3 Reasons Why Weight Management is Challenging for People with Type 2 Diabetes

We know that being overweight is an issue for people with diabetes. Usually, that's one of the risk factors that lead to diabetes. We also know that a weight loss of 5% to 10% of your body weight can be very effective in reducing your blood sugar. Perhaps even moving you into a pre-diabetic stage and trying to eliminate some of the complications of diabetes.

So what are those challenges?

The first one is constant dieting. And if you're a woman in this American society, you've been told through images, through words, through all kinds of things that you're just not thin enough.

And we take that inside. We take that to heart and we diet and we do drastic dieting, right? We fast, or we eat 500 calories a day or whatever it is. So it's not difficult to lose weight. The issue is always keeping it off.

The other issue is that our bodies do something called a metabolic adaptation. What is that? When we go on a strict diet, our bodies perceive that as a threat to our survival. So what does it do? It dials down your metabolic rate, which makes it more difficult to lose weight or keep it off.

Also our hormones shift. We have two main hormones that oversee our appetite. One is Ghrelin, which tells us we're hungry and we need to eat. The second one is Leptin, which tells us we're full and we can stop eating.

But as we diet, particularly if we do it often, our ghrelin hormone goes up and we're hungry a lot. And our leptin hormone goes down, which means we're not satisfied. We're not full. We need to eat more.

Second, we have environmental factors. Number one, we have a lot of pesticides in our food and hormones and other things. This creates a problem for our bodies because we have to handle these toxins somehow and they end up getting stored in our fat. The other issue is plastics. A lot of the food or drinks we buy come in plastic containers, and those are not only a problem for us, but also the environment.

Three, feeling like a failure. When you lose a lot of weight, you like it, you look good, you get a lot of positive feedback.  Then it's really hard to keep it off. What happens? You start to gain weight back, and then you feel terrible about yourself. You feel like a complete failure.

So what do we do about that? The first thing is we stop dieting.  No more dieting. This is an opportunity for you to say, okay, that's it. I'm going to learn how to eat, how to exercise, how to sleep, how to do things in my life that support me in my health, no matter what my weight.

These are things that will help: make small changes and do them consistently.

Now number two, for the environmental stuff, try to get organic food - as much as you can. Organic food is expensive. So definitely only buy organic for the foods that have the most pesticides on them. You can find that out with the Environmental Working Group.

Second, please try to use glass containers or Pyrex containers or metal containers food storage and water.  Just try to eliminate as best you can, the plastics in your life.

And the third thing is to start to shift your mindset about your weight, about your body, about who you are. Weight shifts all the time, but because of metabolic adaptation you are very likely to gain the weight back.  You need a good supportive group and an accountability group to help with moderating gain weight. This weight gain is not because there's anything wrong with you or because you're lazy or because you did the wrong thing. No, this is happening because of this metabolic adaptation.

So there are ways to manage it. Again, small, slow, consistent changes. Remember you are not a temporary change in what you are eating. You are making a lifestyle change that will serve you and your health for the rest of your life!

I have a 30 day guide that's free to managing or reversing your diabetes. You can click the link below and download that. And you can also click for a diabetes assessment call if you'd like.

Thank you so much for listening.

Dr. Elaine

Download my Free 30 Day Guide to Manage or Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
https://www.drelainestewart.com/30-day-guide

Schedule a Free Diabetes Assessment Call
https://www.drelainestewart.com/diabetes-assessment-call

Environmental Working Group www.ewg.org

Dr. Elaine

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.

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