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- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
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- Insulin
A few members had asked questions about gaining weight as a type 1 diabetic. I decided to make my own thread sharing my progress rather than derail other people's threads. I put this in the type 1 section because I think it is specific to people with low/no insulin production. If it's better served in the Exercise section, please forgive me.
Thread title: I meant it as a joke. Its a reference to the Body Mass Index which I'm personally find useless.
Quick background: I am a honeymooner. I was diagnosed September 2nd 2015. My situation is very unique and you should not try to imitate it for yourself. What I'm discussing is the relationship between insulin and weight gain. The actual units are meant as reference points to compare my results.
When I was diagnosed a little over 2 months ago I weighed about 175-180pounds. That may sound healthy (or even overweight) to some, but I was most certainly underweight and sickly looking.
Fast forward to today and I now weigh about 210 pounds. That's a very comfortable weight for me and I feel very healthy. However, my current goal is to achieve <10% body fat and stay above 200 pounds.
What I did to gain weight: I'm a firm believer that insulin is the key to weight gain and/or weight loss. While gaining weight, I was taking 24 units of Levemir (12units twice a day) and 3-6 units of Novolog to correct for meals. Immediately before and immediately after working out were the times I ate most of my carbohydrates which also meant giving myself insulin at those times. I rarely ate carbs late in the evening (I workout in the mornings) as I wanted to ensure that I gained healthy weight (as much muscle as possible).
Side note: I am a former competitive powerlifter, college baseball player, and throughout my life I have always had quite a bit of lean mass (muscle).
What I'm doing to lose body fat (Again, please note my disclaimer. This is NOT something anyone should try): following the concept that insulin and body weight are correlated, I have drastically reduced my insulin intake. In order to do this, I have significantly lowered my carbohydrate intake (35-40g/day) and increased my cardio (in addition to my heavy weight lifting). As a result, I have reduced my basal insulin from 24units/day down to 4units and I haven't taken any bolus insulin in two weeks (again, I'm a honeymooner). I have made sure that my glucose levels have not suffered as a result. I have a Dexcom G5 and I manually test 6-8 times a day. My two week average is 6.2 mmol/l to put it into perspective.
I attached a few pictures to share my progress. The most recent picture was taken yesterday 11/9
Thread title: I meant it as a joke. Its a reference to the Body Mass Index which I'm personally find useless.
Quick background: I am a honeymooner. I was diagnosed September 2nd 2015. My situation is very unique and you should not try to imitate it for yourself. What I'm discussing is the relationship between insulin and weight gain. The actual units are meant as reference points to compare my results.
When I was diagnosed a little over 2 months ago I weighed about 175-180pounds. That may sound healthy (or even overweight) to some, but I was most certainly underweight and sickly looking.
Fast forward to today and I now weigh about 210 pounds. That's a very comfortable weight for me and I feel very healthy. However, my current goal is to achieve <10% body fat and stay above 200 pounds.
What I did to gain weight: I'm a firm believer that insulin is the key to weight gain and/or weight loss. While gaining weight, I was taking 24 units of Levemir (12units twice a day) and 3-6 units of Novolog to correct for meals. Immediately before and immediately after working out were the times I ate most of my carbohydrates which also meant giving myself insulin at those times. I rarely ate carbs late in the evening (I workout in the mornings) as I wanted to ensure that I gained healthy weight (as much muscle as possible).
Side note: I am a former competitive powerlifter, college baseball player, and throughout my life I have always had quite a bit of lean mass (muscle).
What I'm doing to lose body fat (Again, please note my disclaimer. This is NOT something anyone should try): following the concept that insulin and body weight are correlated, I have drastically reduced my insulin intake. In order to do this, I have significantly lowered my carbohydrate intake (35-40g/day) and increased my cardio (in addition to my heavy weight lifting). As a result, I have reduced my basal insulin from 24units/day down to 4units and I haven't taken any bolus insulin in two weeks (again, I'm a honeymooner). I have made sure that my glucose levels have not suffered as a result. I have a Dexcom G5 and I manually test 6-8 times a day. My two week average is 6.2 mmol/l to put it into perspective.
I attached a few pictures to share my progress. The most recent picture was taken yesterday 11/9