# I seem to be losing weight. Help please



## Gwynn (Nov 10, 2020)

I am a newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic. I have just spent a week in hospital and am home now. 

The problem is that I have not been given much information and have no easy contact for any advice. 

I seem to be losing weight quite rapidly. I dont know how to balance meals for 2000 calories per day whilst keeping my food sugar below 40g.
Any advice will be very welcome. 

My blood sugars are  bit low in the mornings but otherwise ok. 

What can I eat that has little sugar and lots of calories? Or am I thinking all wrong?


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## Inka (Nov 10, 2020)

Hi @Gwynn What do you mean by your ‘food sugar’? Are you on insulin? If so, eat normal food avoiding very sugar-y things like regular Coke (unless you have a hypo). Eat fats like oily fish, avocado, nuts, and balance your carbs with your insulin.

You shouldn’t be ‘starving’ yourself.


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## Ljc (Nov 10, 2020)

Hi @Gwynn . Welcome to the forum.
Erm, Were you told  to keep your sugar intake below 40 g ? was it a diabetes specialist , a ward nurse something you’ve read or were told by a non specialist.

As a T1 it is as @Inka says.

What I am wandering is, could it be you were told to eat a certain number of carbohydrates per meal meal and you misheard or misunderstood it to be sugar.

As you are losing weight still, you need to eat more, you really shouldn’t be starving yourself, so please do not be afraid to eat.
The management of T1 and T2 is very different, most of the info out on the web is for T2s or just downright wrong
Someone who has T2 needs to reduce their carbohydrate intake, sometimes drastically, we replace carbohydrates with other food groups, so we should never be hungry.

A person with T1 should be eating normally , eventually they will teach you to carb count and to match your mealtime (bolus) insulin accordingly.

It would help if you could give us a little more info .
What insulin’s are you on
Are you on fixed doses of your mealtime (bolus) Insulin
How are your blood glucose (BG) levels when you test them


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## Inka (Nov 10, 2020)

@Gwynn I just noticed you didn’t reply to your other thread. If that was due to unfamiliarity with the forum layout, you can reply by clicking the little ‘reply’ in the bottom right hand corner of the post you want to reply to, or just scroll down to below the last post and write in the empty box like I’m doing now (it has a blue strip at the top with “B I U, etc in it), then press the blue “Post Reply” button below the box.

Apologies if you already know this.

The more info you can give, the more tailored advice you’ll get


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## Ljc (Nov 10, 2020)

Here is a link to your other thread .
 You have had quite a few replies there 








						Advice please
					

Sent home after a week in hospital. Type 1 diabetes. New diagnosis. Very little information. Blood sugar steadily rising then this morning right down to 5.2  is this time for panic or just normal variation. I feel fine. Normally it is around 9.




					forum.diabetes.org.uk


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## trophywench (Nov 10, 2020)

The weight you lose before diagnosis with T1, usually just reappears gradually over the next few weeks without you doing anything.  You have to appreciate that the weight comes of gradually so unless you weigh measure etc yourself constantly, quite a bit has come off before you think, eg blimey, this skirt trousers whatever are a bit looser than they used to be.  I was thrilled cos in those days you needed a 24 ins waist to fit in a size 12 and mine wasn't though my bust and hips fitted the bill and at last my waist was thinner.  Only lasted a month-ish, buggrit.


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## Inka (Nov 11, 2020)

Hi again @Gwynn The forum has been slightly updated now so you probably won’t have the blue strip at the top of the text box I mentioned higher up the thread, but the box is still here for you to type a reply. Don’t worry about making mistakes. You can Edit your post or just reply again explaining what you meant.

Looking forward to hearing more from you now the forum is back up after its brief pause last night


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## Gwynn (Nov 12, 2020)

Hi, 

I read that less than 35g sugar per day on the internet. I have since read 100g. No one mentioned diet at the hospital. I am on insulin and momitoring things. What should it be? 

My weight seems to have stabilised. But the morning blood sugar levels are on the low side eg this morning before breakfsst it was 4.8. A continuing downward trend. But the evening test is good at 8 or there abouts. 

So my main concern is how do I control my blood sugar levels which I was told at the hospital needs to be between 4 and 15. 

I don't want it to rocket nor plummet. 

I have the diabetic nurse from the GP ringing later on


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## Inka (Nov 12, 2020)

Hi @Gwynn 

Ok, to avoid confusion, there is ‘sugar’ as in the granulated sugar someone might add to coffee or tea, or bake with, or that cakes contain, and there is carbohydrate (sugar is one of many sources of carbohydrate, others being bread, flour, pasta, rice, etc). All carbohydrate (sugar, pasta, bread, potatoes, etc etc) will put your blood sugar up. The trick is to take enough insulin to deal with the carbohydrates you eat - ie to keep your blood glucose level within range. You _don’t_ have to starve yourself. Your aim is to eat a normal, healthy diet and use your insulin to keep your blood sugar in range and ‘offset’ the carbs you eat.

You haven’t mentioned if you’re on fixed doses of insulin for meals. If you are, you should stick to roughly the same amount of carbs for that meal else you risk going too high (if you eat more carbs than your fixed dose of insulin can cover) or too low (if you don’t have enough carbs to offset the amount of insulin you’ve taken).

You need to count your carbs but only to balance them with your insulin _not_ because ‘carbs are bad’ and you must only eat 30g a day or whatever. You can eat a normal amount of carbs. The advice about limiting carbs is aimed at diet-treated Type 2s not normal weight Type 1s.You basically have to do the job your pancreas did before you got Type 1 - inject the right amount of fast-acting (meal time) insulin to cover the carbs in that meal, and take the right amount of slow-acting (background/basal) insulin to keep your blood glucose level in range in the absence of food.

“*So my main concern is how do I control my blood sugar levels which I was told at the hospital needs to be between 4 and 15. 
I don't want it to rocket nor plummet.”*

Simple Answer - by matching your insulin to the carbs you eat, or your carbs to your insulin if you’re on fixed doses of insulin, and by ensuring your basal/background/slow-acting insulin is at the right level.

Test your blood glucose lots - when you wake up, before and two hours after eating (eg test before lunch at 1pm or whatever time you have it then test at 3pm two hours after the start time of your lunch. That way you’ll see if your mealtime insulin dose is right and it will help you get your ratio right - ie the amount of carbs one unit of insulin covers. It’s common to be started on a ratio of 1 unit to 10g carbs, but the actual ratio will vary for each individual. How you know it’s right is by checking if you hit your target blood sugar after the meal.


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