Type 1 and weight gain

EmlynV said:

I am really struggling to lose weight, no matter what I do I keep putting on weight! I am so tempted to stop taking insulin for a while - is there any other way to stop gaining weight and start losing (I exercise daily, I eat healthy food and in moderation)???

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Hi @EmlynV .

Never stop insulin. That is a very dangerous path..

Give us a break down regarding your diet & the sort of activity you do?

EmlynV said:

I am so tempted to stop taking insulin for a while

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Please, please, never consider this.
You might reach your goal, losing some weight, but it's a very dangerous eating disorder. The high blood glucose might result in complications. What use is being thin when you lose your sight, or need dialysis, or lose a leg?

If you want to reduce the amount of insulin you use to help weight loss, you could reduce the carbs you eat. Less carbs = less insulin, assuming you dose according to insulin to carbs ratios.

If you're on fixed doses, DO NOT reduce your carbs, you'll need to learn to adjust your doses first or you'll end up with dangerously low blood glucose!

Have you asked your diabetes nurse if you can get an appointment with a dietician to help you find out how you can adjust your diet?

EmlynV said:

I am really struggling to lose weight, no matter what I do I keep putting on weight! I am so tempted to stop taking insulin for a while - is there any other way to stop gaining weight and start losing (I exercise daily, I eat healthy food and in moderation)???

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Hi I asked the same question of my nurse yesterday. Exercise more was the answer however I have a phone appointment with an excellent dietitian who specialises in Diabetes next week as my nurse told me some exercise can push your BG up and you don’t need any correction doses when trying to lose weight. The dietitian is going to advise me on the best exercise to do. I eat low carb, very healthy and in moderation so I shall post any gems of wisdom from the dietitian after my appointment. I wear a Fitbit and usually walk between 9000 and 11000 steps a day, she has told me to up this to 11000 to 12000 a day. Also weights are apparently not the best exercise to lose weight when on insulin I am not sure why yet, will let you know. Don’t do anything drastic in the meantime. Have you been to your GP and had your thyroid checked? Hashimotos disease is linked to type 1 diabetes. Might be worth checking.

A common problem is eating to the dose of insulin you are taking. Your dosing needs to be for for you actually eat. Dosing for your eating, not eating for your dosing. If you are on set doses, it can mean that you eat more to make sure you ate enough because of the dose you took...............hence too much food. Or you take a dose and start dropping too much at some point and then have to eat more. So if you aren't carb counting and adjusting your dose you need to learn to do that as soon as possible. I find prebolusing part before I eat and then taking the rest to what I actually ate works best. If you are carb counting make sure you aren't dosing too high and then eating more later because you are dropping too much. As that becomes just extra calories.

Another problem when you are "newer" to insulin. What you ate before you were diagnosed it was actually too much food for after diagnosis and starting insulin. Before you used insulin you probably were eating more because you weren't utilizing all the food you ate because of the lack of insulin. Hence it's common to lose weight before you are diagnosed. And then it's common to start gaining after starting insulin because it was too much food for you.

It is harder to lose weight as a diabetic, but it still comes down to needing less food/calories. And what one person can eat is just different from what another can eat. It's unfair, but it is what it is.

If you are on set doses you need to talk to your diabetic counselors before you make changes as too much insulin, or too little insulin causes problems. From passing out with a hypo to going into DKA from a lack of insulin and both can be very serious.

@Hertfordshiremum There is a difference between aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic exercise like walking briskly can lower BG levels as it helps the cells utilize insulin better. But it can help raise your calorie burn rate to help lose weight. Although harder aerobic or longer like marathons your liver can dump glucose to help fuel you. Anaerobic like weight lifting requires more fuel as you burn through it faster. So your liver will dump glucose to help sooner and hence you will have a BG level increase. But you also build muscle if you make sure you have the fuel to do that and then of course insulin corrections are needed.

EmlynV said:

Really good feedback All! I need to continue doing my research and most importantly try and seek to see a dietician. Thanks again

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Sounds like a good idea... but unfortunately like anyone who is overweight (non diabetic) the only real way is diet and exercise..

A decent dietitian will help... insulin will force you to use everything you eat.. so if you have too much the excess will be stored as fat..... most people eat more in a day than they actually need... then ofcourse some people are just predisposed to gaining weight

Stopping insulin is not only dangerous.. but it's also a short term fix because as soon as you start again the weight will pile back on probably faster than before as the body 'panics' and thinks it need to store fat for its next starvation... so then you stop again.. and yoyo weight... think this is nicknamed diabuleimia ?

Hopefully you find the help you need to achieve your goal in a safe way