carb factors?

[Pam H]

Hi Ladies & Gents,

It was a week ago today that we were dxd. I'm still madly trying to figure it all out. Please tell me how to use carb factors.

I don't want my baby to eat foods out of packages all the time. Figuring carbs in a recipe/number of portions, just doesn't seem very scientific. Granted, my math challenged, overly pregnant, 40-something mush brain isn't cooperating. :rolleyes:

[Gwyn]

Hi Pam,

Maybe you've found what you need already but if not------

We love using carb factors to calculate our carbs. It makes things so much easier. I found out about them on this website and my DH and I ended up putting together a website and writing a guide for using them--just click on the tag in my siggie if you want to take a peek.

Also, there is a good book by Gary Schneier that you might find useful. It is called the Ulitmate Guide to Carb Counting.

To use carb factors all you have to do is look up what percentage of a food is made of carbohydrate (this info is on calorie king and other places) and then mulitply by the weight of the food in grams--and viola! you've got the carb count.

Feel free to PM or e-mail me with any questions!

[BrendaK]

I'm very sorry about your diagnosis -- and good for you for researching as much as you can already!!

One other thing you might want to look into is getting a Salter 1450 Nutri-Weigh scale. I bought the scale because I, too, was tired of having a lot of prepackaged food and tired of not knowing FOR SURE the carb count of homemade foods. With this scale, there is over 1400 foods in the database. You weigh the food and the nutritional info pops up on the screen. You can also add your own foods and recipies.

I have a small cheat sheet of carb factors taped to the scale for a few foods that aren't in the scale, but I use the scale most of the time. Especially for fruits, pasta, rice, pizza, homemade breads, popcorn, and on and on.... It's a little pricy, but you can look on ebay, or get a 20% off coupon at Bed Bath and Beyond.

[twodoor2]

To use carb factors all you have to do is look up what percentage of a food is made of carbohydrate (this info is on calorie king and other places) and then mulitply by the weight of the food in grams--and viola! you've got the carb count.


The only thing I would add is that it's important to subtract out the fiber portion of the carb factor. Gary Scheiner's book "The Ultimate Guide to Carb Counting" has carb factors that are specialized for the fact that they don't account for fiber. Fiber is a type of carb that is undigestable, therefore, it does not affect blood sugar.

You can also figure out the carb factor on any label. For example, if you have a breaded chicken breast, you know that none of them are uniform in size usually. Therefore, I use carb factors to measure the true carb count.

I take the grams of carbohydrate on the package minus the fiber, and divide that by the grams of the serving size, and I get the carb factor.

For example, if a 146 gram serving of breaded chicken breast has 20 grams of carb, then the carb factor is 20/146 or .14. Then weigh the chicken breast on a good digital scale in grams. If my chicken breast weighs 127 grams, then 127*.14 is around 18 grams. Most prepackaged food items usually overestimate the serving size; therefore, IMO, it is important to learn how to extrapolate the carb factor from the nutritional label, especially if you are extremely insulin sensitive.