I am a Type 1 and I am fat. Personally I think this is just my body shape. I have lost weight before but have always come back to a similar weight and size. My dad’s family are all a similar shape and size and I have never spent any much time with them so it is not nurture. My mum’s family who I grew up with are all taller and slimmer. I am trying to eat healthily and I really don’t think I eat that much. Exercise is more of a challenge.
I want to know if I there are any other fat T1s out there. I want to talk with people going through similar things to me. I have talked to some T2s but the ones I have spoken to are quite a bit older so have different stuff going on in their lives and are also different because they are T2 so have different meds and a more strict diet. All the T1s I speak to seem to be really thin and have their weight in control. I am looking for fat T1s in their 20s or 30s.
Well, I am not in my 20’s or 30’s, but am a fat T1 (brought on they beleive by a digestive track infection that almost killed me)…
I tried to eat right before…but was carb heavy due to kidney probelms since childbirth, so a good balanced diet has been a challenge foe me and the dietician (I am also allergic to soy) I have discovered that my old scale is very inaccurate, so the new one (and eatsmart nutirional scale) should help there.
The thing that has helped the most so far is the CGMS–some things do not raise the BG near as much as thought and others, well…sadder story…its not all about the carb count…mostly but their are exceptions…I think personally there is such a thing as carb stacking…but may just be me…
Unfortuantley due tomy wieght I went through the whole type 2 thing and tried all kinds of meds–had a type 1 friend who kept telling me you need some insulin to get them numbers down…then I ended up in the hospital for my infection…they gave me a normal dose of 50/50 like they do for most t2’s—dropped me like a rock–I happen to be VERY insulin sensitive…endo got me on a pump about a month after that…so by the time I got hospitalized-(-was put on the pump during my next hospital stay–doc said it got me out of there faster–damn goos thing cause I was there for 21 days–no fun!!)
Biggest frustration is that people (docs included) ASSUME I am a T2, although many normal sized T1’s I know run into that same problem…and with shows like the latest GMA fiasco, i don’t see that changing too soon
I am not in my 20’s or 30’s any more but I too am an overweight Type 1. It just took the doctors a while to diagnose me. Your story sounds like mine. I am here any time you want to talk.
I was a really big girl way back when I took Type 1 at 10 but now I’m rather skinny. My oldest is a Type 1 and lost all the weight at 1st then after having 2 babies she gained alot of weight she’s up to 200 when she started at like 130.
I was Dx’d in April this year, over the previous year I had ballooned up to 265 and I am 5’ 10" tall, although if you were to look at me you wouldn’t believe I weighed that much. I really do not know how much I weighed before as I never cared, but I have always been overweight.
I am now down to 235, and have been steadily loosing about 3 pounds a week. The biggest changes I have done is to start eating lower carbs. I have 40 for breakfast, about 15 for lunch and about 40 for dinner. The other thing I did was to eat salads for lunch.
I was walking a few times a week but haven’t in a while as I do not have the time. I was sick for so long and just didn’t do anything I now have a ton of work to do around the house and so have been keeping busy doing that.
I do not know if it is the lower carb count, or the weight loss, but it is a lot easier to manage my levels now.
When I was first diagnosed everyone thought T2, I was 35 and overweight, most people still think that at first. My DE also said to me “I would have pegged you for a T2, as most of my T1’s are tall and skinny”
Yeah I’m also no longer in my 30’s but also fat. Over the past year I have gained nearly 40 pounds (and I wasn’t a beanpole to start with) due to the stress of my mother being very ill. Or, at least that’s my excuse. The other day I was at the doc and I refused to get on the scale. The nurse had a hissy-fit and said “I’m telling Dr. B.”. I said that I’m sure Dr. B would know if he looked over the chart. Dr. B. then said that knowing my weight was just as important as all the other numbers in my record…sigh.
Don’t you hate it when your nurse and Dr. tell you to lose weight? I know sometimes when I’m gaining weight I want to hit them when they do that!!! I do just the oppesit of you though when stressed I tend to lose alot of weight! Well that’s my excuse for the last 3 months anyway…that and the lovely hot weather here in the South right now…It’s just too HOT to eat down here in TN right now! Try telling that to my family though! HA!!!
I’m 40, so not in my 20s-30s, but I was overweight when I was diagnosed at age 19. I did lose some weight as I got sicker (not knowing why I was sick at that point, obviously) and was able to lose some more weight at one point. When my control went out of control I gained all the weight back and more, a lot more. I was only able to start losing weight again when I got my pump because I wasn’t constantly feeding low blood sugar and I was able to walk more than 10 feet without dropping low! I ended up losing too much weight, got yelled at by my PCP and CDE, then gained too much back (but nowhere near my starting weight).
Right now I’m looking to lose about 20 pounds. That will be 10 pounds higher than my weight when everyone was yelling at me to stop losing. I will probably always think of myself as fat no matter what.
Everyone is built differently. Two of my sisters are thin and always have been, despite having kids and everything. Another sister & I are built alike, bigger than our other sisters. If we eat the same exact foods in the same exact amounts as our other sisters their weight would remain stable and we would gain.
Doris, I know I should lose weight. And I would like to be able to wear my clothes without them cutting off my circulation. I think most doctors try to approach the subject carefully, knowing how defensive we can get…sigh
I am going to turn 50 in a few weeks and I am now a fat T1.
I was alway super super thin and I have been a T1 since I was 8.
Since pumping, I eat more and exercise less. I exercise less because I go low so easily and then I eat, ahhh!!! Vicious cycle!!
I blame the weight gain on the ease of bolusing for food and the fact that I don’t always make good food choices. We are what we eat. I also use to exercise constantly and now I don’t.
Diabetic or not, eating and not exercising will make us fat and as we age you really have to lower your food intake and increase exercise, sigh!!
I kinda have to agree with you on that one but still I get offended when my dr. tells me that I weigh too much and right now really get ticked when he tells me I lost too much…I wish now I had the problem of my clothes being to tight but now they practally fall off! Goodwill is my best friend right now. I’m either donated the larger sizes to them or I’m buying the smaller ones! Even though I’m 45 my kids are bigger than me now that kinda gets you! Your suppost to tell them what to do but when they can take you down at anytime it kinda makes you think twice before acting! No fair my mom was always bigger than me so I done that with her too! Not my girls though!
I’m 32 and have been Type 1 for 29 years (so pretty much all my life!) and was a healthy weight up till about the age of 18. I then stopped exercising and ate pretty much anything. Now I’m overweight and despite cutting all the rubbish out of my diet and taking up exercise again (an hour’s badminton twice a week) I’m not able to lose any weight!
I’ve just had a meeting with my diabetes specialist who suggested that I try using Metformin to increase my insulin sensitivity and therefore allow me to reduce the amount of insulin I’m using. He says that as insulin helps the body to store fat, reducing it will allow me to shift the weight more easily. Anyone else heard of this??
I have heard this as well and have brought up to my endo, and she said it could make me sick to my stomach, so I decided not to try it. I go to my endo in September and I am going to get an RX for it.
Insulin slows the body’s ability to burn fat because it is an anabolic hormone.
From Wikipedia: “Anabolic processes tend toward “building up” organs and tissues. These processes produce growth and differentiation of cells and increase in body size…”
Type ones can lose weight but it takes more work than our non-diabetic friends. I’ve cut calories and carbs, and try to exercise every day.
My mother, who is not diabetic, went through pretty sudden weight gain-- it was later determined that it was related to hypothyroidism (Hashimoto’s disease), another autoimmune disease that affects many people with type 1. Unfortunately, even after being diagnosed, my mother has had a really hard time losing weight.
I know that this isn’t useful info for everyone that posted here (cause many of your already know about it), but I thought that I would post it in case there is someone who might have undiagnosed hypothyroidism. All type 1’s should be tested for Hashimoto’s (get your TSH measured, perhaps antibodies as well). No reason to have an extra reason to make losing weight hard for someone with type 1-- it’s hard enough already!!
I never was more than 5 pounds overweight for the first 45-50 years of my type 1 diabetes. When I started using Humalog in the 1990’s I gained weight. By 1998 I was 57 pounds overweight. I was diagnosed with insulin resistance. I was a type 1 with type 2 symptoms. That is called “double diabetes”. I was taking about 40% more insulin because of the insulin resistance. I started taking Avandia in 1999. It took care of the resistance and my insulin dosages returned to normal. I bought a treadmill and started building up my leg muscles. I also cut my daily carb intake. At the present time I am eating 130 carbs per day and walking outdoors for 2.5-3 miles per day. I am 68 so that is about my limit. I have lost 26 pounds and I still need to lose 31 more pounds. I am not gaining but I have not lost any weight for the last several weeks. I eventually intend to eat only 100 carbs per day. I would like to walk 5 miles per day but it is too much for me. My arthritis gives me problems. My A1c is 5.9 and I have good numbers on all my blood tests so I am not too upset if I do not lose more weight.
I believe that all of you overweight type 1’s should be tested for insulin resistance. If you do have insulin resistance then a med like Avandia or even Metformin could result in your using much less insulin. That would then result in your losing weight. Lower carb meals and exercise would be very helpful too. Good luck to all of you!!
I talked to my endo last visit about Metformin, but she discussed possible nausea. I am going to give it a try, because at 42 years of diabetes and turning 50, I too am very insulin resistant.
Hello Holly. Welcome to our community! If I had those hypos and could not feel them then I would not participate in a marathon. I would also be afraid to do any kind of exercising unless someone was with me to see my hypos developing before they were so bad. I hope you wait until you are familiar with your pump and are no longer having the hypos before you enter another marathon. Better safe that sorry! Take care!!!
