It's normal to gain weight once you start insulin or tighten up your BG control. First and foremost, insulin is a weight-storing hormone, so the more you take, the more resistant your body will be to weight loss. Second, your BG's are likely better with insulin, so your body is not munching on fat cells like it does when your BG is elevated. That's a good thing.
To lose weight and keep it off, you will need to adhere to a lower-carb diet to lower your insulin needs. To lose the weight, you should try to keep meals at <20g, with a 10g snack at night. Only veggies for daytime snacks. Once your weight is under control, try to keep your meals at <30g with a 15g snack at night. Focus on meats, green veggies, eggs, cheeses, nuts, oil and butter. All the spices you want. Minimize sweets, fruit, pasta, potatoes, and bread (you won't miss them after a while). Exercise is helpful too, but your food intake is by far the main component to losing weight. I've been doing this for the last 10 years and keeping a healthy weight has been pretty effortless.
So far, though I'm 4-5 lbs down on the scale, the fluctuation is such that I can't count that as real weight loss. Though my normal day did not include all that many carbs, I have tried cutting down on carbs even further in hopes that it will help. Two things seems to have happened: I seem to be even more sensitive to carbs than before I cut down - so spikes are higher - and I find that after 4-5 days on the low carb level, my mind wanders, I make more errors at work, and I generally feel lifeless. I don't this this is working well for me, so far. Have to find a difference combination to succeed here, I think.
I'm not sure what you mean by "high dose," it would seem to me that the real concern is a poorly tuned insulin regime. If you constantly feel yourself going low between meals and snacking to cover your insulin I could easily see how that would lead to weight gain. I do think getting your insulin regime to "just what you need and just in time" leads to the best results.
Agreed! One questionâwhy would your body harvest fat when BGs are high? When youâre lacking insulin, that can lead to high BGs and fat breakdown for energy, but in the presence of sufficient insulin, why would the body start using fat?
I think its more complicated than we know. I think the body might put on weight when its under stress because if you walk into illness with some stored fat reserves, it might increase survival odds. I read that pre-diabetics that dont put on weight can be considered 'sicker' because their bodys aren't giving them the accommodation that the need to be prepared for serious illness thats just around the corner.
Whats really strange, to me, is that when I was on the higher Lantus dose, I think I was really walking the boundary of what my body could tolerate. But, I wasn't seeing low BG. It was counter intuitive. The system was behaving chaotically. I was seeing extreme highs that, apparently, might indicate that the basal is set too high. Explain that. The system, when its in that chaotic state, may not be following many rules. Do you think the system behaves in a similarly chaotic way at the lower boundary of the insulin specturm? Does it go all crazy when one is receiving just enough insulin to survive? It might. IDK. I'm keeping an eye out for chaotic behavior as a possible indicator that I have reached the bottom of the well, for Lantus dosages.
I have been on Lantus and Humalog for a little under a year now. Knowing that they can put weight on....and the fact that I've lost a significant amount of weight with more to take off, I won't let that happen. I adjusted my exercise to 75 minutes, and cut back to 30 carbs for meals and 14 for snacks. It can be done....not gaining weight. I found when I first started on insulin, I had an attitude adjustment to make, I couldn't eat everything I wanted because the insulin would make my numbers right. I found I had to be even more careful about what I ate. Back to journaling and keeping track until the time I feel more comfortable with what I can do and have. Gainiing weight doesn't have to be.
this happened to me, one endo had me up to nearly 18 units of basal and my blood sugars went sky high and wouldn't come down, extreme highs like you. I'm now on 6 - 8 total units of levemir (still haven't gotten it right) and my blood sugars are much better or at least they'll correct down. for some reason, if one takes too much basal it can have a reverse effect...cause I didn't have lows i just couldn't get my blood sugars down. adding excessive basal MDI can really mess up the body, in my experience. also, insulin doesn't cause weight gain if we take the correct amount. high blood sugars can cause weight gain because high blood sugars can cause insulin resistance. I'm not talking DKA - ketones high (where we Type 1's lose weight) but high enough were the glucose stays in the blood - body, causes water retention too. i've never gained weight when my blood sugars were stable and in good range.
I try to avoid that type of physical stress. This happened before I was placed on insulin. I used to live in a place where I would mow grass straight up a rather large hill. There was no easy way to perform that task. This would really stress my legs and was heavy cardio work. I live on somewhat level property now and aim for light to moderate exercise. From what I have read, this anaerobic exercise caused the adrenal glands or liver dumping glucose to feed the muscles...which sounded logical to me. Like a flight or fight response in a way. Since being placed on insulin, this has not happened again.
WOW! I feel for anyone that is incorrectly diagnosed. It is really rough to understand how a round peg is supposed to fit in a square hole. That may be the case with me as well as I eat 3 times a day when I am working and 2 times when I am at home.
Yes, the weather has been horrible lately for everyone. My husband and I have been talking about getting a treadmill and I could not be happier. I cannot run due to my very flat duck feet but I can walk for miles and lift free weights. I look forward to that routine starting.
I believe that there is a lot to be learned and being in tune with one's body and the needs of the body. it is interesting a lot of the facts presented. I seen a video stating that when one's insulin is low, the cells cannot get the glucose into them to use so it remains in the bloods stream. I was a much better weight when this happened but my health was suffering due to hyperglycemia. I still have a lot to learn about this house I live in :-).
I would have to blame it on my diet and life style. I see little difference between me and the other thousands of 60 year old professionals in my communityâŚsure I could blame it on my insulin but what does the rest of the men that live in my community blame it on ???
Excited to find this thread as this is one thing I have been struggling with/looking for answers on too. Iâm also a T2, and started out at a normal weight pre-insulin 5 yrs ago. Gained 35 pounds in 5 years on Lantus/ Humalog (metformin never worked for me which dr didnt understand) and have been reading a lot about hyperinsulinemia lately: âInsulin resistance almost always leads to a tonic state of hyperinsulinemia (high insulin), and hence, always storing fat, rather than breaking it down.â - eatingacademy.com
However, even with the weight gain my levels are somehow ok, currently Iâm a 7 A1c, but I definitely donât want the adverse effects high insulin levels bring (excess weight, other diseases, etc) Very interesting to hear that cutting basal levels may help, Iâm at 28 u Lantus which feels like a LOT considering that resistance is my main problem, not decreased insulin production. In the last month, Iâve been splitting the dose for better absorption, and reducing carbs but no weight loss results yetâŚ;/
I think it makes a lot of sense to try to decrease the total basal insulin, and further decrease carbs and sounds like this has worked for some people here?
âfor some reason, if one takes too much basal it can have a reverse effectâŚâ Mohe and Sarah, very interested to hear this idea, b/c I am having this issue too- sometimes extreme highs in am or evening without changing my eating or exercize after meals pattern. Then, I hurry to compensate with a Humalog dose and more exercize which does eventually bring it down. In any case, I feel like itâs clear that large doses of Lantus are really not helpingâŚ
Well, I adjusted both insulins a tad.the higher levels I am sensitive to so I struggle constantly. 28 units of Lantus is not so large to my perspective. I was on 34 and reduced to 30. I heard from my doc there are people on more than double than me.
