Good luck - the diet change and the weight loss will have a tremendous impact.
Just a quick note on my own experience. Firstly the low carb diet is in my opinion the biggest thing you can do for your diabetes - it has taken a little getting used to but three years on I would not want to switch back to my old way of eating. I honestly dont know how anyone can effectively manage their blood sugars without going on a low carb diet.
Secondly on the weight loss. Everyone is different of course, but after finally conquering my weight issues (lost 50lbs) I realised that two things hamper weight loss.
1. Fooling yourself and lack of awareness of how much you are eating. Only by actually counting the amount of calories you put in yourself every day can you keep control of your diet - those of us with a weight problem are too good at fooling ourselves and its too easy to say "i ate a salad so that means i am doing really well", when actually the extra cheese and mayo they put on the salad means they had a big meal! This gets very discouraging as you feel like you are trying really hard and eating healthily but you dont seem to lose weight.
2. Trying too hard! Seriously most people cut their calories so quickly that they experience great pain and hardship - all that does is reinforce the belief that dieting is painful, and people come off the wagon and pile on the weight again. Your body reacts badly to sudden calorie reduction and basically screams at you to eat!
So if you want to lose the weight I would suggest the following.
STEP 1: Just get used to counting the calories you eat every day. Don't try to lose weight at all. This disciple by itself is a new skill to learn and takes time. However once you start to do this you will probably notice you begin to eat less naturally because you are becoming more AWARE of how much you are eating.
STEP2: Notice how much you are eating on a daily basis, and start to reduce the amount but a small amount, say 50 calories each day. You will only sightly notice this, but over a week you will be reducing the amount you are eating by 350 calories a day. Your stomach will start to shrink and your body will start to adjust to the new diet - you will feel slightly peckish occasionaly, but not STARVING. Keep reducing the daily calories until just before you start to feel its difficult, then keep at the same calories for another week for your body to adjust further. Then try to cut again by a small amount each day. Repeat the process and you will find you will lose a significant amount of weight, and in a month or two you will eating an amount of food that will lead to sustained weight loss.
STEP3: If you have a bad day or week don't despair - its normal, in fact its inevitable , so you should expect it but it wont mean you have failed. Don't view it as the end of your diet, but as a break from it. And try to keep track of your calories even when you are going off the wagon. Then when you are ready to continue the diet the key is don't try to cut straight back down to your baseline calorie intake. Repeat step 2 again and you will find within a week or so you are back down to this level. The whole approach is to reduce strain on your body and mind, and make weight loss natural and easy rather than painful.
