Hi, new person here!

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Sara32

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Type 2
Hello,
I'm new to this, I have had type 2 diabetes for 4 years now. Luckily up until recently I have been able to control it through diet and medication but unfortunately I was told that my levels were getting higher and would need to go on insulin. To be honest I was terrified, I stupidly googled it first and read some horror stories from people who were put on insulin and ballooned in weight! I have put off going on insulin for the last 6 months but now with the help of my incredible diabetic nurse, I have come to terms with it and have agreed to go on insulin, only a small dose (hoping it won't have to be increased) for now. I'm preparing myself and thought I would join the forum to meet people in the same position as me. Thank you for listening
 
Hello and welcome to the forum! Sorry to hear your levels were getting higher, but the insulin will help keep your diabetes under control. 🙂 Also lovely to hear you have a great diabetes nurse supporting you along the way. How have you been managing your diet?
 
Hi,
Well not managing my diet as well as I hoped. My down fall is I luv food and have a sweet tooth so I have cut down on sweet things and trying to cut down on carbs but I have found that particularly hard. I have been more successful in having smaller portions and have lost weight because of this. But unfortunately over time I obviously haven't done enough I'm embarrassed to say.
 
Welcome to the forum @Sara32

Good to hear you‘ve been able to lost some weight with portion control. Losing weight can help with insulin sensitivity, and reducing portions - especially of things high in carbohydrates, including sweet and sugary things, but also controlling portion sizes of starchy carbohydrates - can be really helpful.

Some people decide to ‘kickstart’ their weight loss with a very low calorie meal-replacement approach, sometimes called the ‘Newcastle diet’. This can have the effect of rebooting the metabolism in some people, but is often best considered in discussion with your Dr.

Sorry you’ve read some horror stories about insulin. To reassure you - I’ve been taking insulin for over 30 years, and am roughly the same weight now as I was in my early 20s. I’ve had periods of being heavier, but it has always been because I’ve been eating more. And by regulating my food intake I’ve been able to restore my weight. So I haven’t found any of the insulins I have used over the years to be independently associated with weight gain.

Hopefully you can find a balance between meds and menu that suits you 🙂
 
Hi @Sara32 and welcome to the forum 🙂

Please do not worry about putting on weight on insulin - it's a complete myth that insulin causes weight gain. There are hundreds of slim and skinny type 1s on here, some of whom have been on insulin for decades - we'd all be overweight if insulin caused weight gain. I've been on insulin for 12 years and I just about manage to maintain my weight of around 8 stone 2.

The thing which causes weight gain is not insulin itself but eating to your insulin - ie if you are put on too high a dose of insulin and then eat more than usual in order to balance out the extra insulin. It's eating too much which causes the weight gain in this situation, not the insulin. What you will need to do, with the assistance of your diabetes nurse, is to eat normally (having your smaller portions if you still need to lose any weight) and then match the insulin doses to what you eat. So you inject to match your food, you don't eat to your insulin.

It will take a bit of trial and error to get the doses right (and there may be times when you do need to eat something sugary in order to prevent your blood sugar going too low), but the insulin will definitely not make you put on weight.
 
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