The episode where Bolus 4 was invented. Scott brings Jenny an eight-step roadmap he's been workshopping for weeks — Meal Bolt — and the two of them argue it into shape. Then, with fifteen minutes left, they pick up a bag of Doritos and run the steps for the first time.
Scott sets the person up on purpose to keep it simple: one unit for every 10 carbs, one unit moves the blood sugar 100 points, and a blood sugar of 100 — “the unicorn number,” as Jenny calls it — so there is nothing to correct. No insulin on board. A single serving of Doritos never gets near the fat-protein side of the estimator, so the factor never comes into play. 28:15
Eight steps Scott says he already runs in his head every time he boluses — he just had to sit down and find them. Jenny's version: the steps have been in a file cabinet for 37 years, never written down.
Jenny's addition to Measure. Watermelon has a high glycemic index whether you eat a handful or four cups — but the load, how much is actually going in, is what changes the bolus and its timing. So a bagel is one problem and three bagels are another, and the roadmap has to say so. Scott adds “load” to the first step on the spot.
Scott keyed in on the moment before the bolus; Jenny on the hours after. Both are the step.
Fifteen minutes left, and after everything the nutrition episodes said about them, Scott pulls up a picture of the label on a bag of nacho cheese Doritos. Jenny grabs a pen.
Jenny's distinction, before a single number is read. The serving is what the label calls one — and everything on that label belongs to it. The portion is what lands on your plate, and it might be four servings by the bag's count.
An ounce of nacho cheese Doritos, off the label, run through the roadmap for the first time.
Jenny guessed five servings in the bag. It's about nine, and Scott does the fat out loud — nine times eight — 72 grams. One serving never gets near the fat-protein side of the bolus; the bag is a different food entirely. As Scott points out, finishing one during a show is not hard to imagine.
Scott's arithmetic on the recording: 18 carbs at one unit for 10 is 1.8 units, and he'd probably round up to two. Jenny: “One to 10 at 18, yep.” Eight grams of fat and two of protein come to 0.8 fat-protein units, which the estimator discards below 1.0 — so there is nothing to extend, exactly as Jenny said: not for one serving.
Stable blood sugar, no insulin on board, twelve chips.
He had to blow the picture up to see them.
Scott likes to see a falling blood sugar before the food hits — at 150, a pre-bolus that hasn't moved the number in ten minutes means you're eating on the way to 185. Jenny's answer is the E step: is that 150 stable, or still rising? Stable and flat with no insulin on board can turn around fast. Still rising means there's already a deficit of insulin, and that means a longer pre-bolus. Don't be “hard tied” to one number — the lead time floats with where you are and where you're headed.
A handful of Doritos on the way outside. Evaluate again: is there insulin on board, is the blood sugar 150 and has the algorithm already put something in for it, and what's about to happen — running around for an hour. On an automated system that has already stepped in, Jenny says, that handful might be totally fine, and you may not need to bolus at all.
The parts of a first try that carry forward.
“What you put on your plate may be your portion, but I guarantee it's probably not one serving per the bag.”
“It's not a minute by minute, watch and react and hyperventilate because something's going on.”
“People have been asking for this for years.”
“That rise indicates a deficit of insulin. It means a longer pre-bolus.”
Every number on this page, with your own settings.
Open it →The methodThe tutorial the whole series is built on.
Read it →The seriesOne food per episode, with Scott and Jenny.
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