Is anyone NOT getting positive effects from Byetta?

Smudger

Member
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6
Apologies but the Byetta thread has become too long to have to troll all the way through and this is a slightly different subject anyway.

I've been on Byetta for over 4 months now, at the start there was some sign of improvement with HBa1C down from 9.2 to 8.4 but this last 3 weeks my bs has gone through the roof - I'm getting readings of 12 - 15+ both fasting and through the day. Also, I've lost no weight whatsoever and I stick to a fairly healthy diet and do three good gym sessions a week.
BTW, I'm 50 and weigh 125kg (which has been constant for 20+ years).

Any advice would be appreciated as I'm beginning to dispair now.
 

Dennis

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Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Non-insulin injectable medication (incretin mimetics)
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Hi Smudger,

One possibility could be that you have a faulty pen - are you seeing the level of Byetta in the pen reducing with each injection? Or possibly there is something wrong with the Byetta in your current pen - has it ever become overheated or frozen? Was it kept refrigerated until first use?

If it's not the Byetta then the next area to consider is your diet. I know you said you eat a healthy diet, but what exactly is healthy? If you are following the government's recommended "healthy" diet (which doctors and dietitians feel they have to promote as they are paid by the government), then you will certainly find your BS going up because it may healthy for a non-diabetic (debatable!) but for a type 2 is pretty much a guarantee of increasing BS. Bearing in mind that what you eat is what causes blood sugar to rise, the only way your BS level can rise is if you are eating more carbohydrate than your medication can cope with, or the medication itself is faulty.
 

Smudger

Member
Messages
6
I had a change of pen last weekend but nothing has changed. My diabetese nurse has referred me to the surgury dietician but I'm still waiting (after a month) to hear from them. I agree my diet could be better (they always can) but hardly from a calory point of view it's vey good, so I still can't understand the lack of weight loss. I know nothing is guarenteed but my expectations have been dashed completely - my bs actually seems higher now than when I started on the injections :cry:
 

cugila

Master
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Smudger said:
I had a change of pen last weekend but nothing has changed. My diabetese nurse has referred me to the surgury dietician but I'm still waiting (after a month) to hear from them. I agree my diet could be better (they always can) but hardly from a calory point of view it's vey good, so I still can't understand the lack of weight loss. I know nothing is guarenteed but my expectations have been dashed completely - my bs actually seems higher now than when I started on the injections :cry:


Hi smudger.

What Dennis said is a fact, so called 'healthy' diets are not always the best. I lost over 4 stone just with Byetta and by changing my diet and drastically reducing the Carbohydrates. Calories are not the issue here. The more carbs you eat the more glucose you put into your body. The more glucose you have in your body then the more Insulin your pancreas has to produce to deal with this. The Gliclazide will force your pancreas to produce more Insulin which will if in excess convert to fat, thereby causing you to gain weight or at least not lose it. It is usual when on Byetta that the doses of Gliclazide in particular (causes weight gain) and also Metformin are reduced allowing the Byetta to perform better.

Byetta on it's own will only do what it can and perform well if you help it. A reduction in carbohydrates is a must if you are serious about losing weight and getting those Bg numbers down.

We have had a few who Byetta doesn't work for, but not many at all.

The Byetta thread is in one place as it is a one stop shop as most, if not all the questions have been answered there. If you go to the post and then enter a search word in the thread it will list ALL the relevant (and some not so relevant posts) including the ones from people who didn't get any benefit from it for whatever reasons. You don't have to 'trawl' through all of it if you don't want. Think of it as a good reference book. We quite often refer people on here back to a previous answer. Saves us a lot of trouble too. :D

Can you give us some idea of a typical daily menu with some detail, we may be able to make some suggestions to help you.