Huge Weight Gain

Hi Daisy,

I am not on a pump and have not had diabulimia. I am bumping you up in the hope that somone else may be able to help you with this. Hope you get it sorted.

Lucy.

Not on a pump but I lost weight by reducing the calories in my diet and by exercising each day, I can't take all the credit as I had the help of a brilliant dietician who advised me on where I was going wrong, therefore in your circumstances it might be helpful if you speak with your HCP and ask to be referred.

Hi,

I wonder whether it's to do with your control being better. When your blood sugars run high for a long time your body doesn't get energy as the sugar stays in your blood and you also pee it out. If you've now managed to take your insulin all the time (well done - it must be very hard to start getting over diabulimia) your body is finally getting the nutrients and energy it needs and probably 'grabs' every calories that it can finally utilise. That said though, the very quick weight gain does seem a bit out of proportion to the time frame. I'm no expert and would definitely ask your team about it. Maybe it will level out once your body settles down a bit more?

Hope you continue to have the strength to overcome this :thumbup:

daisynova said:

I have been diabetic for over 25 years now and back then the diet was one of high complex carbs so reducing down my calories and carbs will be very very difficult. I was thinking at looking at a low carb diet but I am afraid it will leave me without any energy. Does that happen?

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Not necessarily and much will depend on how you adapt to the lower carbs and of course how low you go. There's a couple of members on the forum who very low-carb at less than 50g of carbs a day, others like myself have reduced them to level where they feel most comfortable and achieve the best bg control, they say anything under 130g of carbs a day is defined as low-carb so you could use that (or above) as a starting point if you wish.

Good luck Daisy, and that all sounds like a good plan re. thyroid checks and lower (but not necessarily v low) carbs xx

I can relate totally to your distress having suffered from body issues leading to diabulimia in the past. I too have retinopathy issues, although mine were triggered by tightening my control too quickly followed by 2 nhs blunders :roll:

I gained weight quickly went I was put on Levemir while on MDI. Turned out I am allergic to it but the weight gain almost killed me and put incredible strain on my relationship. I gained 3 stone and I hated myself. Although it is very hard not to beat yourself up for the gain try to remember all the reasons you wanted to stop the diabulimia. You want to live as long as possible and be as healthy as possible for your child and partner.

Have you changed insulin lately? Any new medications? How old are you? I have to work harder at keeping my weight stable now I've hit my 30s.

I also used to have high amounts of carbs but, whilst I don't low carb, I have reduced the amount of them and feel much better for it. What is your typical diet in a day?

Sorry for all the questions but the answers will help us all try and figure this out for you

Also are you just running for exercise? If so try mixing up what you do. I found doing light weights helped hugely with my weight loss and I highly recommend Davina DVDs to anyone wanting to lose weight healthily. Now I'm older I do have to exercise 3 times a week and mix what I do up a bit more though.

I would def get yourself checked for thyroid and some of the other things that are more common in diabetics just to be safe too.

Hi, I am another one who has suffered with diabulimia and retinopathy, I also hate the dreaded insulin weight gain but basically am at the point now where it's preferable to blindness so I will inject for my food.
Although I'm not on a pump I am on MDI with novorapid and lantus, and found that I lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago whilst maintaining an hba1c of 6.6 on a low carb diet.
I bought my diet from a company called go lower who specialise in pre packed low carb, low cal meals it was quite expensive at around £8 per day but I lost 2 stone in four months and reduced my insulin during that time to 12 u per day of lantus only, no novorapid at all. I was also doing 1/2 hour of exercise per day, jogging or swimming.
I maintained my weight loss for a year until I got pregnant and was advised not to low carb, also I did that eating for two thing so many ladies do.
Now I am overweight again but that's more down to willpower than anything else.
But if you want to lose weight whilst on insulin, give this diet a try, it worked for me.