OP
OP
oh shit, yes i am. i should have put this in my op, my bad. i've been on metformin extended release for ~3 months. please tell me it will eventually swing back down again!?!?!
why am I not losing weight?
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oh shit, yes i am. i should have put this in my op, my bad. i've been on metformin extended release for ~3 months. please tell me it will eventually swing back down again!?!?!
Losing weight is extremely simple. It's just very difficult. Something can be very simple to understand and yet be very hard to do and have a high failure rate. Lots of things in life are like this.
And what you eat doesn't matter. One of my friends lost 50lbs eating a plate of pasta and a carton of iceceam every day and almost nothing else for 6 months.
I did eventually get to a place where I was able to lose and keep weight off consistently on metformin, yeah. Not saying that's for sure the cause, but it was definitely a (doctor-confirmed) factor for me.
OP
OP
i'm trying to be patient but as much as i am appreciative that you are trying to help me, i don't think this is very good advice for me. what i eat matters. if i eat too many carbs, my blood sugar spikes, and then i crash HARD. when i crash, i get migraines, i vomit, i start shaking, i faint, once i have fallen unconscious and had to go to hospital.
if i could lose weight just by eating less than i would be skinny from having an eating disorder. if i tried to lose weight eating pasta and icecream i could go into hypoglycaemic shock. please read my posts and the op where i asked you to pretty please be mindful that this is hard for me.
There's so many what I would do is go to a supplement store and ask for samples . Mainly there's 2 things. The type and flavour . If you're not sensitive then you can save money by buying a whey blend which will be a mix of isolate, concentrate , maybe casein. That would be ok.
Flavour wise you gotta try them but it depends heavily how you take them. Vanilla or like strawberry , chocolate are okay for shakes , cold coffee drinks but in water ? Blech. I personally keep three types a vanilla , an unflavored and a juice flavour like ice tea or pineapple for water mixing.
There's also a fantastic sparkling water called Fizzique that I like but buying separate drinks will cost more.
I don't generally recommend a meal replacement because many just add filler but there are some high quality ones like Fighters Food. You don't want ones with just added sugar and cheap fats obviously.
OP
OP
i might check back in with my gp and see if it's the metformin that's screwing me around. thanks for reminding me.
this is so helpful, thank you. i didn't even know you could get juice-type flavours but that would work for me (i miss juice so much y'all). would the best place to shop around for this kind of thing be those intimidating body builder shops I see sometimes? I've never stepped foot in one but I'd do it to find an ice tea flavoured protein mix.
edit: sorry i just saw you said go to a supplement store. that's what I'll do tomorrow I think! thanks very much.
What you eat absolutely does matter. When you cut out an essential macro from your diet it will absolutely mess your body up. This is why when people go on diets that cut out an entire macro, their body craves it. It's also why those specialty diets usually require supplements of some kind to provide the nutrients that are being missed from that cut macro or else the body starts to have some serious issues.
If all someone is concerned about is the numbers on the scale going up or going down, there's lots of ways to achieve that but doing so recklessly can and will cause major issues in how the body functions.
Get a kitchen scale. Should not cost anymore than 10 bucks. Weigh everything you eat for a day and see what makes up more or less calories than you thought. Can be a bit harder in the states since you don´t show nutritional for a set amount and use "Serving size" instead but you should be able to calculate it quite simply. Then you can also easier check macros about sugar and salt.
Yeah depending on your country like a supplement store. You can get everything at the grocery stores but a place like GNC will have special sizes and member discounts . If you shop deals online sometimes places like myprotein are good. The issue is mostly supplement stores have all the types and samples and such.
Costco if you're the type who will take what you can get lol. Good old one flavour Costco. Their Kaizen vanilla is ok though and MP cookie dough I cook with lol.
Though I get your hesitation with those places it's good to borrow from crosstraining where you can. For example bodybuilding teaches us that increasing lean mass can be beneficial when applied properly and protein powder is a convenient way to get protein without extra crap lol
Hey again! Glad to see you're still fighting, weightloss is a pain in the butt especially when you have other extenuating circumstances.
I thought I would go into a little more detail as to how going back in time I would've started and how I'm currently doing it as someone in (mostly, I'm a 5'11 dude with a broad build who started weight loss morbidly obese at 158 kg so there are differences) the same position in regards to weightloss while diabetic and on Metformin. Firstly what Imran said was correct, when I first went on Metformin my weight fluctuated quite a lot and whilst I didn't track how long it took to settle it was at least close to a year so take that into account. Also, no diet advice apart from "less calories in, more calories out" is going to be one size fits all not to mention I'm neither a GP or RD so take everything with a Dead Sea worth of salt.
I'll restate what I've said before, the key to losing weight while diabetic in my experience is a sensible amount of calories in (1200 is the lowest sweet spot for being able to function like a normal human being in my experience, take it from someone who has done VLCD diets before they're no fun even if they can be effective) and continuously more calories out. Cardio specifically which it seems like you're doing pretty well with! I'll pass on what my physio guy said about what kind of cardio I should be doing daily as it's short and sweet, "It doesn't matter what you're doing as long as it's at least 15 minutes and by the end of it you're sweating like a stuck pig". For me I saved up and bought an exercise bike for my home gym as it's what I found to be the best trade off for ease of use, comfort and fat burning effectiveness. Since Fitness Boxing came out I've also alternated with that as it's a pretty good workout as well, Ring Fit is a lot of fun but the time spent to calories burnt ratio isn't as high as something like Fitness Boxing which itself isn't as high as something like an exercise bike. Ring Fit Adventure in my opinion is a much better tool for keeping weight off and focused toning on specific areas of the body, which it is very good at. But if someone was to ask me what one daily workout they should be doing to burn fat it would be interval training on a stationary bike, it's really effective and you can park it in front of the TV (I use my daily ride to catch up on anime) or just chuck on some music.
As for diet specifically this has what has worked and is currently working for me;
Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake /w 250ml of Skim Milk (or water depending on what kind of shake) & a cup of black coffee (sometimes I might have a small bit of skim) or unsweetened green tea.
Morning Tea - Piece of fruit (Usually either a banana, orange, 2 mandarins or an apple depending on my mood) & a cup of coffee (black or with a small bit of skim) or unsweetened green tea.
Lunch - Meal Replacement Shake /w 250ml of Skim Milk (or water depending on what kind of shake) & a cup of black coffee (sometimes I might have a small bit of skim) or unsweetened green tea.
Afternoon Tea - Piece of fruit (Usually either a banana, orange, 2 mandarins or an apple depending on my mood) & a cup of coffee (black or with a small bit of skim) or unsweetened green tea.
There are of course many schools of thought when it comes to the benefits and negatives of meal replacement shakes but again this is just from my personal experience, but I found replacement shakes to be a net positive for weight loss and along with the exercise are what I would credit as the key reason for my own weight loss. This of course can lead to weight gain after you stop because you have to start figuring it out yourself but as long as you realise it's a possibility it's not hard to avoid by planning for it before you stop with the shakes. I also have to point out because of the diabetes we have to be more selective on what ones are right for us and you will want to run it by your GP first as some shakes absolutely pack the things full of sugar.
Going by the Vegemite I'm guessing you're a fellow smoke inhalation sufferer from Down Under so here are my specific picks. For me Optifast worked very well, I lost 40kg in about 4-5 months following their full VLCD/Keto plan before stopping it and moving onto a more normal, less soul-destroying diet with more cardio than previous (though you don't need to follow the full plan to just use the shakes), but it's pricey. These days I use NaturesWay Slimright stuff which can get from Woolies, Coles, Chemistwarehouse and Amazon. Optislim is an Australian clone of Optifast and it's also pretty decent. If you're not from Australia you will have to do the research yourself (along with a GP or RD, but that should go no matter what, if you make drastic diet changes you should run it past one or both) on what is suitable.
Dinner - I have a great big folder of recipes I've either found or made myself over the years that all have between 250 and 450 calories as well as being diabetic suitable and I pick meals out of that every Friday to make a weekly meal plan. I can pass some along but there are also plenty of resources online you can take a look at.
All Day - Drink at least 2L of plain water and if I want to drink something sweet I stick to either a glass of Nexba or Pepsi Max, I also take supplements and multi-vitamins to make sure I'm still getting everything I need.
Fast Food/Takeaway - Lets face it, sometimes you need a treat for your own sanity or you have no other options than to buy something. Your options are pretty simple - Subway, Grill'd, a salad place, sandwich place or anything else along those lines. You can find at least one of them anywhere you go and it's what you will want to stick to. At worst sticking to something like a caesar salad or a salad wrap or something is pretty easy to do.
Anywho, that's what personally helped me but the real struggle with weight loss is finding what works for you individually as it changes for each person. It took me years and years of trying before I finally found what worked for me and when I did the weight (almost literally) fell off of me. Do note that your body also takes time to adjust to diet and exercise changes - weigh yourself before you start and then give it a few weeks of sticking to whatever plan you decide on before you weight yourself again, there is nothing more confidence and willpower destroying than starting a diet for a week, jumping on the scales and seeing nothing change or god forbid, your weight has gone up - don't do it to yourself and give it time.
Feel free to chuck me any questions or thoughts you have about anything weight loss, diet or exercise related, either here or in a PM - it helps to have people to talk to/bounce questions off/vent to.
I thought I would go into a little more detail as to how going back in time I would've started and how I'm currently doing it as someone in (mostly, I'm a 5'11 dude with a broad build who started weight loss morbidly obese at 158 kg so there are differences) the same position in regards to weightloss while diabetic and on Metformin. Firstly what Imran said was correct, when I first went on Metformin my weight fluctuated quite a lot and whilst I didn't track how long it took to settle it was at least close to a year so take that into account. Also, no diet advice apart from "less calories in, more calories out" is going to be one size fits all not to mention I'm neither a GP or RD so take everything with a Dead Sea worth of salt.
I'll restate what I've said before, the key to losing weight while diabetic in my experience is a sensible amount of calories in (1200 is the lowest sweet spot for being able to function like a normal human being in my experience, take it from someone who has done VLCD diets before they're no fun even if they can be effective) and continuously more calories out. Cardio specifically which it seems like you're doing pretty well with! I'll pass on what my physio guy said about what kind of cardio I should be doing daily as it's short and sweet, "It doesn't matter what you're doing as long as it's at least 15 minutes and by the end of it you're sweating like a stuck pig". For me I saved up and bought an exercise bike for my home gym as it's what I found to be the best trade off for ease of use, comfort and fat burning effectiveness. Since Fitness Boxing came out I've also alternated with that as it's a pretty good workout as well, Ring Fit is a lot of fun but the time spent to calories burnt ratio isn't as high as something like Fitness Boxing which itself isn't as high as something like an exercise bike. Ring Fit Adventure in my opinion is a much better tool for keeping weight off and focused toning on specific areas of the body, which it is very good at. But if someone was to ask me what one daily workout they should be doing to burn fat it would be interval training on a stationary bike, it's really effective and you can park it in front of the TV (I use my daily ride to catch up on anime) or just chuck on some music.
As for diet specifically this has what has worked and is currently working for me;
Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake /w 250ml of Skim Milk (or water depending on what kind of shake) & a cup of black coffee (sometimes I might have a small bit of skim) or unsweetened green tea.
Morning Tea - Piece of fruit (Usually either a banana, orange, 2 mandarins or an apple depending on my mood) & a cup of coffee (black or with a small bit of skim) or unsweetened green tea.
Lunch - Meal Replacement Shake /w 250ml of Skim Milk (or water depending on what kind of shake) & a cup of black coffee (sometimes I might have a small bit of skim) or unsweetened green tea.
Afternoon Tea - Piece of fruit (Usually either a banana, orange, 2 mandarins or an apple depending on my mood) & a cup of coffee (black or with a small bit of skim) or unsweetened green tea.
There are of course many schools of thought when it comes to the benefits and negatives of meal replacement shakes but again this is just from my personal experience, but I found replacement shakes to be a net positive for weight loss and along with the exercise are what I would credit as the key reason for my own weight loss. This of course can lead to weight gain after you stop because you have to start figuring it out yourself but as long as you realise it's a possibility it's not hard to avoid by planning for it before you stop with the shakes. I also have to point out because of the diabetes we have to be more selective on what ones are right for us and you will want to run it by your GP first as some shakes absolutely pack the things full of sugar.
Going by the Vegemite I'm guessing you're a fellow smoke inhalation sufferer from Down Under so here are my specific picks. For me Optifast worked very well, I lost 40kg in about 4-5 months following their full VLCD/Keto plan before stopping it and moving onto a more normal, less soul-destroying diet with more cardio than previous (though you don't need to follow the full plan to just use the shakes), but it's pricey. These days I use NaturesWay Slimright stuff which can get from Woolies, Coles, Chemistwarehouse and Amazon. Optislim is an Australian clone of Optifast and it's also pretty decent. If you're not from Australia you will have to do the research yourself (along with a GP or RD, but that should go no matter what, if you make drastic diet changes you should run it past one or both) on what is suitable.
Dinner - I have a great big folder of recipes I've either found or made myself over the years that all have between 250 and 450 calories as well as being diabetic suitable and I pick meals out of that every Friday to make a weekly meal plan. I can pass some along but there are also plenty of resources online you can take a look at.
All Day - Drink at least 2L of plain water and if I want to drink something sweet I stick to either a glass of Nexba or Pepsi Max, I also take supplements and multi-vitamins to make sure I'm still getting everything I need.
Fast Food/Takeaway - Lets face it, sometimes you need a treat for your own sanity or you have no other options than to buy something. Your options are pretty simple - Subway, Grill'd, a salad place, sandwich place or anything else along those lines. You can find at least one of them anywhere you go and it's what you will want to stick to. At worst sticking to something like a caesar salad or a salad wrap or something is pretty easy to do.
Anywho, that's what personally helped me but the real struggle with weight loss is finding what works for you individually as it changes for each person. It took me years and years of trying before I finally found what worked for me and when I did the weight (almost literally) fell off of me. Do note that your body also takes time to adjust to diet and exercise changes - weigh yourself before you start and then give it a few weeks of sticking to whatever plan you decide on before you weight yourself again, there is nothing more confidence and willpower destroying than starting a diet for a week, jumping on the scales and seeing nothing change or god forbid, your weight has gone up - don't do it to yourself and give it time.
Feel free to chuck me any questions or thoughts you have about anything weight loss, diet or exercise related, either here or in a PM - it helps to have people to talk to/bounce questions off/vent to.
You need to exercise to lose weight if you're not cutting calories, just sipping water and tea doesn't help.
My advice: 30 minutes cardio 4x a week, train muscles (they burn calories like a mf even in your sleep), eat veggies, cut sugar, drink lotsa water and tea.
How large are we talking? You should be having at least 64 oz a day, AT LEAST, probably even more. Might help with satiety but it's mainly not for weight loss- it's for your health. You might be dehydrated.
Yup. He should be drinking nothing but water and MAYBE unsweetened tea.
OP
OP
this is an amazing reply, thanks for how much thought you've put into it, you legend. you're right i'm an aussie, so those meal replacement shake recommendations are super relevant. and i'm so surprised to hear that metformin can apparently screw with your weight a bit, because my gp told me it'd be the thing to make me shed pounds quickly. i guess it's different for everyone.
thanks again for the support. congrats on your weight loss and no doubt i'll be bugging you for dinner recipes some day.
that's essentially what i do. maybe a glass of low/no sugar kombucha, maybe a glass of orange juice once every week or so if i'm feeling hypo and gross. coke no sugar for a treat every now and then.
i feel you. sorry to hear that you're going through something similar. i'm lucky in that i don't have pcos but they're still trying to rule out autoimmune stuff. i wish my body just functioned the way i wanted it to
My suggestion would be to change your diet and lifestyle. Weight gain is not surprising reading the OP.
My suggestion would be:
1. Upgrade your breakfast. Egg+porridge. Stuff yourself full.
2. Try working standing up if you can raise your desk.
3. Can you run? If you can add 20-30 minutes of running 3 days a week it would be a start. Swimming is another option that I go for when my lungs/health crap out.
4. Once you have the breakfast thing going as well as moderate activity I'd start counting calories. Don't overdo it though!
My suggestion would be:
1. Upgrade your breakfast. Egg+porridge. Stuff yourself full.
2. Try working standing up if you can raise your desk.
3. Can you run? If you can add 20-30 minutes of running 3 days a week it would be a start. Swimming is another option that I go for when my lungs/health crap out.
4. Once you have the breakfast thing going as well as moderate activity I'd start counting calories. Don't overdo it though!
I'm sorry that I wasn't being clear. I don't mean literally eat pasta and ice cream.
I'm saying that to lose weight, it comes down to one equation: calories in - calories out. If you eat at a caloric deficit, you will lose weight. If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. A person can eat a diet rich in healthy foods (chicken breast, salad, etc.) and still gain weight because they are eating more calories than they burn. Inversely, a person can eat a crap diet but if they are eating less calories than what they burn, they will lose weight.
There are plenty of examples like this:
Which is to circle back to my original point: I'm not a doctor. I don't know what's best for any particular person. But if a person wants to lose weight, the simple fact is they are eating too many calories relative to what their body is burning.
I still don't get it how would be people not lose weight eating less calories, your body burns them. Just try to count how much you eat. That's what I did, I thought I ate very little but it was high calories food, then after couting and doing some math I lost 10kg in 2 months.
Muscle gain is slow for a woman, you don't accidentally gain 8lb of muscle.
Thank you. The amount of girls (really, people in general) who are like "I don't want to get too bulky" and think, with that attitude, they'll somehow go to the gym and accidentally turn into a hulk overnight is staggering and it always makes me laugh
Count your calories and run whatever diet you have by your physician. Also incorporate some weight lifting, muscle will increase your BMR iirc (??)
At least, this is how I lost weight
At least, this is how I lost weight
People are generally just winging it in terms of calories AND not using an appropriate sample size when weighing themselves. Weight can fluctuate based on a number of factors but OP should be losing if they are consistently in a deficit (that's not too large) on a week to week basis.
Yet it's always one of the first things suggested when someone says they aren't losing weight.
The OP mentions nothing about weights or calories, a handful of nuts could be a varied amount based on hand size, how full your hand is etc.
You need to be weighing your food, dressings etc.
If you're not losing weight then your intake is higher than your expenditure, it's that simple.
From reading what you said I might try using counting calories more as an initial diagnostic tool instead of something you do every day. Make sure you have a good grasp on how many calories are in the things you usually eat.
Hopefully you find out you're eating more calories than you think because that makes it easier to identify the problem. Otherwise I would definitely recommend more extensive tests on your thyroid, etc.
Hopefully you find out you're eating more calories than you think because that makes it easier to identify the problem. Otherwise I would definitely recommend more extensive tests on your thyroid, etc.
OP said it's been months. A drastic change in exercise quality and intensity (continued) over the course of months can result in beginner gains. That would be far from "accidentally." The framing of gaining 8lbs of muscle is a bit misleading. Given the diet OP described, it's hard to believe they are in a caloric surplus that would gain them 5kg, so I suggested a possibility. It's not uncommon for beginners to change their diet and start working out and not see the number on the scale change or even to see it go up while losing inches as fat is lost and muscle is gained.
While the mindset of "I don't want to get too bulky" is definitely a roadblock, that has nothing to do with beginner gains and everything to do with misunderstanding how muscle develops and what that looks like.
I agree. Take stock of what you're currently eating to see if it's too much. Then downsize if necessary. You don't need to calorie count the downsizing. Just have a little less at each meal and reassess after a couple months.
This is exactly what I said but everyone wanted to attack me for it
There's no mention of the OP lifting weights either, I find it hard to believe at all that they have gained muscle.
You need to actually do calorie counting and stick to it. And if you can, also count your macros and limit your carbs. Salads and all end up being a lot of carbs depending on how you prepare them.
- Download myfitnesspal and start doing that.
- From your diet it does seem like you are not eating as much protein so maybe try increasing that.
- Try Intermittent fasting, but if not, then atleast avoid eating near bedtime and have a good sleep cycle.
- If you are always feeling full and never actually feeling hungry then chances are you are eating more than you need
- You don't actually have to eat 5 times a day, you can reduce it to 2-3 times and instead have a bigger. This is kind of like mini intermittent fasting (I'll get to the hypo feeling in a bit).
- Drink plenty of water, a lot of times when you feel hungry what is actually going on is that you are dehydrated, this can contribute to you feeling hypo. But more importantly this here can be the main culprit of you not losing weight i.e. you eat so as to not feel hypo but unintentionally eat more than you should be eating causing you to not actually be on a cut.
- Green tea and chamomile tea is good.
- Lastly completely cut simple carbs out of your diet from everything, natural sugars like fruits and stuff are fine but apart from that nope. This means no crackers/biscuits. If you want to make something sweeter, try one of the sweeteners. I personally prefer sucralose based sweetners instead of aspartame. Simple carbs are broken down quickly, and they make you hungry quicker. Instead try more complex carbs like whole grains. And eat slowly.
If it still doesn't work despite you following this on atleast a semi strict manner, then it's likely that there is something up on hormonal level.
- Download myfitnesspal and start doing that.
- From your diet it does seem like you are not eating as much protein so maybe try increasing that.
- Try Intermittent fasting, but if not, then atleast avoid eating near bedtime and have a good sleep cycle.
- If you are always feeling full and never actually feeling hungry then chances are you are eating more than you need
- You don't actually have to eat 5 times a day, you can reduce it to 2-3 times and instead have a bigger. This is kind of like mini intermittent fasting (I'll get to the hypo feeling in a bit).
- Drink plenty of water, a lot of times when you feel hungry what is actually going on is that you are dehydrated, this can contribute to you feeling hypo. But more importantly this here can be the main culprit of you not losing weight i.e. you eat so as to not feel hypo but unintentionally eat more than you should be eating causing you to not actually be on a cut.
- Green tea and chamomile tea is good.
- Lastly completely cut simple carbs out of your diet from everything, natural sugars like fruits and stuff are fine but apart from that nope. This means no crackers/biscuits. If you want to make something sweeter, try one of the sweeteners. I personally prefer sucralose based sweetners instead of aspartame. Simple carbs are broken down quickly, and they make you hungry quicker. Instead try more complex carbs like whole grains. And eat slowly.
If it still doesn't work despite you following this on atleast a semi strict manner, then it's likely that there is something up on hormonal level.
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I don't lift weights because I have arthritis in my hands. But doing Fitness Boxing has absolutely given me some new muscle in my arms. It's not a lot, but it's there. It's not going to add up to much in the way of poundage, but OP easily could have gained a couple pounds from moderate exercise if they hadn't been doing much before. Still, probably not quite enough to put on a full 5kg.
This. I've never lost so much weight that quickly in my life than when doing intermittent fasting (and skipping all bread, my archenemy), from what I could gather it's not supposed to be unhealthy either. I have seen it can be very difficult for some people, though; I was already used to starving myself and I barely had issues, but I can see how OP could struggle if they are already used to a schedule.
Intermittent fasting doesn't trick your metabolism. It's just a method for restricting calories. It's a lot harder to eat 5000 calories in 8 hours than it is in 16. Keto works on the same principle where it's harder to eat 5000 calories of steak than bread.
If you're in a deficit, you aren't going to add weight even if you're getting stronger. Early strength gains are mostly neurological.
Plenty of Hiit and Hiit-like programs institute body weight exercises that can build muscle over time. We're talking about beginner muscle gains. Weights aren't necessary at all for that.
Walking briskly for 30-45 mins a day isn't real exercise. It's not going to make any impact on your weight.
I know you mentioned you sometimes do some more intensive cardio, but I want to point out that walking such a short amount is nothing.
I walk my dog for about 1.5-2 hours a day and I don't even consider that much exercise.
I know you mentioned you sometimes do some more intensive cardio, but I want to point out that walking such a short amount is nothing.
I walk my dog for about 1.5-2 hours a day and I don't even consider that much exercise.
You're welcome, feel free to ask for recipes or advice anytime. I'm going to add something I forgot to put in my initial post and it's basically what greepoman said; you need to count calories, at least for a short while because at a base level losing weight is a very simple calculation , calories in - calories out, if you're burning more calories than you're consuming you WILL lose weight. The big problem comes in to the differences between individuals, your metabolic rate, how efficient your body is at burning calories etc all effect this which is what makes it really difficult. Which is where counting comes in, you need to know the exact amount you're putting in to figure out how much you should be doing to have a deficit, it's really easy to underestimate how many calories you're intaking without counting and I've done it many times.
It's why I like using the meal replacement shakes and set menus, it takes a large part of the counting out of it as 2 main meals of the day have the same caloric amount (powder + milk = 200cal~ each) and then I just use an average for the fruit I have that day (For instance I average my bananas to 120cal, 100 for a unpeeled granny smith, 100 for 2 mandarins and 90 for an orange) and add on my dinner calories which are written on my recipes. This is what I've found to be the lowest calorie amount that I can easily sustain, no dizziness/faintness, no hunger, no lack of energy and it's very easy to have a caloric deficit with 20-30 minutes of high energy interval training a day, saying this though I wouldn't recommend less than 1200 a day without medical supervision and directions, especially for males.
If I was going to change your current diet you listed in the OP at all I would use a shake for breakfast and lunch, get rid of the crackers and almonds and just stick to fruit, it's more filling in my experience and you still get that little natural sugar hit to sate the sweet tooth and for dinner I would make sure you're sticking to recipes that you know are nutritionally controlled, things like salads and stirfrys when not following a specific controlled recipe can have a sneaky amount of nastiness, so I would stick to things like this -
If your daily menu at the end is less than 1200 calories have more fruit/bigger breakfast/bigger dinner portions until you hit that 1200 mark.
All those recipes are out of books I've been using since I was first put on Metformin many years ago, they were recommended by my specialist at the time and are full of low calorie, low GI meals - I can second his recommendation as well as I find them to be pretty excellent. I can pass along some of my favourites out of the books if you want them.
I would also be careful with a lot of Asian takeaway as they can have an unexpected amount of calories in them so make sure you know what you're getting. If you have a Grill'd nearby I quite like their low carb burgers, it's like a burger with pancakes for buns, if you stick to their lower calorie option they will also not bust a low calorie diet.
OP
OP
i like walking, it's good for my mental health and i spend time outside instead of inside playing video games or watching netflix
a lot of people in the thread are telling me to count calories again. i've mentioned that i'll try it again (i've done so in the past) but both my gp and my psych have asked me not to because a) it hurts my mental health quite significantly and b) i've showed my gp my food diaries and she said if anything i'm not getting enough calories throughout the day to stay full (which was related to hypo attacks i was having)
i'm very much aware calories in < calories out. i also know that they "sneak up" in things like sauces, dressings, drinks and snacks. all my salad dressings i make myself with no sugar and only a small amount of oil. all of my drinks are low-to-no sugar. most of my sauces are low sugar mustards and not store-bought tomato sauce etc.
i'm not scared of "bulking up" and i don't think i've put on lots of muscle.
thanks again to all the people who've responded and given helpful advice, you guys are fantastic.
A lot of people's bodies are good at adapting. It's definitely not as simple as calories in, calories out.
I've seen it many times myself. Do keto, lose water weight, lose a lot of weight for 1-2 months, then a plateau. My body adapts. I usually start shocking it at that point with intermittent fasting and a carb heavy cheat meal every week or so. Then my weight loss resumes. And I would say my body's pretty good at responding to my diet. For some people, it's significantly harder.
People say it's all diet, but exercise can help a lot as well. It's important not only for your cardiovascular health, but to give your muscle mass every chance it has to maintain itself while you lose weight.
Another tip I would give for keto because I've seen it time and time again: make sure you're hitting your fat macros. I've seen people eating closer to 60 protein / 30 fat / 10 carbs, and they just can't shed anything. They move to the recommended 20 protein / 70 fat / 10 carbs, and the weight starts coming off. Your body will go into starvation mode if you don't have enough ketones to sustain your energy needs. The absolute hardest thing with keto is keeping fat macros high. If you're eating meat, you need to be adding lots of fat. It's not enough to just eat a steak and think you're good. You need to add lots of butter and cream to that steak. One of my gotos for leaner meats (e.g. chicken), is to make a really fatty mushroom sauce. Or just add mayo to stuff.
If you're not doing keto, then I'd probably suggest keeping carbs up. Don't limit them too much or again, your body will go into starvation as your energy is depleted. You can't live on protein alone. Fat and carbs are your energy sources. If you're not doing keto, try eating blander foods with more fiber. Chicken breast (or tuna), brown rice, broccoli is a very common meal for people aiming for weight loss while exercising. Blander foods means you'll eat less of it, and with enough carbs you'll keep your glycogen stores up so that your energy needs are met. Your body can then use protein for muscle synthesis.
tl;dr: don't eat high protein, low carbs, low fat. Don't eat ultra palatable foods. Don't be afraid to mix things up if it's not working for you.
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Yep. No need for special diets. Just consume less calories than you burn every day. You'll lose a couple of pounds every week.
Trying to lose weight is difficult enough on its own. Trying to do so in the setting of recently diagnosed diabetes is a figurative mountain to climb, so I applaud your efforts thus far and especially your continued proactive response to getting over this.
First thing I would do is see that endocrinologist and request that they handle your diabetes treatment, at least for the first year or two as you get things settled. Bring up your continued weight gain despite what seems to me like a rather spartan diet. It's likely related to medicines you are taking, although likely not metformin contrary to what others are saying. Metformin can result in some initial weight fluctuation, but in reality as a diabetes treatment, is one of the drugs most associated with weight LOSS. Are you on other diabetes medicines? Other classes of drugs are far more commonly associated with weight gain. Also, said endocrinologist can work you up for other possible endocrine causes for weight gain. Looks like your current doc(s) already ruled out PCOS. If not already done so, your thyroid, pituitary gland, and adrenal gland will likely be tested -- don't worry, usually just blood tests. If your medications and other potential disease-related causes have been addressed, then as others have pointed out, it's likely that your caloric intake is more than you suspect. Counting calories may be stressful for you, but may also be a decent check for about a week or so to see if you are, in fact, underestimating your intake. If possible while dealing with your blood sugars, avoid eating too late before you go to bed, or at least try to limit what you eat during that time. Keep it simple in terms of food types at night -- small snacks, ideally non-processed. One of the biggest causes of weight gain is eating a bunch at night and promptly going to bed, allowing your body to decide it's just going to store all those sugars, fats, and proteins as body fat.
Next thing you should do is NEVER see that dietitian again. What he suggested is essentially malpractice, if that concept even applies to his profession in Australia. Granted, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a serious complication for diabetics, is not as common in Type 2 DM, but DKA is life-threatening and one component of said danger is in causing your blood to become overly acidic secondary to ketones. For him to suggest that you should follow a diet that revolves solely around creating and mobilizing even more ketones in your body would be grounds for a lawsuit you would win any day of the week if anything serious had actually happened. You probably caught glimpses of this as your blood sugars were likely going every which way during this diet.
The last thing, and most important thing, you should do... you are already doing. This will be a marathon, not a race, but do your best to stay positive and proactive in how you attack this disease and continue to shape your body. It's very easy for me to just spout these words off and, yes, there will be super tough days, but just from reading your OP, you have the right mindset to make this work.
If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to PM if you are more comfortable doing so. I am a physician, but not an endocrinologist -- who you should trust the most for this stuff when you see them -- but I am happy to help point you in the right direction with general medical stuff if you need it.
Good luck and YOU WILL GET THERE. You're doing it the right way.
First thing I would do is see that endocrinologist and request that they handle your diabetes treatment, at least for the first year or two as you get things settled. Bring up your continued weight gain despite what seems to me like a rather spartan diet. It's likely related to medicines you are taking, although likely not metformin contrary to what others are saying. Metformin can result in some initial weight fluctuation, but in reality as a diabetes treatment, is one of the drugs most associated with weight LOSS. Are you on other diabetes medicines? Other classes of drugs are far more commonly associated with weight gain. Also, said endocrinologist can work you up for other possible endocrine causes for weight gain. Looks like your current doc(s) already ruled out PCOS. If not already done so, your thyroid, pituitary gland, and adrenal gland will likely be tested -- don't worry, usually just blood tests. If your medications and other potential disease-related causes have been addressed, then as others have pointed out, it's likely that your caloric intake is more than you suspect. Counting calories may be stressful for you, but may also be a decent check for about a week or so to see if you are, in fact, underestimating your intake. If possible while dealing with your blood sugars, avoid eating too late before you go to bed, or at least try to limit what you eat during that time. Keep it simple in terms of food types at night -- small snacks, ideally non-processed. One of the biggest causes of weight gain is eating a bunch at night and promptly going to bed, allowing your body to decide it's just going to store all those sugars, fats, and proteins as body fat.
Next thing you should do is NEVER see that dietitian again. What he suggested is essentially malpractice, if that concept even applies to his profession in Australia. Granted, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a serious complication for diabetics, is not as common in Type 2 DM, but DKA is life-threatening and one component of said danger is in causing your blood to become overly acidic secondary to ketones. For him to suggest that you should follow a diet that revolves solely around creating and mobilizing even more ketones in your body would be grounds for a lawsuit you would win any day of the week if anything serious had actually happened. You probably caught glimpses of this as your blood sugars were likely going every which way during this diet.
The last thing, and most important thing, you should do... you are already doing. This will be a marathon, not a race, but do your best to stay positive and proactive in how you attack this disease and continue to shape your body. It's very easy for me to just spout these words off and, yes, there will be super tough days, but just from reading your OP, you have the right mindset to make this work.
If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to PM if you are more comfortable doing so. I am a physician, but not an endocrinologist -- who you should trust the most for this stuff when you see them -- but I am happy to help point you in the right direction with general medical stuff if you need it.
Good luck and YOU WILL GET THERE. You're doing it the right way.
OP
OP
this was such a nice comforting response. thanks for sharing your knowledge as a physician.
metformin is the only thing i take at the moment, as well as birth control, but i've been taking the same pill for ~8 years and the gp has said that it's probably not the pill causing weight gain. I have had about 3 or 4 blood tests in the last few months. I wish I could remember specifically what each was for, but I am assuming that my gp would have asked for things related to my thyroid, pituitary etc, right?
it's weird, I kind of have this *gut feeling* that there is something underlying causing all of this. something that ties it all together; the diabetes, the shit mental health, the weight gain, the awful periods i get when i'm off the pill. but I'd have thought that all the blood tests would have picked something up if there was something there. I know no one can answer that but my gp or an endo though, so I'll see how I go when I see them.
this is a really good compromise i think. i'll count calories for a few weeks to see where i'm at, but then i'll leave it alone if it's looking about what I expect.
really!?!?! this was the inhouse dietician at my gp's practice. growing up, being pretty thin, I never had to worry about things like macros and diets and calories so when this guy told me to eat THIS and not THAT I just blindly followed along. I don't know anything about keto except when I googled it when I got home from that visit, it was the latest best thing to lose weight. I was really disappointed when it just made me feel sick (I know about "keto flu" or whatever but mine lasted the whole month I was doing the diet and I felt hypo). I remember feeling really disappointed in myself that I couldn't do it.
thank you so much. it can feel really disheartening a lot of the time. it's hard to explain the feeling of being a diabetic, although as a physician I guess you already know. but for me, hunger feels like my brain is telling me that I'm dying and if I don't eat immediately I'll pass out. except when I push through that feeling and try to just carry on, i do literally pass out. I think I'm being good having a salad and some fruit and nuts, but an hour later I'm starving again and I can't focus on anything else. every day for me I feel irritable and stressed because i'm hungry. if the advice is "you need to eat less and be hungrier" then maybe i'd just prefer being fat lmao.
... i'm kidding, but really, what a shit disease.
OP
OP
so then, my diet right now is fairly low/med carb. not keto, but low/med carb. no bread, pasta, rice, sugar, etc (i have toast with this brand of bread that's made from soy and is like ~5g of carbs per slice but yeah). in this case, would it still be worth eating "keto" snacks that are high in fat? the dietitian, for example, was telling me to eat a slice of turkey smeared in butter or whatever. but since i'm not doing keto, is that still sound advice or should I be doing low fat too?
sorry for ignorance. I'm so new to this.
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