Pump & weight gain

[ulmanb]

My wife has type 1 diabetes & has had it since 6 yrs old. She is now 37.

WHen we got married 7 yrs ago, she was on a pump & had good control and we had two healthy kids.

After the kids, the pump got damaged and she didnt replace it.

Unbeknownst to me over the past few years, she has been running high sugars 300+. She was using it partly to control her wieght. Her diabetic doctor told her she needed to straighten up or she wouldnt live another 10 yrs.

this is when I found out & started pushing to get better control of her sugars.

Recently we decided to have more kids and she has started watching her sugar more closely. And as a way to get more control she got a new pump.

PROBLEM: WHen she re-started watching her sugar closely about 4or 5 months ago, she started gaining weight, and now with the pump she is gaining quite a bit more and she is getting very frustrated because nothing fits, she feels unhealthy, and I am sure the wieght gain is unhealthy.

I think sugar level wise she is healthier, but weightwise not. I dont want her to give up and go back to running high sugar to control her wieght. I want to find a happy medium, with a healthy sugar level and wieght level.

Her diet primarily consists of a large glass of chocolate milk for breakfast and maybe a bowl of sugar coated cereal if she has time. Usually a relatively healthy lunch (sandwich or bagel, fruit, granola bar). Supper she eats late around 7 and usually consists of a large bowl of sugar cereal, and then another large bowl of cereal or microwave kettle popcorn or some other snack around 9:30 at night. And lots of diet coke in between. If her sugar goes low at night, she usually has a glass of juice.

Its hard to get out and excercise during the week because she doesnt get home till around 7 from work, then putting kids to bed.

On top of that she has been getting minimal sleep due to serious carpal tunnel. She goes in for her second arm surgery this friday. Hopefully this will solve her sleeping problems and give her energy to excercise more.

I am looking at suggestions/ideas on how to help her retain from her weight gain & control her sugar without pissing her off.

I know its long, but appreciate help

[xMenace]

Insulin definately causes weight gain. The problem is that the foods she really really likes need insulin. Insulin and weight gain: Keep the pounds off - MayoClinic.com (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/insulin-and-weight-gain/DA00139) To top it off, her health team is pushing a 60% carb low fat diet on her. Guaranteed to add weight and make BG control problematic. I and many others on here are tackling this problem by low-carbing. I've cut my 250g of carbs a day down to under 100g. I've lost just over 10lbs since Jan 1st.

Ya, but what about the bad food you eat like eggs, meat, butter, and other fats/proteins. Yes I do eat them, but there is evidence they lead to systemic fat and cholesterol. None. All the evidence points to insulin as the main fat storage hormone and carbs as it's trigger. All low carbers' lipid profiles improve.

There is some evidence that grain-fed meats lead to too much omega-6 fatty acids which are associated with many health problems. I am addressing this by choosing grass-fed meats. Fish is good too, except I'm doubtful about farmed varieties. I also eat lots of green, leafy foods.

Watch my videos. Read their books.

[Subby]

Yes, definitely the high carb quality of the diet strikes strongly. Not only high carb but fast, refined carbs, often leading to even more insulin required to try and maintain sugars. Reduce carbs = reduce insulin = reduce weight gain, or maintain weight, or reduce weight.

On getting the pump my weight definitely stabilised more and has drifted upwards from ideal. It's still up about 10 kg : but I arrested the movement up by discovering this forum and at least reducing my carbs somewhat. I haven't gotten to the stage where I'm losing much weight, but at less than 1/2 of normal carb recommendations, My body feels better, BGs are easier to control, and the slow creep up in body fat is arrested.

Interestingly, people often talk about feeling the weight go on after a fatty meal snack (interesting how often those snacks are simultaneously high carb... cakes, crisps...). I on the other hand have more and more felt my weight literally stack on if I have a high carb meal or a series of them, and the accompanying insulin.

[ulmanb]

In the past when I myself did the low-carb diet to lose weight (I am not diabetic) and have asked her to try it, she said she needed the carbs to control her diet, but from things I read on this site, she would likely be better off with a low carb diet which equates to needing less insulin and in turn should help her control her wieght. Is that a correct thought?

[jimhuck]

Yes...totally a correct thought.

I was EXACTLY like she was. I was using insulin to "chase" my carbs. I was pumping about 50-90 units of Humalog per day. My A1Cs were perfect, but I was gaining weight and having way too many lows.

I cut carbs to about 25 -50 grams per day (mostly fruits and vegetables), my daily insulin consumption is down to 23 units per day (at most), and I lost all the weight, and I don't have lows. I have plenty of energy, and my cholesterol levels and ratios all improved.

She may resist, and there's not much you can do about that. But I recently saw a presentation by Gary Taubes which shows, in my mind, without a shadow of a doubt, that carbs are killing us.



Good luck!

[Gary_W]

Whilst lower carbs may be the answer, don't think it's the only answer and may not even be the first place to look.

Does she carb count? Does she weigh food? Has she done a basal rate test? Does she understand the glycemic index?

Chocolate milk and cereal are really going to be hard to cope with properly for many folks with T1. Even if many folks on this site disagree with the 'high carb is best' approach of the average dietician, the average dietician does not mean two bowls of cereal a day and chocolate milk :)

Understanding the points above will help her to consume carbs SAFELY; it may be a kinder place to start than low carbing out of the blue. If you do go low carb and she's not comfy on basal testing, for instance, then watch out.... you may find at the moment that she is using too much basal and having to constantly feed it, for instance. I used to do this and it caused a lot of weight gain. Once the basal was set correctly, I was able to eat carbs sensibly as opposed to being forced into it...

Gary

[ulmanb]

Can you define basal rate for me?

[SueM]

Can you define basal rate for me?

Try this
diaTribe - Research and Product News for People with Diabetes (http://www.diatribe.us/issues/13/learning-curve.php)