Yes! I started Tresiba 3 months ago and almost instantly gained back 25 lbs I had lost, eating the same diet with the same level of activity. The weight is all concentrated in my gut, hips and thighs but mainly my gut. I look like I’m pregnant with twins and feel like I’m a sausage too, a sausage about to explode. Control has been great (paired with Farxiga also started 3 months ago) so maybe it’s the combination but I feel awful from the weight gain.
I am happy to report I now weight 131! lost 24 pounds since last summer with Victoza but then switched back to Trulicity as Victoza was causing pretty severe fatigue and loss of taste for food and skin rash. Just started to feel very off. The Trulicity is once per week and I take it Sunday nights. I still have less appetite and less side effects. The Tresiba I have been able to stay at 10 units per night, I was up at 19 without Victoza or Trulicity. Very happy with losing the excess weight. Doing yoga and walking. Happy Sunday!
I started Tresiba September 2017 and have gained 15 lbs. At the time I started it I also started walking 5 miles a day. It has to be the insulin! I was on Metformin and hated the GI side effects but I’m going back on it! Also o Tresiba I have muscle fatigue especially my legs
Sorry not interested in Victoza or any type of insulin/appetite suppressant.
I took Symlan and it was horrible!
If you are a drug rep. those drugs have too many side effects.
Daily exercise is the best medicine for everyone.
WORD!
Nope no drug rep here. i do exercise a LOT! Trulicity has not bee horrible for me and others it has actually helped a lot.
Cheers!
Hi–did you ever find a replacement for the Tresiba because of the weight gain/fat accumulation? I have been experiencing since January and the fat accumulation was so foreign to me that I had a CT scan done to make sure I didn’t have a growth in my stomach. I have type 1, only for 2 years now, but I’ve always been thin and fit. I swim 35 laps a day and eat very carefully so I don’t buy into the posts here about watching your exercise and diet. I’d really appreciate knowing if there are some alternatives so I can get my life back. Thank you.
No idea if Tresiba causes weight gain, but I’d recommend Levemir. It doesn’t last 24 hours for most people, but the beauty of it is it lasts ~12 hours at smaller doses so that you can split it morning and night with no overlap, and you can adjust the doses based on your day and night basal needs.
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I have now lost nearly 18 lbs since stopping Tresiba and going back on Levemir at the beginning of this year.
It has been a hard slog, and I still have a long way to go, but I am going.
Yes, I also really like Levemir and the flexibility to adjust day and night doses.
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I too, have had weight gain since starting Tresiba 2 years ago. Any advice transitioning to Levemire
It’s a twice-a-day insulin for most people, which is a drawback but also a benefit because you can take different doses for day and night, adjust your dose based on your perceived level of activity/stress for the day, or for what you have eaten for dinner that might digest later. You can also overlap the night and morning doses by taking the morning dose before the night dose has worn off to help with dawn phenomenon. It has a noticeable peak (it’s gentle and nothing like NPH) at around 6 hours for most people, which you can time with when dawn phenomenon kicks in as well. I think it’s a much more flexible insulin than Tresiba because of all this, and closer to how a pump operates allowing you to vary your basal rates. The drawbacks are having to stick to more of a stringent injection schedule, having to take 2 injections/day, and that for some people who only need very small doses they can’t get it to last throughout the day or night.
Thank you Scott_eric. Do you cut your dosage of Tresiba in Half then add half the does of Levemire that same night then switch to all Levemire the next day? I still have Tresiba left so I won’t be doing the switch for a few months. I just want to have a plan. My Endo does not have any experience with this. Luckily, when I requested Tresiba, he listened to my reasoning and agreed. I was his 1st patient to use it. Thanks .
I haven’t found a perfect system, usually because when I’ve switched from one to the other it’s because I’m so pissed off from Tresiba not working the way I want it to that I just take Levemir right away and suffer the consequences. If I were to do it properly I would probably take Tresiba in the morning and less than I usually take, and then the next morning start Levemir so that I don’t risk any hypos from overlapping basals during the night. Your total daily Levemir dose will probably be more than what you are taking of Tresiba. For me I am about 160 lbs and my Levemir dose is between 8.5 to 12 units morning and night depending on activity level and what I’ve eaten for dinner. I find if I take less than 8.5 in the morning it won’t last till my night dose, and above 9 helps with extremely stressful/inactive days but will cause lows all day if the situation changes. I find half doses make a huge difference and use the NovoPen Echo. They still make Levemir penfill cartridges in Canada but I don’t think they do in the United States anymore which is unfortunate.
Thank you Scott_eric. I will keep this for future reference. The diwnside of switching is my A1c on Tresiba is between 5.4 and 5.8, while on Levemire (before I switched) it was ave 6.8 and yes I eat low carb. Oh well, the Battle of Diabetes is a lifelong battle.
What was the reason for that though? Were you splitting the Levemir? Hopefully it won’t happen this time. Carbs are definitely a bigger factor for me in terms of A1C difference than the insulin or delivery device, but they’re so damn good!
Yes, I was splitting the Levemir. As soon as I started Tresiba my A1c dropped. I ate the same on both. I have only had two lows during the night while on Tresiba which I love but I can not take the weight gain. I have had Type 1 for 56 years. It is so frustrating!
It could just be a matter of learning how it affects you and adjusting dosages and timing. Do you have a CGM or Libre?
No CGM or Libra, just a lot of blood tests.
I’d recommend at least the Libre if you’re able to afford it or have insurance coverage, even temporarily just to figure your Levemir profile out.
If you went off the metformin to go on the Tresiba, it’s probably just the going off the metformin that did it, not the Tresiba. Metformin is known to help with weight loss, especially for people with insulin resistance, and Tresiba in no way treats insulin resistance, so if you have it and are on insulin, you’ll end up taking large doses and, yes, gaining weight. Untreated insulin resistance = weight gain. There’s no reason why you can’t combine the two though.
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I take 36 units of Treseba and will be starting Afrezza today
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