Please pardon my emotions. I realize none of you are actually saying, "Oh, you're just a fat pig making excuses, blaming a disease it's your fault you have anyway." But that is what my emotions are picking up, from between the lines.
Don't trust what your emotions "hear". That's what I'm always told.
It should also be noted that I am talking only about my own experience, here, not how diabetes generally works. I am not saying there is NO correlation between overweight and diabetes. Nor did my doctor say that. She merely said you don't ALWAYS get diabetes just because you're overweight, nor do you always escape it just because you are thin.
Most important part of the post; if you respond to nothing else, please respond to this: Who can account for the fact that I was not losing weight before, despite trying to, but now that I am on the correct type of insulin, (another brand hadn't been working) I am losing weight without even trying? If it was all my fault I was fat, because I was simply eating too much and that's all there is to it, what has changed except the medical treatment? Granted, I am now not eating as much. But that's not self-discipline on my part. It's no longer feeling the ravenous hunger the comes on when my sugar level is too high.
Note: There is some controversy as to whether Type 1 *always* begins in childhood. Oral meds don't work for me, and never have. My pancreas is not producing ineffective insulin. It is producing no insulin at all. I will need injections the rest of my life, weight loss or not. That sounds like type 1 to me.
I can look back now and see symptoms as young as age 14. I came from a family that would not take me to the doctor, unless it was a broken bone or something and they'd be arrested for not taking me. In fact they didn't believe me when I said I needed glasses, until I finally had my eyes checked at school and brought a note home. Any time I was unwell, I was "just trying to get attention." So if I had been cared for properly, who knows how much sooner I would have been diagnosed?
I'm not a doctor. Maybe you did have type 1 in childhood, there's probably no way to know now. I'm sorry that your health was neglected in childhood. That's utterly wrong.
All I know is that it is well proven medical fact that x leads to y. When I was overweight, I was always being checked for diabetes. I never had it, but I knew it was possible if I didn't get a handle on my eating. I worked with a woman who also had type 2 in her family. She was told that if she didn't get a handle on it and lose weight, she would get it too. At that time she was functioning without insulin. By a year later - many cokes and fries and cookies later, which I saw her eat at work, and that was her daily diet - she was on insulin because the disease had gotten a grip. The doc was still telling her to stop .. or else .. and she continued.
There are in fact a number of diseases that are 'more likely' to fall upon an overweight person - sleep apnea (yes, a few skinny people get it too, but the majority of people are obese), type II diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, high BP, strokes, certain types of cancer like breast cancer, gall bladder cancer, ovarian cancer. Also, don't forget NAFLD - Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease caused by fat deposits in the liver.
This is not coming from a place of judgement, it's coming from a place where medicine is advanced enough that doctors can draw these conclusions that x leads to y. I'm not sitting here smug saying "ha ha ha, obese people will get this." Far from it. I just do read a LOT about health and disease and fitness, and I'm fortunate to work in a medical department (and institution) where we can frequently attend lectures given by both resident and visiting specialists. What I learn makes me more eager to live a healthy life. Sure, I can find a lump tomorrow, find out I'm at stage V cancer, and be gone in 6 months - anything's possible. Will I beat myself up for having been overweight on and off and having smoked 20 daily and drank alcohol like I was dying of thirst? Darn right I will. I will be mad as anything with myself. At the same time, I know that no matter what I do - if I run every day, eat only organic veggies, only good fats, never drink alcohol again in my life (which is my intention), or smoke again - I did damage my body at different points AND disease is no respecter of "best intentions" anyway. My mother never smoked in her life, never drank alcohol other than a sherry at Christmas, always looked after herself, and was fit and healthy until she found out at age 73 that she had terminal cancer, and 2 months later she was dead. I find that utterly unfair. But it is what it is.
More power to you LBF for fighting for your health. I truly mean that. It's not easy, no matter what they say and no matter how they show these drastic weight losses on shows like TBL, to lose weight, especially when you are older, and especially when you have a disability. All that you can do is make wise choices with food, and take as much exercise as you can manage, and I say a prayer for you right now that your health improves and that you feel
FANTASTIC as you get fitter!
