I remember my doctor telling me when I switched from Lantus to Levemir that it could help with my weight. It didn’t, but I had other benefits with Levemir–mainly being that it didn’t peak as bad during the night hours, so not as many bad lows at 3am.
Along the lines of what others have said, the only thing that helped with my weight was cutting back on the insulin. I started exercising heavily in September and lost no weight the first two months; in fact I gained weight the first month. Switched to the pump by November, cut my insulin by 40% (eating better also helped with cutting my insulin), and I’ve lost 20lbs as of yesterday (about 3 months).
I was taking 180 units of Lantus and put on 35 pounds and the Lantus was not even doing what it should be doing. So I just swiched a week and a half ago to Levemir. My blood sugars are through the roof but hopefully I’ll get that under control. I let ya know how it goes. So far I already am taking 100 units of Levemir.
What would you like me to log? I could log all the food and exercise. And weather I feel hungry. Endo does not like Atkins diet he says it is too difficult for most people to keep for a long time. I kinda agree I go ape after 3 weeks. He suggested a South Beach approach as being more sustainable. So I may have to get book to see what that does. Would be good to stabilize diet before the pepsi challenge between the Lantus and Levemir. May delay the final answer a bit but the results would be more accurate. What do you think.
Incidentally you get a better lipids profile eating a low carb diet than a low saturated fat diet. I have been eating cheese like crazy with low carbs and better lipids like Atkins always said. I could post the results but they are in international units not american ones I could post the new Atkins friendly ones vs more carbs in diet ones. Also now I have gained more weight so new lipids should be worst just from that fact.
You have hit on a good point there. However high bloodsugar will not make you feel full. But low blood sugar will make you feel extremely hungry. Not only during and immediately after the low. But my Endo said that a low is such a traumatic even for the body both physiologically and psychologically that the body will force you to eat much more than you wish for days after the nasty experience. Food for thought.
Great. I believe that less insulin = less fat is true for sure. The reasons could be many. My Endo said that Levemir did not do miracles for every one. But in your case no 3 am low was a big plus as those are nasty to deal with. Pump may be much superior technology. Difficult for people here in Canada in states where you have no coverage. Here we have leadership that would make George Bush seem like a Commy.
The thing about it is that it is a hormone and it can and will cause weight gain for most some insulins more than others though. My Dr. even told me this.
So, about a month ago my doctor upped my Lantus dosage. I, of course, gained weight and am now ten pounds heavier. This despite eating fresh fruits, vegetables and meats and adhearing to the diabetes 1,700 calorie diet that I was placed on and training for a 5K. I’ve heard differenting opinions on whether or not Lantus actually does cause weight gain and am not sure if maybe I just mismanaged my diet during the same time or if the insulin really is causing me to gain weight.
So I’m going to challenge Lantus. On Monday I go in for my formal pump education class and will be officially off of Lantus (as I was told not to take it that morning). I’m eager to see if going off the Lantus makes weight loss any easier.
Yeah, Levemir wasn’t all perfect. But if I had to go on shots again (which would make me cry; my pump has helped me that much), I would choose Levemir for my long acting. Lantus and NPH before that were horrors.
And I thank my lucky stars that my insurance covers both my pump and CGM. Most people aren’t that lucky, and it’s just one more reason for me to love the people I work for to death.
The NPH was a real horror story. I ended up trying to mimic a pump by injecting it every 4 hours so the peaks would overlap somewhat. Real exited about starting my Levemir but I have a week or so of Lantus left.
We do not have any coverage except for a small rotten tax deduction for pumps and supplies here in my corner of Siberia. Although has been balmy for a couple of days I went trout fishing yesterday and have a big one on the line for about 5 minutes. My wife said get with it or you and the fish will die of old age so I tried to horse it in and it came off. Catch and release is a good thing I may have the pleasure of another bite. Nearly hit by an iceberg, yes you have to watch out for ice zooming down with the current it can break a leg or submerge you. Ice fishing is safer the ice does not move.
So far I have been on the pump for five days and have noticed that I am less hungry then I had been while on Lantus. Maybe that is just nerves from pump worries though? I was also told that Lantus can stay in your system for up to five days, which I found interesting. I didn’t think that it would hang on for so long!
I just had my Dr’s visit yester day. Good news is my A1c is down to 6.5. Bad news is I have gained 6 pounds since being on Lantus since November. But thats not too too bad. Bad news is my new c-peptide shows 14.3 yikessssssss! My pancreas is like pumping at 8000 rpms i’m so insulin resistant! At this rate my pancreas is gonna blow like a new engine at a fast rate! Despite the weight gain my doc said he was proud because the decrease in my clothes size has showed that the swimming is doing good and converting the fat to muscle.He attributes the weight gain to the conversion because muscle mass weighs more than fat.And I thought I had lost weight due to the low carb diet and the fact my clothes size was getting smaller. So there ya go,swimming does work!. Any way…I started Symlin today along with everything else because of the resistance, so hes gonna see if we can get the Amylin back into the stomach. By the way,I am really gettin tired of all this crap!. My fastings are gettin good,but those post-prandils,sheese! So thats my Lantus story. I am on 36 units at nite. tried the splitting, but went back to high am fastings so switched back.
I started Levemir about a month ago. Despite a low-carb diet (50-60g per day), recently increased exercise, and splitting doses, I have gained 6-7 pounds in that time. My blood sugar control is SOOOOO much better I can’t even tell you. I can’t wait to see what my A1c is in a few weeks.
I am hoping that this is a temporary thing as my body adjusts to lower blood sugar. I was a lot hungrier the first couple of weeks (interesting info about lows causing a lot of hunger!). I don’t have lows too much. My goal is to take as little insulin as possible and still keep my BG near target range. I’m taking about 8 units of Levemir at night and 8 units again in the morning. With meals I probably take 2-3 units of Humalog and sometimes I take another unit or two if my sugar is up a bit after 3 hours. Exercise makes it a LOT easier to cut back insulin! Wow!
Do whatever it takes to avoid gaining weight even if you have to sacrifice some BG control. If you get resistant you will have to increase the insulin enormously and then you will seriously gain weight. My Endo said that Levemir is a better bet for weight control than Lantus. Remains to be seen if it is just big pharma hype or if there is some truth in this. I have just finished one tube and starting another so it is too early to tell. Also started a pill called meridia for weight loss. It is one of the 2 obesity medications suggested for diabetics by the Canadian Diabetes ■■■. Does appear to suppress hunger a bit. again too early to tell however GP said some of his patients have lost 4 lb per month. Did not ask him if they were diabetics on insulin which is a totally different case to normal obese people. Well I will be the experiment of one. We wont know if it is the Levemir or the pill that does the trick. In my case loosing weight is a life or death matter so it is probably best to do everything it takes to succeed. anyways loosing weight is not the main problem itis keeping it off.
Your insulin dosage is minimal try and kep it that way, I probably need at least double the amount and that is really bad news for weight gain.
Lows are such a traumatic experience for the body that it may well increase your hunger to try to avoid them.
Exercise does have some wonderful synergy with insulin.
I am trying it now and also a eight loss pill called meridia super expensive and remains to be seen if it works. So far does appear to suppress appetite.
So far so good. Still a little wigged out by the infusion set change outs, though! But on the weight front, I have lost the 10 pounds that I had gained after my last Lantus increase.
keep us posted!