Who here lives low carb?

I went lo carb because I discovered just how sensitive I am to any type of carbs.

Me, too.

One cup of broccoli is 6g of carbs and 2.4g of fiber. So depending on whether you subtract the fiber, the carbs are 6g or 3.6g

1/c cooked 5 carbs, 1 cup raw 10 carbs..again, guess it depends on what 'book or chart' you're using.

Terry,
How many hour(s) do you bolus for protein?

I don't live low carb ...I live mindful eating /variety of foods , I live "exercise" and I live hopefully giving the correct amount of insulin ( 21 day av ..approx 19 u daily in hot weather according to my pump ) ,I do live without complications . living with d for over 30 years ..at age 73 ...and I did not answer your question ,lol ...A1C not " perfect" in comparison to " some/most " ..it seems to work for me ( No meds for chol , no meds for BP required ...blood work tests came back last week )

Lil MaMa,
I am so glad your doc finally started you on insulin and stopped telling you that you were doing something wrong. I remember that was quite a headache for you. I am curious if you have been able to keep on enough weight eating low carb. - some people get too thin and cannot add weight unless they increase their carbs.

I was staying below 30g/day for about 2 years and loved what it did for my blood sugars. I stopped because I had kidney disease (from about 28 years of relatively poor blood sugar control) and the stress of trying to drop my sodium and keep my carbs low was stressing me out too much. I still stay below 50g/day. My couple of years better controlled bg's and my super low sodium diet (500 to 1,000 mg/day) have allowed my kidneys to improve quite a bit.

My doc's cannot explain my kidney function improvement. I tell them it is because of the low sodium diet and the better blood sugar control. They think I am just an anomily and that my sodium and carb consumption are too low. I went from the top of Stage 1 (14% kidney function) to the top of Stage 3 (59%). I actually love life again. Silly doctors!

The charts do vary, I always thought cooked was higher than raw.

I used the Google trick Manny posted recently, just type the food item and the word carbs and the values will come up on the search page. The nice thing is that you have a choice of quantities from a pulldown list. Down the right side of the page is a standard nutrition label with various other values.

In the case of broccoli 148g was 10g carbs(3.8g of fiber) while 1 cup(91g) had the values I quoted, no mention of cooked or raw.

You'd think a carb count would be a constant, akin to the speed of light, but alas this does not appear to be true:)

That is absolutely wonderful news on the improved kidney function. Eating 50g/day is still pretty low carb, I do hope things keep up and your kidney function continues to improve. Glad to hear you are loving life.

Does anybody else on here not even know their I:C ratio or count their carbs? I dont. It seems like counting every last carb and then debating whether their are 4 vs 6 carbs in a cup of vegetables would get a little tedious. I estimate my carb intake per day at 100, but dont know the macronutrient content of each of my meals.
Ive found that by eliminating grains/fruit/dairy/high GI foods, my bolus size is solely dependent on the amount of food im eating. I also need to account for protein, but find it much easier to bolus for protein than carbs.

I do count it as cooked = more carbs. The chart I've always used is 1 C vegies cooked = 10, 1C raw = 5. It is interesting we have different counts from different charts! Out of curiosity, I just checked Calorie King, one I use only now and then and it said for broccoli: Boiled - 11, raw - 5.8.

But I think the fact people miss is that depending on the counts we use for our foods, whether we weigh or measure, and even if we count protein or don't bother: When we determine our I:C by trial and error (based on our results over time) we adjust accordingly. So it all works out.

How cool is that, Baby Tee!!

Exactly, Zoe, since in the end there is trial and error involved as long as you use the same source for carb counts, it all works out in the end. It just makes it difficult to compare carb consumption here.

I think the same is true of meters. If you start comparing meters you will drive yourself crazy but if you work out your ratios based on the same meter it works out in the end.

I must admit it is somewhat disconcerting to find out things you believe should have a fixed known value are not fixed at all. I was working on a database application at work and needed a % overhead number for something we do to plug into a formula. I naively asked our bean counters for that number. Even after a day and a half of arguing they couldn't come up with a number they could agree on. Lot's of on the one hand.... but on the other hand statements totally lacking in precision. I finally got them to agree to split the difference so I could move ahead. Ce La Vie:)

I don't think I could reach a good control without knowing I:C ratio.
It's that 3 CHO raise my BG by 10 mg/dl. To me it's a significative difference!

Although I try to keep my variables constant (id same amount of protein and CHO), I like to know I could sometimes use a bit a flexibility.

Can you reach a good control without knowing I:C?

I sure couldn't. I have enough trouble reaching good control even WITH my I:C! I guess the only way I could do that is if I ate the same exact amount of the same exact thing every day and I'm just not willing to do that, especially not for dinner! For breakfast I have only a few alternate meals and the one I eat most often I automatically know is 1.65 units so I don't bother with EZ carb on my pump...unless I'm high and need to add a correction. Sounds like Shawn has a very stable Diabetes compared to most of us!

i am able to achieve very tight control without carb counting...my cgm very seldom reads above 100. I started out carb counting, but since changing my diet i generally eat the same food and find that eating a cup of carrots vs a cup of broccoli has basically the same effect on my bgs when eaten with my main meal. also the extra steps i was taking to count my carbs and enter them into my pump so it could calculate my insulin just became monotonous and unnecessary.

In the past when i still ate some foods like bread and pasta, this technique didnt work...i would bolus normal amounts based on the amount of food i was eating and my numbers would go up to the mid 100s in no time. So i can see where i:c ratio is still necessary in some cases...and of course T1D is different for everybody!

Oh, my, up into the mid 100s!! Sorry, I couldn't resist; the green monster you know. Could you be LADA and still have significant insulin production? I didn't even start insulin (I was misdiagnosed) until 15 months and in those days as a vegetarian I ate a lot of cereal, rice, pasta, beans, etc!Whatever the reason count your blessings, I'd say you are a rare exception of someone with excellent numbers who doesn't count their carbs!

Haha oh Zoe, I totally sympathize :slight_smile: Bread and pasta almost invariably put me at 250 or more, no matter how much insulin I give.

Oh I don't eat those things very often now. My point was that as a LADA I was able for the first 15 months to have well controlled blood sugar despite eating high carb foods. (or using insulin)

Yeah I understand. I was diagnosed type 1 at 11 years old, so I don’t really remember having a honeymoon period. I was just agreeing that I’m jealous that high carb foods only put her up into the mid 100s.

Got it! And he said it like it was a major spike!