Insullin Resistance Anyone?

Andrew,

You deserve to be a fixture here - our go-to-guru with your wealth of information, tips and advice. Never leave us! Hope Tanya is doing better and Mackenzie has a rewarding visit from Santa ;)

Lu

I should have asked - if your doc says you're insulin resistant, have you been re-checked for diabetes recently? Do you have blood sugar meter? If not, get an appointment with the GP and ask for your free meter, you will have to fill in some marketing gumpf. Join NDSS so that the test strips are cheaper.

If you're not diabetic, get a good cheap meter (or even ask if there are any free ones at the pharmacy - the meters are not the way the meter companies make their money, it's the test strips). You want one that has a 7 day and a 14 day moving average as a minimum feature set.

I like the AccuCheck I have - the lance device is relatively pain free compared to some of the brutal contraptions that come with some of the meters. It's a pretty basic meter, and I can't get the readings on to my Mac, but the doc can (which is why I suggest getting one of their meters as they'll have the software to get the BSLs out of it).

Hi there,

As a diabetic, I feel you. There was no weight loss diet or program that helped me unless I ate basically the CSIRO diet (healthy foods in the right portions, high protein, low GL carbs). Basic WW for years failed as there were too many allowed carbs and I took them all. Jenny failed miserably (I lost 2 kg in twelve months).

Some unsolicited tips:

Food

• Get the CSIRO / IDI Baker CSIRO diabetic cook book. I have found these are the best recipes for someone who is insulin resistant.
  
• Work out your desired calorie intake based upon your base metabolic size. (See the book)
  
• Plan out your snacks and meals and shopping list every week
  
• We mostly use online shopping to avoid extras appearing in the trolley. That saves us more than the $9.95 delivery fee, and more importantly, the lack of surprise snacks means less kJ too. Win Win!
  
• Weigh and measure everything at every every meal without exception
  
• Write it down in a food diary. You can get these from WW meeting places for like $5
  
• Snack as per the plan. You don't need 5 small meals, you need 3 decent meals and 2 healthy snacks.
  

The most positive tip is to MEASURE and WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN when you eat it. You'll be surprised how much you're actually eating. I was constantly surprised - my eyes thought "100 calories", and my scales often said "300" or "500" or "600".

Sometimes swapping out just one or two daily snacks for a similar related item makes a huge change - like going from cappuccinos (120 cal) to macchiatos (15 calories) or long blacks (0 kJ). If you have three caps a day with two sugars (32 cal), you can save nearly 500 calories a day by switching to long blacks, which for an adult male is like 1/5 of their total recommended calorie intake.

The last eating tip is to not under eat for your base metabolic size. If you try to do 1200 calories a day, and you're not a tiny 55 kg woman, your body will eat muscle and not fat, and you'll be tired and you'll cheat, and the weight loss will stall.

Exercise

Work out which part of the day works best to pull your BSLs down. I found 8 pm was best for me as it lowered my fasting BSLs the following morning down the most, which had the most impact on the 7 and 14 day moving average on my BSL meter. If you're going to do 20 minutes, it's best if that works out the best for you. This tip helped me get down to 147 kg before I did my hammy in 2009.

The more exercise you get the less insulin resistant you are. Seriously. Your body is probably producing the max amount of insulin it can, and it can't make much use of it (which is what type 2 diabetes / insulin resistance is). So I've been told it's better to do a 45 minute walk than 20 minutes of cardio. But 20 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes walk is even better. I'm sure you're on top of this, but just sayin'.

I'm using my Wii Fit and walks to the local park. Soon I will add bike riding to the mix. Wii Fit is the no excuses exercise path, and it tracks your progress from weight and minutes per day.

Good luck and help us support you by writing up your progress here! :) Here's to a great 2012!

I was told by my surgeon that I would find it hard to lose weight quickly due to my insuline resistance. I have hit a plateau at 36kgs down and 1 1/2yrs post op but can't seem to shift any more weight. I would still like to lose more but must say that I feel fantastic and am so gald to have taken this path. I'm going to make 2012 my goal year and really make an effort to increase my exercise, drink more water and be more selective on my food choices to ensure I keep my insulin down, but it is not that easy at this time of year!



Good luck!

My insulin resistance went not long after I started losing weight, For me it didn't affect weight loss but I didn't have big loses like some mine was a bit here and there which I was happy with as I am not able to exercise.



I would maybe chat with your doctor to see if this is the case.

Just wanting to know if there are any sleevers who had insullin resistance issues post-op?

Im almost 1 week post-op and thinking whether this affects weight loss at all hmm?