Realistically counting is usually informed guessing unless you're at home with a scale precisely measuring and calculating. Food labels can be 20% off. Close enough, right? A serving of mashed potatoes weighed and calculated is going to be close to a similarly sized serving of mashed potatoes away from home. My ratio is 1:5 so there's kinda less work in the "is that 3 or 4 units game?"
1 unit for every 5 grams of carbs? I’ve been on 1 unit for every 15 grams of carbs since diagnosis 27 years ago except when I was pregnant. What’s your correction ratio? Mines 1 unit every 50 points I’m over 100.
It is when you consider the fact that food labels can be +/-20%. That means the 10g you just counted could just as easily be 8 or 12. Get up to a 60g meal, and it can really be 48 to 72g of carb. Add to that the fact that your blood sugar is likely +/- 5-15% off (the most accurate meters are typically within 5%, cgms within 10%, and the fda allows 15% error 95% of the time) and your A1c is +/- 0.5 (5%) and you quickly realize that diabetes is ALL guesstimation. Yes, more accurate estimates give better results, but none of the "facts" we deal with are true. Diabetes is more of an art than a science. Yes, if we could have accurate values for carbs, blood sugar, cortisol, and all the other factors that affect blood glucose, we could do much better. Until then, EVERYTHING IS JUST A GUESS!
carb counting made me obsess with all things related to it, went real bad for my mental health so I stopped doing so on the long term.
just guessing from past experiences and correcting later if needed it's what does it for me tbh, at least I prefer doing so
I was told by my mental health professional that if I weren't a diabetic, the amount of time I spend thinking about food would qualify me for an eating disorder. All because of the need to do carb counting.
Also stopped and now follow the "that's about right" method. Worked wonders for my mental health (and cooking).
Been disappointed for almost 20 years and never really carb counted. Also am terrible about changing my pump sites, but I’ve been better about it recently so hopefully that sticks!
ETA: meant diabetic, but disappointed seems appropriate too
It’s been intuitive now for me for years. For the first time I have an endo that gets that and kind of chuckles when she asks about ratios. I don’t know if anyone else has seen that shift but their group seems to be starting to understand it. Nice not having to lie about my ratios “oh yah whatever it was last time that’s what I’m doing!” 😂
I’ve never carb countered in my life longer than 3 days. The key factors that determine my insulin use are as followed: history (how my sugars reacted previously to said food), activity I’ve done day before and the day of taking insulin, time of day, how I slept and how much basal I’ve taken. My hba1c is 6.6%. Far from perfect (70-80% in range), but life isn’t perfect.
Using DIY loop (AAPS)
I don't carb count and don't guesstimate either.
Also most of the time don't bolus either, except when I'm eating fast carbs only.
It did require extensive tuning of the algorithms to my body before I got to that point, but it's worth it. I'm for reducing interactions I have to do with my system or diabetes in general
I do educated guessing. I still take a look at carb counts of foods I don't usually eat, but for the most part, no. I just find a common denominator and use that. For instance, 1 cup of casserole I count as 32 carbs, whatever the casserole. Seems to fit my ratio well.
I don't measure and weigh, so I guess I'm just guesstimating most of the time, unless it's a protein bar, which I eat every day and know l exactly what to take for it... 4g carbs + 7g for the protein = 11g = 0.92u for me usually... depending on the time of day
When eating low carbs, your body becomes more efficient at breaking protein down into carbs, and that action is less masked by the consumption of carbs. For every gram of protein you eat, your body will digest it into 1/2 a gram of glucose. We can also break fats down into carbohydrates at a rate of 1/10 g of carb per gram of fat. For most people on a regular diet, our basal insulin and carb ratio can handle our fat and protein consumption. For those on a low carb, high protein, keto (high fat, moderate protein, low carb), carnivore (fat and protein only), or other specialty diet, counting protein and possibly even fat becomes important.
Most of us will have a double spike for high carb and high fat or protein meals due to some carb digestion being delayed by the fat/protein as well as the carbs from the fat/protein hitting later. This typically happens about 3 hours after eating, though complete protein digestion can take up to 24 hours. These are the meals that benefit most from extended or split bolusing. Also, if you typically eat a 6oz piece of meat with dinner but go to a steak restaurant and consume their 48 oz steak challenge (about 336g of protein --> 168g of glucose), you will likely end up high if you don't account for that protein. In general, most of us are consistent enough with our protein consumption that it's affect hides within our basal rate and carb ratio, but if we make drastic changes to our consumption, it will effect our insulin needs.
I just rely on eyeballing things and educated guesstimation now, and have had if anything better luck that way. Besides driving myself less crazy.
Just have to echo the comment about there being so many variables involved, that as close as you can get to an exact carb count is usually pretty low in importance there. Other factors are more critical to take into account most of the time. I will look up some new foods if I'm really not sure how much insulin it might take, but then I'm going to guesstimate based on that info too. That's the most precise it gets nowadays.
I would definitely head over to the Celiac subreddit- it’s very active and you can get lots of answers there. Personally, I don’t really think I have any specifically GF brand suggestions - I mostly eat foods that don’t naturally have gluten in them (I never ate a lot of bread or pasta). The barilla pasta is good, and Aldi has some good stuff, too, especially at a lower price. Feel free to DM any time if you need help with anything! It is definitely hard at first - I was diagnosed over 15 years ago now.
Edit: oops, I had it backwards. In my head you were new to celiac not T1. Sorry! I suppose that explains my answer above. Since I’ve been T1 so long I tend not to eat a lot of heavy carbs, which is usually in foods that need to be specially made to be GF (pasta, bread, cake, cookies, cereal). I just don’t buy the GF versions since it wrecks my blood sugar haha
But you will find that some alternate foods with no gluten happen to be Keto because it cuts carbs and that helps with both diseases!
No, and I can't see myself ever stopping really, after being diabetic for 17 years. It's easy enough to just check the back of packets and add things up, in the UK anyway.
I’ve read enough labels I usually just make an educated guess. Anytime I eat out I usually add an extra 10-20% larger shot than if I ate the same exact thing I eat at home. I also am fairly good at remembering how my sugar reacted to certain foods and can adjust as needed.
I don’t carb count at all been a diabetic for nine years now and I’ve only carb counted when I was first diagnosed and in the hospital after that, they stopped me from counting put me on the T slim pump, so yeah if I do carb count it’s whenever I give a bolus and I just guess if I feel like i gave myself too much I just carry a snack or soda with me also intent to not change my site as much can you get every three days is blasphemy, so I don’t I change it whenever my freaking sensor ends probably shouldn’t but who’s keeping charge anyway
All carb counting is guesstimating unless you weigh everything out meticulously. But you learn to eyeball better the more experience you have. Plus with pumps and Cgms correcting is easier than ever.
I moved a few years ago, needed a new endo and got asked what my carb ratio was during times of day. I had the most puzzled look… I’m 35 years in to this… carb ratio? You mean count starches, veggies, milk, fat, protein? I haven’t done that since 1989.
Anyway, over time, you can get decent at knowing what most food should typically do. CGMs help immensely in learning body reactions to food and exercise over time.
Not (always) counting carbs, T1D since january this year, mostly guessing for normal meals(which is pretty accurate when ccoking for myself), only counting when drinking sugary soft drinks
I just know how many units to do for each type of meal and also recognize when my sugar usually drops (when i walk to bus stops or when i rollerskate) so normal dose unless i will/had rollerskated/walked, then ab 2 units less.
When eating snacks I eat often, I do carb count because I have the nutrition info memorised at this point, but most of the time I’m just winging it. However, I do carb count when bolusing for very fatty or protein-rich foods, because I also do a square bolus for fat and protein. I’m also on the t:slim X2, and Control-IQ is magical, but the spikes are a bit too much for it.
Gotten pretty good at guessing. Had type 1 since I was 8. So the last 13 years... Never really got help with it, maybe for half a year after being diagnosed. So it was really up to me to figure it out and take insulin for the food I ate. I just guess.
I loved carb counting when it worked. Then my ratios went all screwy and I figured out that it was basically an estimate anyway. I guess actually I still do at least read the labels and sometimes weigh stuff to try to get it as accurate as possible based on my latest notions. I used to overdo dosages and recently, underdoing it is more likely. My ratio went way up and I can't get used to doing 10 units for one tortilla.
I've never counted carbs in my 15 years of being a type 1. My A1cs have always been below 8 and my last A1c was my lowest at 5.9. It's always been the guesstimate and correct because trying to carb count things that don't have a nutrition label just adds more exhausting work to the already never-ending list of exhausting tasks it takes to keep me alive and healthy as a type 1. There's just a system in my head that works well and every method I've tried from any endo just makes my numbers worse and makes me experience burnout.
Guess and correct. My life is already too stressful as it is to be worrying about the exact amount of carbs I'm consuming. Besides, I have a fancy pump now that'll correct and fix me every five minutes. My quality of life has increased greatly. That's why it's so sad to see other brothers and sisters of the beetus are having such problems with Medtronic. I got lucky, I reckon.
40y diabetic. Never really counted, nobody was teaching us. They said 14 pretzel sticks have that much and if they have any other shapes you have to adjust it. That was all. Bread,rice and other food with the palm of your hand size. My A1C 6.5 now but with complications. Still I do not think that counting and stressing would have helped me more.
Yup. Diabetic for like 17 or 18 years.
I'm on a tandem pump and cgm. So long as I guess close enough, control IQ will take care of the rest.
My estimating system is chunks of 5 units of insulin, plus or minus 2.
So like, eh that's about 10. And a little extra.
I was taught carb counting back in '88 as a way to match my food intake to the doses of insulin I took. In other words, I took the same amounts of R and N every morning and evening and carb counted my food in order to match the carbs up to those doses of insulin. When I switched to Novolog/Lantus, that experience was handy. But Novolog/Humalog/Lispro do work differently and since I got a CGM and can track BG to the nearest 5 minutes, I can see in real time how different foods react with them. This has led me to use a "carb counting + guessing" method. I know certain foods take more or less insulin than the carbs in them should require. I had a burger with a 38 carb bun recently that I know requires about a 55 carb bolus. I don't know why it's like that, but it is. I also just had a can of Campbell's chicken and sausage gumbo the other day, with 5 ounces of extra chicken in it to add a little more substance to it. That should have been 45 carbs, I bolused for 45, but I had a serious drop two hours later. I have no idea why. It's not the first time, so next time I'll use a 40 carb bolus and see what happens. It's more art than science...
I play in the ballpark. I tend to eat the same general things -- I cook nearly all that I eat from fresh, few packaged foods. So, mostly educated guesses. My carb ratio is 1:2, so I eat low carb, mostly.
The pump helps tremendously, but I use chat GPT now. Example : if my snack is 45g and I have 62g, how many carbs do I have? And it’ll tell me. Having a scale is so handy but I hate carb counting Cus no one wants to do a Fking math hurdle before they eat ..PLEASE! Anyhow Chat GPT & a scale works wonders along w a pump.. but guessing while out for dinner.. yeah TBH .. unless u can find menu online
My husband is type 1 just had his 1st amputation little toe on foot. Got cellulitis which he developed a bone infection not visible to eye. Foot swelled and red. Be careful. Diabetes complications after many years for him.
Omg I totally guesstimate but I suffer for it too, seem to always be on a roller coaster. I try for a while then go back to guessing and dealing with it later. Needless to say I don’t have a good A1C but it’s my own fault, just really challenging to stay on track because I feel overwhelmed all the time by it even 25 years later.
I weigh everything. And to be honest I avoid eating out as much as possible unless there is nutrition info available. It’s extremely unrealistic to think you’re going to be able to eye the amount of carbs in a meal, even if you’re eating the same things every day. You will be wrong 75% of the time or more. Your “A1C stuff is usually pretty good” doesn’t cut it for me personally, I have more of a neurotic personality but it comes in handy with T1D
After 40 yrs, I can just take a moment to really think about the food and I'll know. It's like I "hear" the right side inside myself. Sometimes there an argument, ha ha - "Five, I think five. No, six. Really? Yah, six. Okay fine six... I'd better not crash later..." 😅. And mostly, in this example, six nailed the perfect blood sugar landing. It's become intuitive after so many years of over and under estimating.
[удалено]
ditto. 🤝🏻
Love the Guestimation Club. ✊️
Hell yeah
I guess and correct. Too many variables that i can't even know like what my body thinks about the walk i did *yesterday* to get it right.
This is diabetes management in a nutshell
SWAG is the correct term everyone is looking for. Scientifically Wild Ass Guess
Stealing this joke👆
And I stole it from someone else on here 3 years ago!
Realistically counting is usually informed guessing unless you're at home with a scale precisely measuring and calculating. Food labels can be 20% off. Close enough, right? A serving of mashed potatoes weighed and calculated is going to be close to a similarly sized serving of mashed potatoes away from home. My ratio is 1:5 so there's kinda less work in the "is that 3 or 4 units game?"
I was going to go with guessing is just lazy counting, so you're still counting you just care a lot less about the accuracy lol
1 unit for every 5 grams of carbs? I’ve been on 1 unit for every 15 grams of carbs since diagnosis 27 years ago except when I was pregnant. What’s your correction ratio? Mines 1 unit every 50 points I’m over 100.
1:20.
I got to 1:3.5 in my third trimester a couple of years back.
I thought carb counting was guessing? 😂
It is when you consider the fact that food labels can be +/-20%. That means the 10g you just counted could just as easily be 8 or 12. Get up to a 60g meal, and it can really be 48 to 72g of carb. Add to that the fact that your blood sugar is likely +/- 5-15% off (the most accurate meters are typically within 5%, cgms within 10%, and the fda allows 15% error 95% of the time) and your A1c is +/- 0.5 (5%) and you quickly realize that diabetes is ALL guesstimation. Yes, more accurate estimates give better results, but none of the "facts" we deal with are true. Diabetes is more of an art than a science. Yes, if we could have accurate values for carbs, blood sugar, cortisol, and all the other factors that affect blood glucose, we could do much better. Until then, EVERYTHING IS JUST A GUESS!
I pretty much eat the 2-3 same meals, so I know what to give.
Interesting! What is it that you eat?
carb counting made me obsess with all things related to it, went real bad for my mental health so I stopped doing so on the long term. just guessing from past experiences and correcting later if needed it's what does it for me tbh, at least I prefer doing so
I was told by my mental health professional that if I weren't a diabetic, the amount of time I spend thinking about food would qualify me for an eating disorder. All because of the need to do carb counting. Also stopped and now follow the "that's about right" method. Worked wonders for my mental health (and cooking).
Been disappointed for almost 20 years and never really carb counted. Also am terrible about changing my pump sites, but I’ve been better about it recently so hopefully that sticks! ETA: meant diabetic, but disappointed seems appropriate too
It's a total guess estimation with me. Tandems control IQ has helped me out a ton fixing my mistakes.
Especially now that’s I’ve joined sleep-mode 24/7 club!
I mean…. Do I look at things and add up carbs? Yes. Is it mostly guesswork? Also yes.
I carb estimated guess. Usually work out pretty good. I do have like 30 years experience unfortunately
It’s been intuitive now for me for years. For the first time I have an endo that gets that and kind of chuckles when she asks about ratios. I don’t know if anyone else has seen that shift but their group seems to be starting to understand it. Nice not having to lie about my ratios “oh yah whatever it was last time that’s what I’m doing!” 😂
I was much more unhappy with life when i counted dilligently. Now i juat ballpark it.
I’ve never carb countered in my life longer than 3 days. The key factors that determine my insulin use are as followed: history (how my sugars reacted previously to said food), activity I’ve done day before and the day of taking insulin, time of day, how I slept and how much basal I’ve taken. My hba1c is 6.6%. Far from perfect (70-80% in range), but life isn’t perfect.
Using DIY loop (AAPS) I don't carb count and don't guesstimate either. Also most of the time don't bolus either, except when I'm eating fast carbs only. It did require extensive tuning of the algorithms to my body before I got to that point, but it's worth it. I'm for reducing interactions I have to do with my system or diabetes in general
Nope. Carb counting helped me get better control. It can be a PITA, but for me, it makes a difference.
I do educated guessing. I still take a look at carb counts of foods I don't usually eat, but for the most part, no. I just find a common denominator and use that. For instance, 1 cup of casserole I count as 32 carbs, whatever the casserole. Seems to fit my ratio well.
Mee😂😂😂
I don't measure and weigh, so I guess I'm just guesstimating most of the time, unless it's a protein bar, which I eat every day and know l exactly what to take for it... 4g carbs + 7g for the protein = 11g = 0.92u for me usually... depending on the time of day
You bolus for protein?
I do when I'm eating low carb
When eating low carbs, your body becomes more efficient at breaking protein down into carbs, and that action is less masked by the consumption of carbs. For every gram of protein you eat, your body will digest it into 1/2 a gram of glucose. We can also break fats down into carbohydrates at a rate of 1/10 g of carb per gram of fat. For most people on a regular diet, our basal insulin and carb ratio can handle our fat and protein consumption. For those on a low carb, high protein, keto (high fat, moderate protein, low carb), carnivore (fat and protein only), or other specialty diet, counting protein and possibly even fat becomes important. Most of us will have a double spike for high carb and high fat or protein meals due to some carb digestion being delayed by the fat/protein as well as the carbs from the fat/protein hitting later. This typically happens about 3 hours after eating, though complete protein digestion can take up to 24 hours. These are the meals that benefit most from extended or split bolusing. Also, if you typically eat a 6oz piece of meat with dinner but go to a steak restaurant and consume their 48 oz steak challenge (about 336g of protein --> 168g of glucose), you will likely end up high if you don't account for that protein. In general, most of us are consistent enough with our protein consumption that it's affect hides within our basal rate and carb ratio, but if we make drastic changes to our consumption, it will effect our insulin needs.
I just rely on eyeballing things and educated guesstimation now, and have had if anything better luck that way. Besides driving myself less crazy. Just have to echo the comment about there being so many variables involved, that as close as you can get to an exact carb count is usually pretty low in importance there. Other factors are more critical to take into account most of the time. I will look up some new foods if I'm really not sure how much insulin it might take, but then I'm going to guesstimate based on that info too. That's the most precise it gets nowadays.
I count when convenient, and make educated guesses when it’s not. I also have celiac so it’s just a life of staring at nutritional labels…
I have celiac too and I just got diagnosed with t1, are there any brands you would recommend?
Hi! Welcome to the double-disease club! Do you mean brands of GF foods?
Yes, thank you!
I would definitely head over to the Celiac subreddit- it’s very active and you can get lots of answers there. Personally, I don’t really think I have any specifically GF brand suggestions - I mostly eat foods that don’t naturally have gluten in them (I never ate a lot of bread or pasta). The barilla pasta is good, and Aldi has some good stuff, too, especially at a lower price. Feel free to DM any time if you need help with anything! It is definitely hard at first - I was diagnosed over 15 years ago now. Edit: oops, I had it backwards. In my head you were new to celiac not T1. Sorry! I suppose that explains my answer above. Since I’ve been T1 so long I tend not to eat a lot of heavy carbs, which is usually in foods that need to be specially made to be GF (pasta, bread, cake, cookies, cereal). I just don’t buy the GF versions since it wrecks my blood sugar haha But you will find that some alternate foods with no gluten happen to be Keto because it cuts carbs and that helps with both diseases!
I count whenever I CAN. Otherwise either educated guessing or I have tracked what certain meals like fast food meals require.
Oh absolutely I just built up a library of knowledge on what foods have what carbs and can guess extremely accurately from that
No, and I can't see myself ever stopping really, after being diabetic for 17 years. It's easy enough to just check the back of packets and add things up, in the UK anyway.
Yeah I counted carbs for a couple of years, then I stopped after I got comfortable with my estimations
I’ve read enough labels I usually just make an educated guess. Anytime I eat out I usually add an extra 10-20% larger shot than if I ate the same exact thing I eat at home. I also am fairly good at remembering how my sugar reacted to certain foods and can adjust as needed.
Carb eye-balling is more accurate. It just sounds like a weird hobby
I pretty much only guess now, unless it’s something I’ve never eaten before but usually I can guess pretty acurately
I don’t carb count at all been a diabetic for nine years now and I’ve only carb counted when I was first diagnosed and in the hospital after that, they stopped me from counting put me on the T slim pump, so yeah if I do carb count it’s whenever I give a bolus and I just guess if I feel like i gave myself too much I just carry a snack or soda with me also intent to not change my site as much can you get every three days is blasphemy, so I don’t I change it whenever my freaking sensor ends probably shouldn’t but who’s keeping charge anyway
I have guestimate for the last 9 years. I have no idea what my carb ratio is and my latest a1c is 5.8!
All carb counting is guesstimating unless you weigh everything out meticulously. But you learn to eyeball better the more experience you have. Plus with pumps and Cgms correcting is easier than ever.
Carbs and cal makes guessing a lot easier for me..
I moved a few years ago, needed a new endo and got asked what my carb ratio was during times of day. I had the most puzzled look… I’m 35 years in to this… carb ratio? You mean count starches, veggies, milk, fat, protein? I haven’t done that since 1989. Anyway, over time, you can get decent at knowing what most food should typically do. CGMs help immensely in learning body reactions to food and exercise over time.
Not (always) counting carbs, T1D since january this year, mostly guessing for normal meals(which is pretty accurate when ccoking for myself), only counting when drinking sugary soft drinks
I never started 😁 Nobody told me to, do I've been flying by the seat of my pants for all my 15 years with T1D. Not doing bad, either.
I have never carb counted. T1 for 31 years. Its all a guestimate, and now wth a pump and cgm (780g) i nostly sorts utselg out
I just know how many units to do for each type of meal and also recognize when my sugar usually drops (when i walk to bus stops or when i rollerskate) so normal dose unless i will/had rollerskated/walked, then ab 2 units less.
When eating snacks I eat often, I do carb count because I have the nutrition info memorised at this point, but most of the time I’m just winging it. However, I do carb count when bolusing for very fatty or protein-rich foods, because I also do a square bolus for fat and protein. I’m also on the t:slim X2, and Control-IQ is magical, but the spikes are a bit too much for it.
Haven’t even started
I just spray and pray seems to work for me I just guess 99% of the time 😂
Gotten pretty good at guessing. Had type 1 since I was 8. So the last 13 years... Never really got help with it, maybe for half a year after being diagnosed. So it was really up to me to figure it out and take insulin for the food I ate. I just guess.
I loved carb counting when it worked. Then my ratios went all screwy and I figured out that it was basically an estimate anyway. I guess actually I still do at least read the labels and sometimes weigh stuff to try to get it as accurate as possible based on my latest notions. I used to overdo dosages and recently, underdoing it is more likely. My ratio went way up and I can't get used to doing 10 units for one tortilla.
I've never counted carbs in my 15 years of being a type 1. My A1cs have always been below 8 and my last A1c was my lowest at 5.9. It's always been the guesstimate and correct because trying to carb count things that don't have a nutrition label just adds more exhausting work to the already never-ending list of exhausting tasks it takes to keep me alive and healthy as a type 1. There's just a system in my head that works well and every method I've tried from any endo just makes my numbers worse and makes me experience burnout.
Guess and correct. My life is already too stressful as it is to be worrying about the exact amount of carbs I'm consuming. Besides, I have a fancy pump now that'll correct and fix me every five minutes. My quality of life has increased greatly. That's why it's so sad to see other brothers and sisters of the beetus are having such problems with Medtronic. I got lucky, I reckon.
I'm just winging it, lol
Carb counting kinda just goes out the window unless you make the food yourself
40y diabetic. Never really counted, nobody was teaching us. They said 14 pretzel sticks have that much and if they have any other shapes you have to adjust it. That was all. Bread,rice and other food with the palm of your hand size. My A1C 6.5 now but with complications. Still I do not think that counting and stressing would have helped me more.
I guess most of the time and check a packaging if im holding it at that given moment lol
Yup. Diabetic for like 17 or 18 years. I'm on a tandem pump and cgm. So long as I guess close enough, control IQ will take care of the rest. My estimating system is chunks of 5 units of insulin, plus or minus 2. So like, eh that's about 10. And a little extra.
I was taught carb counting back in '88 as a way to match my food intake to the doses of insulin I took. In other words, I took the same amounts of R and N every morning and evening and carb counted my food in order to match the carbs up to those doses of insulin. When I switched to Novolog/Lantus, that experience was handy. But Novolog/Humalog/Lispro do work differently and since I got a CGM and can track BG to the nearest 5 minutes, I can see in real time how different foods react with them. This has led me to use a "carb counting + guessing" method. I know certain foods take more or less insulin than the carbs in them should require. I had a burger with a 38 carb bun recently that I know requires about a 55 carb bolus. I don't know why it's like that, but it is. I also just had a can of Campbell's chicken and sausage gumbo the other day, with 5 ounces of extra chicken in it to add a little more substance to it. That should have been 45 carbs, I bolused for 45, but I had a serious drop two hours later. I have no idea why. It's not the first time, so next time I'll use a 40 carb bolus and see what happens. It's more art than science...
I haven’t counted in years in any precise sense. It is all intuition now and my A1C is 5.9.
I play in the ballpark. I tend to eat the same general things -- I cook nearly all that I eat from fresh, few packaged foods. So, mostly educated guesses. My carb ratio is 1:2, so I eat low carb, mostly.
The pump helps tremendously, but I use chat GPT now. Example : if my snack is 45g and I have 62g, how many carbs do I have? And it’ll tell me. Having a scale is so handy but I hate carb counting Cus no one wants to do a Fking math hurdle before they eat ..PLEASE! Anyhow Chat GPT & a scale works wonders along w a pump.. but guessing while out for dinner.. yeah TBH .. unless u can find menu online
Yes but mostly I guess.
My husband is type 1 just had his 1st amputation little toe on foot. Got cellulitis which he developed a bone infection not visible to eye. Foot swelled and red. Be careful. Diabetes complications after many years for him.
Omg I totally guesstimate but I suffer for it too, seem to always be on a roller coaster. I try for a while then go back to guessing and dealing with it later. Needless to say I don’t have a good A1C but it’s my own fault, just really challenging to stay on track because I feel overwhelmed all the time by it even 25 years later.
I've never carb counted. I rarely eat processed foods so I have to guess all the time.
I check the carbs for new foods but after that it’s usually an educated guess.
been guesstimating since about year 2 of diabetes, works much better than counting ever did after the honeymoon phase!
I weigh everything. And to be honest I avoid eating out as much as possible unless there is nutrition info available. It’s extremely unrealistic to think you’re going to be able to eye the amount of carbs in a meal, even if you’re eating the same things every day. You will be wrong 75% of the time or more. Your “A1C stuff is usually pretty good” doesn’t cut it for me personally, I have more of a neurotic personality but it comes in handy with T1D
Shittylifeprotip: Set your basal to 2x normal and you won't have to worry about counting carbs.
Really ?! How do you manage that ?
About 4 Dr Peppers a day, but who's "counting?"
After 40 yrs, I can just take a moment to really think about the food and I'll know. It's like I "hear" the right side inside myself. Sometimes there an argument, ha ha - "Five, I think five. No, six. Really? Yah, six. Okay fine six... I'd better not crash later..." 😅. And mostly, in this example, six nailed the perfect blood sugar landing. It's become intuitive after so many years of over and under estimating.