# Insulin VS Weight Loss.



## hayleybumble (Jun 22, 2011)

Hi guys, I'm new here so I'll give you a little background info about me =]

I'm 21 this year, have been Type 1 Diabetic since the age of 11. I currently inject 4 times a day (Humalog & Lantus).

Ever since I was diagnosed years ago I have slowly been putting on weight. I had great control for the first few years, and then it went downhill after hitting puberty. Last year I attended a 'Carb Counting Course' which was fab, really helped with my understanding of how what I eat effects my body / insulin / exercise.

My problem now is that I am about 4 stone overweight I guess and desperately have been trying to lose this weight for years. I have tried Slimming World a few times, which I managed to lose about half a stone each time I tried, I just don't get the results I want. It's frustrating for me because I know it's a long term thing, weight loss, but I am on a lot of insulin & I have been told how it's an appetite stimulant and makes you gain weight.

I take 48 units of lantus and over the course of a day about 50 more units of humalog, which I know is a lot, but this is because my carb:insulin ratio is high. 
The trouble is to be on less insulin I need to lose weight, but I can't lose weight because of the insulin.

Does anyone else have this trouble? Is there something I am missing, or am I just going to have to accept that if I stick to my low GI diet & exercise that one day I might just about lose a stone?

Sorry for the life story, but thanks for reading 
Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

Hayley.


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## trophywench (Jun 22, 2011)

How many calories do you consume in a day?  And how many grams of carb? 

Some of the dietary advice given for diabetics in various places is utter boloney; I remember being told about 15 years ago by some one at the hosp I needed 230g of carb a day to survive - plus protein fat and fibre! - well how come I've been doing approx 130g Carb a day give or take since before I was even diabetic and have now retired sans any complications I know about yet then?  LOL (5'4" and round about 9st 7lbs)  If I eat more I gain weight, I already move about as fast as a slug so the extra weight is a disaster.

One of the books I found really useful from my carb counting course and still do, is the Collins Gem CALORIE counter book (?3.99 from a bookshop near you, LOL) It gives Cals, Fat, Protein, Fibre and Carbs all per 100g/100ml for all it's thousands of foodstuffs.  (they also do a CARB counter but it's far too vague)

One of the other dietary tips I always found useful when I was dieting to lose weight was - use a smaller plate!  Psychologically it works .......


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## hayleybumble (Jun 22, 2011)

Yeah the smaller plate idea is a good one, I always mean to do it, but never get round to it =| 
As far as carbs go I'd say I have around the 140g mark, something like that. All bran for Breakfast with milk & fruit.
Omelette or salad for lunch (low / no carbs)
And then maybe pasta & salad, a roast, fish & potatoes for tea, that sort of thing so no meals where I think 'woah i'm eating loads of carbs', cause I'm really conscious of how many I eat.

Also I forgot to mention that I weigh all of my food when I need to, I have those scales you can type in what food it is and it gives you all of the dietary info on it. 
I book I swear by is 'Carbs And Cals' they made it into an App now, it's brill, it shows loads of different foods on plates so you can judge the amount and tells you the carbs & cals in them.


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## Steff (Jun 22, 2011)

Hi Hayley and a warm welcome to the forum from me


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## Robster65 (Jun 22, 2011)

Hi Hayley. Welcome 

Do you count your cals as well as your carbs ?

And how much opportunity do you get for regular exercise ?

I found that my ratios drop quite a bit once I can get a few days of steady physical activity but it does take a few days to build up, then seems to crash down.

As a comparison, I'm on 20u Lantus split each day and about 25-30u humalog. And I eat about 250-300g (or more) of carb per day. A lot of it must be down to genetics I suspect.

Rob


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## hayleybumble (Jun 22, 2011)

No, I dont count my cals at the moment, really because I'd spend my whole day calculating & writing down what I'm eating. So much for a normal life there...

I've been doing regular exercise for the past 2 months at least, 30 min workout DVD in the morning, an hours walk at least a day and maybe swimming or treadmill on the evening, but with no results =|

Frustration doesn't even come close.
Thanks for your help =]


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## Robster65 (Jun 22, 2011)

Just to throw a few wild ideas around, do you manage to get your post meal BGs in range most of the time ?

Just wondering if you've experimented with pre meal injection timing to match peak of food with the humalog (tricky at best of times) ?

Also, there's the injection site rotation issue. If you don't rotate your sites each time, you can end up with fatty lumps which will cause erratic absorption and could lead to high ratios.

Rob


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## hyper-Suze (Jun 22, 2011)

Hi hayley and welcome to the forum!

I am here to help you feel at ease! I have completed the carb counting course in april this year and I too have a lot of insulin and have also put on 2 stones since the course! (i have also had my contraceptive implant out so that could be a factor too!)

I am on 42 units of Lantus at night and my ratio is 1.5units to 10grams of carb. I felt completely abnormal on the course as there was plenty of people on half unit or only 1 unit per 10g!

I feel like I am pulling my hair out as I am doing aerobics every night as I am training up in my qualification to deliver the sessions, who'd wanna come to a class run by tubby!!! In the past I have lost weight from not taking insulin but this isn;t the healthy way, but honestly, I need to talk myself round the cons each and every day to stop me doing this!!!

Not too sure whether there is a quick fix solution, maybe its just persevierance!

Keep it up chick!


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## Copepod (Jun 23, 2011)

Welcome Hayleybumble.
Only thing I can think of to improve your insulin sensitivity is to increase the intensity of your exercise, while maintaining the same, excellent, periods of time you are investing eg alternate walking & running and / or including some hills / slopes in your route (no idea of your locality, so hills might be difficult to find - it is in East Anglia), increasing treadmill speed, increasing swimming speed / using crawl instead of breaststroke or back sculling (not sure what speed or stroke you are using, of course). Apologies for inappropriate suggestions if you are already doing this.


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## novorapidboi26 (Jun 23, 2011)

Hi and welcome.......

I too am probably about 4 stone overweight, Monday to Friday I have a mini yoghurt for breakfast, for lunch, 3 - 4 bit of fruits, salad, biscuit, and for dinner just your usual pastas, pizzas, fajitas, what I believe to be a varied diet........I am 6 foot tall and well built anyway.........so I do believe the insulin is having an effect on my battle to lose weight, but I have started to increase my activity slowly which will reduce the amount of insulin I need for every 10g of carbs, that's the plan anyway........

the reality is, the extra activity is throwing my blood sugars out the window, highs here, lows there, maybe it needs time to settle..........


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## hayleybumble (Jun 23, 2011)

Thanks for all the suggestions guys & sorry to hear some of you are struggling the same as me.
I think perserverence is definitely the key, it's just frustrating that it takes so long to see any results, especially ones that need me to drop my insulin. Although last night I did drop my lantus by 8 units, just to see if I do really need the stupid amount I'm on, and so far so good.
I think stepping up the exercise is going to have to be done, unfortunately =|


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## hyper-Suze (Jun 24, 2011)

hayleybumble said:


> Thanks for all the suggestions guys & sorry to hear some of you are struggling the same as me.
> I think perserverence is definitely the key, it's just frustrating that it takes so long to see any results, especially ones that need me to drop my insulin. Although last night I did drop my lantus by 8 units, just to see if I do really need the stupid amount I'm on, and so far so good.
> I think stepping up the exercise is going to have to be done, unfortunately =|



Hi Hayley, 

You are probably already aware though that the change in your lantus won't be noticed as quick as that, it takes a day or so for the change to be noticed(the previous amount of insulin is still working), so maybe today or tmoz will show your true results, careful, in case you do need this extra insulin and then you run high(!) ....good luck with it!! 

(I reduced mine from 48 to 42 but did this by decreasing 2 units at a time and with 4 day window to ensure my levels remained stable, I'd be scared to drop 8u in one go....)


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## jaa7 (Jun 24, 2011)

Hi and welcome to the group.  I don't take as much insulin as some of you but still have to inject 5 times a day with novarapid and levemir.  I found that I put weight on gradually then I managed to lose nearly 2 stone with slimming world and my insulin almost halved.  Some of the weight has gone on again, so I need to look at loosing some of this again.  I do feel that I feed my insulin rather than the other way around. Although I am type 2 and haven't done the dafne course, I am currently working closely with my hospital dietician and previously the diabetes nurse to look at more flexibile units injecting, counting carbs etc, monitoring effects of exercise.  We are almost there at getting my insulin ratios right and from next Friday, we meet again to discuss how I can then lose weight.


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