One of the biggest problems I have as a diabetic (Type 2, about 2 years and jsut started medication) is that I am a skinny person. At 5'10" and 140 lbs I don't have much more weight I can lose.

Every diet I get and have gotten from the dieticians look and measure to me like a diet for a person who could lose a few pounds (not meant insultingly). Even when I look for recipes to broaden my diet, I am left with a lot of low-calorie meals which obviously won't maintain my weight.

When I was first diagnosed I was about 20 pounds heavier and the weight was shed pretty quickly. Unfortunately the diet I was put on didn't stop there and my low weight ended up being 129 pounds, which is unhealthy imho. I was able to bring my weight back up and pretty much maintain it with nuts. I added several pounds of nuts a week (yes, pounds), which didn't seem to have much of an effect on my blood levels but yet gave me some of the extra calories I needed.

Unfortunately now my cholestorol is high from all the stuff I had been eating. I currently do a lot of penut butter and jelly sandwhiches (7 grain bread) and that has kept me maintaining my weight, but it is boring as hell (Big Brother anyone?)

I'd love to hear from other underweight diabetics out there and about how they are handling their diets. I really would love a good discussion of options.

I don't mind being skinny, but I am afraid to lose ground again, at it is very hard to function at such a low weight.

Thanks,
JDexter

I have a lower BMI than you do--18.7, but am not quite in the underweight category yet. I am 5'6" and weigh 116 pounds. I did lose about 25 pounds after I was diagnosed about a year ago. I know what you mean about trying to maintain your weight. I was doing a good job at keeping it at 118, but just lost a couple. If I eat a lot of vegetables and a big salad along with my serving of meat, I do stay at the same weight. I eat snacks of wheat thins and cheese, apple, Carb Control yogurt and such four times a day also--10-15 carbs each. I usually only eat about 20 gm carbs at a meal. It is hard to gain any weight with that diet, but if I eat more carbs, my blood sugar goes higher than I want. There are times when I feel weak, as though I am not getting enough to eat.

wow, turns out there are thin diabetics. im really thin also. my BMI is 17.9 but i'm type one. my blood sugar is under control though. I'm trying to remember what it is called, but there is a vitamin that i ofund that is specifically for diabetics and is known to actually free type two diabetics from their meds. I'll have to find out what its called though

For those of you who don't already know this, not all type 2 diabetics are the same! Type 2 is a chronic and often progressive illness, and even people who are thin can develop it.

Type 2 is often caused by a combination of two things: glucose intolerance/insulin resistance AND decreased insulin production. Sometimes the decrease in insulin production is from unknown factors (the beta cells just don't function 100%, but are not totally dead as in T1), sometimes the beta cells start wearing out due to the increased demands placed on the pancreas by the insulin resistance.

If you are already thin, you don't need to lose more weight. You probably need medication or, possibly, even insulin, to manage your blood glucose. I'm not as up-to-date on the oral medications as I should be, but I've read recently that a combination of 2-3 different types of oral meds usually works better than just one alone. Also, if your problem is insulin resistance, you're better off taking more of the medication that helps make your cells less insulin resistant, and take less of the medication that causes your pancreas to produce more insulin...the reason being that if you keep increasing insulin production, your pancreas will wear out faster and you'll end up on insulin sooner.

You might want to talk to the dietician again about the proper diet to MAINTAIN your weight, and your physician about oral meds.

Ruth

The primary key in maintaining weight is to be sure you are consuming the appropriate amount of calories. Unfortunately, most diabetic diets reduce carb consumption to control glucose, and assume that the diabetic will also benefit from weight loss. I have never seen advice to thinner diabetics that they need to maintain the appropriate calorie level to prevent loss of weight. The bottom line is, though, that if you eliminate some of the carbs from your diet, you must replace those calories with other macronutrients (protein and fat).

Here is an example: Say for example that prior to your diagnosis you were maintaining your weight on a diet of 1800 calories per day. If you were eating a traditional american diet, you were probably consuming about 1000-1100 carb calories per day (250-275 carb grams). Following a diabetic diet, you may have been advised to consume only 400-600 carb calories per day (100-150 carb grams). If you changed nothing else in your diet, that would leave you with a 500-700 calorie deficit each day, which could cause you to lose 1 lb per week! This is just an example of how this could happen.

My recommendation is to re-evaluate your diet and determine exactly how many calories you are eating and where your calories are coming from. Then you need to determin how many calories YOUR body needs to maintain a healthy weight. This is determined by factoring your age, height, weight, gender, and activity level. If, in fact, you are undereating, you need to make modifications to your diet that increase your caloric intake. You can do a google search on "BMR calculator" to calculate how many calories you should be eating to maintain your weight. Make sure you use a calculator that factors in your excercise.

It does not surprise me that nuts are helping because they are high in fat and have protein - and these are the other macronutrients you need to increase. But you need to be careful with nuts... first of all, they DO have carbs, and they are also HIGHLY allergic. If you eat them every day you in large quantities it is possible that you will develop an allergy to them and become unable to tolerate them.

There are plenty of other foods that contain protein and fat - these will help you the same way nuts do. Foods like hard cheese, lean fresh meats, fish and seafood will help - you may need to increase your portions of these foods.

Finally, are you controlling your glucose levels with the diet you are following? If so, its possible you can increase your carb consumption slightly to get more calories in. Perhaps you can add more snacks in your day so you are eating smaller portions of carbs but more often during the day.

Remember, the key is that you consume enough calories.