My battle with trying to lose weight rolls *no pun intended* on. After a visit to my clinic only last week I am no further on and feeling even less supported, if possible, from the man with the signature to sign off anything and everything and the power to change how I feel.
On Thursday 16th August I attended my three monthly (now changed to six monthly due to MY “success”) review and was praised highly by a registrar whom I have never met before and will probably never meet again. An increasingly common experience in my clinic which disrupts the’ gold standard’ of continuity in care. A drop in my long term test by .4% in only six weeks was amazing and, if I do say so myself, down to sheer hard work and relentless home testing.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu.
Before I go any further I will give you a quick insight into what exactly I have done to help myself:
1. Stopped diet fizzy drinks due to reports on aspartame and insulin resistance
2. Stopped all caffeine products due to Blood Glucose spikes
3. Started low-carbohydrate, low-calorie diet (around 50g carbs, 1300 cals daily)
4. Trialled Orlistat but experienced no side-effects
5. Self-referred twice to my DAFNE dietician
6. Took Metformin for six months to reduce insulin resistance
7. Increased exercise daily to include 11 miles cycling as well as 2-3 miles walking
8. Started on the Pump – “Bully”
“When will my reflection show who I am inside?” – Mulan.
After the praise for an overall percentage drop of 1.7 in three months the weight issue came. “There’s just one thing that needs addressing…” “My weight” I interrupted. This is the point at which my confidence slides away and I am reduced to keeping tears back whilst they suggest impossible tasks that they themselves could not see through. I presented the list, above, and waited, waited, waited. I asked about the possibility of trialling Liraglutide to help with insulin resistance and further help my HbA1c readings. “NO.” and that was that, apparently the weight would simply bounce back and I would be no better off! Although completely unfounded, the claim did shock me and despite several attempts to discuss what I HAVE done the suggested plan I left with was to restrict my diet to 1000 calories a day and see how I cope.
1000 calories, you read that right. It is incredible, in fact scary, that a professional (a registrar) can let you go away with that as a six month plan. I am desperate for answers but NOT that desperate that I will willingly starve myself for the foreseeable future. Am I to believe that they themselves live by that? No, I didn’t think so.
In the Meantime I’ll Sit in the Shadows: Part 2 can be found here.
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So glad to see this blog. I’m going to see the Endo 2moro and nervous as my last meeting resulted in me crying in my car. He said low BGs/hypos were not ‘true hypos’ (yes, because of frequent testing I was catching them before hitting a true hypo!).
This time my main concern is why since changing from Lantus to Levemir, I am on a low carb, low cal 500-700 per day, 20km exercise bike and 5k walks. yet I haven’t shed a pound…5 weeks have passed.
I changed basals because of regular low BGs and hypos. The DN (a T1 herself noted the Lantus was peaking). I’m happier on Levemir but stuck with weight that’d hard to shift and mid morning insulin resistance. I literally just have bolus insulin for breakfast.
Will see how seriously my concerns get taken.