Hi there! I don’t post very often, so I thought I’d ask a question that’s been on my mind for a while. I’ve been type 1 diabetic for 7 years and I’ve just recently (this past year) gained a lot of weight due to poor eating habits. As of now, I’m 5 ft. 5 and weigh 142lbs. My BMI is on the higher side, and I would love to lose a few. I realize that restricting calories by about 500 a day from your BMR is the way to do it, but I’m just curious : “Where does insulin play into this all?” For us diabetics, does it get easier for us to lose weight if we’re eating low carb? So what’s the scoop? Should I count calories, or should I focus on low carb? If excess insulin causes weight gain, should I aim for lowering that?
My theory is that if you take X amt of insulin and weigh Y, you should be able to 'reverse engineer" the number of carbs for a “goal weight” by calculating the ratio of your goal weight, or perhaps more appropriately, the correct insulin dose at each meal (plus basal…) for your goal weight and arrive at a reasonable amount of food that would keep you going while you progress towards your goal? I saw your other thread too. I’m loathe to do math but have dropped about 90 lbs (5’10", 275 lbs about 6 years ago at my peak to about 185 now…) and just cut doses and totally guesstimated until 2008 when I got a pump and started counting. Now I have about 20G of carbs @ breakfast and lunch and maybe 75-80 during the evening. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep any records but I am certain that with the 75-80, I’m still quite a bit below where I used to eat.
I agree with AR. For the most part if you reduce your insulin you will lose wieght. I reduced my TDD by about 3.3 percent when I reduced carbs and lowered my wieght a similar amount (maybe slightly more wieght loss). The big assumption here is that you do not reduce your insulin (and carbs) and replace that with a stick of butter.
If I was interested in losing wieght I would start by reducing carb intake and thus reducing boluses. I would also throw some exercise in there for a bonus (assuming you dont down carbs to combat hypos like I have been doing).
