Over 40% of US Adults have Insulin Resistance

Ignoring the 5 pages of "low carb yay!" and "low carb nay!"

I am 40 years old, I have been on a diet my whole life. And really, I've always eaten textbook healthy. Fruit, whole grains, low fat, healthy protein. I was a competitive swimmer most of my life. But those pounds, they just kept going up.

I started to have issues. My eyesight was blurry in the morning. I developed psoriasis on my feet. I was sore and tired for hours after working out. I could sleep for 5 hours in the middle of the day.

I went to the doctor to check my feet and eyes. Nobody mentioned diabetes. My parents died when I was very young, so I don't really know about their medical conditions, there was nobody to tell them to me.

I chalked it all up to 40-itis. Then my Type 1 boss tested me for fun. And the numbers were in stroke territory so he made me go to the doctor.

Got sent to diabetic education, and I've lost 40ish pounds since May. I'm actually eating MORE now than I did before. I have to. I've dropped from an 11.2 to a 6.4, which is top of the pre-diabetic range.

The point I'm going to take from this post is that if what you are doing isn't working, maybe it's time to try something else. And maybe time to make your doctor work for his money. I can honestly say that diabetes was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Exactly right. There are many cases here where Calories in vs Calories out doesn't mean crap until you address the medical issues going on in your body. Fat is a symptom of more than just over eating. People who've never dealt with this you're very lucky. But when you are doing everything "right" and nothing is working, we have to keep asking questions. I think the OP's point is simply be aware this stuff is out there. Get checked, change your macros. Do what it takes until you find the answer.

No one is saying that oh I have a medical condition, so it's OK that I'm fat. We are all here to loose weight. To share information. To learn, and ultimately to loose the weight.

Advice for insulin resistance and losing weight from the National Institutes of Health:

"Eating, Diet, and Nutrition

Adopting healthy eating habits can help people lose a modest amount of weight and reverse insulin resistance. Experts encourage people to slowly adopt healthy eating habits that they can maintain, rather than trying extreme weight-loss solutions. People may need to get help from a dietitian or join a weight-loss program for support.

In general, people should lose weight by choosing healthy foods, controlling portions, eating less fat, and increasing physical activity. People are better able to lose weight and keep it off when they learn how to adapt their favorite foods to a healthy eating plan.

The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan, developed by the NIH, has been shown to be effective in decreasing insulin resistance when combined with weight loss and physical activity. More information on DASH is available at www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/dash."


AND

"The DPP and other large studies proved that people with prediabetes can often prevent or delay diabetes if they lose a modest amount of weight by cutting fat and calorie intake and increasing physical activity—for example, walking 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week."

ALSO

"Approaches to Preventing Diabetes

The DPP tested three approaches to preventing diabetes:

Making lifestyle changes. People in the lifestyle change group exercised, usually by walking 5 days a week for about 30 minutes a day, and lowered their intake of fat and calories.
Taking the diabetes medication metformin. Those who took metformin also received information about physical activity and diet.
Receiving education about diabetes. The third group only received information about physical activity and diet and took a placebo—a pill without medication in it.

People in the lifestyle change group showed the best outcomes. However people who took metformin also benefited. The results showed that by losing an average of 15 pounds in the first year of the study, people in the lifestyle change group reduced their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent over 3 years.

Lifestyle change was even more effective in those ages 60 and older. People in this group reduced their risk by 71 percent.

People in the metformin group also benefited, reducing their risk by 31 percent. More information about the DPP, funded under NIH clinical trial number NCT00004992, is available at www.bsc.gwu.edu/dppleaving site icon."

http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/insulinresistance/

Ah, yes, DASH. Mocked as a "fad" diet on here.

Because if you don't have a problem with hypertension, you don't need to address it.

Have you read about it?

So to clarify, people who suffer from hypothyroidism should not take their prescribed synthetic thyroid hormones given to them by their doctors. Rather, they should eat less and move more, and this is sure to cure their defective thyroid gland. Because their defective gland is simply a symptom, not an ailment. Am I understanding your opinion on the subject correctly?

Not people, just you. Please do so and report back.

Then you can tell us all how being ridiculous worked out for you.

Eat less, move more, quitcher*****in'.

remember, though... our first instinct is to blame the dieter when the diet fails. i see it here every single day... we get multiple posts by people who are frustrated because they're not losing weight. the knee-jerk answers are always "you're not measuring correctly" or "you're overestimating what you eat" or "you're not exercising enough." for some, yes that's the answer. but even when the person says "here's my diary, here's my exercise schedule, why is this not working", people are quick to give the easy, canned answer.

i don't know about you, but i find it incredibly insulting and demoralizing when i say "here's what i'm doing, i'm doing what everyone says is "right", why is this not working?" and i get an answer that equates to " oh it's easy, just eat less and move more. it was easy for me so therefore you're just making excuses and don't really want this badly enough." there are only a few, scattered souls who have the knowledge, the patience, and the compassion to step up and say "ok... let's try some other tactics. have you seen a doctor and discussed these specific topics?"

IRT the daily threads of the "I am not losing threads", a majority of the time, people are't logging daily, they aren't using food scales, they are over estimating calories burned or have only been doing it for a week. This is the general thing I have seen over the past several years. Once that is estimated, its the rare occasion someone actually comes back with an additional post saying they tried all of that and it didn't work. Or in some cases, after 4 pages of debating, they come back saying they have a medical conditions and our answers (or at least mine does) will change.

Addressing accuracy and consistency is the first key (especially for more lean individuals). After that, if a person does come back and has the same results, then you modify it more (changing macronutrients or even possibly cutting out a specific food group). But again, of the thousands of people who I have personally worked with, I can count on one hand that amount of people who have come back with a plan to be adjusted and approach elimination diets or a different dieting style. In fact, that is how my wife found out she had a gluten intolerance.

I would think it would be wrong of our community, to jump to the extreme first (going low carb, cutting XX foods out, etc..) without understand what the person has tried or their medical history. I will say though, there are people on this board that jump to conclusions without knowing facts and will blame dieters, and it is clearly wrong but it's the internet... so having high expectations that everyone will get all the information should be low. :laugh:

As someone who has both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes (type 1 makes it really hard to lose weight), and Hashimoto's disease (type 1 diabetes and Hashimoto's are auto-immune diseases, not symptoms of being overweight), I have an incredibly difficult time losing weight. It's taken me years to even figure out how to lose weight. At all! So now I'm slowly losing weight, which is the only way I can do so successfully. Sometimes I end up in a plateau for a couple months or longer. Many people can just lose weight quickly and safely, and that is great! But I get annoyed when I do the right things unsuccessfully, so I reach out for help and get called a liar instead. It doesn't help.

The thing is that, if you reach out for help, you've got to mention all that. Because it's relevant to the question.

And if you mention all that, everybody's going to slowly back away because our inexpert advice could land you in the hospital. You should have a team of specialists to direct your questions to.

but sometimes, we're not reaching out to get medical diagnoses... we're looking for others who have also travelled the same road we're on, who have run into the same roadblocks and sludgy progress. we want people to bounce things off, asking "how did you deal with this?" or "hey i read this, i thought you'd be interested."

we come looking for the community and the support. and sometimes, others might be able to identify what questions we should be asking our doctors and what kinds of tests to specifically ask for. because doctors are just as guilty of dismissing patients who are overweight as the rest of us are.

remember, though... our first instinct is to blame the dieter when the diet fails. i see it here every single day... we get multiple posts by people who are frustrated because they're not losing weight. the knee-jerk answers are always "you're not measuring correctly" or "you're overestimating what you eat" or "you're not exercising enough." for some, yes that's the answer. but even when the person says "here's my diary, here's my exercise schedule, why is this not working", people are quick to give the easy, canned answer.

i don't know about you, but i find it incredibly insulting and demoralizing when i say "here's what i'm doing, i'm doing what everyone says is "right", why is this not working?" and i get an answer that equates to " oh it's easy, just eat less and move more. it was easy for me so therefore you're just making excuses and don't really want this badly enough." there are only a few, scattered souls who have the knowledge, the patience, and the compassion to step up and say "ok... let's try some other tactics. have you seen a doctor and discussed these specific topics?"

IRT the daily threads of the "I am not losing threads", a majority of the time, people are't logging daily, they aren't using food scales, they are over estimating calories burned or have only been doing it for a week. This is the general thing I have seen over the past several years. Once that is estimated, its the rare occasion someone actually comes back with an additional post saying they tried all of that and it didn't work. Or in some cases, after 4 pages of debating, they come back saying they have a medical conditions and our answers (or at least mine does) will change.

Addressing accuracy and consistency is the first key (especially for more lean individuals). After that, if a person does come back and has the same results, then you modify it more (changing macronutrients or even possibly cutting out a specific food group). But again, of the thousands of people who I have personally worked with, I can count on one hand that amount of people who have come back with a plan to be adjusted and approach elimination diets or a different dieting style. In fact, that is how my wife found out she had a gluten intolerance.

I would think it would be wrong of our community, to jump to the extreme first (going low carb, cutting XX foods out, etc..) without understand what the person has tried or their medical history. I will say though, there are people on this board that jump to conclusions without knowing facts and will blame dieters, and it is clearly wrong but it's the internet... so having high expectations that everyone will get all the information should be low. :laugh:

As someone who has both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes (type 1 makes it really hard to lose weight), and Hashimoto's disease (type 1 diabetes and Hashimoto's are auto-immune diseases, not symptoms of being overweight), I have an incredibly difficult time losing weight. It's taken me years to even figure out how to lose weight. At all! So now I'm slowly losing weight, which is the only way I can do so successfully. Sometimes I end up in a plateau for a couple months or longer. Many people can just lose weight quickly and safely, and that is great! But I get annoyed when I do the right things unsuccessfully, so I reach out for help and get called a liar instead. It doesn't help.

The thing is that, if you reach out for help, you've got to mention all that. Because it's relevant to the question.

And if you mention all that, everybody's going to slowly back away because our inexpert advice could land you in the hospital. You should have a team of specialists to direct your questions to.

but sometimes, we're not reaching out to get medical diagnoses... we're looking for others who have also travelled the same road we're on, who have run into the same roadblocks and sludgy progress. we want people to bounce things off, asking "how did you deal with this?" or "hey i read this, i thought you'd be interested."

we come looking for the community and the support. and sometimes, others might be able to identify what questions we should be asking our doctors and what kinds of tests to specifically ask for. because doctors are just as guilty of dismissing patients who are overweight as the rest of us are.

The thing is though, that my experience is going to come from the realm of CICO and you live in the land of PCOS.

So I'll be all like "If you're not losing weight, then you're not tracking accurately" and you'll be all "Oh, no. Are you calling me a liar?"

You might want to try a sub-forum if you're dealing with a health issue that affects weight loss.

remember, though... our first instinct is to blame the dieter when the diet fails. i see it here every single day... we get multiple posts by people who are frustrated because they're not losing weight. the knee-jerk answers are always "you're not measuring correctly" or "you're overestimating what you eat" or "you're not exercising enough." for some, yes that's the answer. but even when the person says "here's my diary, here's my exercise schedule, why is this not working", people are quick to give the easy, canned answer.

i don't know about you, but i find it incredibly insulting and demoralizing when i say "here's what i'm doing, i'm doing what everyone says is "right", why is this not working?" and i get an answer that equates to " oh it's easy, just eat less and move more. it was easy for me so therefore you're just making excuses and don't really want this badly enough." there are only a few, scattered souls who have the knowledge, the patience, and the compassion to step up and say "ok... let's try some other tactics. have you seen a doctor and discussed these specific topics?"

IRT the daily threads of the "I am not losing threads", a majority of the time, people are't logging daily, they aren't using food scales, they are over estimating calories burned or have only been doing it for a week. This is the general thing I have seen over the past several years. Once that is estimated, its the rare occasion someone actually comes back with an additional post saying they tried all of that and it didn't work. Or in some cases, after 4 pages of debating, they come back saying they have a medical conditions and our answers (or at least mine does) will change.

Addressing accuracy and consistency is the first key (especially for more lean individuals). After that, if a person does come back and has the same results, then you modify it more (changing macronutrients or even possibly cutting out a specific food group). But again, of the thousands of people who I have personally worked with, I can count on one hand that amount of people who have come back with a plan to be adjusted and approach elimination diets or a different dieting style. In fact, that is how my wife found out she had a gluten intolerance.

I would think it would be wrong of our community, to jump to the extreme first (going low carb, cutting XX foods out, etc..) without understand what the person has tried or their medical history. I will say though, there are people on this board that jump to conclusions without knowing facts and will blame dieters, and it is clearly wrong but it's the internet... so having high expectations that everyone will get all the information should be low. :laugh:

As someone who has both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes (type 1 makes it really hard to lose weight), and Hashimoto's disease (type 1 diabetes and Hashimoto's are auto-immune diseases, not symptoms of being overweight), I have an incredibly difficult time losing weight. It's taken me years to even figure out how to lose weight. At all! So now I'm slowly losing weight, which is the only way I can do so successfully. Sometimes I end up in a plateau for a couple months or longer. Many people can just lose weight quickly and safely, and that is great! But I get annoyed when I do the right things unsuccessfully, so I reach out for help and get called a liar instead. It doesn't help.

The thing is that, if you reach out for help, you've got to mention all that. Because it's relevant to the question.

And if you mention all that, everybody's going to slowly back away because our inexpert advice could land you in the hospital. You should have a team of specialists to direct your questions to.

but sometimes, we're not reaching out to get medical diagnoses... we're looking for others who have also travelled the same road we're on, who have run into the same roadblocks and sludgy progress. we want people to bounce things off, asking "how did you deal with this?" or "hey i read this, i thought you'd be interested."

we come looking for the community and the support. and sometimes, others might be able to identify what questions we should be asking our doctors and what kinds of tests to specifically ask for. because doctors are just as guilty of dismissing patients who are overweight as the rest of us are.

The thing is though, that my experience is going to come from the realm of CICO and you live in the land of PCOS.

So I'll be all like "If you're not losing weight, then you're not tracking accurately" and you'll be all "Oh, no. Are you calling me a liar?"

You might want to try a sub-forum if you're dealing with a health issue that affects weight loss.

you're assuming we walk in with a diagnosis. not all of us do. even after having my bloodwork done and thyroid tested, my doctor said i wasn't at risk, however if lindsey1979 hadn't come in to one of the other conversations, i wouldn't have known that my problem might actually be my thyroid after all, especially considering my history. she's given me a direction that i can explore.

three months ago i started going to the gym, thinking that my problem was just a matter of eating less and moving more. and while there are days i wish i'd never started posting on the forums, if i hadn't then i wouldn't be able to go to my next doctor's visit armed with additional information, possibilities, and saying "i've tried this, i added that, i noticed that this other thing happened while that thing didn't happen."

if you want an excuse, you will find an excuse. when you are ready to actually lose weight, you will. only point the finger at yourself - anything else is an excuse.

You clearly know nothing about insulin resistance. How cute.

You should probably check this out… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3oI104STzs.

Ignoring the 5 pages of "low carb yay!" and "low carb nay!"

I am 40 years old, I have been on a diet my whole life. And really, I've always eaten textbook healthy. Fruit, whole grains, low fat, healthy protein. I was a competitive swimmer most of my life. But those pounds, they just kept going up.

I started to have issues. My eyesight was blurry in the morning. I developed psoriasis on my feet. I was sore and tired for hours after working out. I could sleep for 5 hours in the middle of the day.

I went to the doctor to check my feet and eyes. Nobody mentioned diabetes. My parents died when I was very young, so I don't really know about their medical conditions, there was nobody to tell them to me.

I chalked it all up to 40-itis. Then my Type 1 boss tested me for fun. And the numbers were in stroke territory so he made me go to the doctor.

Got sent to diabetic education, and I've lost 40ish pounds since May. I'm actually eating MORE now than I did before. I have to. I've dropped from an 11.2 to a 6.4, which is top of the pre-diabetic range.

The point I'm going to take from this post is that if what you are doing isn't working, maybe it's time to try something else. And maybe time to make your doctor work for his money. I can honestly say that diabetes was the best thing that ever happened to me.