Fat Lantus

I gained 30 lbs one I started Lantus, but I start my pump next week, so no more Lantus and less novoolog so hopefully I can lose a few

Dear Lynn. Horrible I know same here. At bit less that 30 maybe 20 with 1 hour of exercise per day. Best of luck with the pump. Keep us posted how that works out.

Anthony ,

Levemir ( NovoNordisk) has been available for almost 2 years in Canada. Some Provinces do not cover payment as they do cover payments for Lantus .

Dear Nel.

Thanks for the info. Coverage not a problem my pocket covers 100% of the diabetes cost minus a lousy tax deduction. Have you tried Levemir vs Lantus?

I just gained weight as soon as I started taking insulin, period. I lost like 30 lbs within about 1 year before being diagnosed with type 1. As soon as I started taking my fast-acting insulin I gained weight like that. It’s like super hard to not gain weight while taking insulin… I’m not sure if it was the lantus per say because I’ve only been on lantus (as my 24 hr insulin) for the entire 4 years I’ve had diabetes… hmm… I’d love to switch if I knew that could help with weight loss though… thanks for bringing this to my attention… I’m going to look into Levemir.

Well, insulin is basically a 0 calorie substance. Just sayin’.

I think more insulin intake = more craving for carbs = more carb consumption (calories) = junk in the trunk.

Dear Dino.

Amen. I called it the insulin, carbs, weight gain death spiral. I suppose we can try a very low carbs diet to see if we can break the loop. You could add to your equation junk in the trunk= more insulin intake.

My issue is less “junk in the trunk” than jelly in the belly! Anyway, I dose my nightly Lantus to my AM fasting #'s…I adjust my Humolog to my carb intake. If I eat lots of carbs in a day, my next days #'s are not effected, as long as I’ve controlled them by bedtime with Humolog. Conversely, if I lose weight (by eating less carbs) my Lantus requirement decreases. Isn’t my carb intake driving my insulin needs, not the other way around?

Dino, Congrats on your award…

aww Thanks Elaine :slight_smile:

For me its a vicious cycle of carb quantity and insulin injections driving each other up I think. When I have a lot of Lantus floating around in my body, I need more carbs than usual just to keep my fasting sugar up. I also notice that my craving for carbs is higher and I also end up taking more Humalog to cover my starchy meals. Then the increase in carbs tend to increase my fasting sugars, which then require more Lantus per day, which increase the craving for carbs, until I finally realize that I’m eating meals that were meant for Michael Phelps.

That makes me want to lower my Lantus dose for a while to see if I am happy with less carbs (my goal.) Of course, then I worry about the potentially high #'s. I wonder if anyone has tried slowly lowering their Lantus dose. It would be hard to know how much of our cravings are the insulin talking and how much is the weak willpower or emotional needy causes of most of our eating! (Oops! I meant, “habits”)

Dear Elaine.

It is a positive FEEDBACK LOOP not a one direction flow. Loop is the key word. Carbs drive your insulin needs but insulin usage also drives your carb cravings. And there is nothing positive in a health or welfare sense. It just means that the whole system drives itself higher and higher when it comes to weight, blood glucose. The only thing that goes lower and lower is quality of life.

Jenny and Dr. Bernstein make a good case of why high carbs diets are un-stable.

Dear Dino.

Cut that out you will end up a 500 lb if lucky. Bob’s brother-in-law died at 265 lb. What I did is cut the Lantus to something reasonable. Go easy on the Humalog. Enjoy lousy blood sugar control for a few weeks and go on a lot carb diet. The sugars will get much better. Whether one will loose weight on this type of diet I personnally don’t know but my Endo said most of his patients on low carbs do.

Yes my friend I do not do this anymore.

My Lantus intake is 50% of what it was this time last year. I’ve lost nearly 20lbs since then, of course with diet and exercise as well. My A1c has improved too so I’m doing OK and no longer spiraling.

I don’t ever see myself taking as much insulin as I used to take because that would mean I had slipped back into bad eating habits.

Dear Dino. Wow does this mean you have broken out of the loop?

Dear Dino.

When to see Endo today and he gave me a free 50 day sample of Levemir since I have no coverage. He said coverage in our province (i.e. state) is dismal because of the politician not seeing clearly than one paramedic intervention and 1 1/2 day stay in emergency is $6000.00 whereas a vial of these new insulins that prevents night time lows cost less than $100 or 60 vials a few years supply.

On a positive side he said he discussed the difference with the inventor of Levemir, it is a different chemical from Lantus and interacts with the body differently and in some people he has had up to a 20 Kg weight loss i.e. 44 lb wow.

Works some some people doesnt for others but he said it is sure worth a try.

I will report on results in a few months.

Hello again, everyone…I’d like to get your thoughts on this one…
My work schedule has been erratic. I dosed my Mon nighttime Lantus at 4 AM Tues and without thinking, my Tues PM 16 hours later at 10 PM. Theoretically, I should have had a double dose for at least a few hours. At 2:30 AM I woke up unable to go back to sleep and checked my BS a few times thinking I was going low. I checked a few times throughout the morning… nothing amiss. My #'s were completely normal. The only difference I noticed was the sleeplessness and lots of energy this morning, despite 4 hours of sleep last night and 5 the night before, and based on this discusion, I’ve been expecting carb cravings, but they haven’t presented themselves. I might be gaining lbs as we speak but I am not going low.

Maybe a combo of lantus taking a while to kick in and being metabolized by me more quickly? What’s with the energy and sleeplessness? Maybe (non diabetic) insomniacs should try laying off the carbs at night to reduce insulin surges?

I am very interested to see your results. Good luck!

That’s part of it. But there have actually been studies. An increase in the amount of insulin you have or the number of lows (same thing, I guess) makes you gain weight. I no longer have the link, but I once read an article from some university and they said the biggest factor in weight gain was low blood sugars/too much insulin.

I jog about 6 to 10 miles a day. I lift weights. I eat more than I should, but not that much more. And I keep gaining weight. The main reason? Lows. I give myself way too much insulin. (Don’t tell me to stop, that’s not going to help.) I saw a study someone did, and they said that too much insulin was the number one factor in weight gain. They said diet and exercise helped a little bit, but one of the best ways to predict weight gain was to look at the number of lows people have. (This was among nondiabetics; they were just looking at different things and found that low blood sugars, like among hypoglycemics, was one of the best predictors of weight.) My doctor always tells me if I want to lose weight, I have to give myself less insulin. It’s just like how people sometimes keep their sugars high to lose weight, you can keep your sugars low to gain it.