• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Gaining weight :-(

DawnGH2304

Member
Messages
8
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Hi everyone. I am new to this forum, I have just been told that I am prediabetic and also have liver function problems. Doc obviously recommends losing some weight, ideally about a stone and half and I have been signed up for the NHS diabetes prevention course but it hasn't started yet. I have watched some of the videos and made a start, or so I thought, it recommends 120-150g of carbs a day, is that net carbs? Anyway in 10 days I have had no pasta, rice or bread and only a very small amount of potato with a roast. I have stopped eating most fruit except berries, swapped 0% yogurt for full fat, started cooking in oil and having nuts instead of cereal bars or choc. I have eaten more veg and salad and I have gained about 3lbs! Obviously not happy and to make it worse my husband who has been doing this for 5 days has lost 5lbs! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
 
It really is annoying how husbands lose quicker than us !
We all have different carb tolerances and it looks like yours will be lower than hubbys. Lots of us eat far less carbs than the NHS recommended, but you need to find your own level. I personally started very low and built up. My own tolerance is approx 30g for weight maintenance, but everyone is different.
Do you have a blood glucose testing meter ? NHS say we shouldn't test but I find mine a very useful tool to see what foods spike me.
 
Thank you for the reply. Hubby is T2 so we have several of his old meters going spare so I could use one. I originally went to doc because I was struggling to lose by following slimming world plan and because carbs are not essentially restricted on that my current amount is significantly less than I had been eating up to 10 days ago. 30g seems dauntingly low!
 
Reactions: Mep
You probably don't need to go anywhere near as low as me. I have metabolic syndrome and my body is very resistant to weight loss. However, I lost 2 stones on LCHF and can now keep it off .
I don't even miss carbs now. It becomes surprisingly easy. There are some great recipes on here. Even if I wasn't diabetic I wouldn't choose to eat any other way.
 
Reactions: Mep
If you are both eating the same amount of carbs, and he is losing, and you are not, then yes, it looks like your tolerance is lower than his. There could be other factors in play as well (activity levels, amount of muscle, sleep quality, water intake, possible constipation on the new way of eating...)

In our house, I very low carb. Mr B eats what I do, then adds carbs. This results in slow weight gain for him, until he decides he has let his belt out too far. At that point he cuts down the carbs to the same level as me, and the weight falls off him.

It is very frustrating. There is me very low carbing permanently, with a stable weight. And he can raise/stabilise/drop his weight at will by adjusting his carbs. Men!!!!
 
He definitely has a higher activity level as he has a manual job whereas I have an office job and he is therefore more muscular. I try to keep my water intake up but struggle with that a bit. Not constipated-yet! It is very frustrating, I had been trying for more than 5 years to lose this weight and it has been incredibly hard to lose even a few lbs and so so easy to put it back on. I have been nagging him for years to cut down his carbs and only when he was referred to consultant who told him the same has he actually begun to take it seriously and he loses 5 lbs in a matter of days by just cutting out bread and potatoes. He rarely eats pasta or rice anyway. So happy for him buy so annoyed for me!
 
I know it is annoying when others find it easy to lose . My weight stuck for a while and then lost 7lbs in a week after staying the same for 6 weeks but at the same time my blood sugars were going down so I tried to stay positive.You might need to look at your protein and cut that a bit I understand the aim should be 0.8 of the weight in kilos which you want to be . Nuts are fine in small quantities say a handful but maybe try olives instead . Yes do keep up with drinking water and if possible avoid milk in tea , for coffee cream is better than milk.
 

usually it is the higher level of oil and fats that can be a weight gainer, when one does not eat much carb anymore.. so try counting the calories in the fats/oils/cream and nuts and cheese you are eating..and find out how many calories are your maintenance level : http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/DietMakeupCalc.php
 
Reactions: Mep
and by the way most women should allways eat like only 75 % of what their husbond eat .. because men have a much higher musclemass in their ideal weight , and therefore uses much more energy when doing nothing than do most women... they also use much more energy when being active because of their larger musclemass.. in average men have around 30% more musclemass then women
women can help themselves by starting doing weight-lifting and resitance training. because if we make our muscles greater we can burn much more calories also when we are not doing anything like watching the tely and so on..
women do not become that masculine as they allmost allways fear ... only those doing real hard body building do.. most women get a much better body feeling becomming a bit stronger allover in their body..

So a suggestion to women that can´t seem to loose weight do go get fitter and especially stronger it really does help. but keep an eye on total calories as well and allway make smaller portion of food to yourself than to you male fellow
 
Last edited:
I have issues with weight also and I'm more likely to gain weight than lose it lately. For me I know it's my medications as I've had a few adjustments to them and as soon as that happens I gain fast. But for me to lose weight I need to be real sick with no appetite and not eating at all really... then I lose 3-5 kgs no problems. If I eat I just seem to retain my weight or gain. I do one meal a day low carb at the moment (salad I can eat and protein) and my other 2 meals are moderate carbs (usually 30g per meal). If I snack I try and stick to less than 20g carb. But my diet is awful with restrictions I have so some days I eat more carbs than I plan to because my stomach doesn't like anything else (eg. eating soggy cereal or something I can easily swallow). I hope you can find something that works... at least know you're not alone in your frustration. I wish you the best.
 
Anything over 20 carbs per DAY and I gain. I've been eating like this far before diabetes DX. I love above ground veggies so no problem just getting my carbs from them. I don't do high fat per se though it is 80% of my diet but the majority is in an avocado a day, a few ( about an ounce) nuts or pumpkin seeds spread throughout the day, a drizzle of olive oil on salads and mayo. I have to watch portions as well. Dinner is the only real meal I eat and it's small. I prefer snack size meals and a bit more often.

I also gain on all grains and starches, all dairy and too many nuts.
1/3 large avocado with each meal keeps my bs low and slow and is very satisfying with its healthy fat and fiber and it keeps my energy very smooth all day.

My hubby can work in the garden for a day and drop #5 and I can run around for an hour a day and not drop an ounce haha. My weight is definitely dictated by my diet.
 
Many thanks to all of you who have taken the trouble to reply, I really do appreciate it. I have taken all your suggestions on board and will definitely try them to see if i can get this weight shifting. In the meantime I shall try not to do anything nasty to my hubby if the weight continues to drop off him!
 
What is metabolic syndrome? I've never heard of that and how do you know if you've got it? Was it diagnosed?
 
DawnGH2304 said:
What is metabolic syndrome? I've never heard of that and how do you know if you've got it? Was it diagnosed?
Click to expand...
Yes, diagnosed and I have to see a specialist yearly at the hospital. It's a combination of things and I have most of them well in control now .. Fatty liver .. gone... Blood pressure .. now back to normal.. Weight.. working on it... About 2 stones to go.. Blood glucose.. well in control.
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/metabolic-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx#Symptoms
I believe I "got it" by dieting all my adult life.. all low cal and low fat. Shakes, cabbage diet etc etc..Each time I found I needed to eat less and less calories to lose weight. The LCHF diet has turned that all around for me. I probably still only eat about 1500 cals a day, but I'm rarely hungry and enjoying real food.
 
Aah I see. I have spent probably the past 16-17 years following slimming world on and off. The very first time I did it the 'green ' plan promoted unlimited carbs but I very easily lost 3 stone in about 6 months. Over the years the weight started to creep on so I did it again...... and again..... but each time I never got back to the weight I achieved the first time. This time I have been a member for over 5 years and have not even got close. With the menopause now in full swing I went to Doc because I was so frustrated at not being able to lose weight and she did a full blood works which showed up raised BG and also my liver enzymes are too high. After a retest 6 weeks later the BG had not improved and the enzymes had got much worse. I have just had a liver scan which didn't show up anything sinister (thank God) but Doc has no idea why they are so high. I have basically been sent away for 2 months and told to try and lose weight (the very reason I went in the first place) and then they will retest. I really want to make a good effort at this during these 8 weeks but I have no idea whether losing weight will even sort out the BG and the enzymes and as I said before my first 10 days trying LCHF has resulted in weight gain. Wish me luck!
 
but well i am 53 years old and I actually enjoy exercising my muscles now..I didn´t 1 year ago I was a total couch-potato
 
Ah yes - the dreaded weight point, and drive for diabetics in particular to lose the darn thing.

No matter what I do, as in fasting (all kinds of fasting), low-cal, low carb, LCHF, exercising heaps - my body just loves to go back and forth to one particular point (for me it's 70kg). I lost a lot of weight (15-20kg) after I first got diagnosed and started moving heaps and dropping carbs, and it is that point which I return to again and again after what turns out to be temporary weight loss on various regimes. It seems that for some, our metabolism is like this. I know I have read about weight set points and so on - I can't say I really understand it, but I accept that there does seem to be one for some, and I am one of those 'some'.

I guess you might have a metabolism, @DawnGH2304, that is very sensitive to the energy in fats? Or very carb intolerant as Brunneria suggested, and that the carbs you are still eating is still excess enough to have the excess stored as fat on your bod? (I think I wrote an excessive number of 'excess'es in there!) In that you are gaining weight? Bad luck indeed! But yes, give it more time? Much more time perhaps?

BTW - I could NEVER survive on 75% of my male partner's diet/energy intake! Body types and so on can and do override male/female differences all the time, especially when there are different gene pools/ethnicities involved. He still has the superior upper body strength, but our leg muscles are like chalk and cheese (I have a more muscular build than him) (but no - I am nothing in the muscle department compared to my brothers) my point being - it's all relative. Even between males and females.
Ditto on the ease of muscle maintenance after 30.
Body types - a huge variation amongst we human beans.
 
Thank you for your reply. Well 5 weeks on LCHF and after the initial gain of a few lbs I am now back where I started. Hubby, now 4 weeks in has lost nigh on a stone! I have tried changing things around a bit but I guess I am still getting it wrong. More research needed methinks x
 
I am pretty sure Dr Fung a la 'The Obesity Code' would say - try intermittent fasting. (And Prof Noakes would say - see if moving more helps?) (but that latter is really an individual thing - for many exercise does not affect weight much, but as you know I am sure - exercise absolutely helps insulin sensitivity and shunts excess blood glucose into muscle cells, which is good for us). IF helps me get to and from my 'weight set point' (if that is the expression) but not to maintain an actual weight loss, though, as I said above.

Saying that, weight maintenance is no small thing in the obesity/T2D stakes either! (And there does seem to be something in the post menopausal or perimenopausal women finding it harder to lose weight? That ol hormone thing?) (There is a great book on it, which I will hunt up in my notes and post on.)

By the way - I think 'obesity' is a ghastly word! I used to call myself 'pleasantly plump' back in the days when I had mild metabolic syndrome, and did not understand about insulin resistance. And then, later, unsurprisingly a couple of years before diagnosis when I discovered the joy of drinking a daily schweppes ginger ale (isn't it awful when you could be a walking red flag for diabetes? but you don't know it?!) I would go as far to say 'fat'. Now I watch my belly closely for fat gain and the dreaded fat on the organs, and yes - IF does work beautifully for cutting the belly fat - which is my danger point.

But if that is you in your pic @DawnGH2304- you have no sign of 'truncal obesity' in your face! (For me - gathering a number of chins back in the plump and fat days.) This is a good sign when it comes to stripping fat for health reasons? You must not have a whole lot of fat to strip?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…