Diabetes Community

50 pounds since December.

No real secret - diet and exercise.

5 days a week of cardio - weight lifting 3 of those days. About an hour each day.

I'd stop tomorrow if you had a pill for this. <grin>

Not so much weight loss-15-20lbs depending on the day. Cut white starches. Salad at least once a day. Larger meals at breakfast and lunch. Snack on nuts, olives and broccoli, occasionally cheese. Exercise-50 push ups at night, 100 side planks 50 to a side, 20 push ups 5 in a set till 20. Total gym type machine 3 times a week. Treadmill for 45-1hr. 5 times a week. Healthier than have been in years, but was around 165-170 at diagnosis. Overworked then, retired now!

Hi Dr. I said it many times to the point I am sure everybody memorized it. I viewed from this site about what to eat as better cabs. I had heard the same from my Dr. for a few years but since I am type 1 I could adjust for anything. Then when I gained 20 pounds after menopause I got depressed and did not think I even could lose weight and get my A1C down to a reasonable level again.

I came on here with an A1C of 8.00 and learned about spiking type carbs and complex carbs and what each will do to the blood sugar levels. I then proceeded to get a smaller dinner plate and split it 3 ways. 1/3 for 3-4 oz lean protein, 1/3 for moderate fruit and 1/3 for veggies.

I got on the treadmill at least 5 days a week, for an hour and also learned about what benefit that weight bearing exercise will do and worked and worked and tested more often for blood sugars fasting, at meals, 1 hour after meals, 2 hours after a meal,before and after exercise and bedtime. I knew exactly where I needed to be at all times with blood sugars. I logged them all. They came down sooner than they used to. My goal was to be at about 1601 hour after the meal and 130 to 140 2 hours after the meal.

I went to the Dr.16 pounds lighter and first thing he said when he was walking in was to ask what I did to get an A1C of 6.7? What did I do differently? I told him all the things that he had mentioned and that I also needed a lot of support from WEB MD and Dr. Dansinger day by day and now everything is etched in stone. It is lifestyle change. Also, I cut my insulin usage down so much for fast acting that we tried to go with out it but I called my Dr. back and told him I still need Oatmeal and yogurt at times, I need to go back on the fast acting Humalog he said fine but try not to take any at dinner after a workout to avoid lows.The more insulin you take, the more weight he always tells me. Better to eat just right and get exercise and cut as much of the fast acting insulin as possible.

Thank you Dr. for asking,

I just need to let everybody know again, if you walk a mile try for 2 if you walk 2 miles try for 3 and get those brisk walks up to 5 miles if medically possible with Drs blessing. I have never felt better and I have had type 1 for 35 years. I will continue my goal with another 5 pounds to go meaning 21 pounds total will be off.

krhudson

During the last three years, since my diagnosis, I've lost 38 lbs. and holding, and have brought my A1C down to a 5.9. I waiver between 5.8 and 5.9. I am 5'6" and weight 158 lbs.

I am not on medicine, and do it by diet and exercise alone.

By your suggestion, I have lessoned my bread intake and cut down a lot on my fat in meat, less beef, more chicken, fish, and Eggbeaters or eggs. I am making smaller meals with snacks in between, with my bigger meals at lunchtime. I switched over to oatmeal in the morning,(from an egg and a slice of whole grain bread, and I have a snack around 9:00 at night, because I was having a little higher morning numbers. I cut way down on fatty cheese, and do more parmesan now in my omelets. My snacks include fruit and nuts. I cut out the 25% less sugar Quaker Oats bars, that I felt I needed, as I used to be a big sweet eater before.

This past year, I do zumba 3-5 times a week, exercising vigorously for an hour, swim aerobics(almost very intensively for an hour)two times a week, go walking on my photo trips, and dancing one time a week at night.

I have arthritis in my neck, spondiolysesis in my lower back, IBS, take medicine for irregular heartbeat, and now take more medicine for a heartbeat that goes too fast for the next beat, so am taking beta blockers for that. This does NOT stop me from exercising and doing what I want to do, most times, but makes me feel so much better. I am starting to get arthritis in my fingers, but I feel moving every day makes me feel so much healthier and allows my body not to hurt as much.

Life is too short to feel sorry for yourself or sit back and feel sorry for yourself. If you can't walk, you can dance in a chair to music with your arms. I know someone who is blind and golfs with a friend who golfs from a wheelchair. They help each other. When I feel badly about not being able to eat something I used to eat, I think about all the things I CAN EAT and that I can TASTE food. Some people have lost their taste buds.

If you don't change your mindset, you will constantly be unhappy.

I met a diabetic lady at a party on Saturday. She asked me to help her. I asked her if she was ready to be helped. She said yes, but as we talked that day, she mentioned how she had gotten all this GREAT candy from her daughter's wedding leftover. She had brought some to the party, giving each of the people at the party a little basket of them. I gave mine to my other friend. She told me her husband and she were eating this candy every night, and she just couldn't stop. I could see that she STILL wasn't ready to listen. Her doctor warned her about losing her legs. I wish I could say I helped her. Maybe I did, when I told her I didn't think she was ready yet to really see what she was doing to herself, after she made the comment that she couldn't give up the candy. I knew that no matter what I told her, she just wasn't mentally there yet, even though she said she WAS ready. I hope this week she's thinking about what I told her. There's no way you can make someone take care of themselves, but you can let them know it CAN work, and be a role model. That's all you can do.

So if you're struggling with taking care of yourself, know that people care about you, but YOU have to be the one to care enough about your own health to do what you need to do to be healthy again. You CAN do this!

I've lost 55 since the first of the year. I was counting carbs and calories but a couple of months ago I gave up counting calories and just stuck to counting carbs. 45 per meal max, usually more like 30 per meal. I've also completely quit snacking. A rare apple or something but that 's about it. I've also been keeping a close eye on portion size and doing some basic exercise and that seems to have done it.

I've dieted and lost over 300 pounds at various times in my life and this is the first time that I have not really been on a diet and the weight is coming off anyway. I really think that this time it will stay off because it's been a change in life style and not a diet!

I have lost about 30 lb so far this year, and moving to a house with stairs has helped greatly. Morbid obesity runs in the family on both sides, and it's really hard for me to lose. Later this year I am having the vertical sleeve procedure so I can get down to a healthy weight, and be able to ride roller coasters before Im 30.

I lost 100 pounds in little over a year. When I was diagnosed in Dec 08 I was not very surprised or upset. Both my parents were type 2s and I knew it would happen sooner or later. I think I felt sorry for myself for about five minutes -the time it took me to get out of the Kaiser parking lot and notice the beautiful clouds.

I told myself, 'well I gotta learn how to eat all over again.' It took me a year to tweak and fine tune my diet. I tested myself with each 'new food'. A new food was something I had not checked with the bg meter. Being interested in seeing where foods peaked at 15 minutes after I finished eating helped me weed out the fast acting carbs. I ended up giving up grains altogether. I experimented with cooked oatmeal, raw oatmeal, oat groats, raw, halfcooked and cooked. I ended up giving up on them because the 'safe' serving size was too dang small! An apple and nuts filled me up better. I also discovered shaking eggwhites to get them all fluffy and big. A quarter cup makes a big fluffy 'pancake'.

I also counted calories and kept my intake between 1200 and 1500 calories and I walked most days, sometimes 4 miles but usually 2. Later I got an exercise bike to stand in on the days I couldn't walk.

I weigh between 120 and 125 (The 125 is on hot days from water retention). I am 5'4".

I think I am in better shape than I was when I was in college. I am 49. I can run again! I don't jog as a habit but I can chase my teenage kids!

I have lost a total of 57 pounds in the past two years while taking Prednisone and boatload of other medicines. I have liver disease and battle lots of health issues. I always said I could not lose weight. I had every excuse in the book.

I did not even lose weight when I became diabetic. I had a great life, was very social, ate out a lot, enjoyed food and my weight did not slow me down. (I was fooling myself but that was my mind set for years.)

I found out in 2007 that I had to lose 50 pounds to have an organ transplant, I found it remarkably easy to lose. I still ask myself why I would not lose the weight for better overall health or to control my diabetes but I would lose it when I had no real choice.

I used a combination of carb counting and Weight Watchers. I still journal every bite I eat every day. I also limit my salt to 1500 mg. per day.

I found exercise was a real key. I water exercise five or six days a week and also try to walk every day.

I worked with my CDE and a nutritionist on my transplant team. They both flatly said that anyone can lose weight if they combine diet and exercise. Some of us have to eat even less to accommodate our other health issues but, ultimate, diet loss is a matter of moving more and eating less.

If I can lose weight in my decrepit state, I am convinced anyone can lose weight. It may be slow like me but it is possible.

By the way, one of my hardest issues was learning to stop treating food as a reward.

What a great reminder about the power of lifestyle change and how challenging it is to harness that power.

Any more stories?

I have a long history of obesity since birth - like everyone in my family. 27 years ago I maxed out at 405 lbs. (6ft). I simply started reading books about nutrition, exercise, etc. & getting rid of everything I thought was food, but was really junk. Over the next year, I lost 200 lbs. with dietary changes & almost-daily exercise.

The next 15 lbs took much longer to lose & I stayed at around 185 for several years - then after age 40, I started slowly gaining weight until I was up to 245 at my diagnosis in 12-08.

Luckily, I found Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book "Eat to Live" which has information about our Standard American Diet & how it contributes to obesity & disease. I'm now at 186 & still losing, although very slowly now. I'm hoping to lose maybe another 5-10 lbs. to see if that will lower my A1c from 6.0% where it is now. (no medication for anything since 1-8-09). At diagnosis my A1c was 8.9%.

For about the last 10 years, I could not loose weight. Each time I tried I would loose a little, then gain, loose, gain, loose, gain, gain, loose, gain.....

I carefully documented food, watched calories, fat, carbs, exercised, tried various programs. Nothing worked. So-called experts could not figure out what the problem was, and often said that I must be cheating or lying about my weight loss efforts.
Starting this past January, I again tried to loose weight through dietary changes and exercise. I had long since given up on keeping track of weight specifically, as I found it too frustrating. From January to May, I slowly lost about an inch from my waistline. Most people who know me estimate I probably lost about 5 to 10 pounds. Again, although I managed some loss, those months were the same up and down roller coaster I had experienced in the past.

At the beginning of May, I was diagnosed type 2 and started Metformin. I also started on the same weight loss strategy I've failed with countless times before. This time, however, I've been successful. I have consistently lost about 2 lbs a week since starting on this latest weight loss plan. I dropped from a size 22 pant to a size 16.

My strategy is nothing special. I eat at least 5-6 mini-meals a day. I balance my calories and carbs across the meals as much as is practical, as that what makes me feel best. I currently eat about 1600 calories a day, and have been slowly adjusting calories down as I've lost weight. I exercise at least an hour a day, and try to maximize the nutritional density of my food. (ie: lots of fruits & veggies, moderate dairy, moderate nuts & good fats, moderate meat, limited whole grains, very occasional and limited sweets and fluffy white carbs.)

I really think that the Metformin has made all the difference for me. I think that my obesity and problems with weight loss were largely a product of my insulin resistance. With Metformin to correct that problem, my efforts with diet and weight loss can have the effect they are supposed to have. I have managed to bring my blood sugar levels pretty low (mid 70-mid 80 before meals). I really think I am an example of how valuable judicious use of medicine can be. I am hopeful that with continued success, I will be able to decrease or entirely go off medications, but am currently working with my doctor to see if that will be possible for me or not.

You may be indeed correct about underlying medical issues causing barriers to weight loss. There are also genetic factors to obesity as well (as in my case). I sat at a table with thin friends & we all ate the same thing.

However, regardless of any underlying medical issues, a genetically predisposed person still has to eat too much of the wrong foods to become obese. Weight loss is 85% diet & 15% exercise, so what we eat is the biggest factor in obesity.