140-180 per day (having much more than this throws my guessing out!), and regular exercise helps hugely. For me, because my carbs are fairly constant, it's my level of exercise which can throw things out the most. If I stop exercising for a few days I find it difficult to work out how much extra insulin I need so I get a few higher than normal levels, and if I return to exercise then the problem is reversed giving me a few hypos as I try and work out what reduction is required. 🙂
 
Estellaa said:
I have noticed with majority of posts you all carb count?
However i don't, does this make me strange aha?
🙂
Click to expand...

I think it's more common than the impression you're getting. I wasn't carb counting for most of my diabetic life (at least 19 years) before I did the DAFNE course which teaches carb counting as part of the course. It does make a hell of a difference and I wish I had been doing it sooner but hey, that's life. Docs didn't think it was important enough to tell me about it before. *rolls eyes*
 
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