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Blood Sugars and Weight

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
L

lizabetic

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1.5 LADA
Whilst sitting my exams around a month ago I was sitting in the higher range of blood sugars I've had for some time. Not terrible but still not what i'm used to. Does anybody find when they are suffering high blood sugars (i'm talking only as high as 15/16mmol post meal and 6 - 7.8 fasting) that weight is easily gained?

My theory is i'm burning calories when my blood sugar falls in the low ranges more often. Does this make sense?

Its a bit confusing because surely if my blood sugar is higher then i'd effectively be losing weight but that doesn't seem to be the case, probably because apart from when I eat i'm fine...
 
Hi Liz

It's a tricky one because your body will burn fat and muscle while your BG is high, hence the weight loss and risk of ketosis.

But if you're high for only a short while, once the insulin kicks in, I would imagine it will mop up the excess glucose and convert it to fat (or at least the liver will). So it's a potential double-edged sword.

The other thing is stress, which will cause you to burn calories a lot quicker than if you're relaxed. But obviously has long term effects that can cause harm, as with other things.

When I improved my overall control early last year, I stared gaining weight and had to restrict my calorie intake for a while until my trousers would do up comfortably, then gradually raised intake again and now I can eat a fair bit without gaining.

The body has so many mechanisms that kick in if you undereat, overeat, go high, low or just wear different colour socks. 🙄

Hope this makes sense and isn't complete rubbish.

Rob
 
You're wrong about the socks Rob.

The rest of it looks right to me ...... :D
 
trophywench said:
You're wrong about the socks Rob.

The rest of it looks right to me ...... :D
Click to expand...

🙄 No wonder my ratios were wrong.

The main thing to remember is that any prolonged period of high BG is going to do damage and any weight gained or lost through BG levels is temporary.

Once BG is back to normal ranges, the metabolism can compensate for any weight gained or lost and either lay down fat or burn it while exercising.🙂

The main thing is not to worry about it and as long as your BGs are reasonable you should find you have no more weight issues than 99% of the non-D population. ie. nobody is ever happy with their weight for long! 🙄

Rob
 
Ive recently had a lot of low sugars and hypos and i was told that this was the reason i had gained a bit of weight 😱 stupid diabetes cant win either way :(
 
I'm constantly amazed by how contradicting this diabetes can be.... one day, one thing, the next day totally opposite... I think, sometimes I'm going mad trying to understand it all. I'm just glad when my bs doesn't go through the roof. my weight is still dropping since dx, slower now though, I've lost about 4. 1/2 stone in all. no idea whether it's because my readings are lower. :(
 
Hi Liz, I thought you were on insulin, if so 15-16 indicates you haven't taken enough insulin, it may also indicate that you've eaten too much carbs. I'ts all too easy to compensate your carb intake with rapid insulin and not realise that you are eating more than your body needs for the exercise your doing. As a T2 without bolus injections I tend to moderate my eating to suit my fasting bg level, which is just as well as I find it very hard to loose weight despite having a BG range of 4.9-10 at all times (the 10 was last night, magnum ice-cream and forgot my Victoza). I've been doing some cake baking and as a result been eating a piece of cake every day and increased by basal injections to suit. Net result an increase of 1kg in a month. Blood readings basically the same.
 
Liz isn't on insulin Vic, her case is a strange one - originally diagnosed Type 1 but came off insulin and now they are puzzling over what might be happening!
 
Thanks for your replies everyone! Yep i'm not on insulin - when I was I was prone to hypos (hence why I came off of it) and therefore was eating twice as much as I would now and DID put on weight because of the excess insulin and extra food to accomodate for that!

Now I guess i'm sort of working like a Type 2! =S
I'm sure that when i'm at a lower weight my sugars are not as high! I hypo a lot so its one way or another. Lows = weight loss/weight loss = lows?!? Probably the first.
I'm not a huge person, i'm 5ft1 and around 55kg, but I know that any weight gain is not going to be good for my diabetes :(
 
Sorry, went to your blog and saw insulin dependant in May so assumed you still were. I've not seen any correlation between BG and weight other than when my A1c was high it was because I was eating too much/wrong things and had put on weight. Now that I've got things under better control and A1c down to 6.4 I still struggle to lose any weight.
 
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