How to Count Carbs for Diabetes Management
Most of my clients with diabetes count carbs to help manage their blood sugar levels. It’s one of many tools to help them with meal planning.
© Can Stock Photo / Hannamariah
What is carb counting?
With carb counting, you estimate the amount of carbohydrates in your food to stay within a predetermined range or allowance for each meal and snack.
Carb counting does NOT mean avoiding carbohydrates. It does NOT mean that carbs are bad. Carbohydrates are a nutrient. They are not a type of food. And many, many health-boosting, disease-fighting foods are rich in carbohydrates. Think fruit, quinoa, yogurt, milk, vegetables, black beans, chickpeas, limas, brown rice and a million more!
The beauty of carb counting is that it gives you tons of flexibility. You can choose your carbohydrates from any type of food. This is also the downfall of carb counting. I sure don’t want you to focus on carb counts without paying attention to nutrition. This is just like limiting calories to lose weight, but favoring veggie chips and diet pudding over the foods your body really needs like fruit, nuts, and salmon.
Why is it a good idea to count carbs?
Don’t avoid carbs. Count them!
Eating a lot of carbohydrates at one time raises blood sugar a lot, and eating just a little carbohydrate raises blood sugar less. Many people with diabetes aim for about 45 – 60 grams of carbohydrates per meal and 15 grams or so per snack, but the amount that’s right for you may be more or less. And that depends on your medications, activity level, blood sugar goals, and other things. I like to look at my patients’ food records and blood sugar logs to help each one figure out the right amount for him or her.
Carb counting is based on each meal and snack, not on a full day or week. Please no saving up from one meal to the next. That’s a diabetes myth that I’d really like to see disappear.
How to get started with carb counting
Counting carbs starts with estimating the amount of carbohydrates in your meal or snack. And that means that you need to measure or estimate your portion sizes. Pull out your measuring cups, and dust off your food scale. Plan to use them a lot over the coming weeks. You’ll also scrutinize food labels, carb-counting apps or websites. Here’s what you need to know about food labels.
Focus on serving size and total carbohydrates. You can ignore the sugar portion because your blood sugar cares little if the carbohydrate is the starch type or the sugar type.
4 Steps to Count Carbs Using a Food Label
- Start with the serving size. The serving for the crackers above is 15 crackers.
- Take a look at Total Carbohydrates. This line shows that 15 crackers contain 21 grams of carbohydrate. Don’t be confused by the numbers for sugar and dietary fiber. You can ignore them because they’re already counted in the 21 grams of total carbs. You can guess that starch makes up the other 17 grams of carbohydrate. But none of this really matters. When it comes to carb counting, use the number of total carbohydrates.
- Compare your portion size to the serving size listed on the label. Certainly, you don’t have to eat exactly 15 crackers. By dividing 21 grams of carbohydrates by 15 crackers, you can see that each cracker serves up almost 1.5 grams of carbohydrates. So, for example, if you ate 10 crackers, you consumed about 15 grams of carbohydrate. If you choose to eat only 5 crackers, your portion contains about 7 or 8 grams of carbohydrates.
- Total them. Add the amount of carbohydrate from each food to determine the amount in your meal or snack. Adjust your portions as necessary to stick to your carb-counting goal.
Not every food has a label. Here’s what you need to know about using carb counts from books, websites, and apps.
3 Steps to Count Carbs Using a Nutrient Database
- Look up the carb-containing food you want to eat. The USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory is a great site for this.
- Determine the amount of food you’re about to eat. To make meaningful estimates in carb counts, you’ll need to know your portion size. Use measuring cups or a food scale as necessary. Don’t guess what a large apple or small apple means. Either weigh it or measure it with a tape measure until this becomes a regular part of your knowledge. A small apple weighing about 5.25 ounces provides 21 grams of carbohydrate. A large apple weighing nearly 8 ounces contains 31 grams of carbohydrate. It’s easy to eat more or less than you think if you don’t know your portion size.
- Total the carb counts. Add the carb counts of each food in that meal or snack to stay close to your carb-counting goal. Adjust your portions as necessary.
These are beginner guidelines for carb counting. Part 2 is my post on carb counting like a pro.
Filed Under: Diabetes
Tagged: Diabetes Month, carb counting, carbohydrate, diabetes, diabetes diet
Jill Weisenberger
I'm Jill, and I believe simple changes in your mindset and health habits can bring life-changing rewards. And I don't believe in willpower. It's waaaay overrated. As a food-loving registered dietitian nutritionist, certified diabetes care and education specialist and certified health and wellness coach, I've helped thousands of people solve their food and nutrition problems. If you're looking for a better way to master this whole healthy eating/healthy living thing or if you're trying to prevent or manage diabetes or heart problems, you'll find plenty of resources right here.
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Welcome to my Blog
Hi there! I'm Jill, a nutrition & diabetes expert and the author of 4 books.
I believe simple changes in health habits can bring you life-changing rewards.
And I believe willpower is way overrated.
Right here is where you can discover the mindset and habits to stick with healthy lifestyle choices most of the time - and drop the guilt when you don't.
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Great information Jill, the more we know about reading labels the better. Counting carbs is especially important for someone with Diabetes, but I think this is relevant to anyone who wants to have a better understanding of their individual diet. Thanks for posting this, I shared it over on twitter.
Thanks for your comments and support Tommy. I’m starting to think that I should write more about label reading.
Jill, Thank you for all the information.
I am a diabetic and I count my carbs using an App on my phone called CARB MANAGER.
There is a bread I like from ALDI called “LOVEN Fresh KETO Friendly Multiseed” bread.
The nutrition label says 45 calories per slice with 9g total carbs and 9g dietary fiber.
When I put it in the app on my phone, it counts the bread as having 0g Net carbs.
I was eating this bread as if it was carb-free bread but now I think that is wrong.
Your advice is to count the gross carbs listed on every nutrition label – not the net carbs – right?
Thanks, Sarah
Hi Sarah, you ask a question a lot of people have. The idea of net carbs is very confusing. For many people with diabetes, it won’t matter much. This becomes more important for people who adjust their dose of mealtime insulin based on the amount of carbs they eat and their current blood glucose level. In part 2 of carb counting, I discuss it briefly. However you and your diabetes care team decide to count this bread, remember its other qualities: calories, fats, sodium, nutrient density, wholesomeness, taste, etc.
I’ve just been told I’m prediabetes. I have been counting calories for the past ten years so this is a whole new way of counting for me. I have been a little lost on what I should be having for each meal in sugar, carbs, fiber, protein, etc. This article was very helpful. Thank you!
Diet, in general, can be confusing! There’s so much information out there and so much of it conflicts. I’m glad you found some things on my site that are helpful. Once you’ve had a chance to use some of what you’ve already learned, I think this mini-course on meal planning for prediabetes will be very eye-opening.
Answered my question – carb counting is the way to go!.. Thanks!
Hi, Jill. You’re my go-to for learning about my prediabetes. The link to the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory isn’t correct. If you’d correct it, that’d be great!
Thanks for letting me know. It’s fixed now.