Type 2 I Need to GAIN weight

[PhilipLa]

Hello.
Some stat's:
I'm a 69 year old male, diagnosed w/ T2 in 2014. My weight at that time was in the region of 175 lbs. (6'2" tall)
Despite attempts to eat high calorie foods I'm losing weight. Today I'm 150 lbs. My family attest that I eat healthy good sized meals. I snack with nuts, avacado and yougurt.
Starch of any description causes major sugar spikes which can take at least a couple of days to resolve. Chili with brown rice for example will sustain 12 mmol/l. So If I avoid bread, rice, pasta, couscous etc. I can keep my sugars in check.
I've been on metformin throughout and recently read that it can cause weight loss.
Current diet. Eggs, meat, fish, low starch veg, legumes, avacados, tofu, nuts, cooking with coconut oil, oilive oil and butter etc.
I get good results in controlling my sugars by spendign 30 mins twice a day on my rowing machine.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can gain weight?
Any thoghts would be appreciated.

Thanks all.
Philip

 

[Redshank]

When I needed to gain weight I kept a food diary, weighed the food I was eating and worked out the number of calories I was eating. It was lower than I expected! I was eating until I was full, but it was not enough.

If I ate around 2000 calories a day (of the food that I eat), I lost weight, If I ate 3000 calories I put on weight. If I ate around 2500 calories my weight stayed the same. Once I adjusted my diet I didn't need the food diary. I weigh myself once a week and my weight (at a weight I am comfortable with) has been stable for around four years.

I notice there is no cheese on your list - is there a reason? A good high calorie food.

 

[Andydragon]

Hello.
Some stat's:
I'm a 69 year old male, diagnosed w/ T2 in 2014. My weight at that time was in the region of 175 lbs. (6'2" tall)
Despite attempts to eat high calorie foods I'm losing weight. Today I'm 150 lbs. My family attest that I eat healthy good sized meals. I snack with nuts, avacado and yougurt.
Starch of any description causes major sugar spikes which can take at least a couple of days to resolve. Chili with brown rice for example will sustain 12 mmol/l. So If I avoid bread, rice, pasta, couscous etc. I can keep my sugars in check.
I've been on metformin throughout and recently read that it can cause weight loss.
Current diet. Eggs, meat, fish, low starch veg, legumes, avacados, tofu, nuts, cooking with coconut oil, oilive oil and butter etc.
I get good results in controlling my sugars by spendign 30 mins twice a day on my rowing machine.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can gain weight?
Any thoghts would be appreciated.

Thanks all.
Philip

The exercise may be adding to the calorie burn so as per @Redshank a food diary and weigh/count your calories would be my thought to start, how many calories are you currently eating a day?

Some higher calorie foods but low carb are things like cheese and some nuts (as you mentioned).

Metformin can go weight loss but personally I never found it was substantial. what's your most recent hba1c and the types of reading you are getting currently?

I've used https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html To work out what works for me and I find sticking to about 2500 calories a day keeps me mostly sticking to my 73kg target. I do at least 30mins cardio and 30min walk but also go to the gym where I can

Salad/Veg I find is where I can go well down in the calories in a day, as huge piles are so low calorie so supplement with the meats/cheeses etc

 

[miahara]

Hi Philip! One possible cause of your protracted loss of weight is a problem with your pancreas not producing the digestive enzymes required to digest your food. I had lost a lot of weight when diagnosed with diabetes and the loss continued until I'd virtually no body fat left to lose. Eventually my GP referred me to the local diabetes specialist clinic and it was discovered that my pancreas was somewhat iffy. I was prescribed Creon as pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy with the happy result that I regained weight which has now peaked and stabilised. It might be worth discussing this with your GP.
This link may perhaps explain things:
https://www.bsuh.nhs.uk/documents/pancreatic-exocrine-insufficiency-pei/

 

[Daibell]

Hi. Unexpected weight loss can indicate T1 rather than T2 due to the body burning stored fat as it doesn't have enough insulin to metabolise carbs. Do ask the GP for C-Peptide and GAD tests to check that out. Forget Calories as they are irrelevant and focus on the three main food groups. In your situation I would keep the Carbs down to help control BS. Have enough Fats & Proteins to balance and keep you feeling full. BTW Metformin doesn't directly cause weight loss. It mainly works by reducing glucose output from the liver.

 

[NicoleC1971]

Some interesting suggestions here and I think checking out your digestive enzymes could be useful. Do you have any digestive symptoms?
Since your bgs are well controlled I would be surprised if you were type 1.
Metformin can lead to slight weight loss due to its gastric side effects.
Rowing is good for your health not because it burns calories (it doesn't much) but to keep your heart healthy. However I would ask how your body composition is? Have you lost lots of muscle as well as fat? This is natural with ageing but does indicate that as well as eating enough protein and fat to keep repairing and building muscles you could perhaps add some squats and press ups to your regime (10-15 of each x 3 rounds) even if that means you cut the rowing time down to 20 minutes. Rowing obviously uses the big muscles of your lower and upper body but won't develop them much unless the resistance on your machine is quite high.
As for adding nutritious calories without getting spikes in bg I'd go for nut butters, butter coffee and fat bombs. I know that on a ketogenic diet the reason that some people maintain rather than lose weight, are these kind of snacks!

 

[Marie 2]

I agree about asking for the C-peptide and antibody tests. Weight loss goes hand in hand with a type 1 that isn't on insulin as you don't make any or enough insulin to actually utilize the food you eat, so carbs become unused food.

As a type1 we have what is called a honeymoon period, our insulin production slowly diminishes over time. That can happen over years, even 8 years plus. Diet changes, lifestyle changes, medication can seem to work at first because you still produce some insulin for a while. That's one reason type 1's are misdiagnosed so much. 40% of us are misdiagnosed as a type 2 at first.

Some people have even thought a lower carb diet might save your pancreas's production of insulin longer, some people have very slow onset. Usually by now you would be having higher spikes I would think. I'm not saying you are a type 1, but I would really keep it in mind because of the weight loss and ask to be tested.

The C-peptide tells you how much natural insulin you are producing, low or low normal is a sign of type 1 because you are lacking in insulin production. High or high normal is a sign of type 2 as you actually make more insulin because you are insulin resistant and don't use it right. An antibody test if positive is a sign of type 1. Some type 1's don't have antibodies but don't make insulin and they don't know why yet. So the tests would be valuable to know more about what is going on.

 

[PhilipLa]

Hi. Unexpected weight loss can indicate T1 rather than T2 due to the body burning stored fat as it doesn't have enough insulin to metabolise carbs. Do ask the GP for C-Peptide and GAD tests to check that out. Forget Calories as they are irrelevant and focus on the three main food groups. In your situation I would keep the Carbs down to help control BS. Have enough Fats & Proteins to balance and keep you feeling full. BTW Metformin doesn't directly cause weight loss. It mainly works by reducing glucose output from the liver.

Thank you for this Daibel, C-peptide & GAD are at low end of normal. Have you seen the

Hi. Unexpected weight loss can indicate T1 rather than T2 due to the body burning stored fat as it doesn't have enough insulin to metabolise carbs. Do ask the GP for C-Peptide and GAD tests to check that out. Forget Calories as they are irrelevant and focus on the three main food groups. In your situation I would keep the Carbs down to help control BS. Have enough Fats & Proteins to balance and keep you feeling full. BTW Metformin doesn't directly cause weight loss. It mainly works by reducing glucose output from the liver.

Thank for this Daibell. C-Peptide is at the low end of normal. I'll ask the Dr. for a GAD test. Have you seen this article on this site in the News section : New insight to metformin’s weight loss benefit Diabetes.

 

[PhilipLa]

Some interesting suggestions here and I think checking out your digestive enzymes could be useful. Do you have any digestive symptoms?
Since your bgs are well controlled I would be surprised if you were type 1.
Metformin can lead to slight weight loss due to its gastric side effects.
Rowing is good for your health not because it burns calories (it doesn't much) but to keep your heart healthy. However I would ask how your body composition is? Have you lost lots of muscle as well as fat? This is natural with ageing but does indicate that as well as eating enough protein and fat to keep repairing and building muscles you could perhaps add some squats and press ups to your regime (10-15 of each x 3 rounds) even if that means you cut the rowing time down to 20 minutes. Rowing obviously uses the big muscles of your lower and upper body but won't develop them much unless the resistance on your machine is quite high.
As for adding nutritious calories without getting spikes in bg I'd go for nut butters, butter coffee and fat bombs. I know that on a ketogenic diet the reason that some people maintain rather than lose weight, are these kind of snacks!

Some good ideas here Nocole. No, I don't have digestive problens. I've lost muscle and fat. I'll add squats and press-ups to the mix. I haven't heard of fat bombs, I need to check that out.

 

[PhilipLa]

Hi. Unexpected weight loss can indicate T1 rather than T2 due to the body burning stored fat as it doesn't have enough insulin to metabolise carbs. Do ask the GP for C-Peptide and GAD tests to check that out. Forget Calories as they are irrelevant and focus on the three main food groups. In your situation I would keep the Carbs down to help control BS. Have enough Fats & Proteins to balance and keep you feeling full. BTW Metformin doesn't directly cause weight loss. It mainly works by reducing glucose output from the liver.

Thank you for this Daibel, C-peptide & GAD are at low end of normal. Have you seen the

Hi Philip! One possible cause of your protracted loss of weight is a problem with your pancreas not producing the digestive enzymes required to digest your food. I had lost a lot of weight when diagnosed with diabetes and the loss continued until I'd virtually no body fat left to lose. Eventually my GP referred me to the local diabetes specialist clinic and it was discovered that my pancreas was somewhat iffy. I was prescribed Creon as pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy with the happy result that I regained weight which has now peaked and stabilised. It might be worth discussing this with your GP.
This link may perhaps explain things:


Thank you for the headsup on Creon. I'm on an endocronolgist's wait list (12 months) I'll be sure to raise this.
By the way, how do you manage to include links in messages

 

[PhilipLa]

The exercise may be adding to the calorie burn so as per @Redshank a food diary and weigh/count your calories would be my thought to start, how many calories are you currently eating a day?

Some higher calorie foods but low carb are things like cheese and some nuts (as you mentioned).

Metformin can go weight loss but personally I never found it was substantial. what's your most recent hba1c and the types of reading you are getting currently?

I've used <link? To work out what works for me and I find sticking to about 2500 calories a day keeps me mostly sticking to my 73kg target. I do at least 30mins cardio and 30min walk but also go to the gym where I can

Salad/Veg I find is where I can go well down in the calories in a day, as huge piles are so low calorie so supplement with the meats/cheeses etc

Yes, I need to measure my calorie intake - thanks for the link to the calaculator. BTW: when I post repiles, the link in your message throws an error

 

[PhilipLa]

When I needed to gain weight I kept a food diary, weighed the food I was eating and worked out the number of calories I was eating. It was lower than I expected! I was eating until I was full, but it was not enough.

If I ate around 2000 calories a day (of the food that I eat), I lost weight, If I ate 3000 calories I put on weight. If I ate around 2500 calories my weight stayed the same. Once I adjusted my diet I didn't need the food diary. I weigh myself once a week and my weight (at a weight I am comfortable with) has been stable for around four years.

I notice there is no cheese on your list - is there a reason? A good high calorie food.

Thanks Redshank, yes , lots of cheese in my diet

 

[Lakeslover]

Hi,

Has this been a sudden recent weight loss, or slow and steady over the 7 years? Any sudden recent unintended weight loss should be checked out by your GP. If your diet is good it may not be related to diabetes.

 

[PhilipLa]

Thanks for responding; No, the muscle and fat loss has been progressive over the 7 years.

 

[Circuspony]

I got a fitbit to monitor exactly how many calories I was using and then tracked what I was eating for a week. I was generally eating 200 less calories a day than I was using. I'd lost a tonne of weight pre diagnosis (1.5 stones) and the fitbit showed why I was struggling to put it back on again.

I worked out I could eat carbs at certain times of the day and the sugar spike was countered by exercise.

 

[PhilipLa]

I'm finding that the more I eat the higher the BG it doesn't put weight on me.

 

[NicoleC1971]

Some good ideas here Nocole. No, I don't have digestive problens. I've lost muscle and fat. I'll add squats and press-ups to the mix. I haven't heard of fat bombs, I need to check that out.

https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/low-carb-chocolate-peanut-butter-cups
For example.
Let us know how you get on. I have a guy on my walking group who having sorted his type 2 diabetes via low carb can't keep the weight on but does feel great in himself. Best of luck.
The Diabetes.co.uk low carb cookbook also has lots of these ideas too.

 

[PhilipLa]

Thank you for the link and recipe ideas, I've jusy seen the keto bread in the dietdoctor.com link. That looks really good. I think I could binge on this without guilt