Tag spreadsheets

Post your spreadsheet…

I borrowed this amazing spreadsheet from my friend here at TU, Grace. Print and begin TAGing your way to better blood sugars (see travel size spreadsheet below).


dualwave.pdf


Thanks, Danny! I am sooo excited about TAG - it has been so very effective for me. I have 2 more offerings - 1 is a tag form that I made (using Grace’s original) - I made room for the name of the food & the calories, changed to combo vs square, and changed the protein percentage to 40% - like Ricardo, I’ve found that works well for me (I go to low if I do 58%).

I’ve also attached an example of the TAG bank I’m using to “store up” foods - it saves me time. If anyone wants the original Word docs so they can customize, just send me an email.

Thanks again, Danny!!!
6575-tagform.pdf (13.5 KB)
6576-tag_food_bankEX.pdf (9.6 KB)

I am so looking forward to trying this. One of my favorite dinner meals is a large salad w/various low carb additions, and chicken tenders dusted in seasoned bread crumbs and sauteed in olive oil. This is a vey low carb meal and I could never figure out how to account for the highs I got following. I found thru trial and error that for me, 6 1/2 unts covers this meal. I’ll let you know how it goes. dave

Good luck, Dave! It’s been truly amazing for me.

Thanks, Danny! You and Grace and Ricardo really inspired me! One change I made (that I notice you made also) - I no longer deduct the fiber from the carbs like my food bank example shows. That just didn’t work for me.

Cheri

Very cool - Hey, it would be neat to have these printed on 3x5 cards for on the go, huh?

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but is there an excel version of this spreadsheet? I guess I could make one, but I’m lazy enough to ask first.

Ha ! Sorry - I don’t have one - I print out sheets, fold them in half, and keep them on the counter with my meter, carb lookup book, and calculator. But a spreadsheet would be cool for work where you could enter the numbers and have it auto-calculate. Hey - how about you make one and share it?

I made this sheet in Illustrator, so it doesn’t exist in Excel (yet).

I have a Word doc of my version (see comment at the top), but that’s the best I can offer you.

Hi All -



I just read about TAG here this morning, and although I haven’t tried it yet I’m very anxious to. I developed a spreadsheet in Excel to help with the calculations.



You first need to enter your individual settings for various things. Then once you enter your current blood sugar in Step 2 (if you want a correction dose calculated that is - if not, just leave it blank), and your food info in Step 3, the results should calculate.



The tool isn’t really useful for logging ongoing results, but for quick calculations I’m hoping it’s handy.

This is the first iteration of this tool, so please let me know if you have any questions or if I made any glaring errors.



Thanks all! I can’t wait to start TAG’ing!



Ben

My apologies… I found a calculation error. I was apparently too quick to share :slight_smile: The corrected spreadsheet is attached.

Thanks!
6574-TAGCalculator.xls (19 KB)

OMG - This is sooooo cool!!! I just tried it out for something I always have (my protein shakes) - works like a charm!!
Thanks so much! One question - maybe I should know this, but what is Max Extra Bolus Per Hour? I just left it alone, so I don’t think it impacted the final calculation, but just curious.

Hey! This is cool - can you make me an App for my iPhone? LOL!

p.s. - when you find the right percentages for your metabolism, you will LOVE TAG!

Cheri

I’m glad you like it!



Maybe I should rename “Max Extra Bolus Per Hour” to “Target Delivery Rate Per Hour”…



I saw a post by Danny where he determined for himself that 1 to 1.2 units per hour worked best for him when doing the extended bolus to avoid dropping too low or spiking too high. Based on what you enter in that “Max Extra Bolus Per Hour” field and your total “Extra” or Protein/Fat bolus, the Estimated Duration for Bolus field (cell B52) will tell you approximately how many hours to calculate your combo bolus for.



Being extremely new to TAG’ing, I hope that makes sense… I believe the math is correct, but often diabetes and math don’t always correlate :slight_smile:

I haven’t dabbled with App development yet, but I have an iPhone too and would love an App that did this calculation. Maybe this spreadsheet will be the impetus behind me trying to create an App. We’ll see.

Let me know if there are any other suggestions for the spreadsheet!

OK - now that makes sense to me - yes, I like the rename idea for the Max Bolus field.
Well, I hope you DO dabble in the App area with this - would be way cool for us TAGgers and might help us recruit more PWD to this very effective way to manage our #s and eating.

Hey, I am guessing your name is Ben? Welcome to TAGgers United - now get on that APP, will ya? :slight_smile:

Let us know if you need any input on bein’ a Tagger.

Cheri

Hi Ben,



Welcome to the group and fantastic job on the Excel spreadsheet. I am also a fan/ user of Excel and I checked the logic in your formulas and they perfectly interpreted TAG concepts. I use an iPad and will pick up a copy of Numbers for iPad to see if it will allow me to run the calculations while mobile.



This may be a good time to mention an alternative use of TAG. Most TAGers that determine the duration of the Square/ Extended bolus by rate of delivery, will use it as a constant. In the section you call “Max Extra Bolus per hour” (which I tend to refer to this as “rate of delivery”, or the Square/ Extended bolus rate of delivery) I consider it a variable dependent on my current BG (cell B21 on your spreadsheet).



If I am near target, the delivery rate of 1.2 units per hour works fine.



If my current BG was 200, I increase the rate to approximately 2 units per hour,to bring insulin on board more quickly and help bring my BG down quicker. Like the book, "Think Like a Pancreas, my understanding is this is the way a normal functioning pancreas would work, by increasing the rate of delivery of second phase insulin and is why most non-diabetics rarely stay over a BG of 160 for very long, no matter how many carbs they eat.



If I am below target, I may set the rate closer to the 1.0 or less units per hour rate of delivery. This will bring the insulin on board more slowly and allow my BG to spike out of the hypo region and into the target region.



Your spreadsheet will easily accommodate this calculation by simply adjusting the number in cell B21. Logic could also be built into cell B21 to automatically change cell B21 input dependent on current BG. So I hope you consider this open source since I modified the spreadsheet to how I use TAG, as stated above.



I put in a section for BG ranges and the TAG rates of delivery that match my metabolism. I emphasize that these are for my metabolism, so the rates of delivery would have to be determined for each individual. The spreadsheet checks to see if the current BG is in one of several ranges and depending on the range, it uses Excel’s VLookUp to pick the appropriate rate of delivery for the Square/ Extended bolus. I also locked the cells that contain formulas, so that they are not accidentally modified (there is no password protection on the lock, so anyone who knows how to remove Excel worksheet protection can do so). The cells that require user input are unlocked so that they can be changed.



Like your statement in the spreadsheet, this is a TAG estimation tool and should only be used with the approval of your health care provider and under your own discretion. I present it only as a way to show how I do my TAG calculations, not as something that someone can copy and use.



Your TAG mileage will most probably differ.
6573-TAGCalculator.xls (19 KB)

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Thanks TAGers. When I stop feeling sorry for myself about having to calculate protein and fat, I’m going to give this a try.

I understand Jean, I really, really do - when I first tried this I was like “what?” ME, do math? Are you fricking kidding? (I am math challenged). But you know, when I saw how well it worked for me, I quickly got used to the math - reminded me of a girlfriend who once told me, I suck at math but if you put a dollar sign in front of it and call it mine, I’m pretty good at it. Well, if you put good BG #s on this and call it mine, I’m pretty good at it!

OK, I smiled for you:


Your friend sounds like a keeper.

I can do math pretty darn OK as I am a programmer-analyst. I can even write a program to do the math for me (this will now be my mission in life!!!)

But just thinking about having to calculate carbs AND protein AND fat for everything I eat – and add even more injections to my already over-booked dance card – makes me want to lie on the floor, suck my thumb and sulk like a baby with a bad rash.

They told me counting carbs would be enough. They told me I could just inject once before each meal plus the Lantus. They lied. Waaahhhh…

I’ll get over it.

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