Looking for advice . . . what do you think ?

ginaoakes

I reached my goal weight on February 17 last year so I am coming up on my 1 year anniversary of keeping it off. I am very excited to say that my success has motivated my husband to get healthy also. Here is my dilemma I know everyone is different and the weight loss journey is going to be different for everyone. He started working out 6 weeks ago we joined a gym and we have been going 5 days a week - 45 minuted of cardio and 15 minutes of strength training altering what muscle group we work on. He has been logging his food and staying within his calories most days. He is very determined and has not lost his motivation even though he has not lost ANYTHING yet . . . I am wondering if we should up his calories with all of the hard workouts ? He has type 2 diabetes and I am also wondering if this is going to make this process harder ?? Just thought I might be able to get some advice from all of you out there !! I am also thinking that maybe we should check with a nutritionist ? Thanks in advance for any suggestions

sheri3762

Wow! That is really strange isn't it? I would prob check with a nutritionalist first. If that doesn't help, mabye he should have his doc check him. could he have a thyroid contidion? That could be a problem to look at also though I'm not sure about how it (or how often) affects men. I guess its possible he isn't getting enough calories and his body thinks its starving? Hope hes doing ok. That would be such a downer! Good luck! Hope you find some answers. Keep us posted!!!

tiffanygil

Is he insulin dependent yet? That does make a diff. If I remember this right insulin is made from hormones and depending on what kind of insulin your on it could be human or animal. And have you checked his measurements? I would suggest talking to a pharmacist first. They will know more about his medication and its effects and when the best time to work out after he has taken his med or insulin.

Good luck!

viliberty

When I was diagnosed with diabetes I started logging what I ate, around 750 to 900 calories.. When I "turned it in" to my nutritionist, she said, "that isn't enough, eat more." So I did and my weight loss stopped. She reconsidered and said to go back to what I was doing. Then I started losing again. Each of us are individuals whose bodies respond differently. I would recommend seing a nutritionist. Also be sure to check that his blood sugar doesn't go too low during working out.

DrBorkBork

I'm T2 diabetic too. Definitely sit him down with a nutritional specialist, and his regular diabetes doc. Mine encouraged me to take metformin & said it should help with the weight loss.
There's nothing better to kick start weight loss than having a game plan!

SHBoss1673

Yeah, Diabetes is a metabolic condition, so it has a very strong relationship to what you eat and weight loss. Type II diabetes is insulin resistance, as opposed to Type I (which my sister has had all her life) which is insulin deficiency. the main difference is Type II is usually caused by environmental factors where type I is usually caused by genetic factors. This isn't always true, but it is in many cases. also type II is usually much more manageable without insulin replacement (injections), and in many cases it's completely curable from a functional standpoint.

There is a whole class of dietitian that deals with nothing other than diabetes, I would make an appointment. viliberty is an example of why you should see someone that has a lot of experience with this condition. While I don't know her specific conditions so I don't want to do too much speculating, it sounds like her nutritionist took the wrong tact with her diabetes. Slow, stable increase of your calories (over a few months) while constantly checking blood glucose levels, energy levels, and functional cardiac output would have been a much better route to increasing calories rather than just saying something like "that's not enough", the body gets used to whatever calories you are eating, it will conform to survive, so just increasing calories over a short period is going to first (almost always) make you gain weight. But if you know you're below what you SHOULD be eating, then a slow, stable increase would probably have worked. It's kind of like introducing a goldfish into a new fishbowl, you don't just toss it in there, it could shock and kill it, you introduce it slowly into the environment and let it adjust it's body to the new conditions. the same concept is true for weight loss, although we are looking for the opposite outcome.

we WANT the sharp decrease to surprise the body, which means some initial fast weight loss. Then we need to make sure we are eating enough so the body doesn't think we are in a starvation predicament, which means we will be able to continue losing weight without that weight being lean mass and bone matter.

does this make sense? I hope so, I've got a lot of information rattling around in my head, sometimes it comes out in a logical manner, but sometimes what sounds perfectly reasonable to me, is in fact quite confusing to others.

-Banks