by Katie Caldesi

Your carb limits set on the CarbScale are for net carbs, that is total carbs minus fibre. Tracking your carb intake is not difficult.

This can be done easily by following the recipes on this site,  checking the carb values of popular foods in Jenny’s carb chart of popular foods below or looking at a guide such as Carbs & Cals (available as a book or as an app, which tracks your daily carb intake using a smart phone).

However, you will be pleased to know that you don’t need to become obsessed with counting carbs forever! You’ll find that once you are following a low-carb way of living, it becomes natural not to go overboard.

How do I know how many carbs I am eating?

Have a look at a packet of food with a nutritional label on it. To calculate your net carbs, deduct the fibre (as this is insoluble and therefore not absorbed) amount from the total carbs on any of the recipes or on food labels. Beware of artificially sweetened foods however, the sugar alcohols are low-calorie and low-carb but they can affect your blood glucose levels.

How to calculate net carbs

Net carbohydrates are total carbohydrates minus the fibre. This fibre is insoluble and therefore should not be counted in your net carb daily amount. Sometime the sugar alcohols are mentioned, these too can be subtracted from the total carbs. The remaining amount is the total net carb count.

You might also see that fibre is mentioned separately and not under total carbohydrates. This means it is already removed from the total carbs and shouldn’t be removed twice.