Weight gain and hair loss

Are you just gaining the weight you lost pre-diagnosis?

If your at the stage where your comfortable adjusting your own insulin then eating less will stop the weight gain, not sure about the hair problem and I'm not sure if this is diabetes related as I don't recall this happening myself, but if concerned go and see your gp and discuss.

Can you let us know what drugs you are taking? Some drugs do cause hair loss in some people. Also what is your BMI? Were you underweight before? The more info you can give us

It's not shallow at all. I have had a few periods of hair loss in my life and I know how distressing it can be.

It's quite normal to put the weight back on after diagnosis and perfectly healthy too, it's just getting the balance right so that you don't put on more than you need to

Try not to snack between meals if possible and stick to 3 meals a day, I give up snacking several years back to lose weight and it helped immensely, not easy to do all the time as there are occasions when you do need to snack to avoid hypo's but just cutting back on the quantity of food you eat does work, basically you need to burn more calories than you consume.

About 5 weeks ago my wife started a diet following the SW way which she followed several years previously, I'd not weighed myself for quite some time and found that I'd put on 10lbs so decided to diet along with her (but not following the SW diet), so far I've lost 7lbs and my wife has lost 16lbs which is getting near her target weight.

Hi @Cashers12 I personally recommend that you get in touch with your doctor and get your thyroid checked, I found similar symptoms when I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and lost lots of hair and put on weight, it may not be this but it is still worth a chat with your doctor, the 2 are linked as they are both auto-immune conditions.

Hello!

I have always been in ballet, ever since I remember myself. My mother used to say that I danced first and then walked. As you can imagine, being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes was a complete shock as it instantly meant that I would not be able to dance again…

Because of my ballet training, I always followed a very careful diet. Even a minor change in weight could burden my toes, my ankles, my knees, hips and waist.

Therefore, diabetes did not change anything with regards to my diet. Athletes and dancers already eat like a diabetics.

I can tell you what I do and, hopefully, this will help you.

Firstly, I am at around 30 grams of carbohydrates per meal. This means an overall of 90 grams of carbohydrates per day. (I do not know if this is considered a high or a low carbohydrate diet.)

My carbohydrates come from fruits and unprocessed rye bread (I have found that the "Schneider Brot Veggie Rye Bread" at Waitrose has the lowest glycemic index, so far). My diet is raw semi-vegan in the sense that I do not even touch dairy (milk, cheese, butter) and eggs. I avoid eggs as they spike my blood sugar.
I also avoid animal protein whenever I can and I substitute with protein from tofu. (But, I aspire to go completely vegan at some point).

I prefer a spoonful of olive oil in meals but, I am very careful with oil as it can add a lot of calories.
I allow myself treat of 1 digestive biscuit every 2-3 days or ideally, every Sunday as a reward for doing well during the week.

I do not even touch potatoes, rice, pasta, cakes and any kind of desserts, any kind of sauce and condiments, breaded foods and meals like pizza or takeaways are completely out of my diet. But, this is not a new adjustment for me; I always avoided these types of foods.

Meat/fish/poultry and protein in general does not exceed 90-100 grams per meal (which means that if you decide to have poultry and cheese, these combined, should not exceed 100 grams.) I have lots and lots of fresh salads and I do not bolus for them.

Mind your portions! I have come to notice that people don't really realize how much they eat! Nowadays portions in restaurants are huge! Cake slices and muffins at cafes or even home made food come in really big portions.

Alternatives also include pulses, seeds and grains but, I avoid nuts as they are very calorific (although wonderfully nutritious).

I think that the idea is to work with correct combinations, for example do not choose to have a banana and a biscuit or bread and olive oil in your meal. (go easy on cheese as it has great fat content).

I have come to notice that, with insulin, my body absorbs calories like a sponge!! Even a bit of extra olive oil in my salad can create a difference on the scale next morning.

When it comes to being hungry unfortunately, I tend to deal with this as an athlete/dancer and reply to you ‘So what?”
Unless you have a hypoglycemia and you are feeling hungry because of it.

Felling hungry is not the end of the world and, honestly, you will feel hungry in the beginning until your body adjusts to your new diet and portions. You will be hungry for a month or so and then you will get used to it.

I do not want to sound strict but, hunger is an over-estimated feeling… Athletes/dancers/artists/models, spend their life feeling hungry… You get used to it after a while. (Obviously, I am not referring to neuroses and anorexia)

I hope this helped a little...
Regards
Josephine.

Cashers12 said:

On 6 units levemir morning and night. And novorapid before each meal. BMI doesn't really work for me as I have quite a high muscle mass. I was a clothes size 16 before and now a 12. So healthy sizes really. A bit overweight before I developed diabetes. Going to the gym has taken a huge hit as I keep giving myself hypos working out.

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Well your weight sounds about OK, so as a previous poster said, I would just keep an eye on it. I was also going to go on to suggest a thyroid check, but @Juicyj has beaten me to it. One thing about that though., it isn't unusual for the thyroid test to come back normal when it fact it is sub clinically under active. So in the absence of any other answers don't be afraid to keep persevering with this. I have read that it can take up to 9 tests to show up that a thyroid is underactive. Don't be fobbed off if you don't get an answer right away.

Best of luck.

Prior to my diagnosis, my hair thinned (the individual hairs themselves) pretty significantly. Hair loss/thinning is commonly associated with elevated blood sugar levels and usually corrects itself within a couple months after getting things under control.

As others mentioned, considerable weight gain is normal, but I'd keep an eye on how your clothes fit rather than the number on the scale. Weight loss caused by an insulin deficiency often results in your body attacking your lean mass (muscle). In layman's terms, a good bit of the weight you lost was likely muscle and a good bit of the weight you're gaining is likely muscle.

At diagnosis, I was around 180 pounds and jumped up to 215-220 within 2 months. I've since settled back down to ~205 which is a weight I'm very comfortable with.

As said above have your thyroid checked. Many diabetics develop Hashimoto and main symptoms are hair loss and weight gain