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Lost bit too much weight

E

Em55

Member
Messages
7
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hello,
so back to square 1 for me.
was diagnosed last June query type 1.5 at the time as I ‘wasn’t typical representation’ but diabetic nurses in gp surgery decided to go with Tyoe 2 and treat with gliclazide and metformin straightaway. Hospital clinic said they wouldn’t see me unless I lose more weight and as long as I can keep my pre meals blood glucose levels between 5 and 8.
I went low carb using alternative flours etc for baking/cooking.
I did really well. Hba1c on diagnosis was 100! In October that was 55!
they dropped the gliclazide in December as I had a few lows and lost tiny bit more weight.
weight before diagnosis was 11 st 6.
fast forward to now, I weigh 9st 4/5 and. Still been low carb so have lost more weight, but premeal Levels were persistently high and been struggling to get them down. Phoned nurses and had my update hba1c test this week, anyway.
raised my concerns again and after being in the surgery all afternoon Wednesday while nurses did various tests on me that they could and send a note to GP(and wait for the reply) theyve put me back on gliclazide and increased my metformin.
so with regards to weight I now believe form the nurse that I need bit more carbs due to the gliclazide But this is going to take about a week to kick.
nurse also said not to rule out in the future possibility of needing insulin. But I’ll never cope with that. I dread it. Really don’t want to go down that route.
So my query is how can I gain that little bit more weight to be Just right - is it really as simple as eating more carbs?
I’m just feeling back at square 1 and feel like I don’t really know what to eat for the best now!
grateful for any advice/experiences. New to this forum/website.
thanks in advance .
 
First, welcome. This is a great place to be and really helpful too!
It does sound odd to be that the hospital will only see you if your weight drops and bloods drop. Surely, if your bloods are still high then the hospital are the ones best placed to do some more investigation?
I completely understand not wanting to be on insulin, it's something I plan to avoid for as long as possible. I'm t2 so I'm hopeful I can last a long time without.
Not sure how to slow weight loss - I'm still working on getting down to where you are now as that is the weight I'm supposed to be (apparently!) I can't see more carbs being the answer. More carbs = higher bg. Did you go low fat too? And what calorie intake are you getting? It may be very low and things like increasing protein and fat might help??
There will be others with more advice just wanted to say hello!
 
If there's still a question about what type you are, keep going after that. If they have indeed asked for all possible tests, and nothing conclusive comes out, have them re-done when your numbers change again.

In the meantime, up the fats and protein, if you can. See whether that helps any. I hope it will.
Hugs,
Jo
 
Personally, I really do balk at the concept of eating to satisfy a medication, although, I can only assume they are keen you avoid hypos (or too many of them).

If your A1c is decent, but pre-meal scores tend to be higher than you'd like, I wonder of you are plain old eating enough. You could be having pre0meal liver dumps, contributing to those elevated Numbers. Eating enough? It's easy to say, obviously not, if you are losing weight, but if your type is in doubt, I'd be concerned some of that loss might be related to misdiagnosis.

In your shoes, I'd up what I was eating, in general, focusing, in the first instance on more protein, because of how your body deals with that, the up the fats a bit. In doing both together, I'd be looking at fattier cuts of meat - lamb, belly pork etc.

When restarting your Gliclazide, keep a close eye on your testing.

If you have not already, now would be a fab time to have a trial of the Freestyle Libre. That's give you a decent insight to what's happening in the periods you're not finger pricking.
 
Many of us don't find it easy to be assertive with medical professionals, I know I don't, but you should push to have your C-peptides tested, at the very least, to see how much insulin your body is producing. There is a correlation between C-peptides and insulin production. They test C-peptides rather than your insulin because insulin has a very short 'shelf-life', C-peptides are more stable. If your C-peptides are low then they will likely do antibody tests. If you can get them to do antibody tests as well, do it. Thos test will confirm what type you are. There are four types of antibodies your body can produce if your high blood sugars are down to autoimmune diabetes. They will know what to look for. Ask them to do all 4 rather than just the GAD antibody test as not everybody produces GAD antibodies. I know it's hard to push, but remember it's your body, your health not theirs.

I have trouble keeping weight on, but I always have so it's not a new issue for me. Your weight loss issues, from what you have said, is a recent problem. Once they can confirm your type (push for those tests) you will be in a better position to look at your dietary issues. I am not a medical professional, neither am I trying to diagnose you, as that goes against forum rules, but if it is type 1, and I am not saying it is, controlling your blood sugars through diet will limited. Still helpful, but limited.
 
Like @Melgar, I was thinking about c-peptide testing.
Weight loss is a key symptom of Type 1 diabetes.
From my understanding, Glic is not a good medication in this scenario. I believe it works by forcing your pancreas to produce more insulin. However, if you are in the honeymoon period of Type 1, this will put additional strain on your remaining beta cells.

Sadly, many doctors believe that Type 1 is a childhood disease resulting in over 30% of adults with Type 1 initially being misdiagnosed with type 2 despite over 50% of people with Type 1 being diagnosed as adults.

I understand that it can be challenging to be assertive with medical professionals but the wrong diagnosis can be dangerous.
 
Thanks everyone. That’s given me a bit more understanding of it all, so thank you. I rushed my initial post this morning as I’m always multitasking! So I should’ve said the type query was at diagnosis last June. And about 2 months after this the hospital had said what they said. I’d been fine since and thought I’d cracked it but obvs not! I’ve now been told today that there has been an admin error for my hba1c bloods done on Wednesday so earliest appt is 25th April ! Hopefully the nurse will still phone me on Tuesday and maybe she’ll work it ot get me in sooner if she feels the need. Thanks again, lots to take in.
 
Em55 said:
I’ve now been told today that there has been an admin error for my hba1c bloods done on Wednesday
Click to expand...
Just wondering what that means... Did they look at someone else's results or lose your sample ????!!!!!!
 
Hi Never take more carbs to match the Gliclazide or whatever. Always match the meds to the carb level you choose to eat and not vice versa. If you don't you will be taking more medication than you really need and you may gain weight from the carbs. If you wish to gain weight go for more proteins and fats and if that doesn't work it's possible you need to be prescribed insulin?
 
While I agree with the sentiment I don't quite see that that works in practice. If you find you are on too much gliclazide and go hypo, you're going to need to take carbs to treat the hypo. (Speaking with experience of hypos but not gliclazide). At that point it might seem like a good idea to contact your gp to talk about lowering the dose so you don't get hypos, but "never" is far too strong a term here.

And as a child I was on a fixed dose insulin regime which definitely required me to match carbs to insulin. (That's all there was in those pre glucometer days).
 
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