Does this sound familiar? You have Type 2 diabetes and your doctor added insulin to your diabetes care plan because oral medications alone lost their effectiveness at controlling your blood sugar levels. Low and behold, you started gaining weight.
It’s almost inevitable: when you start taking insulin, your weight seems to creep up. Why is that? It’s likely that, before you started taking insulin, your blood sugar levels were high for an extended period of time. When this happens, your body doesn’t metabolize food properly. Fat builds up in your blood as triglycerides, and your metabolism actually increases as it tries to convert the extra fat into energy.
Once you start taking insulin, however, your metabolism decreases because the insulin helps the body process glucose properly, as well as store fat more efficiently. When your metabolism decreases and you continue to eat as you did before, you will gain weight.
But there are steps you can take to minimize or avoid weight gain altogether when you start taking insulin.
Tip #1: Eat breakfast.
Kick start your metabolism for the day with a healthy breakfast. It’s a great opportunity to load up on whole grains and fruit. Skipping breakfast to cut calories can actually sabotage your weight loss efforts by slowing your metabolism and making you hungrier for lunch and more likely to overeat or eat foods you shouldn’t.
Tip #2: Keep track of calories and what you eat.
Counting calories AND keeping a journal of everything you eat and drink will raise your level of consciousness about how much you consume each day. One easy way to cut calories is to control portion sizes. If there’s a food or beverage you don’t want to give up, just eat or drink less of it. By all means, forego second helpings and ditch sugar-laden drinks such as sodas and fruit juices.
Tip #3: Increase your exercise level.
Physical activity increases your metabolism and helps your body convert calories into energy rather than store them as fat. Plus, the more you move, the lower your blood sugar will be. To realize the greatest health benefits of physical activity, you should aim to exercise 30 minutes a day, or at least 2.5 hours per week, at a level that elevates your heart rate to the point where you could answer a question, but not comfortably carry on a conversation.
Tip #4: Inquire about other diabetes medications.
Some diabetes medications, such as metformin (Glucophage/oral), exenatide (Byetta/injection) and pramlintide (Symlin/injection)have been shown to mitigate weight gain and sometimes even promote weight loss. Ask you doctor if any of these would be appropriate to integrate into your diabetes care plan.
Tip #5: Take your insulin as prescribed.
It is never a good idea to skip a dosage of insulin or cut back on the prescribed amount for the sake of trying to lose weight. As we have discussed, insulin is necessary to regulate your blood sugar levels, and when your blood sugar is high, the likelihood of potentially serious diabetes complications increases.
Like anyone else trying to lose weight – diabetic or not – it all comes down to behavior and lifestyle changes. Consuming healthy foods and getting regular exercise is the only sure-fire way to lose weight safely and keep it off.
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