Does anyone count carbohydrates and give their insulin based upon their carbohydrate count?

My primary physician was treating me without very good results. I asked her to put me on insulin thinking that would take care of it. When it really wasn't successful she said that I was doing a lot for not much benefit and she sent me to an Endocrinologist. He put me on a carb counting, insulin dosing schedule and it has changed everything. My A1c used to be mid to high 7. and since I have gone to carb counting it is running 6.2 and below. My last

A1c was 5.3

I don't agree with you that carb counting is a pain. It's just balancing your intake with the insulin you take. It's carb counting, not carb restriction. By the way, I use insulin pens and would suggest them for everyone.

Diabetes is a patient controlled disease. I think carb counting is the way to go.

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Carb counting is a challenge at first, but over time it is the only way to go! The "exchange system" is a joke because most things are rounded up or down, and you end up way off on the actual carb ingested. The thing is, most of us end up eating pretty much the same stuff most days, so after a few days/weeks of looking up the carbs you start to commit your most common foods to memory and it's no big deal anymore. If you don't "look up everything you put in your mouth", then you're not managing your diabetes very well. Knowing the carbs we're eating and balancing with the right amount of insulin is what managing Type 1 is all about! You've got to make the time at first, then it will get easier.

Anyone can learn to count grams of carbs with a little practice. I do this. and it is keeping the weight off from using too much insulin, I am not on the roller coaster of hypers and hypos any more either. My average BG is 105 and my A1c is 5.7!!!

It takes a matter of about 3 months to learn the grams of carb in each food you routinely eat. Then you just look at the plate and know how much insulin to inject.

Yes, exercise or the lack of it does have a large bearing on how much insulin to inject. More exercise, less insulin needed.

Very tight control can be had with a little study of foods and their nutrient counts. The tighter our control the better our bods respond to the meds, and the less neuropathy and other nasties we suffer.

I believe very firmly in very low carb, fairly high protein and fat content meals along with the least insulins I need to inject.

Do you really want to continue to live in the dark ages of diabetic control? This was when we used the little test sticks in the glass of pee and guessed at how much insulin we should take today. That was yesterday's reading!!

Counting Carb grams is actually very easy!!

I never counted carbs until I got an insulin pump. Now I have to count every carb. It is not as difficult as you make it out to be. I just learned it over time.

Counting carbs, and injecting insulin based on carb count allows diabetics to have a nearly unlimited diet. It is so nice to have the freedom to eat what and when I want, and just have enough insulin to cover the food. After 20 years on a restricted "diabetic" diet, I love carb counting.

I memorized my carb values overtime. You can look at a box and say, "Yeah, those are 15 g carbs for 15 crackers, etc." I eat three meals and two snacks a day. 45 g carbs per meal. 15 g carbs per snack. I give myself 1 unit/15 g carbs. Therefore, for my meals I give myself 3 units. I don't have to take insulin for my snacks as long as they are <15 g carbs. It takes awhile to get used to it, but you get the habit of looking up everything and overtime you memorize it all. Also, my correction ratio is 1:30 and my target BG (blood glucose) is 130. If my BG is 180, take 180-130 which is 50 mg/dL difference. Then, I divide that by 30. I then have 1.6666666667 which rounds to about 2 units of correction.

i do not count carbs. i am type 1 diabetic and have been since i was 8 years old. my pediatrician always told me and my parents that unless i ever start to have a weight problem, that carb counting shouldn't be party of life. he taught me how to adjust my insulin to do how high or low it is at certain times of the day, etc. but no, i dont count every carb. but i am 22 now and i am aware of what foods cause my sugar to go up and how much it will go up...like potatoes, or milk, or cereal.....breads, etc....it is just something that becomes second nature. so i dont eat it if my sugar is high, and i know how much to eat when it is low. good luck!

Seriously? If you have anykind of a good endocrinologist, you'd be counting carbs right now. If you have time to stop and test, draw up insulin, then you have time to look up carbs. It's not hard to do, and once you control your carb intake, you control your sugar levels, then you control the weight issue. Look at it as 1 serving is 15g, if you don't want to look it up, but I don't suggest questimating unless you feel absolutely comfortable with carb counting, which by the sounds of it, you aren't. Calorie King is a fantastic book and you can get them on Amazon.com for as little as 4.00. It's a small price to pay to get yourself in control and to slow down the complications. Good Luck to you

If you can stand in your room, you can exercise in your room. So unless you don't have a spot that you can even stand in and are hoping over furniture to get around, you can exercise. Squats and jumping jacks come to mind first and then standing with some free weights or books or something doing bicep curls and triceps extensions come next. Stop making excuses and stand up. Now for food, stop making more excuses. You live with your FAMILY and you are in such a poor relationship with them that you can't store frozen things in the main freezer? That's ridiculous. Being in such a poor relationship and living with that is probably causing you huge amounts of stress which will only hinder your weight loss. Also start eating real food. Fruit, vegetables, salad, those things. Not frozen food full of preservatives and salt. No excuses, get it done, you can start today if you are serious. Just stand up and squat then go to the store and get some apples.