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Weight loss and type 1 diabetes

A

ariaxo

Well-Known Member
Messages
194
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Other
I would like to lose 40 pounds and I have been eating 1500 calories a day. I eat 3 meals a day and I take 10 to 15 units of insulin for each meal. Does this add on the weight? I also take meformin. I know I should eat healthier but I'm trying to eat less first as jumping straight to healthy eating with a high carb diet has proven to not work on every occasion. I'm tired of being fat. I'm losing weight slowly. It's not about the number for me, it's about how I look. I'm 5'9 and 72kg. How much insulin should I take to avoid weight gain
 
Antje77 said:
You need to take the amount of insulin which keeps your blood glucose in healthy levels, so you need to adjust your insulin to what you eat.
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I get that but I eat high carb so does taking the insulin cause weight gain
 
ariaxo said:
I get that but I eat high carb so does taking the insulin cause weight gain
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I don't know.
But many people, both with and without diabetes report they lose some weight when they reduce the carbs a bit. Which would reduce the amount of insulin you need for meals.

On the other hand people can lose weight on many different diets, even if they're on insulin.

Do you have a specific reason to choose a high carb diet for weight loss?
 
My diet has been high carb since birth and it's a really hard habit to get out from, it provides me emotional comfort and just so many reasons why I eat it so much. So I'm trying to eat less of it and then be ready enough to eat healthy
 
ariaxo said:
I'm tired of being fat. I'm losing weight slowly. It's not about the number for me, it's about how I look. I'm 5'9 and 72kg. How much insulin should I take to avoid weight gain
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If you are losing weight slowly then your current diet and insulin are working for you. I would argue that fast weight loss tends to lead to yo yo weight loss and gain and that slow is much better. But am not sure why you want to lose so much weight, as 18kg (40lbs) off 72kgs puts you at 54kg, which is underweight for your height. And diabetes is more than enough to deal with without potentially adding an eating disorder to the mix (as can happen if you diet to become underweight.)
 
Hello @ariaxo

I also agree that exercise is a great way to shift extra weight as well as toning up, however take caution that this will impact on your blood glucose levels depending on the exercise and so it's good to have a way of monitoring what's happening with your levels whilst exercising, so using a CGM is really useful. I don't exercise with active quick acting insulin on board and will make sure my levels are around 9-10mmol/l before starting so I have a good buffer to prevent hypos, I have just started at a gym and have noticed that after a 40 minute workout I will start going hypo about 30 minutes afterwards so have to take on around 10-15g of carbs to prevent a hypo, but we are all uniquely different.
 

I know we are all different but you are a 5ft 9 female weighing 72kg?, that's well within the 'normal' BMI so you may find it very hard to lose 3 stone and keep it off.
 
Can I be blunt? You must reduce your carb intake if you want to lose weight. You can have fats and proteins to balance so focus more on them. You can can have chocolate but have 85% dark and so on. Forget Calories as they are not the right measure but Carbs are. Note that insulin itself can't cause weight gain but it enables the body to use the carbs you eat so it comes back to those carbs again - sorry. I can understand the comfort eating but it sounds like you are already taking the right approach. Eggs and bacon for breakfast instead of cereals and so on are appetising without excessive carbs. Do it gradually and it will work
 
Must be said as someone who is 5'6" (ie shorter) when my weight dropped down to 54kg I looked absolutely awful and looked like a skeleton (I was unknowingly suffering from malnutrition at the time) - my Mum was very very worried about me at that weight - she was convinced there was something very very wrong with me given how unhealthy I looked (it was actually undiagnosed coeliac as it happened but that's beside the point))
 
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