Type 2 Are you ashamed to have Type 2 Diabetes?

[Art Of Flowers]

About 80% of people diagnosed with type 2 are obese or overweight. I have lost about 11 Kg since being diagnosed by eating a Low Carb diet and intermittent fasting. I am no longer obese, but still have another 6 Kg to lose to be no longer overweight.

I have been trying to lose weight for a very long time without success, but it was the ditching of carbs after being diagnosed with type 2 that was the key. My blood pressure has also normalised since eating low carb. So, all things considered I feel thankful that I have been diagnosed with type 2 as it has dramatically improved my health and now I can manage my diabetes through diet and fasting.

Type 1 diabetes does seem to be a far more serious condition and many type 1 sufferers seem to have poor control. I don't envy them for being able to eat more carbs and take more insulin to cover. My view is that a high carb diet dramatically shortens your life expectancy whether you have diabetes or not.

 

[therower]

I have to agree with @Art Of Flowers. We don't often see eye to eye on things, but his using his diagnosis in such a positive way is ultimately the only way to deal with diabetes whatever type.
In some respects diabetes can be a life saver for some.

 

[serenity648]

Obesity and Type 2, my thoughts:

The obesity is a symptom or a processing disorder. Therefore, blaming the obesity for the diabetes is the wrong way round. Many slim people have the same processing disorder, but it comes on quickly and steeply, on before the slow annual weight gain of the typical type 2 (around 80% of them).

The NHS and mainstream medical treatment to cut fats and increase/focus on carbs exacerbates the processing disorder, leading to more weight gain and/or feeling ill

So the obesity blaming should stop, in my view. I see the current situation of blaming the overweight or those who had a carb heavy diet as like blaming the people who were encouraged by their doctors to smoke, and then blamed for getting lung cancer.

Thanks to the unfortunate consequences we now see from those who have had over 30 years of the wrong advice, we are able to learn from these human guinea pigs and change course. Unfortunately many of the guinea pigs are left with serious conditions due to the wrong health care, and those of us who have been undiagnosed with insulin resistance for years also have collateral damage, some of which is hard to reverse, although we can stop the rot.

So yes, 80% of type 2 diabetics may be obese at diagnosis, but the follow on blaming and shaming and pointing to them as greedy pigs who deserve what they get for their greed, by the media and medical profession and even some on here occasionally, is often not true, and is unfair and should be challenged whenever possible.

The concept that type 2's are overweight at diagnosis, therefore they have overeaten themselves into this is not right. Its the wrong conclusion to the evidence.

 

[Pinkorchid]

We can never stop people from thinking we caused our own T2 but having T1 is not their fault. We are constantly told in the media that if we have T2 then it is self inflicted and we should be ashamed so some people do feel really guilty about it. T1's I am sure do not see us as any different we all have diabetes whatever caused it and whatever type we have

 

[56activeandhealthy]

I live with Type 2 diabetes it's what I have, am I ashamed to have it No, I'd rather not have it but it's part of life and you have to try and live with it the best way you can, the worst thing you can do is eat junk food, drink and smoke to much, I'm no saint I love takeaways, Pizzas and cakes and biscuits but it's everything in moderation, I think forums like this are good to help and support each other.

 

[ickihun]

Maybe because I've been obese ALL my life. Its just water off a ducks back! For me.
I'm losing weight and preparing for bariatric surgery for my kids and if I ever need stronger mobility help then I won't be a burden.
My obesity is 'normal' to me. No matter what I did in the past I couldnt lose as easy as now! Even jogging for hours around Greenwich park. Toddler portion meals and no fat in sight. I ate wholemeal pitta bread, lean meats, oven fish, salad, veg, boiled rice (yuck!) Jacket potato, even sometimes naked. Neither wonder I never lost more than 2lb a month, if I was lucky. I never lost on WW. A waste of money. I spent thousands on herbalife too.
Neither wonder I gave up, a few times. Decades before diagnosis this was.
Only this forum and its kind posters sharing their successes got me experimenting further! Type1s and type2s. (All types in fact.)