Yes, I know I'm young. But I am overweight. I lost about 15 lbs, but haven't notice much of a difference. I can't seem to lose anymore weight. I am staying stable and now I've recently gained 1-2 lbs. I don't even know how. I've been eating fairly healthy, and I have been exercising every day. I'm on the point of giving up. I am not happy with the way my body looks. I just don't know what to do anymore. I don't know if being on my menstrual cycle and slowly becoming sick has something to do with it. But still, I am not losing the weight.
I don't know how long you've had type 1, nor how old you are, nor your insulin regimen. A lot of MD's put there patients on set doses so that the person is eating up to the insulin, rather than making the insulin match the food intake. I was 30 years old when dx'd, a recently retired (but not fully retired) ballet dancer. The first doctors and dieticians put me on an insulin regimen where I was told to eat a lot more than I was used to and caused me to gain so much weight that I no longer could work - too heavy for the ballet. It took me a while to find a new Endo who understood and had me dosing to what I ate. That might helpl.
Thanks for the advice. I am slowly trying to lower my insulin rates in my pump.
Congratulations on dropping 15 pounds! Congratulations on maintaining that loss!! (Going up a pound or two is negligible; can vary for so many reasons.)
I lost 35 lbs 8 years ago (with the help of Weight Watchers). The hardest part was persisting through a couple plateaus that lasted several weeks. I kept reminding myself that I had lost xnumber of pounds; reminded myself of how much better I felt. And I was training for maintaining . . .
Feel good about what you've done & hang in there!
I think that you have to step back and take look at the big picture. I started gaining weight slowly as I hit my 20s and didn't stop until I was about 38. Since then it has been *a lot* of work, adjusting my diet, starting to exercise (no medical input at this point..."I'm ***FINE***"), realizing perhaps I wasn't quite fine as my A1C ticket up, getting a pump, discovering the DOC and things falling into place, keeping at the weight loss. For me, I have been very regular in what I eat for breakfast and lunch and am always crazier at night. When I've dropped weight, I've cut out carbs. I've found it useful to use a food app "Lose It!" to track what I eat (also handy for the chore of counting carbs...) and think "hmmm, what will happen if I replace a whole sandwich w/ 1/2 sandwich and bag of veggies for lunch for a couple of weeks?" and I'll do it and can usually get some results.
For the new year, I'm going to try to eat a bit more, c. 180G of carbs but put fruit into my diet for like the first time ever. I've gotten a head start this week and am pleased with the results although last night was a junk food, prosecco, beer and vodka to *urp* ring in the new year. I've been plateaued around 185 for a while. I think I can hit 175 but I'm not sure. I also have a group of folks on FB that I'm hanging out with which is interesting and somewhat useful, in that there's a bunch of people all sharing info and working out and hanging out together. Maybe find something like that?
Congrats on losing the first 15! I am a studying to be a registered dietitian, and if you want more personalized advice from me personally, feel free to contact me.
Plateaus happen because as as you lose the weight, your metabolism slows a bit. You burn less calories because there is less of you to keep going! You could try increasing your exercise routine as you get the motivation, but eating slightly less is ultimately what will help get you off the plateau and onto losing weight again.
Good luck!
Losing weight is tough and methods that work vary for every single person. I fought the weight gain for about 8 years before finding what worked. For myself, adding Symlin to my insulin was the kicker (a side effect is appetite suppression). Today I eat very low carb, very low calorie and exercise 6 or 7 days a week. I also drink 70oz of water a day. The path getting to the success was long and frustrating. I can't imagine trying to fight it as a teenager although back then it was easier with younger metabolism and such. In those days, all I had to do was live on artichokes and water for week and jump on the treadmill for a few days. Today, not so much. Your weight will fluctuate throughout the day or week by a few pounds so instead, try weighing the same day, same time after waking up. My "weight" days are Saturday morning or early afternoon and having the schedule helped me from being so frustrated all the time.
Two most common helpful tips: Water and low carbohydrate
Good luck!
I remember seeing a representation of a pound of fat and a pound of lean muscle mass. The fat resembled a paperback copy of Gone With the Wind. The muscle resembled a small office stapler. That's why I never use a scale - just my favorite "skinny pants" as a measure of weight loss/maintenance
I totally agree! I have actually gained some weight over the past couple years, but my clothing sizes have not changed. I attribute the weight gain to lifting more weights and gaining muscle mass.
It's more about how you feel about how you look than a number on a scale!
And that is also why the BMI is not a good measure. If I recall it was Kobe Bryant (who is gorgeous and hunky) who registered as obese because of his height to weight ratio. And let's face it there isn't an ounce of fat on him.
I lost about 30 pounds in six months. Went from 185 to 155. Now when I was at my heaviest, I was actually working out 5 times a week, for at least an hour. My problem was that I was eating large quantities of carbs in one sitting. The corresponding spike in insulin was causing all those carbs to be stored as fat. The change I made is that I don't eat more than 40g of carbs in one instance now. Rather, I have a number of smaller meals throughout the day. This allowed me to lose the weight and keep it off thus far
Because I had a career that required me to be skinny (not just thin) one thing that worked for me is my written log. I write all my bg's in a written log - even though I also download form my pump and CGM, I also write everything down I eat. Most of the time, the fact that I have to write it down discourages me from eating something. It also is a real good way to see where carbs/calories were sneaking" in. Since I was already testing a lot and writing that up, it wasn't a big change to add my food intake. Just a little trick