“I'm Steve. I'm a third-generation male Type 1 diabetic. I've been around T1D my entire life.”

My grandad measured his glucose with urine test strips and injected insulin with the kind of needles that made kids cry. Sitting in the endo unit at Palmerston North hospital today, I look at how far we've come. Microneedles. Free healthcare in New Zealand. CGMs that have genuinely changed what day-to-day management looks like.

My HbA1c reads “good” by T1D standards. What it doesn't show is the constant struggle underneath. I get complacent. I eyeball carbs. I underdose. Then I chase a high for the next three hours.

I also work in software. So one day I thought: I can build a tool that makes this easier for me.

I want to describe what I'm eating in advance, or take a picture of what's in front of me, and get back an honest carb estimate in a few seconds. That's what Carbol does.

As I write this, my 30-day time in range is 49%. My goal is 80% plus. If this app doesn't get me there, it's not doing its job.

Carbol isn't my attempt to replace the careful carb counting I should be doing. It's my attempt to do better than what I actually do most days, which is guessing and hoping. If you're like me, and your real-world carb counting is mostly educated guesswork rather than weighed precision, Carbol is for you.

If any of this resonates, maybe this tool can help you too.

Steve

Medical disclaimer: Carbol provides carbohydrate estimates for information only. It is an estimation and logging tool, not a medical device. Always make treatment decisions with your healthcare professional.

Data attribution: Barcode nutrition data from Open Food Facts, licensed under the Open Database Licence (ODbL).