Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Melitta on July 5, 2012 at 10:03pm

Hey Gary: Good luck!!!! Learning to count carbs is important no matter how many carbs you eat per day. It is a good skill! Good for you for taking action. Let us know how the visit goes.

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Permalink Reply by still_young_at_heart on July 6, 2012 at 7:45am

I've found that a digital scale is a great aid in counting carbs. The dietician will tell you an apple has about 15 carbs. The scale might tell you that the apple you're about to eat has 21.

A reasonable dietician won't push tons of carbs on you. My original "meal plan" from the Joslin DOIT program was 225 carbs a day. The next time I saw the dietician I told her there was no way I could eat that many carbs and she said fine.

Have a good appointment

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Permalink Reply by Zoe on July 6, 2012 at 10:37am

Yes, definitely a worthwhile skill. Then you can decide whether to weigh as Maurie does or get a list (app/online/paper) and just use listed carbs (I just estimate if it says a small peach is 15 and mine is medium I call it 18, works for me)

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Permalink Reply by Clare on July 6, 2012 at 3:44pm

I started carb counting a couple of months ago and it has made a huge difference in my control. I'm not a big fan of math so I got a "Perfect Portions" scale. It basically takes the guess work out of figuring out how many carbs are in over a 1000 different foods.
My niece came over the other day and brought a blueberry pie - lo and behold there was a code on the scale for "blueberry pie from recipe" so I plugged that in to the scale and up popped an obscene amount of calories, fat, carbs, etc, but not only was it good to know the information as far as insulin dosage, but the pie was delicious. Hope your appointment goes well.

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Permalink Reply by Emmy on July 6, 2012 at 11:29pm

I learned to count carbs when I was a teen, on the Dr Atkins diet, so when I was put on insulin at diagnosis, I just had to learn about new resources that make it easier, like a nutritional scale and the much larger carb counting reference books. I wouldn't want to take insulin without carb counting, too much risk of going low. It'll be worth your time, believe me!

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Permalink Reply by Judith on July 7, 2012 at 8:01pm

With or without meds it is a super awareness to develop! Couldn't maintain control without it, myself. There are many good resources, as mentioned, to help you, and food-makers are finally improving their labels to help us. It amazed me, after a few years how easy it became and how I had gradually become adept at knowing/remembering a lot of carb info...Good luck and do have fun!

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