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Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight is an important goal for everyone. But if you suffer from diabetes, successfully losing weight can be life-changing.
Type 1 diabetes isn’t caused by weight. It’s brought on when your body is unable to produce insulin. But keeping weight under control can help to minimize your risk of suffering dangerous complications and may even lead to doctors reducing your medication.
Type 2 diabetes can be caused by fatty build ups close to your liver or belly, which stop the insulin produced by your body from doing its job.
For those with type 2 diabetes, dropping around 5% of your body weight can be transformational. It can even put the disease into remission if you’re able to shift larger amounts of weight.
There are a wide range of diabetes-friendly weight loss programs out there. These range from the way you arrange your plate, to favoring foods from certain parts of the world, to ditching whole chunks of the food pyramid.
But experts advise that the best way, the right way, to lose weight when you have diabetes is by embedding a healthy diet into your overall health management and weight loss plan, in consultation with your healthcare team.
For diabetics more than anyone, it’s vital to lose weight safely. This means diabetic weight loss programs supported by your doctor.
- Understanding your weight loss goal
The key to reaching a healthy weight is understanding what a healthy weight is for you. It won’t be the same for everyone. Instead of looking at the pounds on the scales, you should aim to reduce your body mass index, or BMI.
Speaking to your doctor or healthcare team can help you understand what your BMI is, what a healthy and reasonable goal is, and how this measure is calculated. Once you know what you’re aiming for you can start to plan how to get there.
Likewise, while setting a calorie goal can be a key step to losing weight, exactly what your target daily intake should be will depend on your calorie needs, satiety levels and blood sugar readings.
- Understanding what a healthy diet is for you
For many people, the first step to a healthy weight is to cut out sugary food or those high in carbohydrates.
If you’re diabetic, making abrupt and drastic changes to your diet can impact your blood sugar levels. Steer clear of blood sugar emergencies by picking a diet program that’s supported by a doctor. This can help ensure that you cut the right foods by a healthy amount.
Not all diets are created equal. Picking one that is supported by doctors and takes your type 1 or type 2 diabetes diagnosis into account when suggesting meals could be essential to losing weight safely.
- Understanding what your diet means for your medication
Obesity or being overweight can lead to your body becoming insulin-resistant. That’s why some people with type 2 diabetes require insulin, sulphonylurea, or other medication.
As you lose weight, the insulin you take or that your body produces may start to work properly. An effective diabetes weight loss program should involve discussing your medication with your healthcare team.
Managing your weight is a challenging enough goal for most of us. With the added complication of diabetes, it can feel like a daunting task. But making small changes to your lifestyle, with the support and advice of healthcare professionals, can be the difference between your life being dominated by the disease and turning it into a manageable condition.
Understanding how much weight you need to lose, how to measure it, what you should and shouldn’t eat to get there, and how this affects your medication can all be made simple with the right diabetes weight loss program.
The Editorial Team at Lake Oconee Health is made up of skilled health and wellness writers and experts, led by Daniel Casciato who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We aim to provide our readers with valuable insights and guidance to help them lead healthier and happier lives.
