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If you control type 2 diabetes with diet do you lose weight on a low-carb diet (no medicine).

@yetta2mymom. Seriously? "a bad case of type 2 diabetes" and "not a complete diabetic"?
 
yetta2mymom said:
Hi

I am too old and (deceped?) to do that.
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Well I was a bit younger than you when I did it (58 then), but I was so desperate to lose weight that I thought it was worth a try.
 
zand said:
Well I was a bit younger than you when I did it (58 then), but I was so desperate to lose weight that I thought it was worth a try.
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Hi

You don't quite get it. I am blessed (cursed?) with the "hunter" gene. If you read other responses on this post you will see that both experimentally and theoretical I will not lose weight on a low-carb diet (obviously I can starve). I posted to find out if type 2 diabetics were as insulin resistant as I am. No. They can change some sugar into fat. I can't. If you don't change any sugar into fat the low carb diet does not work.
 
The problem with that theory is on a low carb diet you don't eat any sugar so why do you think if people are eating this way they can turn some sugar into fat. I for one am very confused by that statement.
 
my experience has been that following focused low carb diet (less than 40g per day) resulted in my HbA1c moving from 100 to 33 and staying there for 12 months now but my weight loss stopped after 40Kg even though I could and would like to lose more. If I consume more than 1200 calories a day I will likely put on weight from what I've seen more recently which is disturbing since all medical sources are saying I don't eat enough. My exercise has remained consistent around 40+km per week or 45 minutes power walking each day.
What this says is that whilst holding DB in remission is seemingly achievable, repairing metabolism is much harder and I seem to be trapped in a very low calorie lifestyle where I am regularly fatigued and tired.
 
4ratbags said:
The problem with that theory is on a low carb diet you don't eat any sugar so why do you think if people are eating this way they can turn some sugar into fat. I for one am very confused by that statement.
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Hi

That is why you lose weight. You put out insulin to process protein otherwise you have a build of ammonia and you die. The insulin doesn't know that it is only supposed to process protein it changes some of your blood sugar into fat. Then your body is not happy with the lower blood sugar and the liver changes fat into sugar. This process uses a lot of energy and you lose weight.
 
yetta2mymom said:
I will not lose weight on a low-carb diet (obviously I can starve).
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if you can starve, you lose weight. Once again, you are talking nonsense.

yetta2mymom said:
They can change some sugar into fat. I can't.
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so what does your cab intake change into? and the part of your protein intake which turns to glucose?
 
lucylocket61 said:
if you can starve, you lose weight. Once again, you are talking nonsense.



so what does your cab intake change into? and the part of your protein intake which turns to glucose?
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Hi

My carb intake is used as fuel. I am not changing any of my carbs into fat. The "hunter" gene people save energy by not changing sugar into fat and then later changing fat into sugar. Our brains use a lot of sugar. If my blood sugar gets to high (whatever that means) my body turns off the hormones which make me completely (or nearly so) insulin resistant. I could go on but you probably don't want the details about what happens next. Women who are pregnant do not turn off the hormones. They are almost all (rare exceptions) of the women who have gestational diabetes. They do not turn off the hormones because the same (or similar) hormones are produced by the placenta and if those hormones are disturbed the baby/fetus would die.
I was being possibly sarcastic about changing protein into fat but something is happening to prevent me from losing weight.
 

Yes I do get it. You say you don't lose weight on a low carb diet, but you haven't checked how many carbs you have a day. Surely that's important? If your own personal carb tolerance level is, say 20g daily, and you have 25g, then you won't lose weight, regardless of total calorie intake.

What you call the 'hunter' gene is what I call the 'thrifty' gene. If there was a famine you and I would survive longer than most because our bodies can live on fewer calories than most people, so we don't lose weight easily.

It doesn't matter what fancy label you give yourself. If you are insulin resistant (for whatever reason) then you need to limit carbs to below your own personal tolerance level and also keep an eye on protein. Exercise is good too, but is secondary to strict carb counting IMO.

I am not sure why you are worried about 'changing sugar into fat'? As @4ratbags says, if you are on a very low carb diet, then you won't be having any sugar, just like a lot of T2s on this site.
 
Hi

I keep posting that the doctors don't realize the simple reason why people lose weight on a low carb diet. We need insulin to process protein. Otherwise we have a build up of ammonia and die. When the insulin is in the blood it doesn't know that it is only supposed to process protein. Most people change some blood sugar into fat. I will leave out what happens if very low blood sugar threatens. In any case you end up with lower blood sugar than the body is comfortable with. Your liver changes fat into sugar. Changing sugar into fat and then fat into sugar uses up a lot of energy you lose weight.

I have used this site and one of the world experts (an Indian) on adrenal problems to figure out what what is happening. Some facts, my glucose tolerance test in 1964 (those stupid doctors call us prediabetics) my blood sugar over 2 hours is still rising (185 U.S, units) 3 hours heading down 100. As I leave the hospital a very mild shaking. It took me 50 years to figure out that the shaking occurred instead of all those very low blood sugar episodes (my body learned?). It was my body restarting hormones ,the same ones (or nearly so) produced by the placenta to make the baby/fetus insulin resistant. With those hormones turned on all the time I do not change sugar into fat. A doctor on T.V. (I found his wife, she saw I was fat and wanted to get her husband business , didn't get their names, T.V. program may have only been local), called people with my glucose tolerance "hunter" gene people since they fouled up his study about how the low carb diet was working. I have found out that the women with my glucose tolerance test all get gestational diabetes. They do not turn off our hormones when their blood sugar gets too high since that would also effect the hormones in the placenta. I posted on the gestational diabetes site said "hunter" gene people do not lose weight on a low-carb diet. They have my weird glucose tolerance test and there HbA1c is strongly correlated with how much sugar/starch they eat. Is there any women who doesn't meet one of these criteria who gets gestational diabetes? I found 1 women who takes steroids for an organ transplant in over 2700 looks (biased, since most women don't know enough to know if they have any of my criteria).
 
yetta2mymom said:
I keep posting that the doctors don't realize the simple reason why people lose weight on a low carb diet
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People lose weight on a low carb diet because they don't need much insulin. Insulin is the hormone that makes us gain weight. I think you are over complicating things.
 
yetta2mymom said:
I was being possibly sarcastic about changing protein into fat but something is happening to prevent me from losing weight.
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You are probably having too many carbs for your own personal tolerance. If you don't weigh everything you eat and log it then you don't know how many carbs you are having. You may also be having too much protein.

There are many of us on this site who don't lose weight easily. Again you are over thinking this. Have you tried intermittent fasting combined with a diet of less than 20g carbs daily making sure you drink plenty of water? I think you should concentrate on trying to fix the problem by finding solutions rather than getting concerned by labels. I have seen a lot of people who also struggle to lose weight trying to help you, but you seem to think you aren't like the rest of us because you have a special gene. Even if that is so, you still need to discover what works instead of worrying over what specific genes you have. You can't change your genes, but you can change how you deal with them.
 
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Hi

I have lost weight the old fashioned way by cutting back on fats as well as eating a very low-carb diet. I have hit a weight set point. I have no idea why I do not continue to lose weight. All the people who I have identified with my gene except 1 is fat. However this is a very biased sample since being fat is the most obvious symptom for my gene. That is makes suspicious but not at all certain.
 
zand said:
People lose weight on a low carb diet because they don't need much insulin. Insulin is the hormone that makes us gain weight. I think you are over complicating things.
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Hi

How come there are all those (doctors?, quacks?) who make money by helping the general population lose weight? Do you really think they all have an insulin problem? My glucose tolerance test (my gene) was found by 1 of those doctors who assumed everyone would lose weight on his diet. I have given my explanation of why people with my glucose tolerance test do not lose weight on his diet. It also explains reactive hypoglycemia and why all women with my gene get gestational diabetes.
 
yetta2mymom said:
How come there are all those (doctors?, quacks?) who make money by helping the general population lose weight? Do you really think they all have an insulin problem?
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No they don't all have an insulin problem. I believe that with T2 the insulin problem comes first, the weight piles on later. It's clear that some people overeat and under exercise, and for these people any diet will work for a time at least. The problem is that these diets are often designed to fail and they don't address bad habits. Most diets are low calorie, not low carb. Eating low cal makes the metabolism slower so over time the body requires less fuel ( in some ways almost replicating your 'hunter gene') I did this to myself for 25 years and am still trying to recover from it. IMO low fat diets are harmful to the metabolism and the body as a whole. That's why I can lose weight on 2300 calories of mostly fat, yet gain weight on 1000 calories which include carbs.

This is where you and I differ. I too am stuck on a weight, but I am not interested in which of my genes is hampering me. What I am interested in is how to solve the problem. So I try the many different things that have been suggested on this forum and see if they work for me. If I ever manage to lose any more weight I will be back to share what worked for me.

I'm leaving this thread now. I have an operation later today and won't be posting for a while.
 
lucylocket61 said:
if you can starve, you lose weight. Once again, you are talking nonsense.
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Not necessarily - I went on a vlc diet of approx 400 Cals per day and lost 7lb in 12 weeks. However it did nearly kill me as my metabolism went into starvation mode and began to slowly shut my body down to the extent that when I went to see my GP because I felt so ill he told me to go home and have a big meal. He referred me to an endocrinologist who told me that I was one of his few patients who could honestly blame their metabolism for their weight and that I should eat healthily but not cut down on calories. 35 years later I have managed to lose some weight since eating low carb and starting treatment for under active thyroid but, like @zand, not as much as I would like as my weight loss has stalled.
 
Perhaps you are eating too few calories and your metabolism is going into starvation mode to conserve your energy - this happened to me when I was younger and it made me quite ill
 

I'm not sure where you're going with this? My understanding is insulin is produced in response to elevated glucose levels. Excessive carboyhdrate consumption obviously leads to higher blood glucose, and then insulin stimulates storage in lipocytes. The counterpart is glucagon, which stimulates conversion of fats and protein into glycogen and then glucose via gluconeogenesis.

So to lose weight, ideally we want to reduce carbohydrate intake to stimulate gluconeogenesis so the body uses up it's own fat reserves. So for T2's, that generally means cutting the carbs, and keeping an eye on fat & protein consumption depending on whether you're going for weight loss, or weight maintenance.
 
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