My first introduction with diabetes was gestational diabetes at the age of 40 with my second child. I had always been 120 lb. until my first child at the age 37. Then stayed around 140 lb then 130 lb till second pregnancy. After the birth of my second child every thing went along very well for the next 15 years. Everything except my weight which I was never able to get back down. By 2008 I had blown up to 165 lb. and at 5’4" I was pretty fluffy. Try as I might I could not lose the weight (big around middle not good). During the fall of 2008 I began to feel tired all the time. I attributed this to age and did not have it checked. By winter 2009 things were getting worse, everytime I would get up and move around I felt that I was draging heavy weights on my feet and all I wanted to do was to either sit back down or go to sleep. Then I began to notice that I had dropped a few pounds without even trying, as a matter of fact I was stuffing my face with carbs at an alarming rate. By May I had lost about 15 lbs., but since I was facing the end of a 20 year marriage I thought the weight loss was due to stress and did not seek medical attention. Over the next two months the weight kept dropping, and by July I began to worry. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes on August 9, 2009 at 130 lbs., and put on Metformin HLC 500mg twice per day. I went to Diabetic Education class 6 weeks later where I learned I had lost another 7 lbs. I remember sitting and listening about how to lose weight through diet and exercise and hearing nothing about how to stop losing weight. My next visit with my doctor was in November and I was down to 120 lbs. but my blood glucose very good, so good that he cut me to one Metformin per day. When I asked about the weight lose has asked how I felt and I told him I had not felt this good in a long time, and his reply was “Don’t worry about it”. I worried about it anyway. By spring when I shed the oversized winter clothes and wore better fitting spring clothes (size 3s donated by my two teeage daughters), my friends and coworkers expressed their concerns so I made and appointment with an Endo. My weight was down to 110 lbs. She did blood work, nerve test and ekg. While talking to her about the weight lose she said that some type 2s do too good a job of watching their carbs and that her office would contact me with an appointment with a diabetic educator(never called). On my way home I thought about what she had said and wondered “had she not been listening, I told her the weight lose started prior to my diagnosis”.
Starting to lose respect now. My blood work came back and I was told that my Pancreas is producing insulin 4.8H but that my cholesterol is elevated so I was put on meds for that. Early in the summer I contracted an upper respitory virus and lost down to an all time low at 104 lbs.(first time I had been sick in over a year). I went back to my GP and on my last visit I was told that I had protien in my urine. and was given Ramipril 2.5., but I was up to 108 lbs.(go me) I know this is a very long blog and if you are still reading it I would like to thank you for you patience and enduance. If anyone has information on how I can put back on a few pounds, please let me know(if I don’t wear a belt the size 3s will fall down)
Hi skinnimini! (cute name btw)
I see you have found out Thin T2 group (http://www.tudiabetes.org/group/thintype2diabetics) and welcome!
You are NOT alone! My diagnosis was similar to yours in that I am 5’4" and I weighed 130 lbs when I was diagnosed. I lost 25 lbs in the first 3 months because of low carbing (and being freaked out too much to eat anything!). I was a size 4 and I am now a size 1/2. (I hate that all my pants are way too big on me - I had to get new stuff!) I was diagnosed on Feb 26, 2010. I didn’t really have any symptoms of losing weight like you but yeah, I was tired etc. I thought the same as you - it was due to other things in my life. (and yes, I had a lot of stress too - why do these things always happned when we have already enough problems in our lives?)
As of now, I am staying at a stable 105 lbs. I think my body wants to stay at that - it shed those 25 lbs pretty quick - and I was too tired to exercise in those first three months so it wasn’t because of that. But I am also a vegan so I hardly eat any fat. (I have been a veg for 20 years and I have never weighed more than 130 my whole life). Right now, I am doing a muscle toning and building and it seems to be helping me not look so much like a bag of bones! I am medicial mystery (the doctor who diagnosed me called me “fresh produce” ha!) but I feel I am a perfect example to the fact that Type 2 D has a strong genetic component and you don’t have to be fat to have to develop it. I do have some fat around my middle but yeah, 130 lbs for a 5’4" woman is NOT fat - but perhaps my body thinks it was. 
It runs in my family and several of my cousins just also found out they have it around same age as me (40) except they are fat and I am thin. I often wonder if there was no way I could have prevented this. Sometimes there is only so much you can do and than those nasty genes take over.
I am also on Met 500mg twice a day- I had a 9.2 A1C at diagnosis and it was at 4.9 3 months later! I have a feeling my doctor will take me down also.
As far as advice goes, well, we Thins are all trying to figure out how to pack on a few - for me since my diet is limited, I am trying to do it with muscle buidling. I am not concerned about my number (I actually weighed this much back in my 20s and I felt good and wasn’t worried about it) but more of how I look so I figure if I have to be this thin - I might as well look toned and musclular.
With you still having a cholestrol problem, I would not recommend you to try to pack on the pounds by eating more fat (at least saturated fat). Are you exercising at all? Muscle weight can also make that number go up. But don’t be too concerned by the number. You are a small woman. Go by how you feel or look - that is what I always do. Your sugar are good and that is what is important. We are all different and I believe our bodies know the perfect weight they want us to be at. Depending on your frame and bone structure, yours might be different. I have wide hips (by bones) and I swear if it wasn’t for my hips - yeah, my size 4’s would have fallen right off of me! My butt pretty much disappeared when I lost that weight so that was one of reasons I am at a size 1 right now. I still have tum fat to lose(why couldn’t the weight fall off from there? LOL) but I am working on it.
Did they test you for antibodies? If you are spilling protein into your urine and have lost all this weight, couldn’t you be LADA and be intermittently producing insulin?
Eating more protein is a way to gain weight without adding a lot of carbs. I’m a T1 eating a very low carb diet & couldn’t maintain my weight. It was hard for me to eat larger portions of protein with meals, so I used protein powder, either unflavored whey isolate protein powder (not the hydrolyzed form) or hemp protein powder to gain weight. Whey isolate is higher protein, dissolves easily & has very little flavor. I made shakes using unsweetened almond milk (2 carbs per 8 ounces), protein powder, unsweetened cocoa powder & powdered stevia. Filling & yummy. I also added protein powder to baking & to some soups. Pea protein powder works for soup, if you like the taste of peas:
I also eat nuts–almonds, pecans, walnuts & Brazil nuts for protein & good fats.
Hi skinnymin,
You should stop at the drug store and get some ketone strips(they cost around 8-10 bucks) and monitor that since you are having a problem with weight loss. The ketone strips can help you determine quickly if you are passing an excessive amount of ketones. This can help you zero in too with your diet to maintain your weight and give you a guide if you need to get in and see the Dr.
Also a side effect of metformin is weight loss. I lost weight on it once I started it. Being on only one a day though is not very much though.