I saw my endo 9/29/16 , and my A1C was 7.8. My 30 day carb average on my pump was 240 grams. He said he could either keep pumping me full of insulin to bring the numbers down, or I could cut back on my bolusing. I wanted the option to do injections but he didn’t consider that as an option. I weigh 233 lbs. Do you think if I could fast a bit more and cut down my weight and total daily insulin, that he would let me try Tresiba? I’m sure the pump is a bit better but i would like a pump vacation and see if it’s just as good without having to wear something. Seems like he’s doing all he can as an MD. I’m just being a bad patient. I need to get to about 170 lbs. I see him again right before Christmas. Hopefully I can lose about 20 lbs by then. But yeah it’s easy to just push a button to receive my insulin. My school of thought is that i would be less likely to eat something if i knew i had to give an extra injection. The doctor said I would be likely to just eat it and not take the insulin.
I just mentioned this book in another post, but I’d highly recommend reading Good Calories, Bad Calories. It’s an eye opening read about many things, but especially about the detrimental effects insulin can have on our bodies. If you read the book you’ll learn that fasting isn’t the key to losing weight, but rather cutting carbohydrates is. If you cut carbs your insulin demand will go way down, and thus so should your weight. However, it can take a lot of discipline to live this way. I try and limit myself to about 100 grams of carbs per day, which I feel is a little too high. But I’m active and my insulin demand isn’t that high. Going from 240 grams to around 100 won’t be easy, but remember, you have nothing more precious than your own health and you can do it.
Good luck.
Hi! Type1 going on 34 yrs now. I’ve gone from vials to prefilled pens to the pump and I’m actually surprised you were given the pump straight away. However, that isn’t the reason I decided to respond to your post. I think what will really help you is to see a Nutritionist/Dietitian.
His/her job is not to tell you what you can or cannot eat. He or she should educate you in what foods have the most carb. That aided me the most in lowering my A1C.
You don’t even need to cut carbs all the way down to start losing weight. Lately, I’ve been limiting my carbs to an average of 70g/day, but it is not necessary to go that low to get started. A dramatic drop may discourage you, after all, so take it day-by-day and cut down. After a while, when you are satisfied at the new level, you can cut further to move your weight-loss forward. Take baby steps and you succeed – Do something too drastic and you run the risk of failure.
That said, the book @David48 recommended is very good - and there are many others out that that can help you as well.