Wow, thanks for offering such a simple solution to a life that is truly unlimited and free, unencumbered with any burden.
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If youāre a machine, yes, then your utterly simplistic theory holds true. If youāre a human, your body is constantly changing, e.g. your muscle mass declines as you age ā lower energy output ā weight gain etc.
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I am going to throw another variable in here. I was diagnosed after my 50th high school class reunion, so I all ready had a few extra pounds. Twenty years ago how many T1s were diagnosed later in life? I was originally diagnosed as T2, if I hadnāt seen a CDE my PCP would have me on insulin and diagnosed as a T2. My spouse and I have always exercised, but are more consistent now. And I do more mindful eating.
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Um, no. If a diabetic person with otherwise normal physiology wants to gain weight they simply need to eat more and take more insulin, thereby utilizing all those extra calories.
If that PWD wants to lose weight there are two choices. Either just take less insulin and allow Bg to run very high (>180-200) so most of the calories are peed out, or eat less and take less insulin and stay normoglycemic. I wouldnāt advise the former.
Insulin level is the key. Insulin is what allows you to utilize the food you eat. We as diabetics are not freaks of nature with completely different metabolic systems, we just have one thing missingāinsulin. Physiology works pretty much the same as in non diabetics, except for the absence of insulin. If we supplement with insulin as closely as we can to a non diabetic, for the most part we will be able to function exactly the same. And that includes weight control.
P.S. I have varied my insulin intake and my food intake over the last ten years. But my weight has always varied a few pounds according to those parameters.
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Iāll throw another thought out there ā being T1D does not exempt or prevent a person from having or developing some other metabolic dysfunction that can cause or encourage weight gain. Sure, if T1D is the only problem and the person is paying attention, there are lots of quick and unmistakable signposts along the way to help them halt the progression to obesity. On the other hand, stress, depression, overwork, social pressure, perhaps environmental toxins - even poverty - can result in the selection of many bad habits, fast food, quick snacks, etc., that lead the person down the obesity path. OK, itās just a few extra units here, a few thereā¦ sure, Next doctor appointment, there will be someone there to note the change, but, then blood tests come back, numbers increase, adjustments to insulin regimen (rather than eating habits!) are made, and the downward spiral continues.
It does happen. Growing up, I can remember meeting MANY people with T1D who were morbidly obeseā¦ Preventable? Maybe - even probably - but certainly not impossible.
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Of course your metabolic rate and body composition changes with age, and I did mention that I have reduced my diet over the years to take account of that so as to hold my weight steady, but the change in your metabolic rate and body composition are sufficiently slow that the theory is generally valid, that if you measure your food intake and keep it constant, and maintain a constant activity level each day, your weight is not going to change, assuming youāre maintaining about the same level of blood sugar control. Of course occasional viruses may cause a transitional weight reduction, but you can make some minor corrections for that.
Hamlet says, āNothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so,ā so I find if I just donāt pay attention to food as a recreation, eating the same thing at the same time every day is not a problem. Weāre rational humans, not animals, so food doesnāt have to be that important if we have a good medical reason not to let it be.
Your logic and theory are sound, but people are people, and the
combination of social pressures and a myriad of personal factors mean that
people donāt always follow sound logic. If they did, atter all, none of
these issues would exist for anyone!
Yes, but while food provides energy for us to do all the things we do each day, it is also for joy and enjoyment. I do believe many with diabetes end up for food issues. It should not end up that way. Food is to fuel the body and for lifeās pleasure. I am not a low carb person. I donāt eat the same thing each and everyday. I eat what I want when I want and when I can.
Sure I need to make adjustments if blood sugar is higher or lower than I want but with insulin adjustments and portion size changes, I can eat what I want.
Is my weight a struggle, sure as it is for many. Does food cause some of the problems, sure as it does for many. Will I stop eating foods due to weight gain, maybe but I happen to think most can eat anything they want as long as it is in the correct portions.
To say that most type 1ās should not have weight issues, is a very hard statement to swallow. Each and everyone of us is different and each and everyone of us will react differently. I think the YDMV must be understood here and lived everyday.
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I have noticed that the guidelines for weight have totally changed. People that I know have been labeled as obese by the medical community and they do not look obese at all. I have a friend who is 65 years old. When I go to her house, near the door are a bunch of different walking and running shoes. She walks daily and is in really good shape. When she was in her prime in the Navy, she ran a hundred mile race. Now she is a Type I that is labeled as obese, which puts her in the category of people that are not taking care of themselves. It is just not true.
I know that a long time ago when I got diabetes I had a team of doctors and a nutritionist. There was a lot of emphasis on teaching newly diagnosed people how to handle blood sugars, it was very positive and motivational. Now I go for treatment all I really get help with is my insulin prescriptions. When people get older they have to work through complications like neuropathy arthritis and autoimmune problems that mess up the metabolism and sometimes cause depression. Many people struggle with work and family responsibilities and have to really try to get out the door for exercise. Preparing the correct food takes time too.
I really donāt like how easy it is to be labeled and put into a category that negatively reflects effort. Some people do all the things they are supposed to do and get overwhelmed with that daily struggle. Diabetes is time consuming.
I had a friend who never exercised. She ate McDonaldās burgers and fries and all kinds of unhealthy things yet she had a very slim body and a lot of energy. If people have diabetes a long time they must really deal with a lot of physical issues.
I would like to know how many people were in the study and what part of the population they inhabited. I am very wary of any kind of ādataā that reflects badly on people with diabetes. They have enough juggling on their hands and do not need negative conclusions about them when they might be doing their best to deal with a disease that most people, even doctors do not want to understand. It was studies like the DCCT that was motivational and positive. It sends a different message-we believe in you and support you and your efforts.
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Thatās a good point about acceptable weight changing over time and I suspect that the motivation for that is more institutional than medical, since the more physicians wanting patients, the more they have to define people as in need of treatment, and shifting healthy weight limits downward is a good way to recruit people artificially into the āsickā pool. The same thing happened when there got to be too many endocrinologists, so they started defining the limits of normoglycemia downward to generate more customers for them, and suddenly āprediabetesā became a major new clinical phenomenon. Back in the 1970s there was even a hypothesis that hypoglycemia develops into diabetes, and that too artificially generated a lot of new patients, but the hypothesis was eventually debunked.
As for exercise, I have always tried to avoid it. My view is that unless there is clear evidence that exercise will make me live longer by more hours than the time I have to waste jumping around like a monkey rather than doing more truly human things, then Iām not going to waste what little time I have to live by doing something tedious like exercise.
Iām pretty sure the benefits of exercise have been well established.
There is never a guarantee. You could get hit by a train on your way to the gym, or the donut shop.
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Well, Eddie2, my point is that exercise is a cost/benefit issue, and for me at least, unless the evidence is certain that Iām going to gain more years of life because of exercise than I waste in exercising, I see no point in it. If I were just an animal, perhaps running and jumping would be all I could do, but thanks to having evolved a better brain as a human being, there are much more sophisticated things that I can do, so I would rather spend my time doing those things.
@Seydlitz - But then why put up a post that appears to be intentionally inflammatory and from all appearances intended to be demeaning and insulting to people that do exercise?
One generally expects a certain level of civil discourse in order to be able to continue a good discussion without it constantly being diverted into the gutter.
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There is no guarantee that the time you spend putting on your seatbelt will ever be beneficial. No guarantee that would will have an accident. So why waste your time with that?
Your line of thinking - the evidence is not certain for seatbelts!
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You will notice, Tim35, that I very deliberately said, āfor me at least,ā which should calm the concerns of the attentive reader.
thank you for that, even though you deleted it.
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I know this is a T1 forum but im special so ignore these things. Been diagnosed with T2 for 20 years and have been to more endos than i care to know. All but one has the ability to listen. Im a active person and i eat much less than most people would guess if they saw me. I got the you eat to much and exersize too little from 99.9%. I have done the stupid thing if going for bypass surgery to help 4 years ago. Im still type 2. My bg use to run in the high 20s with a handful of ps an insulin. Al it did was increase my weight. Im going to use rough conversion of 1kg =2lb as most of you use imperial system. Started at 200lb a year later i was at 320lb and got accused like most of being lazy and over eating. 580units of humalog a day later i was sotting at bg of just under 20. As the endo was so dead set ot was my food intake i ended up chalenging him to hospitilize me lock the door and get my bg normal with any means he saw fit. 12h on a monitor and an insulin pump pumping 800 units of insulin into me I ended with a bg of 15 after 0 food intake for 18h. The memory of his his red face is enough to make up for his arogance. People are not machines my body runs on protien only i cannot dare add any carbs. As its so hard i am on insulin to fight that little bit. So for all thos comments of input vs output dont be blind there is more than just T1&2 last count I am awate of was T52. I weigh 180lb after bariatric surgery i went down to 140 still obese as all that happend was my body started to eat muscle the fat remained. Back on insulin after the surgery and in 8months iv gained 40lb but my bg is at 5-7 so atleast thats improved. But some of us just pile on weight with insulin. I live like a t1 count every darn g of food into me, exersize and the moment i touch insulin i gain weight. Insulin reacts diferent to everyone and weight is no measure of ones lifestyle as a rule.
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I am always being told I am āspecialā.
IMHO most of the posts on this thread are actually relevant to being on insulin therapy as opposed to the diagnosed reason (ie - T1/T2/??) for being on the insulin therapy.
My basic desire in regards to exercise for my favorite insulin dependent person 
is what I assume is similar for most people in a similar situation.
How to balance the BG, exercise, insulin and food. Simple question. Not so simple an answer. Obviously.