Help please insulin resistence

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dnhames
dnhames Posts: 12 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Can anyone help me with pointers to loose weight with insulin resistance and hypothroid symptons. My doctor says my blood sugar is now brought to normal levels with my diet so I don't need metformin. I count calories, exercise, do low carb and low glycemic, increase calories one day a week, exercise by walking running intervals, rebounder, dancing, stationary bike. At work I am often up an down ladders installing blinds and drapery. I have a whey preotein shake in the morning with 1/2 banana 1 teaspoon cocoa powder, stevia or eggs with vegtables such as kale onions and red pepper, 1/4 grapefruit. dinner is romaine salad with tuna or chicken, plain yourgurt with 1/2 cup blueberries, 2 Tablespons flax and 1 package of stevia. suppper is salad or soup with protein, chicken, beef or pork. I dont use store bought salad dressing because of all the chemicals and I make my own with olive oil and vinegar or yogurt, mustard and lemon and herbs. Snacks are celery,cuckcumer, a carrot, boiled omega 3 egg,the rare apple, a few nutsgreen tea, yerba mate tea. What am I doing wrong? What do I need to do to drop the pounds. I have tried a lot of other things such as atkins, inwhich I lost weight very painfully slow, and regained when I stopped. Body by V did not work, I think it was the soy. The metabolism miracle worked for about a 9 lb loss and then stalled. I have the willpower to do what needs to be done but no results. Help please

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  • Laurej
    Laurej Posts: 227
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    Stevia is shown in studies to help improve insulin resistance. 0 cal, all natural sugar substitute. some have to kind of get used to the aftertaste. I've found fresh stevia to be the most tasty, but the do also sell it already processed.

    good luck! :)
  • Grimlock69
    Grimlock69 Posts: 197
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    Are you taking insulin?
  • LovingLisa2012
    LovingLisa2012 Posts: 802 Member
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    all I can say, is make sure your eating enough calories (net your minimum)

    I can't see your diary, so I have no idea if your eating your calories or not ..

    hopefully some one can offer better advice
  • mahlerosa
    mahlerosa Posts: 56
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    Why not try metformin anyway? What is your fasting glucose?
  • theartichoke
    theartichoke Posts: 816 Member
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    Hi! I'm insulin resistant and Hashimitos hypothyroid. I couldnt lose much until I started eating enough. I made all the "right" food choices and I was stuck. Do you mind sharing how many calories you net each day?
  • dnhames
    dnhames Posts: 12 Member
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    1200 example 2 days, 900 two days, 1400 two days but never over the limit as I exercise. I am often under the limit by 300 calories. I do not take insulin because I have my blood sugar under control according to my doctor on my last 2 blood tests.
  • theartichoke
    theartichoke Posts: 816 Member
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    I'm glad you've gotten your insulin levels under control, that one is a bugger for weight loss. You're doing the low GI thing so that's covered. Hypo makes it more difficult to lose weight and responds best to a diet quite different than the one for insulin resistance...lower in protein, higher in carbs. It's like having a bi-polar body.

    Please take this for what it is, my opinion and personal experience. This is what has worked for me.

    I had to pick a calorie goal that was at least my BMR and stick to it. My body did poorly with the low cal diet and calorie confusion thing. Cardio is great for improving my overall health but for seeing metabolic improvements, weight training is the only thing that works. I can't stress enough how much picking up weights has improved my progress.

    1200 calories, net, wasn't enough. I know many people here have great success with 1200. I'm not one of them. It's like walking a tightrope. Too far to one side or the other and I fall. I stopped losing weight at 1200 calories and if I did, it was a battle.

    According to the calculators my BMR is 1775 and at that level I should lose 1.5 to 2lbs per week. After a month a was losing .5lbs a week. My hypo makes my metabolism run slower and the calorie level that got me to 1.5lbs/week was 1500. This is what I net each day, at the very least. This combined with strength and resistance training has given me consistent results. My "consistency" is wacky though. 2 weeks a month I lose, the other 2...gain, gain, loss, stuck, stuck, gain...but it happens each and every month. Consistency, right? lol

    I had the food part nailed, I was exercising regularly and logging everything I put in my mouth as accurately as I could. What was left to tweak? My calories. If I reduced and got stuck again then what was I supposed to do, lower them again? I couldn't imagine that. I upped instead, gained 3lbs initially and have been happy since then. It seems counterintuitive but for me, fat loss balances on a fine line between eating too much and eating too little.
  • dnhames
    dnhames Posts: 12 Member
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    wow, thanks a million for some ideas on something different to try. My protein is always high so I can try to lower it and may carbs are always low, so I can try to raise it a bit. Thank you for sharing your personal experince. I will also try to stick to a level. do you raise your calories one day a week? I did the Body for Life program and got results with weight lifting, problem was though I had to keep uping the workouts to see any weight loss results. So you went 275 calories a day under. Is that under you BMR. Did you add extra calories for extra exercise? I am the same with the 2 week window to loose weight per month and then when I ovalate my chances of any weight loss are gone until my period is over. That can take anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks to happen, and I always feel terrible until it is over, bloated. sore back, the bottom of my feet hurt and I feel hormonal etc. It sounds like we have simular problems.
  • theartichoke
    theartichoke Posts: 816 Member
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    So many similarities!

    I don't have any days that are higher than others. My calorie goal is 1500 and I eat back exercise calories, all of them. I do Stronglifts 5X5 3 days a week and should be doing cardio. I'm not. One of my goals this week is to get 3 cardio days in though...I'm terrible about doing cardio. I really enjoy Stronglifts and the progression is built into the routine. I'm not trying to build muscle, can't in a deficit anyway, and a 6 pack is not a goal I have. I just want to be stronger and give my body the push it needs to burn more efficiently. That and I love lifting.

    The BMR/TDEE calculators give estimates and were developed using normal, healthy people as the barometer. I'm neither one of those things. If I net BMR is should lose around 2lbs a week. 1500 actually gets me there so I figure 1500 is my true BMR. It's been a science experiment to find what works best for me. If I had less to lose I would go with a cut of TDEE but dropping this fat is the key to avoiding insulin dependency. Netting BMR and weight training is the best of both worlds for me, right now. I'm losing fat and keeping muscle loss to a minimum. I don't want to lose weight, I want to lose fat. As this goes along and my body fat drops and A1c becomes normal I'll up my cals to the cut and slow fat loss down. I figure this is going to be an unending process of assessment and tweaks. For me, everything starts with eating enough. I'd gain, freak out, then lower cals again. Once I dove in and stayed the course I saw and felt the changes. It took a while, but it worked and continues to do so.
  • ChrisRN75495
    ChrisRN75495 Posts: 89
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    If you are managing your blood sugar with diet and exercise, you are not insulin resistent.

    It is only if you cannot manage your blood sugar with diet and exercise that medication should be taken, then you start out slow (one in the morning, one and night) and hope that does the trick.

    Weight loss is a matter of calories eating being less than calories expended.

    If you are ACCURATELY calculating the calories you are eating and your daily calories expended by exercise is more than that, you will lose weight.

    Period. I promise, this isn't magic. The diet gurus have their hands out for your money and they can convince you that you need more pills, equipment, special clothes, sprinkles for your food, etc., etc. etc. All you need is keeping track and staying within your calorie allowances.

    Think of it this way. You have a bucket of water. Every day you put in some water and you take out some water. If you take out more than you put in, the amount of water in the bucket goes down. The same with calories and weight. You cannot gain weight if you eat fewer calories than you spend. You will gain weight if you eat more calories than you spend. And you have to count every single thing you eat. Licking the spoon counts. Butter in the oatmeal counts. Gravy on the meat counts. The actual size of the meat (uncooked) is what counts. I think if you are accurate, you'll see where you have been eating more than you thought.

    It's easier if you eat 90 percent of your calories from plant sources (but not white starches) and 10 percent from animal sources. If you follow that plan strictly, you can actually eat as much as you want. Truth is, you will fill up and not want more than you should have. At first you will eat more--then after a few days or so, you'll think, naw, not hungry, not gonna eat that.

    Hypothyroid, Hashimoto's or symptomatic only, has nothing to do with anything EXCEPT that it makes you feel icky and blah and that leads to snacking.

    Good luck.
  • poodlelaise
    poodlelaise Posts: 149 Member
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    If you are managing your blood sugar with diet and exercise, you are not insulin resistent.

    This is completely wrong. Many people with insulin resistance, or even a true diabetes diagnosis are able to control their blood sugar through diet and exercise.
  • matroma
    matroma Posts: 24
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    I'm pre-diabetic, with some insulin resistance going on as well. I switched out barley instead of rice/brown rice with my veggie dishes-very filling and working for me. Eating 6 small meals with lower fat proteins and complex carbs throughout the day. It's hard making changes, though. And I tend to plateau. I can do 1300 cal a day with success, but feeling weak then one day a week just eat in the way of my old habits up to 2000 cal and it seems to get my metabolism going again. 1200 or less a day, your body may be holding on in starvation mode, and not lose weight-especially if you are active or exercise. What's you HBA1c? Best of luck to you!
  • dnhames
    dnhames Posts: 12 Member
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    I plateau a lot too, for a long period of time. I don't know what HBA1c is. My fasting blood sugar was so high that my doctor wanted to put me on Metformin, but I asked her for some time to see if i could do it with diet and exercise. I have now had two excellent fasting blood sugar test results in a row, so I am proof that lifestyle can had a positive impact on fasting blood sugar levels. Unfortunately there is something else going on that seems to make losing weight very very hard.

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