For much of my life I've been a skinny guy. At one time, for a long time, I was too skinny. People would talk about my needing to put some meat on my bones. Then about ten years ago I mention to my doc how I was draggin' my butt, had no energy, etc. He decides to test my thryoid and - bingo. Underactive thryroid.
Hypothyroidism. (The most bland name for any condition there could be. Hypo = low, thryroid = thryroid, ism= pertaining to.) Anyway, he also tells me this may explain my slight weight gain that I couldn't seem to lose, as well as my intolerance of heat, and obviously the lethargy.
As it turns out - thyroid hormone levels seem much easier to maintain than glucose levels. If only diabetes were this easy.
But the weight! It never really went away. And really it's not even just that—it's also the insulin, the fact that I quit smoking 10 months ago and the fact that, let's face it, I'm 41 years old. Over the last couple years I've probably gained about 20 lbs, and half of it from quitting smoking. And really, that's about all I need to lose to be back in a healthy BMI.
Ok, maybe 25, but who's counting?
All this is to say I'm unhappy with my body and it doesn't seem to care. It hasn't responded, at least not yet, to the exercise and healthy eating and cutback in calories that I've been working on for the past month. (I came back from a beach vacation and thought "Thank goodness I'll never have to face any of those people from the beach ever again in my life.")
I still have hope that it will start to slowly come off. But what's really tough is the blood sugar issue. Cutting back on food and adding exercise is a recipe for unstable blood sugar - which I've had a bit of. This extra challenge (along with my ongoing experiment) has had a positive effect though, and that is I've started testing my blood sugar more often. I usually have tested 4 or 5 times a day, but for the past several weeks I've been testing at least 6 times a day, sometimes up to 8 or 9. And my sugars have been fairly stable.
But the weight hasn't started coming off yet.
Oh, and by the way, I'm not vain. Really. No, really...I'm not.
Brian,
I totally feel your pain. Since last september I have been going to the gym at least 3-4 times a week and trying to cut back my carbs etc.. you know the drill but, I have not been able to lose weight either. If I do lose anything it comes right back on after i have a couple of hypos because of added calorie intake.
It is really frustrating.
Keeping my blood sugar from dropping during or after exercising is the hardest part, and every time it does I think the same thing -- what good did I just do burning off calories if I have to chug something down to get my sugar level back up!?
Me too Brian, I am actually going to this Health Trax thing at my diabetes center and they are having me wear a Freestyle Navigator while exercising. I am wondering if they can determine my problem there!