August 18, 2016

Insulin and Weight Gain

This blog about insulin and weight gain is one of the better blogs on the topic I have read. It is written by a certified diabetes educator (CDE), so I will need to be cautious. I do have a greater understanding of the difficulty of losing weight as a person on insulin. Would I go back to oral medications if I could – no way – the management of my diabetes as a person with type 2 diabetes is so much easier and more effective than any oral medications.

Have I had hypoglycemia from taking insulin? Yes, but very rarely. In the almost 13 full years of being on insulin, I can still count the number of episodes on ten fingers and have a couple to spare. Is my carb counting that exact – I doubt it, but I don't inject all the insulin at once and generally test to see if I might need more and how much more. In general this means keeping my blood glucose levels under 150 and closer to 120 two hours after eating. For the few times I get above 150, I immediately add the extra insulin to assure myself of bringing it back down to approximately 90 at four hours.

In a few of the author identified blogs, Nora Saul at the Joslin Diabetes Center, does an excellent job of explaining why people have such a large problem with weight gain and lays the blame squarely where it belongs, on both the patient and doctor. The patient for not wanting insulin and the doctor who encourages patients to stay on oral medications. It is this treatment of last resort that makes for problems of weight gain. It is also the myths about insulin and the fear of the patient and doctor about hypoglycemia that prevents using it early on when it would be more beneficial.

Both the patient and doctor need education in the use of insulin to make it an efficient treatment without the fear of hypoglycemia. Plus what many people forget, by starting insulin use early, this allows the pancreas some rest instead of complete burn out and not requiring the quantity of insulin when the pancreas is all but done and insulin is used as the treatment of last resort.

Also important is the consideration of nutrition and exercise, which is often easier before the weight gain. Quoting Nora Saul, “one reason people with type 2 diabetes often see the pounds pile on after they begin taking insulin is that they've waited too long to start.” I have written about this before and do believe this to be very true.

Please read the full blog by Nora Saul for her full explanation of what happens when you as the patient and your doctor avoid the use of insulin until it is absolutely necessary. You are not doing yourself any favors and only damaging your body by letting your blood glucose get too high and thereby undermining the normal metabolism of carbohydrates and fat. I have several Type 2 friends that can agree that waiting too long to start insulin is not a good idea. They will tell you it is better to start early.

Many people are not educated in counting carbs correctly and then enter the vicious cycle of hypoglycemia and eating to correct it. They often eat too many carbs for correction and then develop hyperglycemia – too high a blood glucose level. Another problem is the injected insulin (the short acting) stays in your body about twice as long than your own insulin ever did and as a result, you end up feeling hungry. This is when you need to learn that you don't need food, and must force yourself to avoid food.

Eating at regular times becomes more important to know how to gain the advantage of ignoring the hunger as too many people feed the hunger and the management of diabetes goes out the window. It does take some discipline at the start, but with time the hunger pangs will subside and become easier to manage.

She does recommend seeing a CDE for education, but I would urge you to see a good dietitian or nutritionist, specializing in diabetes, that may not push the old American Diabetes Association way (unless you are a patient at Joslin Diabetes Center), but will use the new guidelines of individual needs and desires being more important. The key here is balancing the nutritional aspects of the food you eat and learning that the old ADA way often has too many carbs which will (I mean will) help increase your weight and keep you on an upward trend. You will need to adapt to the number of carbs that works for you and does not increase your weight.

When you take insulin, glucose is able to enter your cells, and glucose levels in your blood drop. This is the desired therapeutic goal. But, if you take in more carbohydrates than you need to maintain a healthy weight — given your level of activity — your cells will get more glucose than they need. Glucose that your cells don't use accumulates as fat, hence the weight gain. Therefore to prevent weight gain, be prepared to reduce the number of carbohydrates you consume on a daily basis.

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