• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Not losing ANY weight

R

rabdcd

Active Member
Messages
25
Age 47
Type 1
Lantus split dose 16\14
Apidra as required

I´ve been a diabetic since 1984 and with my wife’s help I try very hard to maintain decent sugar levels and watch what I eat however I changed from Levemir to Lantus around 10 months ago and since then my weight has steadily increased about 1KG a month so now I´m 85KG when for years I´ve stayed constant at 75KG

The simple answer might be go back to Levemir – I tried but for some reason it simply stopped working for me 10 months ago but as I´m so concerned about the weight gain the doctor gave me Levemir again a few weeks back but my sugars went immediately high and after a 2 week trial we swapped back to Lantus

For the last week my wife and I have gone on a low carb diet my total carbs are limited to 50 per day and we are religiously counting calories and eating chicken, fish, lean meat, salads, yogurt etc. My sugar levels are all over the place for example this morning my sugar was 4.6 I ate a slice of bread 25g and a boiled egg I figure I had enough carb enough to raise my sugar 3 points max and as I was walking to work I decided not to inject any fast insulin however after 3 hours my sugar is 10.1???

I have a desk job but I walk back and forth to work every day approx 30 minutes each way and we walk a lot at the weekend, I´m limiting my calories to under 1200 per day but After the first week my wife is delighted she lost 1.8 KG but I continued to gained weight and added another 500g to my mass

I know Lantus is linked to weigh gain but I just can´t understand how I can be hungry and gain weight at the same time :cry:

Wondering if anyone else had a similar experience

Robert
 
Hi Robert
Insulin has a nasty sting in the tail. It controls blood glucose and stores fat.
If you can get your insulin tightly matched to your carbs, and keep on with the low carb, it SHOULD help.
Hana
 
Two things that you need to look at..

1st is your background insulin correct, if it is when fasting, it shouldn't move more than -/+ 2-mmol/ml

2nd,

Do you know your carb to insulin ratio?


As to your breakfast,

25g of carbs, would put my levels up by more than 3mmol/ml if I didn't have any insulin, don't forget that the body can be more resistent to insulin first thing in the morning, and if you suffer from Dawn P, then this can counter the effect of the walking you did...

You are right, Lantus does seem for some reason cause a lot of weight gain issues in it's users more so than Levimer.. If you find that Levimer isn't working, and Lantus is casuing problems then you could also asked to change to Animal insulin at least to cover your back ground needs, or completely change over all your insulin, your diabetic team is unlikely to be too happy with this request though, as they see Animal insulin as being old fashioned!

Another choice though, is requesting the use of insulin pump therapy, as this uses quick acting insulin only, and is more able to fine tune to your insulin requirements.. so would avoid the issues with weight gain on Lantus and avoid Levimer not working..
 
Hi Hana
Thanks for talking the time to reply
I´m aware that the insulin wants to store away all the excess food and once it’s safely stored around my belly the insulin is making it difficult to lose any weight - a real double edged sword!
It’s just so annoying to find my weight still going up whilst I´m eating practically nothing but I´m carefully monitoring my glucose levels and have started to adjust\lower my Lantus and I´ll continue to persevere with the diet
Watch this space and I´ll shout as soon as I lose a gram

Robert
 
Hi Jopar

Thanks for replying and sharing your knowledge

My Insulin Ratio changes throughout the day but usually

Morning 1:10
Lunch 1:10
Evening 1:8

I´ve actually had a discussion on the forum last year when Levemir stopped working about the benefits of changing to Animal based insulin but my problem is I work overseas a lot, right now I´m in Madrid but generally I´m somewhere around the middle east where medicine is not as controlled as we enjoy in the UK and as I sometimes have to buy insulin and know I´ve often got to drive around different pharmacy´s to find basic stuff like Lantus and Levemir I know I´d struggle to find anything animal based. I have also thought about a pump for sometime and I hear from people like you of the many benefits but again my problem is I work away in dusty deserts where fine sand gets into absolutely everything so for now at least I need to stick with the needle.

I take 2 shots of Lantus morning\night and I´m going to follow your advice and fast tomorrow after breakfast to see if Lantus is driving my sugars down, I´ll let you know how that goes

Many thanks

Robert
 
Ouch, that does indeed suck. I've been type 1 for two and a half years now (I think, I forget). I don't like the idea that my levemir will one day just stop working.

That said, you've essentially described your weight gain as being due to your insulin, not your diet. Is there any third way? A basal insulin that isn't either Lantus or Levemir? To be honest, the simple stuff has always worked a treat for me so I've never had to dig too deep for alternatives, maybe that would be a better use of your time than worrying about the idea of low-carbing?
 
Chances are your Levemir will be fine for you until they bring out some newer and better stuff.

I was using Levemir for quite a long time and everything was fine until my glucose jumped up and stayed there my doctor wouldn´t have any discussion that Levemir was the problem, she tried to tell me it was stress and I should stop checking my sugars she even wanted me to start taking some tablets along with the insulin but eventually she relented and fitted me up with a sensor injected into the belly for 5 or 6 days the data proved I had no background insulin and I swapped over to Lantus which I´m fine with apart from the weight gain that is

You might well have a point about looking for another insulin and I´ll be discussing the question with the diabetic team in a few weeks time
 

Seems like a basic question here, but are you certain you didn't just have a levemir pen that went off? I had a bad pen about a month ago - essentially it was as if I was injecting myself with water, I just switched to a new one and was right as rain.

I got started on Lantus to begin with, but had to switch due to its acidic ph. Was giving me an intense burning feeling every time I injected. Nasty. Mind you, I'd take acid over weight gain. I'm too vain for that!
 
Thanks for talking the time to write

The pens where changed out in fact the whole patch of pens were changed out so it wasn´t that I actually endured the constantly high sugar for about 6 weeks whilst my doctors tried to convince me that it was impossible for the body to get used to insulin and the high sugars were down to stress, a sensor was placed under my skin to record my sugars every other minute or so and the results showed my sugars rising and falling with food and fast insulin but staying static to the Levemir once we changed to Lantus my sugar was brought back under control. I tried Levemir again a few ago but all I did was cause havoc to my body as my sugars were immediately high increasing the dose just seemed to do nothing as you well said I am as well injecting water than Levemir

My doctor told me the there is a new improved version of Levemir coming soon so maybe I´ll try it again then
 
Well, I hope it works for you. Sounds like a horrible situation to be in.

Final idea, are you simply injecting too much Lantus? (I'm sorry, I know these are really basic/borderline-insulting questions). Maybe dial it back a couple of units each night?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…