My doctor suggested I read the Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Weight Loss. Honestly it made me so angry about this disease and my body. I stopped reading. I am about 25 pounds over weight, very active . I take insulin and take thyroid medication I am going to be 67. It is so upsetting. Nancy50
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Why are you upset?
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Imagine that you are doing your best and it just is not enough. Imagine that you are doing pretty good for your circumstances and you get hit with this.
The doctor may be well meaning and right but it can still be deflating.
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As hard as I try, my weight goes up and down 5 pounds. Two of my sisters are thins,1 a little over weight. My brother is preD. I think after 25 years ,it just hit me how much I hate this disease. I have no complications at this time. I have tried very hard. Nancy50
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Just don’t give up!!! There is an answer that fits your needs and you just need to find it. Maybe you are working at this way too hard. Sometimes there is a smarter route that is a lot easier. Not recommending these as I have only read some of their work or their studies but you may want to contact a group such as
or
I don’t know if you are T1 or T2 or something in between but these 2 organizations specialize in weight reduction programs and are having exceptional results. Even if they are not exactly what you are looking for, they may have a lead in helping you with your objectives.
Keep the faith.
I am sorry. I was not sure if her doctor’s suggestions were upsetting or just dealing with TD2 for so long. I just wanted clarification before responding. It is so easy to miscommunicate on a forum.
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I get the weight issue. I am in my late 50’s with celiac disease, Hashimoto’s and Chronic Autoimmune Gastritis. My weight is slowly creeping up despite that I teach fitness classes, cycle and run. My diet has been very low carb which is making my meter happy.
I researched Intermittent fasting for almost a year. Finally, I decided to try it almost two weeks ago because despite my best efforts nothing changed for the past five months. My fasting blood sugar is recently the low 80’s which is pretty amazing. I am only doing a 16/8 fast and started with a 12 hour fast. What hit me was the fact that it was how I ate as a child more or less. No snacking (were cereal/snack bars even invented?) between meals and no late night snacking. I am still sticking to low carb as much as possible. I think my gut is happier too getting a rest instead of always working. Only time will tell if this works for me in the long run.
I get the frustration of dealing with food and illnesses all the time. We each need to find our own way. Hang in there.
P.S. I wish my new PCP was so diabetes savvy. I complain about the photo hanging on his wall that shows a dinner plate consisting of grilled chicken breast, brown rice and veggies. That rice would spike my blood sugar the same as a cupcake!
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I wouldn’t think twice about 25 lbs at 67. I’m 37 and I’m about that. Good for you! That’s very close to ideal weight.
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Oh Nancy, I have been trying to lose weight for more than 10 years now and nothing shifts. I truly think once you get older (I am nearly 80) it is just about impossible. I have decided I am going to be content with my weight as it is. I eat lowish carb, exercise as much as I can and generally try to keep myself fit and healthy.
Just lately I have been moaning and groaning about how unfair diabetes is, and why can’t I eat like anyone else. I had a piece of birthday cake on Saturday and am still paying for it. Really it isn’t fair, but that is how it is. Throw the Obesity Code away and live life with joyfulness.
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Its definitely super frustrating. I have been dieting almost my entire adult life. After being diagnosed at 11, I shot up to 215 lbs. by the time I started high school. I managed to lose 50 of those pounds through extremely hard work over almost a decade, and then the weight just started coming back, and it’s a real challenge not to balloon up even more. It’s so frustrating when you’re constantly watching what you eat, never seeing any results, and getting judged at every doctors visit. I console myself that all my labs are perfect, and without the number from the scale, I would be judged as pretty healthy (metabolic panel is perfect and a healthy heart, thank God), but it’s still super frustrating. I feel your pain.
I will say my labs are great also. No problems at all. I have a wonderful PCP, great doctor. I also see a CDE, several times a year. Thank you for letting me vent my frustration. Nancy50
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Nancy, yes, just being referred to books doesn’t necessarily help!
Have you tried consulting with a real and modern dietitian? After nearly 40 years with T1 (like you I use insulin and thyroid medidcation for that long) and almost as long since seeing a dietitian, I got hooked up with a really good one I am working with. And I’m making some measurable progress.
Yes working with dietitians is something I did not have a good history with in the past. Partly because many were not very good. But also to be realistic my stubborness too. but this one I got hooked up with, is really good.
Yes, good bg control with insulin often leads to weight gain. I did pretty well for the first 30 years of T1 but now that I’m older, a lot of eating habits I had that I could get away with when I was younger, I simply cannot get away with anymore.
It’s a good book. This Dr routinely gets patients off most if not all medications. Stick with what your comfortable with.
It could use a better title.
Nancy,
I’m in favor of living with the 25 extra pounds and enjoying your life just the way you are! While excess weight can be a health issue, it’s quite possible to be a bit overweight and still healthy. I’m in the camp with Dr. Robert Lustig, who says that the location of that extra fat is what makes the difference. Visceral fat, the fat that accumulates in your liver and other organs is bad news. But you can have “love handles” and still be perfectly healthy. You can control this by what you eat. Dr Lustig has a number of YouTube videos — just pick one of the more recent ones.
If you want to lose the weight for appearance, fine. But just realize that you are OK just the way you are.
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I agree. I’m shocked a doctor would even bring up obesity. I’m 37 and am more than 100 pounds overweight, which is a problem. I’m surprised, though, that no doctor really focuses on my weight that much. On the other hand, that’s frustrating because it means I’m on my own as far as figuring out how to lose it.
I can totally relate to getting burned out and/or frustrated with dealing with diabetes and dietary restrictions for decades. I’m at almost 28 years of diabetes and about 33 years of severe food allergies. Many days are still a struggle regardless.
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Re "I’m in favor of living with the 25 extra pounds and enjoying your life just the way you are! "
Me too… if only it would stay at 25, and not creep up to +50 or +100
Nancy, I don’t blame you for being angry. I am sure your doctor was trying to be helpful, but trying and succeeding are two very different things. I have a bias, and that is whenever a title includes “the secret of” I regard it as bogus, or too commercial to bother with. There is no secret to weight loss, period. Everyone with a working brain knows that it is calories in VS calories expended. It gets a little more complicated with diabetes on some levels, but on the other hand if one is trying to adhere to a healthy diet you are already doing a good job both for your health and for well being in general.
Hi @eileen10,
I was with you right up to the point of your comment that, “Everyone with a working brain knows that it is calories in VS calories expended.” I think that is a false assumption. All calories are not handled the same way metabolically in the body. I do believe that someone on a low carb/high fat diet will have a different outcome than someone on a high carb diet, even if the caloric intake is the same.
Dr Robert Lustig talks about this in both his book and his YouTube videos. The role of sugar and fiber and their relationship to weight are covered extensively. And he has the research to back it up.
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I completely agree. The old “calorie in vs calorie out” is only the 1st law of thermodynamics, and completely ignores the 2nd law which deals with entropy of the system (body).
Keto diets and the process of ketosis use energy internally during the process of turning fat into ketones. In other words, converting fat to ketones burns calories.
In other words,
2nd Law says Calories in = Calories out + Entropy
This isn’t accounted for by the diet gurus quoting calories in = calories out.
https://proteinpower.com/drmike/2007/10/04/thermodynamics-and-weight-loss/
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