I have type 2 diabetes and have been told that I may have to go on insulin injections due to tablets I am taking failing to work. He also told me that I would weight on with taking insulin. Is this true?
As SueNSW has said this thread seems to have gone astray.
I am a T2 and have used insulin I used it from diagnosis up until I weaned myself off it about 12 months later having successfully lost 4 stones in weight, over the next year I lost a further stone in weight and have maintained my weight loss for over 8 years now.
So in answer to your question does insulin make you put on weight? Well the answer is not at all cut and dried and heres why.
If you are prescribed mixed insulin that is a mix of long or medium and fast acting insulin to keep your bg levels stable throughout the day, in this case you will have to eat a specific number of carbs to match the insulin you are taking and if it is set too high and you will have to eat too much so yes, you may well put on weight.
If on the other hand you are prescribed MDI or multiple daily injections of insulin as I was where you inject a long or medium acting insulin before you go to bed that will keep your levels stable over night and fast acting insulin before every meal and this insulin is adjustable depending on the carbs in the meal you eat so it allows you to decide how many carbs you eat at any meal so you dont have to follow the same diet every day and instead of eating to your insulin you inject only enough insulin for the meal you are eating.
If you dont want to put on weight you will need to either have your mixed insulin set exactly at the correct level for you to sustain your weight which could prove difficult or ask to be prescribed MDI insulin and inject only enough insulin to cover the food you need to eat to sustain your weight. If you need to lose weight you will need to reduce the amount of calories you eat and an easy way to do that is to cut back on the carbs you eat, you just have to find the correct level for you.
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And just to cover a few other points made in this thread not everyone is able to exercise, I have chronic arthritis in my lower spine so any exercise sees me in agony the next day, I also have a lung condition that makes me very breathless after any exertion.
And not everyone wants to eat a ketogenic diet at the other end of the argument.
There are probably as many variants of a lc diets as there are people eating them. I never added any extra fat to my diet at all and neither did I do any exercise at all
so no one is 100% right so stop arguing or its handbags at dawn