For foods, this morning I noticed a scale on our kitchen counter that hasn’t been used in ages. It dawned on me that we don’t really weigh food portions anymore. All of Liam’s foods are bolused based on rough estimates only these days. Anyone else not weigh/measure their foods? We still carb count ofcourse but even then many times we just estimate.
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I never measure. My carb counts are based on past experience. I do sometimes use the bitesnap app on my phone just to confirm I am roughly on the right track. But even with the app, the user needs to enter ingredient size in grams, so it is still a rough estimate (for me), since I don’t measure!
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We don’t weigh portions anymore, but we do weigh ingredients when we make recipes. We just eyeball the portions however.
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I have never weighed stuff for the purpose of insulin dosing.
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We did for only a very short time. Then we found out it’s A LOT OF WORK!!! lol. It’s much easier to just eyeball foods bolus as necessary based off of that eyeballing in conjunction with past experience. I guess it’s a newbie thing!
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I don’t own a kitchen scale, though have recently considered getting one primarily for the purposes of making coffee. So no, I don’t, I’ve always just estimated.
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We barely measure. It’s sort of pointless with Samson because the amount he eats is inconsistent… we could weigh everything down to the gram and he won’t eat half, and there you go!
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I find a scale helpful because it’s hard for me to estimate portions visually due to low vision. I even have a little pocket scale that I bring with me when I travel. I’m also trying to lose weight, so tracking how much I’m eating is important for that goal. However, if I’m not near a scale, I estimate and don’t worry about it. A scale can be helpful to use as a temporary tool during periods where I’ve been trying to improve control (for example, if I’m trying to figure out if my I:C ratio is accurate). I have gone through periods of not weighing anything, too. Even if I didn’t use the scale for diabetes, I’d use it all the time for baking. 
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Also I think my aversion to using scales etc probably stems from a childhood when things were so incredibly regimented due to using R/NPH, and my parents and I would not only measure or count everything, but I was also on a strict meal plan in terms of amounts and timing, which for a growing kid was awful (sometimes you wanted more than 36 goldfish crackers or 1/4 cup of beans or whatever). It was a setup tailor made to create eating disorders, which it did for many of us. As soon as I was able to stop doing that, I did (and I only estimated and never weighed or measured food for diabetes purposes again after leaving for college). I recognize that using a scale with modern insulins does not need to have the restriction component, but I think for me, the benefits do not outweigh the psychological or logistical costs.
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I pretty much always weigh and measure, because (a) I’m that kind of person and I’ve been doing it forever when I cook and bake, (b) I’m terrible at guessing the weight or volume of things, and ( c) maybe most important for me, I figure there are enough other variables I have no control over, why add to them? If I measure, I get a pretty accurate dose, and the next six or 12 hours rarely have any surprises and I can relax and not obsessively check to see if I need more food or more insulin. In my house there’s no such thing as “A slice of bread is 15 grams” or “A slice of bread is 5 units.” Slices of bread in the past week – and to me they all look pretty much the same – have ranged from 18 g to 34 g carb, corresponding to 6 U and 11.30 U, a significant difference and potentially dangerous if I were just guessing and got it really wrong.
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Yes, this resonates, we weigh our ingredients because it is super easy, I am that kind of person, and all of my recipes have been converted to weight and so we get great results from our recipes that way. And, we get pretty close on carbs.
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I think if we baked more, vs cooked things that tend not to require precision (more, put however much to preferred taste/texture), we might weigh things in the kitchen for that purpose. I pretty much never bake, and my partner very occasionally does a batch of gluten-free cookies or, recently, gluten-free cinnamon rhubarb bread, but is usually much more of a cook than baker too. It’s why though I’m considering getting a scale for coffee, because as I get more into making my own, it’s clearly the only way to measure that effectively. However, my go to method right now is cold brewing, and that’s using such large amounts that precision is less important.
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I use a scale for cooking of rice and pasta and for baking, but I don’t weigh slices of my home made bread. Most other things can be calculated quite easily from the nutrition label.
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I just started doing this, and I love it. The coffee I make is pretty weak, but I don’t like strong coffee, and the cold brewing is super easy (since I dont’ have a coffee machine).
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I go through periods of weighing and measuring. Right now I’m in weigh and measure mode because I’m trying to learn to count carbs and I don’t have enough experience to properly eyeball things. I am usually okay with portion sizes because I was doing that for a couple of years before I got sick. With recipes, I usually just eyeball portions, but I will put all the ingredients into my tracking app so I can get a reasonable approximation of the number of carbs.
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I pretty much NEVER weigh OR measure, because (a) I’m LAZY kind of person and I’ve never been doing it forever when I cook and bake, (b) I’m terrible at guessing the weight or volume of things, so I rely on the old FOOD EXCHANGE approximate portion sizes.
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I use the SWAG methodology…lol but honestly I look at a meal as high carb, med carb, low carb and the amount I’m going eat (sm, med, lrg) and have standard doses based off of that. To me there are way too many variables(carbs,protein, fat,) to try to figure out the math.
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I weighed things initially after diagnosis when I was trying to figure everything out, but now I don’t. I’m too busy/lazy, plus I use Afrezza a lot, which doesn’t require carb counting (more eyeballing small, medium, large amounts). When I do use Novolog for food, I either dose from past experience or I eyeball and guess. It’s not always perfect, but I don’t have a lot of highs or lows despite the guessing, so it works well enough for me.
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Most days I don’t weigh because I can estimate well by eye.
But when I am trying to re-calculate my ISF, ICR etc (every few weeks) I weigh for a few days.
My ISF and ICR drift over time. I need to recalc from time to time.
FYI, I do not use my pump’s bolus calculator when counting. I always calculate in my head.
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It’s much lower in acid, which is nice too. It’s really not necessary to have specialized equipment at all (just coarse ground coffee and a way to filter it), but I really love my Oxo cold brew set up. It is so easy to use/clean, makes a good amount of coffee concentrate, which I dilute some with almond milk to make a nice strong iced coffee (oat milk is even more delicious but too high carb for everyday use for me), and my partner sweetens with a lot of xylitol dilutes heavily to make coffee milk (i.e., basically oat milk with some coffee syrup). I even got a second storage flask, painted the inside of the lid bright orange, and that’s my decaf flask, so at any given time I try to have some of both in the fridge, so I can also have a delicious iced coffee after dinner if I feel like it.
My current favorite coffee to make it with:
I like their Ethiopian single origin for a very different, fruitier flavor too.
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