Is Diabetes Weight Gain Normal?
For those people who deal with being diabetic, it is normal to put on a few pounds because of insulin therapy. In most cases, it will be about two or three pounds when the insulin begins controlling the blood’s glucose levels. In women, the gaining of weight is more noticeable than it is with men. Of course, it is still hard to determine whether a person is gaining weight because of the disease itself or any of the medications that you might be taking to treat the symptoms caused by it.
During insulin therapy, it is quite common for diabetics to gain some weight. One of the reasons for this being the case is because blood sugar levels get under control by the insulin, which also slows down your metabolism. Unfortunately, by gaining weight you might also be making your cells more resistant to insulin, which sometimes means that diabetics have to take more medications in order to handle those problems. What essentially happens is that a cycle of insulin resistance and weight gain are created. Because of this, many people are tempted to cut back on how much insulin they are taking. However, that won’t make the pounds go away, and you still need your regular insulin injections in order to handle the disease.
So what can a diabetic do to handle the weight that they inevitably gain? The best thing to do is carefully manage your diet. Not only will that help you to keep the symptoms of diabetes under control, it will help you to manage your weight. By avoiding foods that are high in sugar and carbohydrates, you will be able to maintain a healthy weight and you won’t have to reduce the amount of insulin you are taking. Meats like chicken and pork are good, as are dark leafy vegetables and plenty of water.
So rather than getting stuck in the cycle of weight gain and insulin injections, you are better taking some control and carefully managing your diet. There are plenty of ‘diabetic friendly’ healthy and delicious recipes made available to both the family that eats home cooked meals, and also for the family who eat out often. You will quickly see that the diabetic weight gain is not something you have to live with. In fact, you can actually enjoy life without any symptoms of Type 2 diabetes if you get your diet to the right point and make it a point to exercise daily.