Back on the wagon

Hi and welcome back

I will tag in some type 2s who have been on insulin in case they can answer your questions. @Chook @ickihun

Hi,

Weight gain as a result of taking insulin seems to be fairly standard

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17924864


"Insulin therapy or intensification of insulin therapy commonly results in weight gain in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This weight gain can be excessive, adversely affecting cardiovascular risk profile. The spectre of weight gain can increase diabetic morbidity and mortality when it acts as a psychological barrier to the initiation or intensification of insulin, or affects adherence with prescribed regimens. Insulin-associated weight gain may result from a reduction of blood glucose to levels below the renal threshold without a compensatory reduction in calorie intake, a defensive or unconscious increase in calorie intake caused by the fear or experience of hypoglycaemia, or the 'unphysiological' pharmacokinetic and metabolic profiles that follow subcutaneous administration"

sparkyrich said:

Hi all! It's a long time since last I was around, to be honest I got heartily fed up of eating healthily and monitoring my bg. I'd had pretty good control at the time, but made the fatal mistake of looking long term. I should've known better. I tried for many years to stop smoking and only succeeded when I stopped looking ahead and worrying about going years without a ciggie, and started going one day at a time. Guess it's the same with diabetes. Looking at facing years of eating "healthy" food depressed me no end. I'm convinced I was put on this earth to eat my way through every type of bread, bun and bap. Preferably slarted in as much Lurpak as it's physically possible to apply. Cauliflower rice, courgetti, pizza bases made from everything BUT dough, the list of alternate but not the same was endless.

Anyhoo, my bg has been heading the wrong way for the last twelve months and my GP has referred me to the local hospital with a view to going on insulin. My main concern is the possibility of piling on weight. I'm not exactly at risk of being mistaken for someone with an eating disorder- I'm more likely to be confused with the side of a house - but I don't want to be getting any bigger! What am I likely to be looking at treatment wise? And what's folks experiences of going on insulin? Did your weight go up or down? Thanks for reading.

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I was put on insulin many years ago supposedly type 2 , one doc said it put weight on the other was of a different opinion. Anyway it's really up to you. The LCHF DIET might suit you very well as it does me plenty of butter and cream if you like just no bread rice pasta or potatoes. Start with that and check out the low carb forum and diet doctor website for a more varied selection of recipes. I find I am not missing the potatoes etc and eat a lot more cheese now than I did before. I was apprehensive about the high fat part but just had my cholesterol checked and my overall is down, my HDL is up and my LDL is down.

My husband loves the South Beach diet. It was his intro to lower carbing too, and he found it palatable and sustainable.

Have you tried the breakfast mini egg quiche things? He thought those were DELICIOUS, but rather resented having to make them! lol.

sparkyrich said:

Hi all! It's a long time since last I was around, to be honest I got heartily fed up of eating healthily and monitoring my bg. I'd had pretty good control at the time, but made the fatal mistake of looking long term. I should've known better. I tried for many years to stop smoking and only succeeded when I stopped looking ahead and worrying about going years without a ciggie, and started going one day at a time. Guess it's the same with diabetes. Looking at facing years of eating "healthy" food depressed me no end. I'm convinced I was put on this earth to eat my way through every type of bread, bun and bap. Preferably slarted in as much Lurpak as it's physically possible to apply. Cauliflower rice, courgetti, pizza bases made from everything BUT dough, the list of alternate but not the same was endless.

Anyhoo, my bg has been heading the wrong way for the last twelve months and my GP has referred me to the local hospital with a view to going on insulin. My main concern is the possibility of piling on weight. I'm not exactly at risk of being mistaken for someone with an eating disorder- I'm more likely to be confused with the side of a house - but I don't want to be getting any bigger! What am I likely to be looking at treatment wise? And what's folks experiences of going on insulin? Did your weight go up or down? Thanks for reading.

Click to expand...

Just remember everybody is different.
I only added a small amount of weight starting insulin as I started LCHF at the same time. However, I found lchf wasn't suitable for my insulin regime. Dietician will most likely agree. However, since starting low carb, low fat after xmas I was able to reduce my insulin need. Hence lose all insulin added weight and more. I'm still losing, even on insulin.
Just keep in mind I have underactive thyroid too, maybe unlike you.
If you need insulin don't panic. Only once your bgs are in the 5s do I find weight loss hapoens. Steady 5s. Insulin can do that if diet alone doesn't.

Haha! Sounds like you and Mr B would get on very well.

I recently lost 2 & 1/2 stone at Slimming World but got a bit lax with insulin injections. As soon as I started monitoring and injecting again I put on 7 & 1/2 lbs in one week! I'm horrified and now just don't want to inject at all. It took me so long to lose the weight and the weight loss has improved my blood pressure and well-being but I have been feeling ill. Surely I don't have to be obese to be healthy? I just want to stay at about 10 & 1/2 stone I don't want to be a stick insect.

sparkyrich said:

Hi all! It's a long time since last I was around, to be honest I got heartily fed up of eating healthily and monitoring my bg. I'd had pretty good control at the time, but made the fatal mistake of looking long term. I should've known better. I tried for many years to stop smoking and only succeeded when I stopped looking ahead and worrying about going years without a ciggie, and started going one day at a time. Guess it's the same with diabetes. Looking at facing years of eating "healthy" food depressed me no end. I'm convinced I was put on this earth to eat my way through every type of bread, bun and bap. Preferably slarted in as much Lurpak as it's physically possible to apply. Cauliflower rice, courgetti, pizza bases made from everything BUT dough, the list of alternate but not the same was endless.

Anyhoo, my bg has been heading the wrong way for the last twelve months and my GP has referred me to the local hospital with a view to going on insulin. My main concern is the possibility of piling on weight. I'm not exactly at risk of being mistaken for someone with an eating disorder- I'm more likely to be confused with the side of a house - but I don't want to be getting any bigger! What am I likely to be looking at treatment wise? And what's folks experiences of going on insulin? Did your weight go up or down? Thanks for reading.

Click to expand...

Hi I have been on Insulin for some years now. and i have learned a lot in the last year or so, i was piling on the pounds at a significant rate. I was not told insulin was a weight promoting hormone and i was totally ignorant of this fact. so i did quite a bit of research on why insulin promotes weight gain. in essence it's basically the carb intake that sucks up the insulin and stores it as fat in your body if you eat too many. and boy was i eating too many carbs. i went from around 15 stone to 18 stone in a couple of years of starting insulin ( i use humalog 50 )and i must admit as i gained weight so my blood glucose reading got higher and higher, and i started developing neuropathy in both feet. something had to be done. i was worried.... i found a website stating the benefits of a Keto diet, i have been doing this for around 2 months now and have lost around a stone in weight and started to reduce my insulin units. ( I was taking around 200 units a day just to keep my bg around 10 HbA1c ) i now inject 50 units twice daily, and will drop that intake even more as my bg stabilises, my HbA1c is now 7. now i am feeling confident the weight will continue to come off and my glucose levels will get even better. i even feel good in myself. i have the occasional beer.... but hey' we aren't all born saints. i am heading in the right direction. i am not in a race to get there. i am enjoying the journey.... all because i rebelled and did not listen to conventional wisdom on diet. it's not an easy way of eating to begin with because there is so much fat in the diet, mostly saturated fat from foods like pork, beef, chicken, coconut oils, MCT oil.... at first i consumed too much fat... but as your body adapts to the change of diet you eat less because i never feel hungry... that's when my weight started falling off. oh yeah' sorry to ramble on so long.... I eat aregime of 60 percent fat 35 percent protein and 5 percent carbs. mainly cruciferous veggies and less than 20 grams carbs in total. thanks for reading. cheers Gaz