I have been a diabetic for quite some time. I am going on 13 years now. I have always been overweight. I am a type I diabetic and from what I understand diabetics are supposed to be lighter then most people by about 5 pounds. I am currently about 260lbs. Easily 80 pounds overweight.

I try to exericse a few times a week by walking, or hopping on a piece of exercise equipment but it seems I can never get my weight down even though I have seriously trimmed down my calorie intake and the kind of foods I eat significantly. My bloodsugars have been improving every week since I have seen a new doctor with an average now of about 170. I know thats still high but it used to run 300 or so on a regular basis.

My question for now is why are diabetics considered or generally underweight? It is the low glucose levels reaching into the fat reserves we have and turning it into energy or is it something else?

Lowering your blood sugars is critical to getting and keeping your weight down. High blood surgars are the base of almost all problems diabetics have or will get. I have found the teachings of Richard Bernstein most effective approach out there. You will see many people be critical of him - they do it all the while they are suffering the effects of high blood sugars. Exercise, in itself, will not give your weight loss. It is necessary for type 2 diabetics to get the insulin to cell action. I am not type 1 so I will not say the relationship of exercise there, though it is the recommended the same.

Research the theory of small numbers Bernstein talks about. It is even more important to type one becuase of the vast possibilities of high and low blood sugars you can get by not having any insulin production.

Lowering your blood sugars is critical to getting and keeping your weight down. High blood surgars are the base of almost all problems diabetics have or will get. I have found the teachings of Richard Bernstein most effective approach out there. You will see many people be critical of him - they do it all the while they are suffering the effects of high blood sugars. Exercise, in itself, will not give your weight loss. It is necessary for type 2 diabetics to get the insulin to cell action. I am not type 1 so I will not say the relationship of exercise there, though it is the recommended the same.

Research the theory of small numbers Bernstein talks about. It is even more important to type one becuase of the vast possibilities of high and low blood sugars you can get by not having any insulin production.

No Offense...but Lowering blood sugars has nothing to do with keeping weight down.

Keeping weight down has everything to do with what you eat and exercise.

That being said for type one Diabetics..the more insulin that you take it can be more difficult to lose weight. But not impossible.

Two years ago I weighed about 175lbs and was eating right and exercising. I couldn't figure out why I kept gaining weight. My sister (who is also type I) took one look at my insulin intake and suggested I see my endocrinologist again. My sliding scale insulin regime had gone out of control .... at the time I was on NPH. I had nearly 60 units of basal per day, which for me, was just crazy.

Under my doctor's supervision, I now have my basal units down to 13 units of Lantus daily. I lost about 35 pounds just by getting the correct amount of insulin.

Perhaps you are taking too much insulin as well? Consult with your endo before changing anything of course, but he or she might have other suggestions if a good diet and plenty of exercise is not doing the trick.

You are correct that high blood sugars do not cause increased weight. I was thinking about the effects on type 2 where increased blood sugars cause increased insulin production, excess insulin does cause weight gain. Insulin is a hormone that does effect the amount of fat ikn you body. Sorry abou that - I got my thoughts about type 1 and type 2 mixed!

Sometimes it isn't as easy as exercise, etc. Do you have thyroid trouble? If you do, you'll need to get it under control in order to lose weight according to one medical counselor.

:rolleyes: This seems odd....high blood sugar "theoretically" tends to produce fat...Well I don't entirely trust theory myself :eek: , so I charted my:

Weight.......BG ranges b4 and after eating (1 and 2 hours) ....A1c ...for a couple of years.....

Starting A1c-11.7 BG range-110-200 mg/dl wt: 360-380#
Ending A1c-5.6 BG Range-85-110 mg/dl wt: 200-210

:bouncing: (method: reduction of volume to1/2 original volume...final volume 1# solid food a day..mostly vegetable and fruit...no sugar drinks..no milk..only water) :bouncing:

:D ...They all went up and down together. (you decide what that meant(?)....I was not medicated, type 2. That was with very little (drive and sit in a lab all day) exercise. Of course, that’s just me. One possibly unique situation. Now I feel much much better and have begun to exercise, and find it much harder to maintain weight reduction rates. :wave:

[QUOTE=wa5ekh]This seems odd....high blood sugar "theoretically" tends to produce fat...Well I don't entirely trust theory myself, so I charted my:

Weight.......BG ranges b4 and after eating (1 and 2 hours) ....A1c ...for a couple of years.....

Starting A1c-11.7 BG range-110-200 mg/dl wt: 360-380#
Ending A1c-5.6 BG Range-85-110 mg/dl wt: 200-210

(method: reduction of volume to1/2 original volume...final volume 1# solid food a day..mostly vegetable and fruit...no sugar drinks..no milk..only water)

...They all went up and down together. QUOTE]

Wow! You lost 160 lbs in two years? Holy jumpin' :bouncing: :bouncing: ...whatever! :)

Good for you, wish I could lose about 50 in that time. I have the double whammy, though...treating Type 2 with Avandia and thyroid trouble which refuses to stabilize. I'm starting to give up hope.

Yeah, the graphics are kinda neat....in fact, I didn't recognize your post "without" them, haaaaa.

Happy Turkey Day! Roxanne :p ;) :D

Exercise for diabetics is not for weight loss. Weight loss does not come form exercise to any degree anyway. Exercise is imperative for for the insulin to cell process. Don't do it and you do lose some of the benifits of insulint that you do make. I am very bad and exercise myself, I am not preaching by an means.

High blood sugars may not cause weight gain directly, but you can bet that high blood surgars for a type 2 will keep the weight up there. The body will do what it can to counter the high blood sugars by making more insulin and that will be unused which directly leads to more wight gain. Exercise will help the insulin transfer to the cells and that leads to better weight control. It should go without saying that the process is much beyond a simple explaination. Not that I could explain it with all the time in the world - I have to depend on the doctors I believe in to explain it for me. And not to get too detailed so I can understand what they say. Richard Bernstein does that pretty well....

:cool: Roxx quote:Wow! You lost 160 lbs in two years? Holy jumpin :bouncing:

:wave:I've only lost 60-80 the first(3 plateaus) year, then yoyo'd slowly to prove to myself that I had control of wt./A1c and bg range(daily). (I was :eek: always worried I might be losing wt. because of some other problem..?? :eek: bet some of you have worried about this, right :confused:

Then I tried only testing occasionally for 6 mos to a year (3rd year) ...and stayed in a normo-glycemic range(A1c 5.3-5.6)

:bouncing: but no more wt loss....still 100#overweight!! TOO MUCH! :p

Lost almost(only) 100# at one point (fasting then maintaining-NO MeDS though! It would have been dangerous on meds, right? Of course!), but I had a false cardio event scare (actually a result of an auto accident spinal neck injury...arm and neck, but different from attack symptoms)....gained back 10# on lower exercise and slightly increased volume....and now after a month of trying to work through Doctor/lab-test trust-communication issues and trying to increasing exercise....Boy! This is hard work...to fix me! :rolleyes:

happy holidays :bouncing:

...and..OK...please read the "frequent Urination" posts since this is a big part of "wt" (water) loss...ok? :wave:

Taking in more insulin and not using the energy would make sense for my weigh gain. My new doctor has me taking about 40 more units of insulin then i took previously. My BS range was out of control before though so I fell he is trying to get me under 150 most of the time which is going well. My last 90 days look something like this:

90 days ago avg BS: 228
60: 215
30: 183
14: 180
7: 180

He is trying to help me get below 150 on average then we will work on 125. I think after I get below 125 he will work on me using less insulin to get to 125 and I will see weight loss once again.

I was just lurking and saw your post. You need on be consistant in your daily exercise. Daily, as in everyday, five to six days a week. And to do arobic exercise, walking, dancing, cleaning house, etc. Consistancy is very important in exercise to lose weight. Just cutting down intake is not enough, you will get back on the bad eating wagon in no time unless you increase your physical activity. Please exercise from 30 to 60 mintues a day, 5 to 6 time a weeks. I walk indoors in front in the tv, house work, walk to the grocery, etc. Good luck and drink water.

trekgirl :D