Help! Diabetic and Muscle Building

melisha0214

I am so confused and lost. I want to start building muscle, but everything I read says how important carbs are in doing so....I can do no more than 40ish carbs/day to keep my blood sugar in check (I prefer to be as unmedicated as I can be). Am I doomed or has anyone else overcome this obstacle?

abatonfan

Have you contacted your Certified Diabetes Educator and/or dietician about this? What I would personally do (I am a type 1) is lift heavy but add in some cardio after my lifting session (or take some insulin to counteract the rise in BG I see with heavy lifting). Heavy lifting can cause blood sugars to increase (it's not necessarily related to insulin resistance but instead related to increased stress hormones stimulating the liver to break down glycogen and release that glucose into the blood), but cardio often improves my insulin sensitivity so that hopefully I will not need to supplement any additional insulin. What's important to remember is that in the long run muscle is more insulin sensitive than fat.

I'm not entirely sure on what carbs do in terms of muscle building (would it be replenishing glycogen stores?).

lorrpb

I usually see the emphasis on protein for muscle building.

nvmomketo

TRy looking into ketogains. They're all about building muscle while eating very low carb high fat.

You could also try the Low Carber Daily group. We have a few members who have had impressive success bulking up on a LCHF diet.

Carbs aren't needed. They can help, but aren't needed.