I'm a 41-year-old diabetic and have had poor tolerance for most oral medications. I'm going to have to give quite a bit of background before asking my question, so please bear with me!

A few years ago, it was entirely diet and exercise controlled (and I had to have been eating at least 3000 a day). Then a lung infection set in and I couldn't exercise. I went from very active to completely sedentary, and was still eating to fuel an extremely active lifestyle -- I gained a lot of weight in a very short time. When I started trying to exercise again, the extra weight was too much for my joints and I ended up with an overuse sprain in one ankle just from walking at 2mph for 90 minutes. Next time I tried to start again I took it more cautiously, still walking slowly but just around the block, gradually building up. My feet started hurting first thing in the morning, but I didn't connect it to the walking in time. I developed plantar fasciitis in both feet (think shin splints, but on the arches of your feet) and it was so bad that November of 2011 I was on crutches, and I have had a handicapped parking permit for more than a year.

In July, my A1C (the test that indicates average blood glucose levels over the last 3 months) was as bad as it had been when I was first diagnosed. My doctor put me on Byetta, a twice-daily injection that helps control glucose levels and suppresses appetite. I began to lose weight, but constantly felt like I had the flu. The nausea was so bad that I could barely eat. There were times I would choke down a Big Mac just to get up to 1200 calories because I couldn't stand the idea of eating a higher volume of food to get there. Other days I couldn't face it at all and scraped by on about 600 for the day. And I wasn't even taking two shots a day -- I could only handle one, ate practically nothing in the mornings, and any food I did manage to eat was in the evenings. Needless to say, I felt awful. My doctor was happy with the weight loss, but could tell I was miserable and switched me to Bydureon, which is the once-weekly extended release form injection of the same medication. What an improvement! No nausea, no headaches, less appetite suppression.

That was in October, and I decided to ride the wave of relief and energy that came from not feeling sick all the time and get this under control. I put major areas of my life on the back burner and started educating myself more. I did intense testing, found the Low Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies, and got my numbers into a better range almost immediately. I started tracking on MFP. I got a stationary bike and rode every day, even if only for 10 minutes, using a massager on my feet before and after to minimize any further microtearing in the injured area. When I could ride for an hour, I started walking, too. When I could walk for 90 minutes, I started Couch to 5K. In November, my A1C was down almost to normal range, and was no longer in the diabetic range -- the test said I had "an elevated risk of developing diabetes," which was a huge triumph! I had brought my food intake up to an average of about 1400 cals/day at this point and still losing weight.

At my heaviest, I was 247. I'm now 206. I'm up to an average of about 1650/day now. I have now lost enough weight and gained enough basic functional strength to be able to start lifting weights (I felt I needed to get the weight off at any cost so I could begin physical activity safely without reinjuring myself, as well as to increase insulin sensitivity, even though my net intake was well below my BMR). I've read Starting Strength and have a PT who is a competitive powerlifter teaching me... so far this week, I've learned squats and bench presses with an empty 45 lb bar and tomorrow we add deadlifts. My plan has me lifting 3 days/week and running 3 days/week, on my non-lifting days. I usually run/walk for about an hour, including warmup and cooldown.

Starting Strength recommends novice trainees consume 3000-4000 cals/day, but that seems to assume a normal healthy diet before starting the program, not a calorie-starved one like I ended up in. I admit I'm a little nervous about the inevitable weight gain, because increased weight = increased insulin resistance, but I've recently read studies about how lifting heavy improves insulin resistance so I keep reminding myself about that and of course I'll keep a close eye on the numbers.

So, finally, my question. What I'm trying to figure out is whether I need to reset at TDEE for a time, or go directly for caloric surplus? And how much of a surplus... what percentage over TDEE to take best advantage of the muscle growth possible during this first 6 weeks or so of beginner's strength gains? If my glucose levels were to start to rise due to weight gain (they really shouldn't, because of the expected increase in LBM and the effect on insulin sensitivity from heavy lifting) and it became hard to control the peaks again, then I'd go to TDEE - 20% for awhile.

So what do you think? Reset at TDEE -- which these days is averaging out to about 2500 -- or jump right into a surplus? And if I need to reset first, how long before increasing after that?