- Messages
- 1,398
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
We are a minority (somewhere between 10 percent and 15 percent of Type 2s depending on which source you consult) but there are still lots of us because so many people have diabetes. I've had a lot of thoughts about us ever since I was diagnosed myself a bit over nine months ago and found out belatedly that you could develop Type 2 diabetes even if you are not officially overweight or obese, as measured by BMI.
Apparently what matters is "visceral fat" and another way I've seen it described on this forum is "thin outside, fat inside." So in my case, I had been putting on weight over the past 15 years or so and ended up with a strange "beer paunch" on an otherwise very thin frame. Plus, some people might have no visible "plumpness" or weight gain at all, but still develop T2D.
It has also prompted me to rethink the stereotype about overweight people with diabetes. All of my life, prior to diagnosis, I pretty much ate like a horse and that included large quantities of carbohydrates. Although it was a low-fat diet, in retrospect my eating and drinking habits were no "healthier" than other people I know, who happen to be overweight. They seem to balloon with just a little food, whereas my metabolism absorbed large quantities of food without putting on weight, at least until recently.
On the treatment side, one of the interesting suggestions I read a couple of days ago on this forum was that for thin people like me, going on an extreme low-carb diet is rather like doing the Newcastle Diet. I did lose 10KG in about three months, and it seems all of the fat came from one area of my anatomy, the waistline. My face became very slightly less "jowly" but otherwise, it was all "tummy reduction." As of this morning I am 6 inches less around the waist (down from 40 inches to 34).
My doctor has never been worried about my weight, but I now feel there could be a medical justification for warning people just on the basis of their waistline, not just their BMI. I have never been even near "overweight" by BMI, but in retrospect I now believe I had allowed a body-shape to develop that did not do me any favors. Whether it really helped "cause" my T2D I will never know, but it is suggestive.
Apparently what matters is "visceral fat" and another way I've seen it described on this forum is "thin outside, fat inside." So in my case, I had been putting on weight over the past 15 years or so and ended up with a strange "beer paunch" on an otherwise very thin frame. Plus, some people might have no visible "plumpness" or weight gain at all, but still develop T2D.
It has also prompted me to rethink the stereotype about overweight people with diabetes. All of my life, prior to diagnosis, I pretty much ate like a horse and that included large quantities of carbohydrates. Although it was a low-fat diet, in retrospect my eating and drinking habits were no "healthier" than other people I know, who happen to be overweight. They seem to balloon with just a little food, whereas my metabolism absorbed large quantities of food without putting on weight, at least until recently.
On the treatment side, one of the interesting suggestions I read a couple of days ago on this forum was that for thin people like me, going on an extreme low-carb diet is rather like doing the Newcastle Diet. I did lose 10KG in about three months, and it seems all of the fat came from one area of my anatomy, the waistline. My face became very slightly less "jowly" but otherwise, it was all "tummy reduction." As of this morning I am 6 inches less around the waist (down from 40 inches to 34).
My doctor has never been worried about my weight, but I now feel there could be a medical justification for warning people just on the basis of their waistline, not just their BMI. I have never been even near "overweight" by BMI, but in retrospect I now believe I had allowed a body-shape to develop that did not do me any favors. Whether it really helped "cause" my T2D I will never know, but it is suggestive.