Newbie advice. Type1

[Mrsc85]

Hi everyone,
I am a newly diagnosed type 1 due to pancreatic difficency. I have been on novorapid 3x a day and Levemir at night. When diagnosed my blood glucose levels were at 28 now I am somewhere around the 7 mark before food and around 9 two hours after. I know I still have a way to go but at least it is going in the right direction.
I have read a lot of the really helpful posts for us newbies which have given me a great insight in to the world of injecting and Carb counting but I was hoping that I could get some advice on how to cope with the constant hunger that I am experiencing and subsequent weight gain. Is this something that others have experienced or am I just overindulging my cravings! Before my diagnosis just over a month ago, i had lost about 2.5 stone and I have put just over a stone back on, practially all of it on my tummy. I have seen my diabetic dietician who said that my diet is well balanced and she has asked me to count the number of carbs that I am consuming until my next appointment. I am avoiding all sugars and limiting my Carb intake as advised. Does the constant hunger subside once my bloods have settled down and is the tummy fat likely to disappear aswell or is this connected to where I am injecting? Many thanks for your helpxx

 

[Jculligan]

Hi
I take novo rapid and levemir too and with me personally I find if I go for starchier types of carbohydrates I find it fills me for longer , ie I love a full english but I feel horrible after one and my sugars go crazy for some reason but even tho I'm not the biggest fan , porridge works wonders for me fills me for hours and keep my sugars more stable , good luck

 

[urbanracer]

Hi Mrsc85,

Welcome to the forums. You 'may' find that your hunger pangs wane once your blood sugars have stabilised within normal(ish) ranges. Some info from this site.........................

Hunger and hyperglycemia
In uncontrolled diabetes where blood glucose levels remain abnormally high (hyperglycemia), glucose from the blood cannot enter the cells - due to either a lack of insulin or insulin resistance - so the body can’t convert the food you eat into energy.
This lack of energy causes an increase in hunger.

Hunger and hypoglycemia
Increased appetite can also be caused by abnormally low blood glucose (hypoglycemia).

If blood glucose readings fall below 4 mmol/l, the body usually responds by releasing stored glucose from the liver to raise glucose levels back to normal.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/symptoms/polyphagia.html

 

[himtoo]

Hi Mrsc85
welcome to the forum

as some snacks to help fill the gap between meals with not much calorific content
you could definitely eat celery sticks , cucumber sticks , green salads , green peppers , beetroot , make sure you are hydrated.

the tummy fat will not be connected to the injections.

 

[Mark-optimistic]

Hi the reason for the weight gain will be one of the main symptoms for me before diagnosis was serious weight loss because your body was not getting what it needed, resulting it basically eating away at itself. Now your taking insulin and lowering your sugars it is completely normal for you to put weight back on , just means you are getting back to normal ( I have only been diagnosed for 10 months, I feel your pain)

 

[happier than you]

I never lost any weight before diagnosis. Since being on insulin i do find i put weight on slightly more easily, but it is a very small change. I found i put some weight on at first because i felt incredibly weak and needed to eat to get energy. This only lasted a few months though. I think the important thing is to feel good and improve your fitness, especially the health of your pancreas. If you're eating pretty good i don't think it's worth worrying about. Small changes to weight can happen for no obvious reason anyway. Your body is possibly storing food as fat more, because you haven't been very well. For being hungry, drinking water helps me. And actually avoiding food. I find that i'm more hungry when i'm around food. The advice i get is to have small meals, but when i do that i get much more hungry than when i just avoid food and only have 2 or 3 larger meals a day. The less meals or snacks i have, the more i just forget about food altogether until i'm genuinely hungry.

 

[dtennant9]

Welcome to the forum @Mrsc85

I do remember being quite hungry when I was first diagnosed. It wasn't prior to diagnosis but in the period afterwards once I had started taking insulin. I don't know if it is the same as you are experiencing but mine subsided fairly quickly.