Anonymous Question 21 years old & type 1

[Anonymous Question]

Hello fellow diabetics. I seriously want your help as I'm struggling in my life. Basicly, I'm a 21 years old type 1 diabetic(I've been a diabetic for 10 years) and I'm struggling with life in general. Everything seems to be related to my body and the way its built. I'm 21 years old and I look like a 14 years old boy, I'm about 5'6" (about 1.68m) and weight 121 pounds(55kg) and I'm really skinny. I've always been bullied by people in school and I hated myself for it. I didn't want to get over it. Changing my attitude wasn't enough, as I was still treated as a joke. What's even more bothering is that even fresh high school kids would laugh at me. It's kinda easy to understand: I'm not that intimidating! I seriously hate that nobody takes me serious and treats me as a kid, even though I might want to give my opinion on a certain subject, but they always think I'm too young. What I want to do is try to gain weight, something which seemed to be impossible for me all life. I'm thinking about eating more, thus I would need more insulin(I'm having 4 shots a day). There is no other way to build my self confidence but by bulking up. I'd really wanna go to the gym. I know we're not experts here but I'd like to hear some facts/opinions/help regarding this subject. I have mild diabetes complications, my diabetes is really unstable, highs and lows all the time and feeling dizzy. Besides this, I'm having myophia(my doctor said that because of this I can't develop retinopathy, not sure if true) but he said that I'm not allowed to lift anything heavy for the rest of my life. This sounded like a real hit for me, I've never felt so down before. What I want to believe is that my doctor is not the best doctor alive, if I could get my eye tension fixed I could try lifting weights. I'm not talking about heavy ones, but starting from the bottom. Sorry if I missed any details

 

[azure]

Hi Anon

Sorry you're feeling down. i can't comment on weights or anything like that because my main form of exercise is walking, but I'm going to tag @TorqPenderloin for you.

However, I am very slim. When I want to put on weight I eat extra carbs and adjust my insulin accordingly. I find I need to do this consistently day after day to put on weight. I spread my carbs over the day, including two snacks which I bolus for. I also up my fat intake along with that. I found it helped to use My Fitness Pal or similar as then you can see what you're eating rather than relying on memory. I know most people use it to lose weight but I found it helpful to gain weight too.

You mention highs and lows. If you can get your control smoother that might help your emotional health too. I find swinging blood sugars make me feel cr*p physically and mentally. Have you tried bolusing further in advance to help stop spikes? Just try to make gradual improvements - you can't do everything at once.

Don't let other people make you feel bad. I know it's easy to say Ignore Them, but remember they don't give you your worth. Have confidence in yourself.

Best of luck X

 

[therower]

Hi anon. I'm no expert other than being a 52yr old diabetic type 1(25yrs diagnosed). Sorry that life's a bit sh*t for you at the moment but it will change in years to come nothing stays the same forever. The reason I'm posting is to give my perspective on weight training and how people respond to us as human beings. A brief description of me, quiet, awkward in crowds, not very talkative and shy. People don't generally talk to me and avoid eye contact wherever possible. Life sometimes feels very lonely. Perhaps another brief description of me, six foot, 15st+ ,46 inch chest, 16 inch biceps shaved head and often likened to someone who has just been released from prison (stereotypes ha ha). If people don't ignore me because of my appearance then I get the guy's who see me as someone to test their machismo image on. Yes go to the gym train sensibly it's great for building confidence and make you even stronger than you already are, but our real strength is inside not the muscles on the outside. Me I'm just a big softy really and that's just the way the people who matter in my life want me. Good luck friend you will figure it out

 

[Dark Horse]

Regarding your diabetic control, it's true that some studies suggest that having myopia (short sightedness) reduces the risk of sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy but it's not a cast iron guarantee. Anyway, you still need to work at having good glucose control to prevent other complications such as kidney disease and neuropathy.

People with myopia have longer eyeballs than normal and their retinas are stretched very thin. This makes them vulnerable to retinal detachment which can cause blindness if not treated urgently. Some studies suggest that weight-lifting temporarily spikes the pressure within the eye and therefore increases the risk of retinal detachment. However, a blow to the head is riskier than weight-training so it's more important to avoid contact sports. And bungee-jumping.

There is some evidence that the increase in eye pressure is greater when people hold their breath whilst lifting weights so the advice often given is to exhale when doing the active part of the movement and inhale when returning the weight to the starting position. This is thought to reduce the spike in eye pressure. Other activities that increase eye pressure are doing exercises with the head below heart height, such as decline bench presses and playing wind instruments like the trumpet.

Although people usually say that the most effective way to build muscle it to use weights that are so heavy that the lifter can't manage more than 5-7 repetitions, it is still possible to build muscle (albeit not quite as effectively) by choosing a much lower weight that can be lifted a maximum of 10-14 repetitions. It's likely that there would be less straining with a lower weight and presumably less spiking of eye pressure. It would be worth discussing this with your ophthalmologist.

I presume your doctor warned you of the symptoms of retinal detachment - sudden increase in flashers and floaters and/or a dark "curtain" appearing in the vision - and that it requires an immediate trip to eye casualty.

This website might be useful:- http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/self-esteem/#.V1hlsfkrLIV

 

[Anonymous Question]

Hey, first of all I'd like to say thanks to everyone who took the time to reply to my topic. To be honest, I expected a lot more answers. I'm not sure if it's lack of interest of just a difficult topic.
@azure: Yes, it's true that swinging blood sugars can influence our overall health. Personally for me, low blood sugars can mess my whole day up, due to bad thoughts that come in my mind right during hypoglycemia.What do you mean by bolusing further? Well, my initial plan was to up the carbs value, along with insulin levels. Basicly I thought about injecting extra humulin but I'm worried that I won't have enough insulin. I have a prescribed ammount of insulin so the doctor won't give me anything over that.
Thanks for the heads up
@therower Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but I just don't see any other way out of this. I've had serious problems with bullying in all my teens and I just don't think I can ever change, if I don't change my body. I don't like the way I look myself, so that says a lot.
I don't want to live my life by regreting anything or hating myself for it, or live like a coward. I'd like to live it fully and enjoy it, and love myself and the way I look. So yeah, I really want to bulk up for my overall confidence first.

@Dark Horse
Thanks for the informative post
First of all, I have some tingling in my feet ocasionally. Also, my blood flow in my feet was always pretty bad. I change socks quite a lot since I'm having a cold sweating.
Even though I don't have a gym plan, I'm not really into strength training yet, since I don't want to force myself out(also my eyes). I'm thinking about starting with light weights, and add more weight as months pass. I'm also aware of the exercise method, I've heard about keeping your head above heart level and not holding breath.Speaking about my eyes pressure, my right eye's is 17 while my left is 19. My right eye is pretty bad when it comes to sight, but it's been like that since childhood, and before diabetes. However, it got worse during teenage. My doctor said it's quite common for eyesight to get worse during teenage years. I guess sitting at the computer all day was important too. My left eye is good with glasses, and I could get rid of them by having a eye laser surgery.(although I have some restrains about it)
What's weird is that my eye doctor changed his opinion regarding weight lifting. 4 months ago I asked her if I could do something like bodybuilding and she said I shouldn't do it, but the last time I went there for a check(2 weeks ago) she told me I should have no problem with doing it. I told her about starting a light weight training program.Besides, I also asked her several questions such as risks of high eye pressure and retinal dettachment, as you said. She told me it's not the case. This made me question her knowdlege, but I don't think she's a bad doctor since a lot of people praise her.
Also, I thought my eye pressure is above normal, but it's a bit below the limit (17 and 19, 22 is the limit). Do you have any tips on how to lower my eye pressure? Thanks

 

[azure]

Hi again : ) By bolusing further in advance, I meant having your bolus injection longer in advance of your meal to help control the spike. It can make a big difference. As an example, if I bolus Humalog just before breakfast, I can spike up to 11. However, if I bolus 30 mins before breakfast (exactly the same breakfast) my two hour blood test result is around 6.

If you choose to try this, move your bolus gradually - say, five minutes earlier to start with - and then see how it goes. Many people find bolusing 15-20 mins in advance of food helps stop the spike. Exoeriment carefully and see what works for you. I find I need my bolus more in advance for breakfast as that's when I spike most. Other meals on Humalog I inject 10-15 mins in advance.

Hope that helps : )

 

[TorqPenderloin]

First, forget about high school. That's not how the real world works. In fact, I'd dare to say that many of the people who struggled in high school went on to thrive later in life.

The biggest issue I see here actually has nothing to do with diabetes. The one thing I've learned as a young adult is that people will treat you the same way you treat yourself. Ultimately, if you don't respect yourself, how can you expect others to? Now, I think weight lifting is a great way to address that, but probably not for the reasons you think. Sure, the physical benefits are great, but we all get old, wrinkly, and flabby at some point. For me, weight lifting is about challenging myself to do things I couldn't do the day before. It's about setting goals for myself, achieving them, and then setting new goals. Plus, it's also a time to reflect on my life and release any stress or aggression into a big piece of iron.

At 21 years old, you're probably going through a ton of life changes, but not necessarily seeing the benefits of your efforts. That can be tough on anyone, and especially when you add diabetes into that equation. My advice to you is this: find ways to challenge yourself to do things that you couldn't do the day before. Weight lifting is certainly a great place to start, but find other challenges in your life that you can overcome however big or small. Maybe that's something big like getting your a1c under 6.5, or something as small as folding your underwear instead of just shoving it in a drawer. It sounds silly, but even the small things can have a big impact on your self-image.

I realize that that doesn't directly answer your question so I'll end with this: if you want to gain 50 pounds of muscle, go do it and we can help. For me, it's all about consistency with my insulin, carbs, and workout routine. I don't do the same things every single day, but I do things enough until I get a better idea of how it will affect me. It's things like knowing how a morning workout affects me differently than an afternoon workout even though I'm doing the same exercises. Knowing that I'm going to spike in the first 30 minutes of a run, but return to normal shortly after that (without insulin). Knowing that what I ate the night before will probably affect my levels the next morning.

 

[therower]

Hi again anon, sorry that you're still feeling the way you do about yourself. It's a great shame because for me reading your posts I see a person of real depth and character, not many people would be prepared to open up quite as much as you. You've definitely got balls on that score. If weights are the way you want to go, then go for it but please please please get the right advice for what you want to achieve. There is a huge difference between building big strong muscles and toning up the body you already have. You have to plan out what you want, follow the correct regime, be patient and be dedicated . Don't forget that training requires extra fuel for your body to cope and all that will require careful and meticulous attention to your diabetes control. I wish you every success and always feel free to ask if you want any advice or tips, not just me but all the people on the forum who have probably the best advice gained from years of experience doing weights and managing their diabetes.