Frustrated newbie

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kathireland34

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Type 2
Hi all. I was diagnosed with T2 Aug 2012 when after 6 months of recurrent thrush I demanded I was tested. I was initially found to have an HbA1c of 116mmol. Was advised to diet and exercise for 3 months to see what I could do without medication. One month later I had lost about 6lb and mmol had dropped to 76. The nurse was impressed and told me to continue what I was doing - another month on and my weight had increased again but the mmol had dropped a bit more to 52. I was put on Metformin tabs 1 in morning and 2 in evening. After 6 months and no weight loss or reduction in mmol I was put on 2 tabs in morning and 2 in evening.

My husband is a T1 diabetic so our diet at home was already adapted to a diabetic lifestyle but I will admit to the odd sweet binge at work. This has of course changed now and I am very careful about what I am eating but the weight is still not shifting. I never used to exercise at all but now do 30 mins on an exercise bike before work each morning and a 40 min brisk walk in my lunch hour. Still the weight is not shifting which probably means my blood sugars and blood pressure aren't getting any lower either. Has anyone else experienced problems shifting the weight and lowering their blood sugars? I have been referred to a diabetes nutrition information session (1 x 2hr session) next month in the hope they will tell me something obvious that I am missing!

Any advice would be welcome and sorry for the lengthy first post!! 🙂
 
Hi and welcome to the forum! I'm no expert on type 2 (I have a type 1 son), but from your Hba1c results it seems you are doing a great job with your blood sugars in spite of difficulties losing weight 🙂 Have you got a blood glucose meter at home so you can check your levels at different times of day and see which foods affect your blood sugar?

I'd recommend having a look at the weight loss section on here, as we have lots of members doing fantastically well with losing weight, and I'm sure they will share lots of tips with you.

The other thing to consider is have you had your thyroid levels checked? An under active thyroid can lead to weight gain or make it hard to lose weight.
 
Hi Kath, welcome to the forum 🙂 Do you feel you have a lot of weight to lose? Are you able to test your blood sugar levels before and after eating so that you can learn what foods you tolerate well, and what needs to be avoided? Many of our members have found that joining Slimmers Word or Weight Watchers has helped them a lot - have a look in the Weight Loss section and browse the threads there. Start a food idary so that you can monitor your carb intake and look for ways that you might make changes that would help. What can happen is that if you have insulin resistance, which is normally the case with Type 2, your pancreas will be producing an excess of insulin in response to the carbs you are eating - whatever you don't burn as energy will then get stored as fat, making it difficult to lose weight. If you can lower your carb intake and stick to low GI (glycaemic index) foods then you will produce less insulin and should start to see an improvement.

I would suggest having a read of our Useful links thread, particularly Jennifer's Advice and Maggie Davey's letter and Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year by Gretchen Becker which will give you a better understanding of the problems you may face and how to tackle them. Please let us know if there are any questions and we will try our best to help! 🙂
 
Hello Kath, welcome to the forum. 🙂

Sounds like you're halfway there, with a healthy diet and exercise. I suspect that quantity is the problem, rather than quality. Do you weigh/measure what you're eating? It might be worth trying that for a couple of weeks, keeping track of everything that you eat or drink, at home, work, everywhere.

I've lost a LOT of weight (6 stone in 60 weeks) by going to a slimming club. The group support is amazing. I chose Slimming World (their Original/Red plan is diabetes friendly), but others have found Weightwatchers good as well.

Join us in the Weight Loss forum for help and inspiration. Good luck!
 
Welcome to the forum kathireland34 🙂

What sort of diet have you adopted. A diet that works for a diabetic on insulin does not necessarily work for a diabetic not on insulin.

Your body will tend to try to use the carbohydrates (flour, potatoes, rice, etc) before it will start to burn any fat reserves you might have. You might want to consider lowering your consumption of carbohydrates and increasing (good) fats and protein since this will encourage your body to attack it's fat reserves.
 
Hi all. Thanks for the encouraging words. I don't have a blood glucose monitor but wondered if it would be worth me purchasing one. I think my problem is quantity rather than content. I recently did a week on the 5:2 diet and lost 4lb in a week but put it back on the following week -I don't think I can sustain that eating plan and would rather go for a long term healthy eating plan. I don't particularly want to join a group but would rather access a plan online. The weight loss feed on here has already given me some ideas eg drink more water. I am currently 128kg (approx. 20st) so I have an awful lot of weight to lose but I am determined to do it and get my blood pressure down and blood sugars back to normal levels.
 
Hi Kath, you're exactly the weight I was when I was first diagnosed! That was the first time I joined Slimming World, and I lost 5 stone in 7 months. Then I took my eye off the ball for a few years and gained half of it back.

In April last year, I had to go onto metformin - and that was the kick up the backside that I needed. I went back to Slimming World and haven't looked back! I hit my target (6 stone lost this time), now I'm trying to maintain at 72kg.

The weight loss, combined with 500mg of metformin morning and evening, has reduced my BG levels to non-diabetic range.
 
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