How can a type II diabetic gain muscle?

Bump to see if anyone knows

Putting on muscle is as simple as doing more weight bearing exercise and eating more protein. The risk you talk about for diabetics is when they put on fat weight, not muscle mass. Eating nutritious foods, with healthy fats, avoiding too much sugar (and of course monitoring that closely) is especially important for a Diabetic.

You're right that gaining muscle requires strength training and adequate protein intake, and both exercise and increasing muscle mass will help decrease insulin resistance and improve overall blood sugar control. Gaining muscle mass isn't easy, and it can take a few weeks or months to really see progress. As others have said, optimum blood sugar control is also key in gaining muscle, because when blood sugar levels are too high your body isn't utilizing energy efficiently. I really like the book "The Diabetic Athletes Handbook" by Sheri Colberg for more information and ideas for people with both T1 and T2. ~Lynn /Glucerna

What about using fat instead of carbs to hit your calorie goal? No risk of spiking your bgl. I suppose the problem would be reduced energy levels affecting your work outs because of the limited carbs.

I'm T2 and bulking can be challenging. To control my T2 I dramatically changed my diet (lowering carbs). I've done strength training on regular basis for the past year. I've have seen changes, but progress has been very slow. Given my metal barriers to having a large calorie surplus, I'm more likely recomping or simply maintaining rather than bulking.

I'm OK with slow and steady progress, I'm a patient person. The most important thing is that my bgl is in check.

Is it common for a doctor to tell a person who is of normal weight or below with type two diabetes to watch their weight? Also, when gaining muscle, isn't a five pound muscle gain pretty huge and impressive over a year? I'm not sure of the answers. I do know that when I was 29 years old and 180 pounds (pregnant) with gestational diabetes, my diabetic nurse told me that if I don't keep my weight down I will definitely have type two diabetes by the time I reach 40. I didn't do much research, but I did heed her advice, and kept my weight about ten pounds or less over my BMI. I guess I interpreted "keep your weight down" as within a certain range

Btw, I also made sure I ate protein at every meal. Also, as a side note and off topic, (sorry), this nurse was morbidly obese and had type two diabetes herself, but she was very influential in my life and I am grateful that she had the guts to march into my hospital room after my baby was born and wag her finger at me:)

I think you are mistaken that a surplus to bulk has to be at least 500 calories. Also, you keep saying weight when you should be saying fat. There are several powerlifters I know who have type II. They monitor their levels closely.

One sets national and world records. He hit 512 pounds for bench press at the Utah State Powerlifting Championship and will be competing at the WPC World Cup this year. This is what he has to say about how he gains mass with type II:

I focused on pre-hab, more protein intake, more sets using heavier weight, incorporated deadlifting and using less insulin to control my diabetes. Although I believe I look soft and in general do not like my appearance, it doesn't matter, I was stronger and less diabetic complications.

interesting...be back to read later

I'm a Type II diabetic who maintains a very tight control on BG levels ... (I secrete very little insulin - and thus am very cautious with my CHO intake.)

I've had to go through this the last few years ... I atrophied greatly from a lot of bed-rest due to spinal issues and am still working at building mass, trying to reclaim some of what I used to have.

For me I go through both bulking and cutting stages.

When bulking I get close to 30% of my calories from protein but still chose to stay low-carb (under 10% of calories - this is what *I* need to maintain BG control). The rest of my intake is fat. Yes, I always eat a slight surplus when bulking, around 500-700 calories a day additional.

As far as gaining weight (ie; getting fat) - when doing my bulking I start at around 9% bodyfat and work my way up to 15%. I simply won't go higher. Unfortunately when I add fat mass, it tends to be visceral, which is the least healthy - and impacts insulin sensitivity the most - so I refuse to get above 15% bodyfat.

Once I hit 15% I start dieting to reduce bodyfat to my preferred levels. What I find once I've dieted back down to 9 or 10% is that *typically* during a bulking stage the NET result is I've added about a pound of of muscle - not much, but it's something. I typically do this 2 to 3 times a year - so I'm actually putting on a whopping 3 lbs of lean mass per year.

I personally won't add as much mass as some others as 1) I'm nearing 50 years old now, and 2) I produce very little insulin naturally - and it's the 2nd-most anabolic hormone.

FYI when I diet back down to where I look and feel best, I reduce my protein intake to 20-25% of my calories.

There's a group on here for type 2 diabetics...you might want to check it out. I haven't read all the posts but this topic might be covered there.

I'm a Type II diabetic who maintains a very tight control on BG levels ... (I secrete very little insulin - and thus am very cautious with my CHO intake.)

I've had to go through this the last few years ... I atrophied greatly from a lot of bed-rest due to spinal issues and am still working at building mass, trying to reclaim some of what I used to have.

For me I go through both bulking and cutting stages.

When bulking I get close to 30% of my calories from protein but still chose to stay low-carb (under 10% of calories - this is what *I* need to maintain BG control). The rest of my intake is fat. Yes, I always eat a slight surplus when bulking, around 500-700 calories a day additional.

As far as gaining weight (ie; getting fat) - when doing my bulking I start at around 9% bodyfat and work my way up to 15%. I simply won't go higher. Unfortunately when I add fat mass, it tends to be visceral, which is the least healthy - and impacts insulin sensitivity the most - so I refuse to get above 15% bodyfat.

Once I hit 15% I start dieting to reduce bodyfat to my preferred levels. What I find once I've dieted back down to 9 or 10% is that *typically* during a bulking stage the NET result is I've added about a pound of of muscle - not much, but it's something. I typically do this 2 to 3 times a year - so I'm actually putting on a whopping 3 lbs of lean mass per year.

I personally won't add as much mass as some others as 1) I'm nearing 50 years old now, and 2) I produce very little insulin naturally - and it's the 2nd-most anabolic hormone.

FYI when I diet back down to where I look and feel best, I reduce my protein intake to 20-25% of my calories.

Excellent response! This proves it can be done. And it tells people how you're doing it effectively and safely. Thank you.

It also seems that having type II itself decreases ability to gain muscle. This makes sense, because the insulin is not being used at would be in a person without type II due to decreased sensitivity.

But I have also read that the greater your muscle mass, the higher your insulin sensitivity. So each pound of muscle that you add may be helping to slow the progression of the disorder! It might actually get easier to add muscle as your sensitivity improves, too! (Just conjecture on my part...please let us know how it goes over the next few months and years.)

Definitely true...when I was lifting weights a few years ago, I hardly took any insulin. I averaged 3 units per 30g of carbs. Now it's 7 (although better than the 10 I started with)