I’m sure I’m not alone here… but maybe one of the few.
I’ve been diabetic for nearly 3 years and I have not gained a single pound. I’ve been like this most of my life but it seems that no matter what I eat (and I strive to eat healthy), I can’t increase my fat or muscle mass.
I notice that whenever I start working out, my BG crashes 2x - 3x times a day even when I’m not exercising, and obviously I’m burning cals. As far as eating is concerned, my doctor told me to continue eating 300 carbs per day and eat plenty of fruits and veggies… but I hardly can get enough room in my stomach to increase my weight at the end of each meal!
I considered protein powder in the past… there’s also weight gain powder…
Any thoughts or maybe thoughts on what I should stay away from.
And is there anyone out there who eats roughly the same amount of carbs three meals a day? (I eat 70 carbs for breakfast, lunch and dinner- I wonder if this has been keeping me slender).
Wow, 300 carbs a day is quite a lot! You must be incredibly active… If you’re crashing 2-3 times a day with a 6.4 A1c (that’s an average BG of 137), you must also have some high numbers. What are your crashing numbers & how high are your highs?
If you don’t mind my asking, how old are you?
I have a hard time gaining weight, but I eat low carb (around 1/10 what you eat). The best way to gain weight is to eat more protein. Slowly add more protein to your meals (if your kidneys are healthy), so you’ll know how to adjust your insulin. While we count carbs, about 58% of protein does turn to glucose, but much more slowly than carbs so you could see higher readings hours later.
Most weight gain powders I’ve seen are very high carb. I like whey isolate protein (the isolate form is the best kind). I get unflavored, unsweetened so it’s low carb. Pretty tasteless, so I add flavoring & almond milk to make shakes. I stay away from soy products because I have thyroid problems, which are fairly common in diabetics.
25% of all type 1 diabetics also have an autoimmune disease called Celiac disease. Celiac presents with a myriad of symptoms (or none at all…), and one of the many symptoms is inability to gain weight. Please please get checked for celiac disease, in fact all type 1’s should get checked at least once in a while (particularly in childhood, but also in adulthood if any strange symptoms crop up).
Basically what happens with celiac disease is that when you eat a protein called Gluten (found in wheat, barley, rye and contaminated oats), your body sets off an autoimmnue attack on the cells in your small intestines. This attach causes the villi–fingerlike projections that help us absorb the food we eat, to deconstruct and flatten out. When this happens, you cannot absorb food properly and can often become deficient in important vitamins and minerals (many celiacs are anemic when first diagnosed, and are at risk for osteoporosis, for example). Celiac disease is the only autoimmune disease in which the “trigger” is known, and it is the only one that has a very clear cut “cure.” It’s not really a cure because you still have the disease when you are treating it, but it’s a lot easier than dealing with insulin and calling that a cure!
Anyway, the treatment for celiac disease is complete avoidance of all foods containing gluten. This means that you have to have a radical change in lifestyle, and reading nutrition labels carefully is a necessity. BUT: It’s easily doable with the resources available today, as more and more people go on gluten free diets (often from celiac, but also from allergies as well as in treatment for autism). Statistics in the US say that 1/300 people have celiac disease, but it is a severely underdiagnosed condition, with the numbers more probable at 1/150. The reason it is so underdiagnosed is that the symptoms vary so widely, and most doctors have been taught 2 crucial “wrongs”. Doctors have traditionally been taught that celiac disease is rare, and they have been taught that patients with celiac disease have GI problems and an inability to gain weight.
The truth of the matter is that the symptoms of celiac range from GI to skin problems to neurological impairment to psychological (the number one most common symptom of celiac is depression and anxiety disorders). With so many doctors deciding “oh, you have IBS” without running the gambot of diagnostic tests, it’s no wonder it’s underdiagnosed!!!
Also, remember if you have one autoimmune disease, you are much more likely to have more–so if you have T1D AND an autoimmune thyroid disease AND you cannot gain weight, you had better get tested for celiac disease!!
One more thing: 300 grams of carb is actually the amount of carbs recommended as an average for adults. I personally could never eat more than 150 a day and not turn into a ginormous balloon person, but while it seems like a lot to us, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not a hugely gratuitous amount.
Sorry for the ridiculously long post, its very very important that you get checked for celiac if you have not already.
Wow, this is news to me. I don’t think I’ve been tested for celiac but I remember getting my blood protein tested last year and none of the nurses or my endo raised a red flag (it was slightly lower than average despite the amount of chicken, seafood, and meat I eat (and peanut butter). I have since changed my endo and will be seeing him shortly.
I seem to have many of the symptoms… at least none of the severe symptoms but who knows. Excessive gas, recurrent mouth sores (every few months or so), etc. It always seems to be on and off too, just as my diet is.
I think I will go back to my rice and fish diet for breakfast if I am diagnosed. Good ole Japanese standby
Sores in the mouth is a symptom as well. Definitely get checked.
There are so many options for gluten free stuff now, you can certainly eat rice and fish if you want to, but I tell you what, I can make some darn good gluten free cookies and pizzas!
Actually, the number of Type 1 diabetics with Celiac’s disease is a little less than one in ten…or just under 10%.
Anyways, moving on to the weight gain issue…I think before you look at methods to gain weight you should definitely have the tests run to see if you have Celiac’s or any other metabolic disorder besides Type 1 diabetes. You should also have your testosterone levels checked. Low testosterone is very common in Type 1 men and is easily and safely treated with supplemental testosterone.
Once you get those things squared away, weightlifting and a diet that provides a relatively large amount of protein and some caloric excess should do the trick.
There is some debate about the actual prevalence versus diagnosed, and it depends on who you talk to. Nonetheless, it is a high enough statistic that us t1d’s should be aware.
