I’m a 30 year old female with type 1 diabetes and I’m struggeling to lose weight. My diet is pretty good, I keep my carb intake fairly low and I exercise regularly, but as I’m sure all of you can relate to, between the taking insulin, low blood sugar, and sometime erratic numbers (that cause me to have to eat in ways that a “normal” person wouldn’t), I’m really struggeling.
If anyone out there has any suggestions or can relate to what I’m talking about, I’d love to hear from you!
D makes an already difficult task even more difficult, but it is possible. Several years ago I lost almost 40 lbs. Most of it is the same for everyone, fewer calories in and more calories out, but you obviously already know that. And, actually, it sounds like you’ve already identified the biggest obstacle – bg swings. So the trick is to find ways to avoid that.
Use glucose tablets instead of food to correct lows. Mild lows get 1-2, more serious lows get 3-4. Wait 10-15 before adding any additional carb unless you are crashing. Eating food to correct lows makes it too easy to add unnecessary calories, and too easy to over-correct leading to a need for more insulin when you rebound. This was one of my greatest struggles, controlling my compulsion to eat when low. It can be a really vicious cycle.
Make sure that your basal rates, insulin:carb ratios, and correction factors are working for you. If you find that you are going too low fasting or after a meal/correction then don’t be afraid to adjust downward. You almost certainly will have to adjust these things down as you lose weight – my total daily insulin requirement went down about 30-40% between weight loss and diet changes.
Spread carbs throughout the day, between both meals and snacks (if you don’t do low carb altogether). Less insulin at any one time makes it less likely that you will spike sooner or go low later.
Use temp basals whenever you can, for exercise or activities that you know will bring you down. Try to head those lows off!
That’s all I can think of for now, but I’m sure there’s more! Good luck:)
I had lost a bunch of weight a few years ago too (I have a lengthier summary of it on my page…) and the theory that I had was that if you are at x lbs w/ a total daily dose of y insulin, it should theoretically be possible to adjust your insulin and carb intake to your goal weight by prorating it? So if you want to get to .85x weight, you would just adjust your carb intake and insulin doses accordingly to see how it goes. I’ve dropped 85 or 90 lbs (it fluctuates…) but it was very slow and I also have gotten sort of psycho about exercising all the time.
Tom is spot on about the glucose tablets. I have been studying (only on myself…) treating lows more conservatively, more like 5-10G of carbs and wait 20 min instead of 15G and test in 15 min? V8 is another thing that I have. It has the same eerie, cathartic effect for me (despite the SALT) because I read the nutrition information about the vitamins while I’m walking around in circles waiting for my BG to go up? It seems to hit more softly than harder core sugar and a glass is about 12G of carbs? And, of course, is handy to have around for Bloody Marys?
Re snacks, I gradually abandoned cracker/ chip/ yogurt snacks and pretty much have nuts and cheese these days. My dad has suggested that eating nuts all the time will cause kidney stones but I haven’t seen it yet.
hi
well I lost about 2 stone it took me nearly 2 years to get it back and I got there only to find out my colestrol is high
so its a battle . I am going to a meeting next week about diabetes and all that so will fill you in
I take about 20 Lantus at nite and 30 of Regular during the day. So if I was to cut my daytime by 10% will this help with losing weight? or ? My carbs are vitually zero. Eat lots of cheese and hamburgers and milk and pastas. Applesauce too. I need to lose weight . I am currenly 280 lbs. Want to be 200 by end of year. Eat about 2100 calories a day total. With about 200 of carbs on top of that 2100. I would love to be able to pick something off the floor. I am starting as a heavy weight like you. What would you suggest to me about this? Btw, my bs tend to stay below 150, with the occassional blowout of a high.
I am still in the mindset that carbs are just plain sodas and junk food stuff. Even a whole plate of marina sauce and spagetti does not make me go high. Just about 20 points is all. The VA does not provide enough nutriution stuff / educaation. So I have to learn the hard way.
Eating less is the hard part. For years I would deny me food so I could lose weight. Now I have found that eating keeps the body from gong into starvation mode and thats why I got fat. My NP keeps saying that I probably have about 20 lbs in water on me , but the edema is going away.
I agree with the others about the glucose tablets. They are not as tasty as other stuff but don’t have as many calories in as OJ.
I gained about 65 pounds when my foot was infected and once I was able to get back on the treadmill, I was able to lose it. I only eat 1200 calories a day but for me, exercise is the key. I have read that you need to exercise 55 minutes 6 days a week just to maintain your weight.
You say you have a good diet, but do you actually weigh & measure your food? Also try writing down everything you actually put into your mouth. I read about a woman that could not figure out why she could not lose weight until she wrote everything down – she was consuming about 700 calories a day in coffee cream alone. That is probably an extreme case, but little things do add up.
I have also read that sometimes if we eat the same amount of calories every day, our body gets used to that. If you eat different amounts of calories (not to extremes though!), then you confuse your body and speed up your metabolism.
I developed Insulin resistance after I had my daughter and could not lose the weight. It was nuts, I wanted to cry every time I looked in the mirror. My insulin load was insane so my Doc finally added 2000mg of Metformin to my insulin therapy so I could decrease the amount of insulin I was taking. It has helped me reduce the amount of insulin I’m taking and helped me lose some weight.
Eating fewer carbs=lower insulin doses. If you’re taking high doses to cover meals like pasta this is hindering weight loss. Insulin is a fat storing hormone. Without counting carbs, how do you calculate doses? Starvation diets don’t work & are unhealthy. Low carb eating is a proven way to lose weight & help manage diabetes. Eating sufficient protein & fat prevents hunger. High carb diets keep increase hunger & the desire for more carbs.
Seems that we all learned on our own, sadly. Check out www.bloodsugar101.com. Wonderful info there.
milk, hamburgers, applesauce and pastas are NOT low-carb. If you really want to go low-carb, you have to cut out nearly all high-carb foods, and concentrate on low-carb veggies and lean meat, eggs and cheeses. The advantage of eating more meat is that you’re not so hungry so often, and after a few days, don’t crave carbs any more.
Personally, I’m not going as low as Bernstein recommends, but even with reducing carbs to 60 - 75g a day has made a big difference. I’ve lost 20 lb. with only 10 more to go for BMI 24.9, “officially” normal weight! Of course, if you weigh more, it will take you longer, but I think it’s worth it to give it a try. You can always quit if it doesn’t work for you.
Tune up your insulin regime, run through basal testing and make sure your basal is set properly.
Exercise, but also realize that just walking with a good fasting blood sugar (70-120) is a great way to burn fat.
Drop the carbs and try intermittent fasting (skipping one or two meals). If you go low, that is an indication that perhaps your basal is not set right.
Take up weight training as an exercise, increased muscle mass makes you more insulin sensitive and muscle burns more calories even sitting in your chair watching Seinfeld.
