I am into week 3 of using Metformin and eating low carb. My numbers are very good, with my highest readings being first thing in the morning, before eating. I guess it’s that dawn phenomenom I’ve heard about. Yesterday I tested 3 times, first thing in the morning I was 124, mid-morning I was at 99, and mid afternoon I was 106. I know these are very good numbers, but keeping in mind that since my diagnosis 3 weeks ago I have not cheated once, no sweets of any kind, no breads, no potatoes, and I’ve lost like one-half of a pound! I’m getting extremely frustrated with this. I’m eating no carbs because of my diabetes, but I’m also hoping to lose some weight and that’s just not happening. Makes me want to give up on the weight loss and start adding carbs back as long as my numbers still look good. I actually cried yesterday morning when I got on the scale and had lost nothing! I don’t know what to do. I’m wondering if some of my other medications are interfering? I take Synthroid, 2 blood pressure medications, Lipitor, and I take Effexor (for depression). I’m wondering if the Effexor is prohibiting the weight loss? Anyone heard of this? I’ve been taking Effexor for several years. Tried to quit about 2 years ago and the withdrawal was hell. I don’t think I actually need it anymore for depression, but I keep taking it only because the withdrawal is so bad. But that’s another story…
Right now I am doing zero exercise. I know I need to but I’m having a hard time finding something that I physically can do. I used to love walking, used to walk religiously years ago, but my old body is falling apart. I have bursitis in my hips which kills me when I walk much, plus about 6 months ago I broke a toe in my left foot, and that still bothers me all of the time, so walking is out. I’ve bought 2 treadmills in the past and given both of them to my daughter.
Would using an exercise bicycle work? I actually have one of those gathering dust in my basement, I don’t think I’ve used it 10 times. I also have 2 exercise DVD’s for “seniors” that I’ve used only a few times. Another roadblock I have is that I take care of my 10 month old granddaughter 3 days a week, and my 5 year old grandson comes to my house every day after school. His parents share custody so every other week he’s here 24-7 and his daddy (my son) works night shift so it’s just me and him most of the time.
All of this is just excuses…I just have trouble making exercise a priority. But it looks like I’m going to have to if I want to lose any weight.
It could well be that effexor causes weight gain I found this to be so. All psycho drugs give me the munchies. On the otherhand the more depressed the more I eat so this is a die if you do and a die if you don’t. Don’t add the carbs back for heavens sake. You will start gaining weight and your BG will go out of control.
Congratulations on the great BG numbers it is probably the low carb diet that is doing the job if it was the met you should also be loosing weight.
I am 58 and I am gaining weight every week. Really desperate about what to do. Will try 2 hours of exercise per day, not sure if my body can take so much without falling apart. I think exercise is a must. I am taking so much insulin (100 units) that weight loss in a nightmare. Bicycling is much more gentle on the knees than walking.
Patricia,
I sympathize with the exercise routine. If not for my beloved old dog, I would be able to find infinite excuses not to walk. I don’t know if this would appeal to you, but about 8 years ago, when I was at my heaviest, I started swimming, something I was once quite good at. It felt great to have the water take the weight off my joints, and it is great exercise whether you swim , do aerobics, or just walk and jog. I now swim fairly regularly, but I still walk every day. My pedometer really keeps me motivated, I find I can put on a 1000 steps just durung a phone conversation without even noticing it. Huge difference in the weight loss potential. Yes, the exercise bike would work, if you can set it up so that you must use it while watching your favorite program ( a sort of a threat to yourself), I think you would find that it quickly became a habit.
Patricia,
Those are great numbers–congratulations! When you say you’re eating no carbs, do you really mean none at all? What are your typical meals? I promise you that adding more carbs won’t help your BG or your weight.
Once your BG is under control, your lipid profile will most probably greatly improve & you may not need the Lipotor. Also, many people do better on Armour thyroid than Synthroid because Armour has T4. Getting your thyroid meds right helps with weight loss, of course.
No, I wouldn’t say that I’m eating no carbs at all. You see, about 5 years ago I lost over 50 pounds on the Atkins diet, so I’m very familiar with what is low carb and what isn’t. That’s one thing that is so frustrating, I lost weight so easily before on low carb, I don’t understand why it’s such a struggle for me now. One problem I have is that I don’t eat hardly any vegetables, and frankly, I don’t cook very often anymore since my children are grown. My grandson is here at lot at dinner time, but I just fix him whatever he wants, I don’t cook an actual dinner meal like I used to with my children.
Today, for breakfast I had 3 scrambled eggs with a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese in them. I actually ate that around 10 AM so didn’t eat again until 5:30 when my kids took me out to eat for Mother’s Day. For dinner I had a delicious ribeye steak and some steamed broccoli, and a small side salad with Ranch dressing. Sometimes I make a meal out of vienna sausages and some diabetic cole slaw that I made myself. I still tend to do what I call “grazing”, but I still eat low carb. I eat a lot of celery with cheese in it or peanut butter in it, or I eat salsa with some cheese “crackers” that I made myself in the microwave out of sliced cheese. I like to make little desserts out of cream cheese, sugar free Jello, and whipping cream. I buy the sugar free puddings at the grocery store and eat those. Sometimes for lunch I’ll have a Lean Cuisine dinner with no more than 25 carbs in it. I do eat sugar free popsicles nearly every day. So that’s just a sampling of what I eat. I haven’t been recording my intake, but sounds like I need to, so I can see where I’m going wrong.
As far as the thyroid medication, I’ve been taking Synthroid for probably 20 years. My doctor does bloodwork on me every 6 months and he always says my thyroid function looks good.
Sorry this answer is so long.
I’m going grocery shopping tomorrow and I think I’m going to get some V8 juice, to try to get more servings of vegetables. I know it doesn’t supply the fiber that real vegetables do, but I’m not eating them anyway so any kind of vegetable I can get in myself should be good, right???
Sorry for the frustration. Really aggravating to be eating as you did before & not losing weight.
Grazing for a Type 2 is good. I can’t as a Type 1 & it’s a pain not to be able to.
Pain in the tush, but it might be worthwhile to write down the carbs, calories & protein you’re eating. If you’re overdoing protein, that can slow down weight loss.
I tried V8 since it’s pretty low carb, but it caused problems. Juice just hits too fast for me, but it may be fine for you. I do eat a lot of vegetables & make a huge pot of veggie soup & freeze it for those days when I can’t stand cooking.
V8 = 10 grams of sugar per can I guess it beats regular coke.
Dear Pat.
The key word in your exposé is 5 years ago. I was doing a mental exercise comparing the amount of physical exercise I did 5 years ago compared to now. Possibly as much as an 80% reduction. the problem is not that we are eating too much but that we are not moving enough.
Hey Patricia you may have finally seen some improvements by the time this gets posted. What is your status? I would agree with Eric Kim that metformin doesn’t induce any weight loss with the exception of increased bowel movements, and helping to block absorption of calories in the gut. The good news is that you shouldn’t gain much weight although looking at your original post maybe the reason you stayed neutral even when accounting for decreased caloric consumption is because the sugar in your blood (elevated A1c) was no longer being filtered through your kidney (polyurea) and was actually getting into the cells where it belongs. That is why most people tend to gain weight with improved glycemic control. Metformin is the safest and cheapest drug to treat your sugars on the market but fails in most people after 3 years time unless you are aggressive and consistent with your lifestyle modification. Good luck
Ben, actually I’m still totally frustrated with my lack of weight loss. In 15 days I’ve lost only 3 pounds. I’m only eating around 1200-1500 calories a day (some days not that much), and average 40-50 carbs per day. And the weird thing is my bg levels are climbing! A couple of weeks ago I was getting numbers from 99 to 112, and for the past week they have jumped up to 129-134, my fasting bg this morning was 134. I have had absolutely NO refined sugar in the past month, and I eat maybe 3 slices of whole wheat-high fiber bread in a week. No potatoes, no pasta, nothing like that. It actually made me cry last night, thinking that this way of eating is supposed to be the rest of my life, and I don’t even get to lose weight doing it!..and I’m only one month into it. It’s very depressing. I go back to my pcp next week and I’ll talk to her about it. Hopefully she’ll order some more blood work so we can see what kind of progress I’ve made. Thanks for your information. I did not realize that people tend to gain weight with improved glycemic control. I would have thought the opposite.
Not so good with the exercise, but I’m getting ready to change that. I have an exercise bike in the basement, buried under a bunch of other junk, I’m going to have my son get that out for me this weekend. I used to walk a lot, but I have bursitis in my hips so bad now, plus I broke a toe in my foot back in December and that still bothers me. I always seem to find excuses not to exercise. I also take care of my two grandchildren, one of which is with me at night because his Daddy works nights. It looks like I’m not going to lose anything until I get to moving!
I WAS TOLD BY MY DOCTOR THAT I CAN LOSE WEIGHT WITH GLUCOPHAGE…BUT I HAVEN’T LOST ONE POUND. I’VE BEEN ON IT FOR OVER A YEAR NOW, BUT I ONLY TAKE 1000MG PER DAY…SO GOOD LUCK 
I can sure symphatize with you. I’ve now lost a grand total of 4 pounds in almost a month. I’m still totally frustrated with my progress, because I haven’t had a bite of anything sweet in a month, haven’t cheated with potato chips or bread or anything. I’m keeping track of everything I eat, am only eating around 1200-1500 calories a day and no more than 60-70 carbs a day and still this slow progress. I lost easier than this before I was diagnosed! I also only take 1000MG of Metformin a day. I’m seeing my doctor on Thursday and going to talk to her about this.
Patricia, weight loss is incredibly hard when you are fighting insulin resistance, which by itself tends to pile on weight, no matter how carefully we eat and how much we exercise. This has been my story for many years, long before I understood what was happening. No diet worked, no amount of exercise. I could always gain, just by, for example, getting sick and not exercising for a week or two. But once gained, it could never be lost. Since I’ve been low-carbing (for the second time), I am actually losing a very few pounds, for the first time in decades, but one of the “joys” of type 2 is that weight loss is very, very difficult, because our own bodies are working against us.
Patricia, 4 pounds in one month is 1 pound a week—and that’s GOOD! That’s HEALTHY weight loss. That is weight loss you can keep off for good.
Losing more than 1-2 pounds a week (except on a heavily supervised medical weight-loss plan) is what dietitians recommend.
Yes, it’s slow. Yes, it’s frustrating. But it’s the healthy, steady way to lose weight. Losing weight faster typically leads to regaining all the lost weight–and more. And who wants that? Just wanted to let you know I “get” your frustration, but I also want to cheer on the pounds you’ve lost.
Thanks for your encouragement. But explain something to me. I’ve been doing a lot of reading since I was diagnosed, let’s see if I understand this correctly. Insulin is a hormone, a fat-storing hormone. With diabetes, the cells in my body do not properly absorb the insulin as they should. So I understand that means it gets stored as fat. And then my liver/pancreas releases more insulin because it thinks I need it, right? But I thought the medication (Metformin) was supposed to take care of that and make my cells absorb insulin better. Is that correct? OK then, I understand why I gained weight when I was eating all the carbs and not taking medication…because my cells were not absorbing the insulin, so it got stored as fat. Then it seems reasonable to me that if my cells are now doing better, there shouldn’t be as much insulin to be stored as fat??? And by golly, I should be losing weight…tell me why it’s not working that way!
Patricia
think of it like this: insulin is a key that unlocks the door in your cells to let sugar in. With diabetes there is alot of sugar floating in your bloodstream that needs to get in to the cell where it can be used and stored. Because these cells are probably insulin resistant the key (insulin) doesn’t open the door as it should. Your pancreas is increasing the insulin production because it is trying to throw more keys at the door as the sugar keeps knocking but can’t get in. Now separately, diabetics have something else- an increase in glucagon (another hormone in the pancreas) that causes the liver to create new glucose. Since the sugar can’t get into the cells (the key won’t work very well) the cells are signaling they are hungry and causing your liver to make more sugar (even though there is plenty sitting outside your cell). Metformin decreases this amount of sugar being produced by the liver and very modestly helps the insulin key unlock the door in some of your cells. Insulin is just a key- it doesn’t get stored as fat. I realize this is a simplistic version of what is going on but hopefully it paints a clearer picture for you. The weight loss with metformin is also modest and is predominantly resulting from eating less and going to the bathroom more…
Well, Patricia, as Kelly mentioned, you are losing weight, if you’ve lost 4 pounds in a month. I was on metformin for years before even beginning to lose weight, after I started low-carbing again. It just takes a long time. I’ve lost 8 pounds since December, but since it’s the first weight loss I’ve had since the insulin resistance began, I’m thrilled! I don’t know why it doesn’t just melt off if the metformin is doing its job, but I’m proof that it doesn’t. But keep at it, the low carbing helps.
And, Patricia, it’s helpful to me not to focus on weight. I keep a spreadsheet with things like blood sugar different times during the day, blood pressure, exercise, and, incidentally, my weight. I don’t focus on it anymore, I just notice it and put it down. And I know that, even if one day there is a pound off, the next day it may be back on, but it’s a thrill each time I reach a pound less for the first time. But I try not to focus on it. Focus instead on my sugar levels, on what exercise I did, etc. I started this long before I started low-carbing, when I had given up on ever losing weight, and I did not start low-carbing to lose weight, but to improve my blood sugar.