Make default carbs absorption time configurable…!

[oddst]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Many loopers need different default carbs absorption time, due to their metabolism and what they eat/drink. Causing many users to use 3 hours absorption for most things causes too little insulin to be given initially, resulting in unnecessary increases in BG, high BG and later microboluses that increase the risk for hypos after meals. Situation like this also causes many to experiment with application factor or too aggressive CR and too less aggressive ISF settings to compensate. As Loop’s algorithms are very carbs centric, handling meals well is mandatory for good results using Loop. Being able to configure more suitable default carbs absorption time, gives better diabetes results in reality.

Loopers using the Loop remote control app for meal registration, are limited to the default carbs absorption times…! Many children and teenagers want simplicity and choose 1 or 2 options for carbs absorption even when entering food on the Loop iPhone.

The current fast carbs of 30 minutes makes this option unusable for anything but low food/drink correction. The main choice of 3 hours, results in 4 hours and 40 minutes aggregated absorption time and observation window. That is unnecessary long for most younger users, and causes complexity and challenges when meals overlap unnecessarily.

The lack of configurability, forces many users to use subpar carbs absorption time - that results in lesser results in their diabetes management.

The lack of configurability, also is forcing a number of users/parents to use individual patching of Loop - which has a complexity that can stop users from being able to use looping. Loop Main version 3.4.0 has the possibility to let most users be satisfied with the standard Loop, not implementing standard pre-made add-ons or individual patching…! Most people are not developers…! But there are currently 2 challenges that are showstoppers, one (1) being the lack of configurability for default carbs absorption…! The second (2) is bad values in Loop for Lyumjev (other issue report).

Describe the solution you'd like
Make it easy to configure what each user need the most, when it comes to default carbs absorption times…! Let the current default settings continue as defaults to reduce confusion. But make these values configurable…! As user friendliness and usability is very high priorities for Loop, this recommended change will even increase that at what should be a very acceptable cost.

The easiest option would be to have an option to set this within Therapy Settings. This would be a much more important setting to have than pre-meal (that is causing problems when users to not understand that this stops ongoing overrides). Over time this could also possibly become a part of Loop’s Onboarding as well, but this is not necessary to start looping.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Changing carbs absorption time in Loop on an iPhone for every meal can be used, except when using the remote control app on an Apple Watch. It is also often not used by children/teenagres wanting at little to do with diabetes management as possible.

Shortcuts can be used on the Loop iPhone, but that makes this out of scope for many users.

The new favorite food functionality will help, but only fix this partly. For those that will use favorite foods, all other meal registrations will require adding carbs absorption time manually or to just accept defaults. For those choosing not to use favorite foods (of different reasons), no improvement will be achieved.

Additional context
Making “default carbs absorption time” configurable easily through Settings in Loop, will make looping work better for many users. It is probably easy to implement and it should be easy to use. This is probably the most requested change when building, in addition to better Lyumjev settings (for those using Lyumjev insulin)…!

Please make it possible to avoid individual patching being necessary with Loop Main 3.4.0…?