Hi, im Melissa Im 18 years old and i was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 2 months ago.
before i had diabetes i used to weight 104-105 lbs.
i lost a lot of weight and i was in 93 lbs when i got to the hospital.
As i said before, it has been 2 months since diagnosis and i am weighting 115 lbs now… that is more than what i’ve ever been. i still play tennis, go to school, and exercise. Does the 4-6 insulin shots have anything to so with it?
Hey Melissa… Well when I first got diagnosed I weighed 108 and in one month gained 10 lbs…i was also active and it took about a year of I think my body adapting to taking in insulin before I dropped about 15 lbs… I was eating more of a diabetic diet as well. I know there is probably a better medical explanation but eventually your body will balance everything out.
Hi Melissa,
My daughter was diagnosed with t1 in March and she is 18 as well. She experienced similar weight loss followed by weight gain. Her weight seems to have stablized now and we are hoping that it stays that way. In the beginning it seems like she was eating to keep up with the insulin which isn’t good but eventually her endo team got the insulin dosing in range. She is honeymooning now so doesn’t need nearly as much insulin as she did at diagnosis. It does take some time to get your new diet and insulin settled in. Are you working with a dietitian through your diabetic team? Do you have snacks in addition to your meals? I know they wanted my daughter to have a mid afternoon snack along with a nighttime snack and she started to realize that she was eating because she was “supposed” to but really wasn’t hungry so they cut out the snacks.
Her latest challenge is that she has just left for college and is faced with a whole new living arrangement and eating out of the cafeteria. We are hoping this doesn’t throw off her blood sugars or weight too much.
Hang in there.
Thanks Kelly, it all sounds familiar hehe… well i am on a sliding scale of 4 to 7 units of insulin before each meal, and 12 units of lantus before bed.
Yes im working with a dietitian and a nutritionist,my dietitian told me to have snacks between meals, and it is true i dont feel hungry in between meals, sometimes i forget about it and my sugar goes too low 
If you are still eating carbs and having to make corrections each day, you will put on more weight. More insulin allows more glucose to be absorbed into your cells and if you do not use the glucose it will be stored as fat. Trying to use it all will require more exercise then the majority of us have time for. I had the same problem and have struggled with losing it for years even though I would workout an hour each day. A little over a month ago I went low-carb. Have lost 16 lbs and have never felt better. For resources I would suggest looking at the Paleo Diet or Dr. Bernstein’s Diet. Its your body and the last thing I want to do is tell you what to do, but cant hurt to try things and see what happens. Such is the life of a type 1 diabetic. Best of luck!!!
Watch your diet closely if you are doing that you should be ok.
If your blood glucose had been high for a while when adding insulin back in the system can cause you to gain some water weight which will eventually leave the sytem. I would venture to guess after all is said and done you will weigh more than your normal 104-105 but I wouldn’t expect to gain a whole lot more provided you do not have to continue to snack just to keep from going low. Work hard to figure out how much insulin you need to take to keep your blood glucose from going high but also make sure it is not so much that you have to eat to prevent lows and it should all even out.
You definitely don’t want to have to eat more to keep up with the insulin. Less food and less insulin both can help maintain or lose weight. The sliding scale is an outdated way to figure bolus dosage. It’s much better to determine an insulin: carb ratio and that way you only take the insulin you need to cover what you are actually eating. Also, there is no reason at all to have snacks between meals (though some people like to eat that way with smaller meals). If your blood sugar is going too low without a snack than you are taking too much insulin. Again, the food should determine the amount of insulin used not the other way around. I highly recommend the book Using Insulin by John Walsh.
Hi Melissa,
It definitely takes a few months for everything to even out. Like the others have said, you might want to speak with your dietician about carb counting and determining your insulin:carb ratio. That way you can bolus insulin based on the amount of carbs you are eating rather than eat carbs to match your insulin bolus. Everyone is different, but 4-7 units per meal sounds like a lot for a small person who is newly diagnosed. I was diagnosed 3 years ago, weigh about 125 lbs, probably eat more carbs than most (often 50-55 g/meal) , but still rarely bolus a full 3 units for a meal. Your dietician can help you work all of this out.
Melissa,
As everyone is mentioning, it takes some time for your body to begin to re-balance fluids and make up for the starvation on a cellular level not to mention getting a balance of carb/insulin ratio. Your body is going through so many changes I would try not to panic about the weight. Please stay in contact with your dietitian and make sure they are aware of your bs readings, what you are eating and how hungry you are. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about why they are doing what they are doing. Have you taken a carb counting class yet? They may feel its too soon but we pushed for it and my daughter has switched to carb counting and more flexible eating schedule rather than a sliding scale and a regimented diet. It has helped a lot. She still experiences the lows that we try to avoid but there is definitely a learning curve to how your body reacts to different carbs, exercise etc.
Keep focused on eating healthy meals and snacks and don’t be afraid to be your own advocate… keep asking questions of your diabetic team.
I was very similar (as far as insulin doses) to Melissa at Dx. I weighed about 83 pounds and gained 30 withing the first 2 months. I wasn’t too concerned about weight gain as I was massively underweight and besides I was starting to feel much better. I grant I was eating a good deal of carbs but remember taking 8 units of Regular with breakfast. These days I am more in line with her 4-7 units but weight at Dx does not necessarily equate to insulin doses, although it is usually close. The key for her is that she has to snack between meals to not go low. So you are probably right: she is getting too much insulin at meals.
Hi Melissa –
Sorry to hear of your diagnosis. I can understand your concern, but I too think things will level out. 115 is a dream weight for many people (even 18 year olds), so I would really try not to let it worry you. It’s more important to be healthy than to be a certain number on the scale, you know?
With that being said, I would write down how many low blood sugars you are having and discuss it with your doc. If you are treating a lot of low blood sugars, those carbs and calories can start to add up. Also, with my DD I find that lows lead to ravenous eating, so that can be a factor as well. Sounds like you are doing a great job staying active.
Maybe a pump down the line would be helpful. You custom program your basal rates by the hour and really tweak things so you don’t have to eat to prevent lows. If you are exercising for example, you can turn your insulin off for 1/2 hour or turn it down by a certain percent. Lots of flexibility. Just something to think about.
Take Care!
I don’t think that insulin makes you gain weight however the treatment prescribed by many doctors, dieticians, etc. can pump you up.
When I got pump and, more specifically, the CGM, I noticed occasional fluctuations in rates and ratios I don’t think I ever would have noticed before because I was always sort of “overshooting” a little bit and then eating to make up the difference? This had gone on for 20 years (pre-pump) when the only number I paid much attention to was “tactical” BG, “what is it now and what do I have to do to fix it?”. I hated (and still hate…) logging. The pump does a great job organizing inputs and, more importantly, keeping track of them and, when I got it, I learned that an extra .2U or .3U/ hour in the middle of the night would pretty much “cure”, or at least “manage” dawn phenomenon that had plagued me all the time. Taking that a bit farther, at the time I was pretty engaged in trying to get rid of the 100 or so extra pounds I’d picked up over the years. I noticed that as I picked up the intensity (distance mostly but a little bit of speed…) in running and biking, sometimes, I could turn the pump down to pump less insulin due to the ratios changing. I also noticed that after I’d concentrate on running or biking more, eventually I would “get in shape” (I guess?) and have to turn the pump up. Just a little bit bit these adjustments can make a big difference in keeping my numbers tight and my pants loose! If I get a little out of balance, my bg will run low and I’ll have to eat to catch up pretty readily.
I think that it’s the food that you eat but, particularly if you follow a dietician’s recommmendations about food, you may run the risk of gaining weight. When I got the pump, I did a refresher with a dietician, thinking that perhaps a “scientist” (sic) would help me continue my efforts to trim down. She was like “you should eat 45-60G @ meals and 15-30 for snacks” (I was very active, about 225-30 lbs…) and, while I didn’t get into a fight with her, I just blew her off, I was like “are you nuts? That’s like twice what I’m eating…”. I’m currently close to 180 w/ occasional ‘pushes’ to 175 (I always weigh myself after long runs! 
and feel much better at that weight than at 225. I still snack but eat cheese instead of carby stuff most of the time.
yes! It sucks. Once you’ve got more used to your routine, you will even out. Cutting carbs helps and trying to prevent lows (that have you taking extra calories to bring up your BG). When I started to really have tight control, I kept getting wicked lows all day because my ratios for insulin were all off. Now that I have a pump and have fine-tuned my requirements, I go low much less often. So I stopped gaining weight and now am trying to lose what I put on. That is the hard part!
My advice to you is to eat sensibly and try not to stress too much about the changes going on with your body. Prior to diagnosis, your body was actually slowly starving to death. You don’t really know for how long you were in the process of developing diabetes. Cells were unable to convert carbs (and fats and proteins to some extent as well) to energy and, therefore, you were losing both fat and muscle.
The next year is going to be a little bit of a rollercoaster. You’re going to go through a honeymoon period, or just random periods where your pancreas spits out some insulin. Check your blood sugar A LOT, take your insulin, and work hard to understand the effect food and exercise has on your blood sugars and how you feel overall.
Once the year goes by, things will even out and you will get better at properly responding to your blood sugar. Diabetes has a HUGE learning curve. You need to learn how to dose base don insulin-to-carb ratios. Make sure to count the carbs you’re eating. And you may find that you don’t gain weight as fast if you stick to a lower carb diet. I’ve personally found it easiest to maintain my weight by eliminating pasta, rice, potatoes, and white flour from my diet. Not easy, but not only does it keep my weight stable, it also keeps my blood sugar stable!! Win-win!!
Also, I don’t know how tall you are, but 115 doesn’t sound unreasonable at all. I am 5 feet tall, very athletic, and about 130, and I feel I am at a very reasonable weight (I’m definitely more muscular than the average woman).
Yes hun Im on Nova rapid insulin and it makes u gain weight like mad 
I used to be lovely and slim and Im good and dont eat sugar ( hardly) and My friend is also on Nova rapid although its brilliant for controllong blood sugar its not good for your weight xx
but the insulin doesn’t work in a vacuum. If you take insulin and don’t eat anything, you won’t gain weight although you will likely pass out?
I’ve been on most of the Insulins and I have not gained weight from any of them.
Alan is totally right. Read that book. I read it a few years ago and it taught me so much. My boyfriend wanted to read it when I was finished so he could understand me and my type 1 a little better.
Zoe also totally right. You should not need snacks on a regular basis, assuming you are on either novalog or humalog for your short term insulin, unless you are needing the food as a result of exercize. If you NEED a snack, then you are takign too much insulin.
That John Waslh book will tell you how to figure the basal rates you need. In case they didn’t tell you, you might need to adjust your insulin during the month. Twice a day I take 6 units levemir about 4 days a month, 5 units about 22 days a month, and 4 units about 4 days a month. I also have 3 different carb ratios I use depending on the time of day. The first is before 11am. The second is until about 5pm, and then after 5. Don’t use my numbers. We are all different, so you have to figure it out for yourself.
Unfortunately many dieticians and nutritionists were educated by books and instructors who understand regular insulin and NPH, not humalog or novalog adn long term insulins. They push high carb diets (150 carbs or more/day) and say all snacks need carbs. You should be able to eat a handful of almonds or a piece of string cheese for a snack if you want. .
I didn’t take into account the initial time after I was dxd. Of course I would have gained weight back but I was 3, so I don’t remember.