Question:
see several comments about tryong to achieve weight loss but my brothers
problem is that he can't stop weight loss. Any comments or retardation drugs?
Answer:
Is his diabetes under control?
Type 1 diabetics loose weight, unintentionally, because they don't
produce enough insulin to use all the carbohydrates the eat - they just
urinate them away. So the body eats it's stored fat, to get the energy
it needs.
The solution is to bring the diabetes into control. At the top of the
balance sheet, your brother needs to know the _minimum_ calories he
needs for his energy (and to put a little weight on, if he needs to).
Then, he needs to work out the balance of carbohydrates (CHO), fat and
protein he is going to eat. Then he needs to inject the insulin to
cover that minimum diet, plus extra insulin if he wants to eat more, and
minus insulin to cope with things like exercise.
Most type 2 diabetics are not underweight, as you have observed - quite
the reverse. The jury is out as to wether it is their obesity which
causes diabetes, or their diabetes which causes obesity: whichever, they
are insulin-resistant: they produce enough insulin to cope with the CHO
they need, too much, in some cases, but they can't use it efficiently.
However, some type 2s are not like that: they are more like type 1
diabetics in some ways, in that their problems are to do with the lack
of production of insulin. It isn't the 'nothing, or on the way to
nothing' of type 1s, but it is less than they need. If your brother is
one of these, the solution is again to do the balance-sheet, but it is
much more difficult, as the balance of where the calories come from is
more important, exercise increases the sensitivity of the body to
insulin, and so that has to be added in, there are drugs which increase
sensitivity, there are drugs which increase production, and there is
insulin to inject.
So ... the bottom line is, your brother needs a doctor. Weight loss in
a diabetic is either a sign that the exercise and diet plan is working
well, or it's a sign that things are going seriously wrong - as wrong as
they go in an undiagnosed diabetic.
