Can someone please tell me about losing weight being a type 1 diabetics?

Hi I have been a diabetic for 17 years I am now 26 years old. I am about 80lbs overweight. I have been trying to lose weight and nothing works . I exercise 6 times a week . When I try a new diet it seems to work at first but then nothing . Does anyone know of anything that I can try?

[JDRF-VOL-SG]

I applaud your efforts to take control of this issue. Your exercise 6 times a week sounds like a good habit. As for diets, it may come down to having to lower both your calories and your insulin in order to not get hypo while lowering calories. And take a good look at what kinds of foods you are eating. Can you lower fat intake? Sometimes that is the easiest way to lose calories... substitute an apple for the same amount of carbs in crackers, and you lose calories simply because fresh fruits and veggies don't contain fat while packaged foods such as crackers do. Some of the smallest things can make a difference... skim milk instead of 2 percent, low-fat cheese, etc.

As for any particular diet, it all is going to come down to eating less calories than you burn off in activity. So maybe you need to re-evaluate both how much you are eating in a serving as well as what the foods are. If you simply eat smaller portions while trying to lose weight, this may help, but do remember that your insulin dosage is going to have to shrink proportionately to the smaller servings of any carbs in your diet. There are no easy answers, for if there WERE, America would not be having a crisis with obesity in 30 percent of its adults.

After 26 years of being a type 1 diabetic, you know you have self-control. We all have to have that in order to survive -- to test, take our insulin, and eat properly. So try some new approaches as far as portion control and maybe more fresh fruits and veggies instead of pre-packaged foods.

The other thing to look at is food allergies. I happen to have a brother-in-law who has very obese sisters, and he struggles to keep his weight normal. He discovered that allergy to wheat is part of the family weight problem. Once he cut out all wheat from his diet (after reading about wheat allergies), the weight is no longer a problem for him. Apparently, food allergies can cause some people to gain weight. You may want to ask your doctor about this.