In 30 years of diabetes, which has progressed, sometimes become better-managed, and has changed over the years, I’ll profess my avid interest in its treatment.

I thought I knew a lot until I started the preparation for going on an insulin pump earlier this year. Since then, I can’t tell you how much more my poor brain has been filled with extra information. Every week it seems I learn something new. Whether it’s about managing the disease, research, reading other people’s experiences, it’s still learning.

My averages had been creeping up over the last couple of weeks. I can put it down to a number of things including another kilo on my already overweight frame (I still manage to just scrape in to the ‘overweight’ category with Body Mass Index (BMI)).

We had visitors and were eating out a lot, in places where whatever was on my plate was sometimes difficult to carb-guess. And the kicker was the extra exercise. Like some, I’m not textbook when it comes to exercise. I don’t do enough of it (knee needing replacement) so I go high during exercise – contrary to text book advice – and have to bolus more. More bolus = more insulin = more weight for me. Going high during all the walking we did meant extra insulin.

So, whatever the reason or combination of reasons for my averages going up, I felt I had to break the cycle. Three days last week, I did very-low-carb. This week, I’m doing lower-carb. It’s done the trick. Don’t take this as advice – it’s just my experience.

Under no circumstances did I want to increase my TDD of insulin, which would put on more weight. What I did, worked nicely for me. I’m back to carb-watch-eating and my numbers are way better. In the process, I also shed a couple of pounds, for which I’m very grateful. The extra weight seems to be super-glued to me, and getting it off is a battle.

In passing, my endo, a few weeks ago, told me not to worry about the extra weight, considering how well I’ve done since I went on an insulin pump. I didn’t think much of it at the time. My thoughts were of fashion and vanity.

In a twist of fate, I subsequently read about some latest studies which suggest that BMIs under 18 and over 30 are associated with a greater risk of death. What was apparently surprising to the researchers was that the overweight category BMI: 25 to 30, was NOT associated with any significant greater risk. And the most surprising was that the underweight category BMI <18, was.

We all thought that calorie restriction was the way to go. Apparently not. From what I’m reading, going into the twilight years with a little extra padding, isn’t all that bad. What is vitally important, is your fitness. If you are normal weight and not fit, you do worse than someone overweight and fit.

If you have the time, watch the video below. It outlines some of the latest research.

Obesity: Ten Things You Thought You Knew

So maybe my endo had seen these same studies.

That still doesn’t let me off the hook as far as off-the-hook fashion goes. And yeah, I’m not all that fit. I hope to change that.

While I’m generally a lower-carber (not totally low carb, but breakfast and lunch, definitely), insulin has given me an extra 14kg since 2006. That’s not an insignificant amount of weight.

Could I eat less? For breakfast and lunch, definitely not. I eat like a bird. Should I cut down the 2 eggs to 1 egg for breakfast with a glass of water? Maybe I could.

For dinner – it’s a regular dinner (say 2 lamb chops, or 1 smallish steak) with salad and sometimes a small amount of carbs – eg a small potato or half a cup of rice, or half an ear of corn.

After dinner… now herein lies a problem, but not every night.

On what I’m eating, I should be losing weight. Instead, my body has decided to find calories where I’m sure there aren’t any.

Exercise is a huge problem for me. A geek-girl from way back, I much prefer to do almost anything else, including sitting at my computer. With a knee waiting for a replacement, and pain in other places from Lupus, exercise is a mild form of torture for me.

If there was a heated pool anywhere within a half hour’s drive from me, I’d be in it. There isn’t. I’m hopeful that in summer, I can go to the local pool (not heated) and get some exercise in. Other than that, I’m pretty stumped.

I’m also one of those whose blood glucose goes high during and after exercise. Then 4-6 hours later I’m having to watch for lows. Totally contrary to what the literature says – most say that you’ll go low during exercise. I do know of others like me. I’m still experimenting with all this… maybe a small carb snack and a raised bolus during exercise will tell my liver in no uncertain terms not to dump all that glucose.

Then again, that small carb snack and the extra insulin will probably cancel out any exercise I might do. Damned if I do, and damned if I don’t.

Weight used to fall off me. I’d just think the word ‘diet’ and it would start falling off. Age, menopause, stress, diabetes and worst of all, insulin, has totally done me in. Heaving around all those extra kilos (including the extra 6 I started with), is not at all fun.

I can’t even lift 14 kg of anything but I’ve got to drag it around with me 24/7. Not fair!!!

I’ve put on 4kg since starting on an insulin pump last June 1st. Outrageous!!! My TDD (total daily dose) is about 3/4 of what it was on injections. I should have lost weight, right?. A few measly kilos at the very least. Not to be.

I know I’m not the only one struggling with this, but I do NOT want to go down the road of reducing my insulin, as tempting as that might be. With a great A1C on the pump, but not in the years before, I don’t want or need any more complications from diabetes.