Welcome! We hope this will become a busy and helpful forum. We decided to create the new forum because of the large number of members we have that are dealing with, or even trying to prevent diabetes. It's important to have as much information as possible when facing such a serious disease.
Monet, our super friendly Sugar Busters moderator, has had particular interest in this topic, and volunteered to help us out with it. She will help us gather articles and important information for "stickies", and other activities. If you have any suggestions for this forum, please feel free to reply here or contact either Monet or myself by PM. Our goal is to make it as useful as possible, and provide a helpful and friendly place of support for us all.
Please feel free to spread out and make new threads for specific topics, recipes, howdy-doos, daily support, or whatever you want
As Suzanne mentioned, I have an interest in dieting with diabetes. I was pre-diabetic for many, many years, and struggled with weight loss because of it. About three or four months ago, my body finally was no longer able to keep up with my insulin needs and my glucose levels skyrocketed. I found this out quite by accident when having a routine thyroid check. (I understand this is very often the case, and the diagnosis of diabetes comes as a shock, or a surprise.) I am now taking metformin, Glimepiride, and exercising a lot more. My glucose meter has been amazingly motivating to me. I have followed Sugarbusters for many years, with some lapses here and there. I am continuing on it for now, but am monitoring carefully.
My sugar levels are now pretty well under control, though I suspect my medications will need some tweaking.
As I have searched online for information on diabetes, and read books and articles, I wanted to see 3FC have some information to help the pre-diabetic, the newly diagnosed, or the long term diabetic. There is a diabetes epidemic, and diabetics have unique needs for support and diet. I am not a medical professional, and can't give answers, but I hope I can help support and encourage others who are struggling with the same issues I am. Please feel free to PM me if you have any suggestions or ideas for the forum.
I would be interested to know what the literature actuallys says about the difficulty for diabetics to lose weight. I had heard that metformin can help you lose weight..i've been on it for years and maybe that was at the beginning of taking it but not now.. I take Actos also and here that that prevents weight loss. All I know is that I'm exercising more, eating less and better foods and my wt loss came at first in one big bunch..now nothing...
Hi Moongoddess! I will see what I can find. I know that the more insulin you have the harder it is to lose. Insulin not only is the key to move glucose from the blood into the cells, but it also is the key to storing fat. More insulin means more stored fat. Many drugs, like sulfonylureas, work by stimulating the pancreas to secrete more insulin. This takes care of the extra sugar in the blood, but also makes it easier for the body to store fat intead of burn it! Is that how Actos works? I know I am exercising a LOT more than I ever did, and my weight loss is almost non-exisitent! Very frustrating! I am going to discuss with my doctor on Monday switching to just Metformin to see if it helps. I have heard that Byetta helps with weight loss, so I may talk to him about that too. I hear it is rough to get used to, and has to be administered by injection.
I see you are in Georgia. I am too... in the Duluth area. How about you?
Trust me, ladies, everything you've heard about Insulin making it more difficult to lose weight is true . . . true . . . true. I was diagnosed Type II about 15 years ago and have been taking a lot of drugs (Glyburide, Diabeta, and Actos) and finally had to add Insulin about 4 years ago and it really packed on some more pounds and now that I've gotten my act together this year it is very slow to let go.
What you said is absolutely true, Monet. Insulin has two jobs . . . and boy it is really good at the second one (helping lay fat into the fat cells). Definitely talk to your doctor about Byetta. It is supposed to work wonderfully well if the rest of your system can tolerate it. Believe me, I'd prefer that kind of injection to the insulin.
A word on injections . . . I am a little 'needle phobic' at the best of times, but in all honesty, the insulin injections are usually less painful than the lancets you use to test your blood glucose, so don't let the idea of INJECTIBLE put you off trying Byetta.
Hi,
I've been on Byetta since October... it has helped me to lose some weight... before byetta, I was on glucotrol, glucophage, and actos, I was stable, with HgbA1C between 4.5 and 5.5... but no matter how hard I tried to lose, I was gaining.... in october, the doc took me off of all 3 of those and put me on Byetta. I have been losing some, about 30 pounds since October (40 since August). My HgbA1C has been checked twice in that time and it's still around 5. The first few weeks were tough for me with side affects until I learned better how to manage it... I still occasionally have some nausea with it, but for me it's liveable...
Great HA1C, Reba! Mine is usually between 5 and 6.
Meowee, I use the Freestyle lancets to test my blood and hardly feel it. It's done on the forearm which has fewer nerve endings than our fingers so is much less painful.
I was in denial over being Type II for years until my doc insisted on the testing. I've been on 1500 mg Metformin plus 2.5 mg of glyberide for the past four years and have pretty good control.
I've lost weight in that time but sure don't think it was the Metformin! I've been following South Beach most of the time and have lost about 20 pounds through this lifestyle change.
Meowee, I use the Freestyle lancets to test my blood and hardly feel it. It's done on the forearm which has fewer nerve endings than our fingers so is much less painful.
I use the freestyle, too. Got it so I could do the testing on the forearm . . . but for some reason I have a terrible time getting enough blood out of there and end up with a little red spot that lasts for days. So now I use the freestyle on my fingers at minimum penetration. I don't find it all that painful anyway, but it is more painful than an insulin injection . . . except for the times when you hit a 'funny' place and end up with a bruise . . . which happens about once a week or so.
Excited to see this forum. I have been on 3fc for quite a while now, but mostly on the journals. It's not working for me though, so I am shaking up my routine.
Currently on 1500 mg metformin and 12 U lantus daily. Since starting the lantus I have gained 10 lbs and it doesn't want to budge. Have a doc's appt next week and am going to ask about Byetta and stopping lantus, it was added to my regime when I was preg, since have miscarried and not sure we're trying anymore, so would like to focus on weightloss instead.
Glad to see so many posters here - I'll be back!
Kim
PS I have found SBD to be most effective in controlling my sugars - unfortunately I have a lot of emotional eating triggers. Planning on doing SBD long-term though.
Hi all, I'm Viv. I've been sort of lurking for about a week or so to figure out where to pop in. My "start date" to 3FC is over a year, but I dropped out at first.....here I am again, lots heavier! LOL!
About a 1 1/2 years ago I was diagnosed with Type II. (was in the hospital for about a week - blood sugar was near 600, yikes!)
I've been on Metformin, 1000mg 2x per day for a while. They tried me on Glyburide but it made me feel awful. Now that the sugar is up again, I'm trying Byetta. It's only been 3 1/2 days and the levels are down from the high 200/low 300's to low 200s and some 100's. Nice that it doesn't hurt much to inject either.
Thanks very much for this forum! It's nice to know that others out there know how understand!
Hi VIV . . . . . . Glad to have you join us . . . You have come to the right place. Being with others who understand what you are facing really helps. It isn't easy to lose weight with diabetes, but it is possible. You just keep doing the best you can and the rewards will follow.
I'm Linda and I've been type II for at least 15 years. Spent most of them trying to ignore the disease in the hopes it would just go away. Well it doesn't. You have to work at controlling it and losing weight is a biggie in the control department. I take glyburide, metformin, actos and (for about the past 5 years) inject insulin as well. Metformin (and Byetta) are the only diabetes meds that don't tend to add more weight. Insulin really packs it on . . . especially around the middle.
Anyway, come over and join our daily discussions in the DIETING WITH DIABETES monthly thread. Just scroll down the page a little from where you first posted to find us. That's where we mostly hang out.
We'll all be looking forward to seeing less of you more often from now on.
hi everyone, i have been here awhile now but there is so much to read and do i haven't posted too many times and forget where i have, ha, my name is liz and i sighned up on the getting to know you page.
i am very happy with myself. this last week i was watching my food, following ww points, i have all the stuff but don't go to meetings, too expensive for me. I really was good all week, yesterday i ate a little too much pasta and pudding but i still lost according to my scale. my sugar is still out of whack but i am being better testing, sometimes i didn't test for weeks, well 4yrs of type 2 and i am almost where i was when first diagnosed, i take glucophage, 850 mil. 2 in morn and 1 in eve. the dr will probably put me on a new one soon but i hope to keep going on this diet.
my granddaughter, jordan who is 12 was here overnight sat, so sun. we looked at pictures all morning, she loves to do that, i realized that all her life i have been fat, i look at those pics and it makes me so mad and i want to cry, how could i let myself get so big and deny her a grandma that could do more with her, i feel so sad. hugs to all
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LIZ the little pup is my baby, she just turned one and is my youngest pet, stuck to me like glue
Welcome to the new Diabetes Support forum!
. . . Glad to have you join us 
. . . You have come to the right place. Being with others who understand what you are facing really helps. It isn't easy to lose weight with diabetes, but it is possible. You just keep doing the best you can and the rewards will follow.
You have to work at controlling it and losing weight is a biggie in the control department. I take glyburide, metformin, actos and (for about the past 5 years) inject insulin as well. Metformin (and Byetta) are the only diabetes meds that don't tend to add more weight. Insulin really packs it on . . . especially around the middle. 
hi all
the little pup is my baby, she just turned one and is my youngest pet, stuck to me like glue
