You aren't boring me - it's interesting. Are you saying that the weight loss, that is, a change in your body composition, causes the blood glucose to go crazy? So weight loss is good, but you have to work hard on keeping the levels even while you are loosing weight? Wow! You lost fifty pounds. That is impressive. Does it help to loose a bit, stabilize, then loose some more or does that just drag it out? Believe me, I am not interested in trying out a low blood sugar episode. Being out of breath when I walk is scary enough!
Short answer -- YES -- It's a constant juggling act.
Long answer -- You may be sorry you said I wasn't boring you. You probably know a lot of this stuff already.
The body runs on glucose. The body converts all the carbohydrates (and only the carbs) we eat into glucose. Since we don't eat little tiny bits 24/7; the body produces insulin to assist in keeping the amount of glucose circulating in the blood at an even level all the time. What insulin actually does is control the flow of the glucose into the cells. It unlocks the cell door so to speak. It has two jobs, actually -- it unlocks the door on the muscle cells for the glucose to get in and it also unlocks the door on the fat cells for the storage of excess energy that we don't need to put into the muscle cells immediately. Excess carbs, excess fats, and excess protein can all be converted to fat if storage is needed. The average body does a wonderful job of keeping everything in balance.
HOWEVER . . .
In Type I Diabetes due to an unknown cause, the Islets of Langerhans (the area in the Pancreas where Insulin is made) just suddenly stop functioning altogether. A Type I must inject Insulin to live, and it is a constant balancing act to enusre that the right amount is injected. Too little insulin and you die.
In Type II Diabetes, the muscle cells become more and more resistent to the Insulin being produced. Again, the cause is unknown, but obesity has a lot to do with this problem. The Pancreas now works even harder to produce more and more insulin in an attempt to keep the body functioning. Now the catch-22 to all this is that the fat cells do not tend to become as resistant as the muscle cells. The increase in production of insulin means that the fat cells get more and more stuffed into them and that in turn seems to make the muscle cells even more resistant. And so the vicious circle continues. The Type II diabetic needs more and more medication to help the pancreas creat more insulin and the body to use it better until the pancreas cannot cope any longer even at maximum production and then the Type II has to start injecting additional insulin making weight control even more difficult.
Deep breath . . . against all odds (and with a lot fewer calories than needed for non-diabetics) the Type II finally manages to lose some weight. So, suddenly there is too much insulin and the blood glucose level falls too low. Too much insulin for too long and you may die because the heart and brain will shut down from lack of glucose. Constant juggling is required to keep things in balance. I guess the faster the weight loss, the more juggling but weight loss is so difficult, speed is not usually a problem for a diabetic.
Bottom line -- is it worth it -- absolutely. I'd rather be constantly juggling my insulin and meds than constantly having to take more and more.
Getting contol of diabetes with the fewest medications possible helps to reduce the risk of all those serious complications. Did you know that Diabetes is by far the major risk factor for death by heart attack? And, the single biggest cause of blindness and non-trauma induced amputations. All the extra glucose in the blood does devasting damage. It is definitely worth all the hassles.
Okay . . . I'll shut up now . . . thanks for listening. Hope you are still awake. Have a great evening . . .
BTW . . . in case you haven't figured it out by now . . . I'm the Moderator in the Diabetes Support Forum . . .
Okay . . . on the other topic . . . exercise.
I have to agree . . . the amount of exercise going on in those forums scare me to death too. Although I'm sure that a modest amount of exercise (don't ask me to definte "modest") could only help with weight loss if for no other reason than allowing us to eat more calories because we'd be burning more off.
I remember learning about Islets of Langerhans in some biology course I took a long time ago. I did not know the part about the fat cells being less resistant to insulin than the others. Your description of what happens was very clear and interesting.
A modest amount of exercise is how much we do without feeling embarassed . Or maybe it is exactly how much we feel like doing right at the moment.
Last edited by gailr42; 09-22-2007 at 04:39 PM.
Reason: spelling
Complete meltdown last week - and it showed on the scale. I gailed 3 pounds, but because the ticker doesn't move west, I'm not touching it. The sad part? Complete meltdown on controlling food wasn't even fun. Not like I was eating nachos or lots of chocolate, I was just eating anything that didn't move!
Silly weather report for today says mild and sunny . . . so far it is cloudy and windy? Seems like my latest insulin idea (a morning shot yesterday but none at bedtime) worked out fairly well, so I'll do the same again today and see where things go. Just had a nice breakfast of HF cereal with mixed berries and skim milk.
Pretty good eating day yesterday and the scale says 227 this morning . . . of course, since it doesn't count . . . by Wednesday, when it does? -- only the scale knows what he may feel like by then.
Nothing too exciting on my agenda for today . . . need some apples and egg whites, so guess I'll have to do a little grocery run . . . other than that SSDD. Hope you all have a great moving and shaking good time on the go. See you soon . . .
I wondered where you were, bobbijean. Pick yourself up and get back on track. Did you figure out what percipitated your overeating? Stress, hormones etc? Do you have a plan for next time? Are you eating enough so that you aren't starving all the time? Do I sound stern enough to be helpful? Good luck and be sure and stay connected to the rest of us so we can be supportive.
By the way, I'll bet that half of what you gained is water weight. As soon as you get back on plan, it will come off.
Last edited by gailr42; 09-23-2007 at 10:08 AM.
Reason: To say more
I think some of it was stress - a good friend of mine at work had a health crisis in her family and I had to take over her work load last week on top of my own. So between her work and worrying about her situation I went berserk. Also it was my turn to bring the birthday treat for the birthdays in September. I made a brownie toffee trifle. I had a nice serving of it - hey I used light cool whip, that should have saved a couple of calories!
I'll be better this coming week and then the next two I'm on vacation and have lots of chores scheduled to do. I'll be too busy with physical labor to eat junk!
Ah . . . Cool Whip . . . one of my very favourite sources of calories with absolutely no other known nutritional value . . . At least it's light (in weight) so the ED is a mere 1.7 (for Fat Free), 2.2 (for Light), 2.9 (for regular). You know . . . I have no idea what the ED for 'real' whipped cream is and I can't find it in the book either.
Northern Nova Scotia is feeling darned cold today -- only 13 as a predicted high. If the sun would come out it might warm up a bit. Oh well, they are predicting better stuff for the rest of the week. Hope they are right.
My weight is below ticker for the second day -- 226.2 this morning -- and I'm beginning to hold out hope for my 'official' number on Wednesday.
Hope everybody has a great day . . . see you later . . .
You are talking celsius, right? If it is 13° F, your're darnded tootin' it's cold!! It is about 70°F (21°C) with a bit of a breeze here. Way below normal temps.
Anyway, I celebrated one week without a miss of doing my little walk every morning. I am so proud of myself. Except for the first couple of times, I did the circuit twice. I am not improved enough yet to do it three times. It takes me just about 25 minutes this way.
Congratulations on the weight drop, Linda. I predict that it will still be there on Wednesday.
Last edited by gailr42; 09-24-2007 at 12:45 PM.
Reason: messed up
When I worked for the airline, I was a NOAA certified weather observer. We had to do our observations in centigrade. It never became second nature to me, but I do know a few of the equivalents. Like when it is over 40°C it is really, really, hot.
Extremely hot . . . I think anything beyond the low 30's is hot (i.e., when it hits the 90's) most likely because around here (and especially in Ontario where I'm originally from) anything over 80 usually comes with 90% humidity and therefore feels like the 40's anyway.
Actually temperature is one of the few things I've become fairly comfortable with since Canada went metric. I still travel in miles and measure in feet and inches (in my mind anyway) and I definitely eat in ounces. Have to admit that weighing 103 kilos somehow sounds better than 227 pounds -- probably just because I don't relate to the number.
In my opinion, there is nothing worse than 90% humidity at any temperature. I guess it is a good thing I live in the desert. The older I get, the more the humidity bothers me. We actually had a bit of rain night before last. Yay!
It is Tuesday . . . the sun was shining for a few minutes, but has decided to retreat again. All is relatively quiet on the feline front -- although there was some chewing of TP going on overnight. Freckle is the prime suspect.
And so the vicious circle continues. The Type II diabetic needs more and more medication to help the pancreas creat more insulin and the body to use it better until the pancreas cannot cope any longer even at maximum production and then the Type II has to start injecting additional insulin making weight control even more difficult.
. Or maybe it is exactly how much we feel like doing right at the moment.
Seems like my latest insulin idea (a morning shot yesterday but none at bedtime) worked out fairly well, so I'll do the same again today and see where things go. Just had a nice breakfast of HF cereal with mixed berries and skim milk.
. . . by Wednesday, when it does? -- only the scale
knows what he may feel like by then. 
At least it's light (in weight) so the ED is a mere 1.7 (for Fat Free), 2.2 (for Light), 2.9 (for regular). 
weather right about now.
