I only eat about 10% fat, so no oils of any kind, and since I am a vegan no cheese, butter etc. The weight just fell off and the diet really lowered insulin resistance. It isn’t for everyone though. 
@Aly1992, here’s what works for me. It might not work for you and especially wont work for a body type like @Marilyn6’s.
First background: 14 yrs of type 1, current age 40, weight 207 lbs. Taking also metformin 500mg, morning and evening. Weight goal is 187.
So what now works for me is eating keto-food three times a day, no snacking. The abrupt stop of snacking is the change I made in the beginning of July and for July (and onwards) I’ve had healthy person’s BG - an A1c of 5.4%. Until then A1c was hovering between 6-6.2% for years on end.
What this allows is to remove insulin stacking and increase insulin sensitivity. The time between meals is 5-6 hours, which stabilizes your sugars between meals and makes the impact of each subsequent meal less dramatic. If you’re not in keto, it also takes one-two weeks to transition to ketosis, after you start, to be able to recover your previous energy and vitality.
Snacking at least for me is a major reason also to gain extra weight, but it doubles its effect when you’re high (> 140 mg/dl). It takes hours to get my BG to normal, and if I snack in between those hours, the BG wouldn’t normalize until next morning. I lost 6 pounds in July.
I don’t think calorie restriction would work for an active person or a person with a highly demanding work position. I burn up to 4.5k calories a day (I train jiu-jitsu, bike to work and do strength training, while doing software engineering for a living) and try to get a minimum of 3k calories in. In the following ratio (per day) carbs 30g, protein 200g, fat minimum 200g (less omega6, more omega3, such as virgin olive oil, fish oil, mct, coconut…).
Forgot to mention that I take the metformin an hour before the meal, to sensitize the upcoming insulin shot. Also I know I am not your typical SW engineer who burns 4.5k cals on a 200lbs/5’11’’ frame (I dont live in the US 
)
Links:
a bit more detailed experience: July 2020 T1D Management Update – type1hacked
awesome free ketodiet: 14-Day Complete Low Carb Diet Meal Plan – Diet Doctor
Hope this helps 
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That is actually the way I ate for 11 yrs. I followed Bernstein’s low carb way to eat. I never snacked unless low. I don’t snack now. That is a good point to bring up. Not snacking makes a world of difference.
My body finally told me that very low carb was not good for me, so I switched to low fat plant based.
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I am calm, and the first thing I said was that I know you were kidding about it to make it clear that I didn’t think there was any ill intent. My point was that even so, because diabulimia (running blood sugars high in order to lose weight) is a very real and serious thing, I would suggest not even jokingly recommending it. You specifically referred to letting your blood sugar run high, not any of the things you are saying in this newer comment like going low carb. I’m just saying doing that as a weight-loss technique is a serious enough issue that it is just not something I would joke about, any more than I would joke about starving one’s self or purging.
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I’m with you. Tried metaformin, did nothing for me. Exercise, healthy eating. Fitbit and other apps to track everything. I finally just stopped. I don’t read any of the articles anymore and stopped wearing my Fitbit. Still exercise and eat healthy…just trying to maintain and not gain anymore. I’m not happy with my weight but I’m grateful I’m not gaining anymore.
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This sounds so much like me! Trying to loose 8-10 lbs, nothing seems to work. I am not eating much in calories portion size is on the low end and nothing is happening. My A1C is 5.8 I don’t eat much in carbs unless it’s fruit. I have made an appointment with a Dietician for tomorrow. I have never been on a “diet”. I walk 3 times a week. I would do more but I have issues with my feet. Going to head back to the gym to use the bike. Have to give it a try because nothing seems to be working!
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Ugh, I’m sorry that you’re experiencing the same issues. It’s frustrating beyond believe. I do my best not to compare myself to others, but I have friends who decide to get fit and within a week of just making the decision have lost 10 pounds. I’ve been trying to lose 10 pounds for the better part of a year!
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I have been T1 for 23 years and almost 42 years old. I really felt a change in my body the older I get. But I do know there is hidden issue with thyroid. Even though my T3 was fine it is still sluggish. I would make sure those levels are ok (all of them not just T3). Have you changed your exercise up? I was a walker and still am but I need to add a little HIIT to it AND relax with yoga to balance the cortisol.
I am an emotional eater so my weight loss gets stunted from my own personal issues. I do still remain grain free, dairy free, low carb higher fat almost all plant biased. I feel you though I am really stuggling keep truing over every leaf and remind yourself the alternative of not trying isn’t an option.
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Do you follow a certain diet? How do you get enough protein on a plant based diet?
It is amazing how much protein I get eating the way I do. I eat a lot of legumes and lentils which have lots of protein. I used to eat very low carb, so lots of meat and dairy and my protein levels when tested were always bordering on low. Now my protein levels are firmly in the middle.
I took the course offered by the two guys at Mastering Diabetes. They are both type 1’s and Cyrus has a PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from Berkeley and his undergraduate degrees are from Stanford. He knows what he is talking about.
I never count calories, but eat until I am full. I eat potatoes, lentils, rice, legumes, oats, seeds, fruit, and vegetables. I eat very little fat.
I take about 20-23 units of insulin a day and eat about 275 carbs daily. This way of eating lowers insulin resistance.
Exercise is strongly encouraged. I exercise for about an hr a day.
These guys also recently wrote a book called Mastering Diabetes and It can be purchased from Amazon. They also have videos on YouTube.
They also have a free chat room which can be found on their website which is MasteringDiabetes.com
Feel free to ask me anything.
Thank you for that information. I am going to buy the book and investigate online. I have been considering a diet like this one.
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Please don’t lose confidence! If you can handle diabetes, you can handle this.
Unfortunately weight loss, like diabetes is different for everyone. What works for one, won’t work for the next.
But your story sound like mine. Diabetes for awhile, weight just kept creeping on. I went on a pump and it got worse. I was just resigned to the fact I was always going to be heavy.
But I had an insurance change and started with a different doctor. He asked me what are the things that drive me crazy about my diabetes. I said weight and post meal spikes. So thinking outside the box, we tried an off label type 2 medication. We talked about all the possibilities and ended up on Victoza. It helps suppress my appetite, so I don’t eat nearly as much as I use to. I still eat everything I use to, i don’t low carb anything, but just less.
The other big change was the amount of insulin I was using in my pump. I have always been afraid of high blood sugars, so to fix that, more insulin. And of course that leads to more lows and more food to treat lows. I was just feeding the insulin.
So we just went back to the “standard” formula based on weight & current amounts to come up with a basal number. We went with one basal for 24 hours except for work. (Very physical job so needed to be much lower). I was very iffy about it, but gotta try something different if current system isn’t working. My insulin levels have been cut in half. And I have two basal rates. One overnight and one for daytime. Work days total around 13 total basal and off days 16 total basal unit.
Not saying that might be an issue for you but for me over the many, many long years, I just kept increasing my basal thinking that would be the answer. Reality for me, and yes, this is for me, too much insulin was the problem not insulin resistance. Not saying that is the problem but maybe coming at it from a completely different way, might be the answer. I would never have thought to try an injectable type 2 med or have that heart to heart chat what about what really bothers me about my diabetes. My new treatment plan has fixed those frustrations for me. In over 3 years I went from 163 to 122 pounds. Just changed insulin dosing and new medication and I now walk to work instead of driving to work.
Hang in there! It can happen! May just need a completely different spin. My doctor change and working with other doctors doing clinical trials has really opened me to me and different ideas!
In the past, when doctors have including endos have made comment about weight I ask them at what weight will my islet cells grow back and or if I do, how many more years of life do you guarantee me?
I say these things not to make light of your situation, but to change your focus a little. My philosophy is this: Doctors don’t like to be wrong and they don’t like to admit they can’t fix it. I MAKE NO INSULIN. If i lost 50% or 80% of my current body weight, I still make no insulin. I am not here to make a doctor happy or gain their approval. My weight goes up, my weight goes down. My numbers are within accepted limits for a person who makes no insulin. My numbers will never be perfect and there is no cure. I accept that.
Do the best you can with your weight, but live life. Have a care with your numbers but don’t worry overly much about them. You are NOT a failure. You have presented doctors with a problem they can’t solve and many feel like failures themselves because they can’t solve it, so they point to a symptom as a diversion. There is an old addage for type ones, “If you are in good control, you’ll gain weight”. Stress and over worry will kill you faster then making no insulin.
As always, YMMV.
Did you try to stop eating altogether? It might be easier for some, kind of intermittent fasting or something. There is no magic. The body needs calories to function. It gets them from food you eat (no weight loss) or from its own tissues when there is not enough food (weight loss). That is it.
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I would like to share what I am doing now I’ve been a T1 for over 40 years now. I am overweight, followed keto for about a year and lost 35 lbs., then plateaued. I started adding some carbs because I had some severe GI issues that turned out to be related up to a medical issue, and gained back the weight. I recently signed up for this commercial wellness program offered through Blue Shield. After I signed up I was worried about eating fruit but I’m doing ok. There is a coach that checks on us daily for 60 days. So far I’ve lost 15 lbs after about 6 weeks. The premise of this program is that your body wants to express wellness, so we need to nourish it and take care of it and allow it to do so. First step is to re-establish a healthy gut microbiome, the gut is our body’s second nerve system. We eat real food, no processed foods, sugar or artificial sweeteners. The idea is to reduce the release of stress hormones that are felt to cause our eating problems. We eat if we are hungry until we feel full, just follow the food list. Then later we add new foods. Other people lost a lot more than me. It is an interesting way of thinking. I like this so far.
Apologies, I’'ll leave this for posterity, but I see you are fairly active…
Exercise is likely the most import modification for insulin sensitivity…
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Personally, losing weight has been tough.
Quick background first:
- Late-teen diagnosed T1, was 175 lbs. on 6’4" frame
- In the late-20s and early-30s, I let myself get more muscular, where previously would stop when lifting led to gain
- Over time, with less aerobic work, gained weight, up to 230, a mix of fat and muscle, but even then, people would say I didn’t have fat to lose
At that point I decided to lose weight:
- Started a 2000 calorie a day diet
- Switched to higher-protein, multi-meal diet
- Cut out Japanese (rice anyway), started eating protein bars, and meals that were often only one item, fish, cottage cheese, or eggs, with some carb
- The calorie and carb reduction reduced my insulin needs by 50%
- Weighted myself daily, using a bioimpedance body fat scale, and tracked it
- Lost 20 pounds very quickly but took another year to lose another 15 pounds.
- Plateaued at 195, and stayed there for a long time, but marriage put 10 pounds back
- Somewhere around the decline and death of my mother, gained much of it back, partially because I had to spend time in the suburbs away from my usual lifestyle choices - gained 10 pounds - and then after she died, but no explanation here.
My takeaway:
- A low-calorie diet - the lowest sustainable for men is 1500, and for women about 1200
- Fitness - long term losers (>50 pounds) that maintained wight loss work out about an hour a day, but I would limit it to 4 hours per week
- Daily weigh-ins
- Reduced influence of others - this is tougher because for me to lose weight, I’d need to reduce the effects of my spouse, as well as reduce my meals out with family. Sounds simple but asking my wife to change her habits is not easy, and she doesn’t see me as being overweight. Honest, I’m fit and don’t have my fat in one place like many men, so…
Ok somehow I missed that about the kidding part, sorry about that. I will not joke about it again, I realize it is a serious issue and certainly do not want to imply it is not.
I did not mention about the low carb etc. but that was what was on my mind because I went through a period of constant severe bg drops right after eating to the point that I was terrified to eat, literally, and I lowered my carbs more and more to try to stop the crashes.
My bg was also spiking a lot then, for hours, I am not sure why, prolly eating less carbs, as that happens to me, it seemed like delayed digestion also maybe but I think it was gluten and grain related. And I was also losing weight, my bg is much worse to manage when I am thinner overall for some reason.
I ended up almost in dka and was in hospital for 24 hrs on fluids in the middle of all of it. After I got out I eliminated all grains and separated my dishes and sterilize all dishes. The bg crashes gradually got better, I was able to eat more carbs and I gained back the weight. I will never eat super low carb again, it is definitely not for me, even before this event. I feel people should be warned about this that as a type one really low carb can produce high ketones and put you into dka, which happened to me. I can go into it just from dehydration and other things.
That sounds rough—also sounds like you might not have been taking insulin for protein/fat, which you definitely will need to do if eating low carb, and often that insulin either needs to be taken later, after eating, or if you’re regularly eating very low carb, Regular insulin may be a better fit than Humalog/Novolog. However, in my experience, some diabetes educators etc have no idea how to educate on any of that or really anything around low carb eating, so not your fault if you didn’t know!!!
I think low carb can be safe for T1 diabetics, but it requires a lot of changes to be done safely (not just in insulin, but also more water, electrolytes, etc).
I’m glad you got through it ok, and makes sense that it’s not for you! Super low carb isn’t for me either—my body already has heightened requirements for fluids/electrolytes, so keto-type diets really don’t work for me either.
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No I was taking insulin for both but that was a whole different thing going on, I was having severe digestive issues, they thought maybe it was gastroparesis. But tests didn’t show it, but who knows, people here said they had it and it didn’t show up at first. I have ibs and gluten grain sensitivity, prolly celiac but I can’t start gluten again to find out and endo says just treat as if I do.
Anyway, I would eat then and bg crashed 20 minutes in badly, then spike later, imo it was more from not eating enough carbs because I was terrified to eat because of the lows.
But either way I was losing weight getting back into dka weight loss territory. So then I woke up one day, bg was 100. I went back to sleep, and woke up an hour later, it was 350 going up with very high ketones and vomiting so off to the er. I had had some runs and was prolly dehydrated as well some sort of gastroenteritis they said maybe.
When I separated my dishes, sterilized all dishes etc. eliminated all grains it gradually got better. I had to eat ground food and liquids for quite a while to help with the digestion. But no docs really helped me, they were useless. Someone here mentioned about sterilizing the dishes and separating them and I had read that celiac should not eat any grains. So I tried it all.
But before this when I was on mdi, I tried the dr B diet and it was terrible for me, lots of lows and spikes no matter what I did. I will never do it again, or any too low carb, especially after the dka event. If I bolused for proteins it just crashed and I felt like I was starving. I know it works for many people, just be aware some of us will go into dka with too low carbs and I can go into it from dehydration alone.
I am on a pump and novolog only, that is what works best for me. Never again for mdi it was terrible.