Additional Medication?

Exercise
1

I have been a T1D for 10 years now, and my sugars have never been able to be controlled. To be fair, I was young// in college and wasn’t trying my exact hardest. I am 24 and my last a1c was 11. I was so upset hearing such a shocking number that I immediately changed my lifestyle. This was in February. I started the CGM the next week, started exercising 4x/week, started taking my insulin on time.
About a month and half later I realized I had gained 12LB. I have never been especially thin but have also never had to worry about weight control. I’m so so upset. I’ve been working for the past 2 weeks on exercising every day (sometimes twice-- cardio and yoga) and eating less carbs. I’ve almost entirely stopped eating sugar (except for my lows). I’ve lost 2lb in a week which is slightly motivating but am so so discouraged reading everyone’s posts about the challenges of weight loss.

My sugars are all over the map. They even spike up after exercising??! (Does this happen to anyone else?) and I feel so helpless to the disease right now. I realistically don’t know that I can exercise twice a day for the rest of my life (I’m a night shift nurse. It’s nearly impossible).
I hate to complain but was just wondering if anyone had any success with maybe insulin adjuncts or anything really to help with weight loss and sugar control?
Any advice would help.

2

That’s very normal to put on some weight when you start getting your BG’s under control. I had very sporadic control in high school and college, but I was so nice and slim that I didn’t want to do anything that would disrupt that! We call it “diabulimia” now. When your BG runs high, your body is unable to use the sugar in your blood without enough insulin to metabolize it, and it starts munching on fat cells to get energy. Anyway, now that you have a more proper amount of insulin in you, your fat cells will not be depleted anymore, which can result in some mild weight gain because insulin is a fat-storing hormone. You’re doing the right thing by reducing your carb intake and getting regular activity. Try to stay at <30g per meal, with a 15g snack at night, ideally no more than 100g a day, 60-80g a day if you want to lose weight. It won’t take very long, maybe a couple of months to take that weight off. Focus on meats, green veggies, cheeses, non-sweet sauces and gravies, nuts and eggs (and butter!). They will keep you nice and full so you don’t crave the carby stuff. Check out the books “Think Like a Pancreas” and “Diabetic Athlete’s Handbook” for more information on how insulin works in various situations. They are both really, really helpful.