I am recovered from Insulin purging

I have been doing insulin purging for many many years, and I didn’t know that I was doing it so conscious. Until a diabetic nurse really got to know me and understood my problems. Long story shot I found a really good psychologist that is specialized in eating disorder and she has type 1 diabetes herself. I been going to her for 2 years now and I have not been doing insulin purging for 1,5 year! I am soooo happy that I have managed to get out of my eating disorder. And that I have managed to separate my diabetes and eating disorder. In my progress to get better I didn’t manage to eat Healthy But I learned to take the insulin I needed. And part og my recovery I needed to dare to gaine more weight. Actuallt I was overweight Even when I did Insulin purging. Probably because I also had a sugar addiction and was over eating. So when I Even got the insulin i needed for the food I eat I gained more weight. So I now I have 23 kilos to loose to be in my normal BMI. I am doing my weight loss togheter with my psychologist to be safe. But I am really struggeling. I am eating Ketogenic. And after 6 weeks my A1c got down from 80 to 57 (9,5 to 7,4) But Regardless what I do, if I Only count carbs, or count carbs and calories and I am also doing IF 16:8. I am starting on I am not loosing. I am wondering if other has the same issue? Maybe I have damaged my body for so many years that all my hormones is a mess and my metabolism is stopping.

milja said:

I have been doing insulin purging for many many years, and I didn’t know that I was doing it so conscious. Until a diabetic nurse really got to know me and understood my problems. Long story shot I found a really good psychologist that is specialized in eating disorder and she has type 1 diabetes herself. I been going to her for 2 years now and I have not been doing insulin purging for 1,5 year! I am soooo happy that I have managed to get out of my eating disorder. And that I have managed to separate my diabetes and eating disorder. In my progress to get better I didn’t manage to eat Healthy But I learned to take the insulin I needed. And part og my recovery I needed to dare to gaine more weight. Actuallt I was overweight Even when I did Insulin purging. Probably because I also had a sugar addiction and was over eating. So when I Even got the insulin i needed for the food I eat I gained more weight. So I now I have 23 kilos to loose to be in my normal BMI. I am doing my weight loss togheter with my psychologist to be safe. But I am really struggeling. I am eating Ketogenic. And after 6 weeks my A1c got down from 80 to 57 (9,5 to 7,4) But Regardless what I do, if I Only count carbs, or count carbs and calories and I am also doing IF 16:8. I am starting on I am not loosing. I am wondering if other has the same issue? Maybe I have damaged my body for so many years that all my hormones is a mess and my metabolism is stopping.

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I have been doing it for 14 weeks now. Without weight loss.

NicoleC1971 said:

Firstly a massive well done on overcoming the diabulimia/insulin purging. I had to do a same thing although at the time my method of purging was vomiting and running silly sugars too.
I am so glad you are accepting of your new body but can hear a few warning signs re a strict regime which does restrict carbs. Although our bodies don't need carbs it just seems like a red flag that you are getting frustrated by the lack of weight loss and if you felt bad might you slip into old habits?
I know I did this when life got tough post recovery and I was using food to cope so hope you can talk it through with your psychologist.
I'd suggest giving it more time in the sense of getting to know when you are, and are not, naturally hungry with a low carb diet but also giving yourself permission to have the odd slice of bread/piece of chocolate which you dose appropriately for. In general I think low carb is great for us type 1s too because we can focus on quality of food and not be weighting it out for quantity of carbs. Eventually you tend to eat less and have less bumpy sugars meaning less hypo binges too.
Over the years I've lost weight myself and kept it off naturally and without punishing my body with a brutal diet or purging.
Wishing you great choices in this phase of your life!

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Thanks for your answer I can understand that the way I eat sounds strickt . But to cut carbs was the only way for me to lower my bloodsugar. It is less work for me this way. I am really sensitive to carbs if I have to much of it it triggers my sugar addiction and I have cravings all the time. Now that my bloodsugar is more stabil i Don’t have cravings at all, and because of the healthy fat I feel full longer and racingspill are gone. And the IF is really good for me because I had a really bad anxiety for getting low. So I always eat more than I needed just to be safe. And before insulin purging i eat something extra Everytime I was going out to do something because I was afraid to go low. (So when I had high blodsugars I notised that I could eat almost everything without gaining weight. So I eat more and more sugar and not taking insulin for it to loose more weight.) My A1c has been 112 for many years before I found help) So to experince that I can go for several hours without food and my blodsugars are fine has been a majore help for my anxiety. I have a insulin pump with cmg. And it has also been really helpful for my eating disorder to give it some calm and Learning again when I am actually hungry and then eat. I have done all this with my psychologist that is a spesialist in eating disorder. And she is now helping me loosing weight in a good way and helping me be to patient about it. I was just wondering if this is a common problem for type1 diabetics. Several times I have been told from doctors ( not endo) that it is almost impossible for type1 to loose weight because of the insulin er have to have. (Probably one of the reason I stopped taking insulin.) But now I Don’t have anything in me that want to go back there. I wan’t to be as healthy I can be with my diabetes. I have some complications, I have a lot of bleeding in both eyes and have for over a year now been doing a lot of laser treatment to save them, and that really motivates me to take care of myself now.

DCUKMod said:

@milja - A huge well done from me, for making such great progress with your ED. I'm neither T1, nor an insulin user, but I did live with an eating disorder for a some years in my earlier adulthood, so I do understand how these things can capture bright, intelligent people who seem so in control of their lives.

Some find losing weight when low carbing. I'm assuming that as well as your psychological well-being that the physical side of things is being monitored too? I'm hoping things like your thyroid will have been monitored, just in case. If that's abit off kilter it can have quite an impact on our metabolisms.

The good news is most T1s have their thyroid health monitored routinely.

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Thank you or your answer
My endo is great and he i checks my thyroid, kidneys and other things all the time. In July the Only thing he found was that I had a minor iron deficiency.