anyone having luck with weight loss?

jamie_lee80

Am I destined to weigh 240 lbs for the rest of my life? I have really been plugging away at eating healthy, counting carbs, calories, protein, fiber, logging, exercising for the past 9 months and I can't seem to get under 240. I weigh everything that I eat, I have a food scale at home and at work. I workout 5 days a week, I have tried upping my calories, I have tried lowering my calories. I have tried really low carb/high protein, I have tried CICO, Weight Watchers, paleo.......I am so frustrated. I have had my thyroid checked, I was tested for PCOS, I have had tubes of blood taken....nothing. I did a search on the boards and it seems like there are so many type 1 diabetics that are in the same boat. I would absolutely love to hear from someone who is successfully losing weight and is a T1D.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

Have you lost no weight at all since you started 9 months ago? Not even 3-4 lbs.?

jamie_lee80

I've lost around 30 lbs........that was all between September-January. I haven't lost anything since February. I will lose a few, gain a few.

jamie_lee80

Also, its not like i'm close to my goal.....to be at a healthy weight I still have around 80-90 lbs to lose.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

It sounds like you might just be in a plateau. My plateaus have gotten longer and longer as I continue to lose. My last plateau lasted from Oct. to Mar., then I had the whoosh.

I'm still in the current plateau that started in Mar.

tycoon460

I've been dealing with this journey for good 8 months also. The doctor actually wanted me to stop at 215-220 lbs due to my height - 6'3.

Sounds like you're on track so far - measuring food, doing exercise, figuring up macros. Keep it up!

Here is my list of things I've learned over the past year or so:

• Take pictures to yourself to keep track of privately with good lighting. It's much easier to see progress that way.
• Concentrate on how you feel after doing a workout.
• Focus on how much more you can accomplish now after you've started working out.
• Develop lifestyle routines. Think of it as a life change not a diet.
• Don't let the scale dominate how you feel about yourself. It's one job is to calculate weight. It doesn't want to be your friend. It doesn't care if you're properly hydrated or not. It doesn't care if you just ate 0.5 pounds of greek yogurt to get your daily protein.
• Don't get over critical about what you eat on special occasions. If it's a relative's birthday have your small slice of cake and 1/2 cup of ice cream. Measure it yourself and enjoy it! The extra 400 calories isn't going hurt, but don't go overboard like other members of the family and have 3-5 cups of ice cream and 2 large slices of cake. (I still have this problem)

I've noticed I might stay the same weight or slightly gain 5-10 lbs lately for a few days and whoosh it goes back off again suddenly.

My weight timeline:
295 lbs: January 2014 - before autoimmune and DKA
235 lbs: October 2014 - After DKA and getting dianoised. At one point the hospital calculated I dropped 30 lbs in 20 days.
240 lbs: Late October 2014 - Noticed some weight coming back and decided I need to get in shape since there was no sense in gaining it back after what I had to go through. I started to exercise like crazy to keep it off. I bought the Fitness Blender 8 Week Fat Burn PDF. I worked hard - 45-60+ minutes of work outs everyday 6-7 days a week. Some of which are 800-1200 calorie burns a day. Decided I needed more weight so bought some PowerBlock SportBlock weights (3-24 lbs adjustable dumbbells).
222 lbs: January 2015 - Started Fitness Blender 8 Week Fat Burn for Busy People - 30 minutes or so each 6 days a week
210 lbs: March 2015 - Started weight training some with Fitness Blender Muscle Mass program. Bought a 90 lb PowerBlock dumbbell cheap used, so I could use for it dips and kettlebell routines.
204 lbs: April 2015 - Nurses at Endo told me to cut back on carbs. So I did. I went from 200-400g a day to 150-300g a day. Finished up my first round on weight training and did another round of Busy People workouts.
199 lbs: June 2015 - Finished my Busy People now back to weight training. Started doing some light running/jogging 2-3 times a week. Usually only 1-3 miles each time. I also try to do 1 good sprint for the week in those running sessions to calculate my mile pace.

jamie_lee80

@tycoon460 Thanks for sharing your story! I do definitely feel better and I actually jogged my first 5k over the weekend which I never would have been able to do before.

okulyd

I'll let you know. I just enlisted the help of a doctor who specializes in weight loss. He is running my body comp numbers on 6/18 and said that as soon as he has the info from that test he'll put together a plan. He also said that insulin was definitely part of the problem. I have also been recently diagnosed with Hashimoto which may also be part of my problem. Yesterday I started on Leptin supplements which is supposed to help regulate appetite. In T1D we have very low leptin so the thought is that supplementation will help.

jamie_lee80

@okulyd I'm excited to hear what your dr has to say. Keep me updated. I'll have to check into the leptin.

okulyd

Hi Jamie,
New doctor is inducing ketosis. Today is day one. To do this its eating low carb (75g) with some protein (125g) and some fat (65g). He also cut my calories from 2050 to 1500. He thinks my problem is that I never burn fat since I eat all the time. I'm doubtful that I can eat so little for any amount of time. So far, I feel better than I expected. I'm not feeling hungry and blood sugars are a little high (might need to tweak my basal) but nothing crazy.

lourdesengel

Wow congrats! You seem to be in a good path. I have tried losing weight for the past two years and nothing I've done has changed my weight. It is always +\- 3 lbs. You have inspired me to try a nutritionist.

okulyd

Just went back to the fat loss doctor. He was happy with my progress over the past month since I lost half a pound of fat and gained 1.5 pounds of muscle. It usually takes a long time to build muscle and 1.5 pounds is a lot especially for a female who hasn't added any extra weightlifting to her daily routine since starting the diet. I do crossfit 6 times per week and there is some weightlifting involved but I've been doing this for 1.5 years. Anyway, I've been really frustrated because I feel like it doesn't matter what I eat or don't eat, the scale doesn't move. Turns out it doesn't move because I most likely have been adding muscle and losing fat at a very slow rate the entire time.

In the past month I reduced carbs but was never low enough to actually get into ketosis. The doctor said that when I get into ketosis the fat loss will happen fast. I have to admit after being diabetic for 30 years and always being told to eat its really hard for me to reverse all the habits and ignore what everyone else is telling me. for example when I say to my husband I can't eat dinner because its after 7pm and eating carbs past 7 will prevent ketosis I get yelled at because he doesn't want to deal with a low in the middle of the night. So, I break down and eat something small. Its not his fault, its mine, but I also have fear of lows. Anyway, since trying low carb I have had hardly any lows and really don't think I need to eat a bedtime snack (I have days where there were no issues) and now its just a matter of actually doing it each day.

I have also been drinking very often over the past month. There's no carbs in red wine and I enjoy it. I know that this is also slowing my progress so I'm trying to only have wine once per week. So, with drinking nearly daily and having 100-150g carbs for a month I still lost due to calories being restricted from 2050 to 1800 (goal was to eat 1550 and my TDEE is 1750). I think this proves weight loss can be accomplished simply with reducing calories and that ketosis isn't necessary. I don't want to be counting calories forever so this month I'm trying the fast route of reaching ketosis. The doctor recommended I start using MCT oil first thing in the morning to help induce ketosis and also recommend that I continue with the Leptin until I get to my goal weight. Leptin is supposed to help break down the fat.