You don't appear to need to lose weight, Andrea! I understand the frustration with not being able to achieve weight loss easily; I couldn't do it until I developed diabetes, and then, I had to fight to keep it on through most of my 30s. But, I was a good 40 lbs overweight, which, at 4'8" is a LOT overweight and it most definitely showed. You don't look like you're in that category like I was!
Remember, you don't need to be model thin to be healthy and happy!
I am T2 and asked for metformin when I started having trouble with dawn phenomenon. I took it for a year. It didn't help the DP. I didn't lose a pound, even on a very low carb, calorie restricted diet. It did give me horrible leg cramps about 3 a.m. every night. I don't think that's typical, but when I stopped taking it the cramps pretty much went away. I mostly object to doctors giving T2 patients metformin without telling them it doesn't work like insulin. I have known people who could eat dessert, they claimed, because they doubled their metformin that day.
I disagree with a lot of this. A good chunk of metformin's weight loss benefit is because it screws with digestion. The reduction in insulin use is by increasing insulin sensitivity (reducing insulin resistance), but the cells will still be letting in the same amount of food even though you cut back on insulin use.
Then regular metformin is a horrible drug for T1s, and I'd argue that ER isn't much better. There may be some rare cases where they are useful (high insulin resistance or in a low dose to manage DP), but they have nasty side effects, their absorbtion rates are anything but predictable (because they cause digestive problems), and T1s don't produce insulin on demand. Our bodies aren't helping regulate BG.
For me (and apparently a few others on this board) regular metformin peaks in effectiveness at around 5 hours. Then I would have a hard drop around 7 hours. I suppose one could try and time food perfectly to meet this peak (causing a reduction in BG) and valley, but you might as well be buying older insulins OTC at Walmart. As a T1 diabetic, our goal should be to limit variability as much as possible, and by adding huge peaks and valleys, it becomes nearly impossible.
I rode that Metformin plus insulin roller coaster for a year before I realized what the metformin was doing and before I got my T1 diagnosis. I had damn near uncontrollable peaks and valleys in my BG. Additionally, I gained 30 pounds because I had to eat to control the lows and inject a ton of insulin when BG shot up. Then there were the highs and lows, and an A1C that shot up by over a point.
This video is from GMA and the second part discusses misuse of metfomin , and is comparing it to diabulimia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYMJP1tgID0
Just to clarify, diabulimia is not recognized as an ED by the DSM. Its the use of too little insulin that is considered a form of purging so it can be considered EDNOS or bulimia.
Other misuse of meds can count as purging ex taking too much synthroid.
Isn't there a definition of insulin resistance based on a certain threshold of units per kilogram ?
If someone choose to take metformin bc of the GI upset and diarrhea causing weight loss, that seems remindful of laxative abuse.