I have also been gaining weight. I am 28 years old and have T1D for 16 years. Recently, I started on lexapro which might have contributed to it. But i am gaining so much weight. I am 5’6" and normally weigh 148-150lbs and am now up to 164 in only 4 months. I just started with a new endocronologist and he has started me on metformin. Does anyone have any insight on this? I am scared I have metabolic syndrome but don’t know how I could have acquired this as I eat very healthy and exercise 3-4 times a week. He says I have developed an insulin resistance.
metformin is typically a “first line” treatment for T2 diabetes, and it’s principle action is to reduce insulin resistance. I don’t use it sorry I can’t give you direct advice.
There are others here that have significant insulin resistance, but Metformin seems like a good choice for insulin resistance and weight gain.
glad to hear you have an endo - a second opinion might be useful.
T1’s can develop T2 - and we are also prone to thyroid problems. My thyroid stopped working a long time ago.
Insulin is a growth hormone and so if you can reduce insulin AND keep your blood sugar well controlled it seems like the best strategy. I am not sure what your daily carbohydrate intake is. cheers and good luck. Please check back in and tell us how you are doing.
I’m one of the very few rare Type 1s that ever took anything like Metformin. I say that because I started taking it in 1962, and in those days they only had Phenformin, a related (and apparently more dangerous) drug in the biguanide family.
I was actually taking it because my endo had tried every combination of insulins and diets that he could think up, and my control was nowhere to be found.
What happened was that taking ONLY 2 Phenformin pills with 2 medium speed insulins (Globin, no longer available) I went from being his worst patient to being his best.
Also what I learned way back then (or sometime in between?) is that Metformin really slows down the liver’s ability to release stored glycogen (which turns back into glucose immediately) which is normally done to support our glucose needs when the stomach isn’t supplying immediate needs. Our diabetic bodies (at least in some cases) output too much glycogen because of individual characteristics. My situation was fairly rare back then, he had 5 more Type 1s after me that did very well with this treatment. It didn’t help his other Type 1s AFAIK.
The other thing he did was to reduce my carbs and increase proteins, which also helped since it required less insulin and kept me more stable. Still doing that kind of thing after a total of 62.5 years of Type 1.