How to get rid of this belly!?

[Fatandfedup01]

As per the title.

I am overweight by about 5 stone. I feel like shit all the time and even when I eat well I cannot shift weight. My belly is really bothering me, it’s like a double belly with an extra shelf under my boobs!

I am type 1 diabetic and struggle so much with my weight.

I am 5’3 and weigh 16.7stone.

OP Type 1 is an autoimmune disease. People with one are more prone to others, so as @Ganymedemoon get another opinion.

Yes definitely see if your endocrinologist can help with the thyroid side of things. I had a thyroidectomy so am now on 100% thyroxine replacement therapy. One of the main ways I can tell if my dose needs adjusting is if I start gaining or losing weight. It makes a huge difference.

Also, you might do this already, but if not, have you looked into the gut health info that has been coming out in the past few years? There seems to be good indications that your gut microbiome affects how you absorb and process nutrients, so that people with different biomes will gain/lose weight differently even if eating the same foods. I'm trying to make some diet changes to improve my gut biome and reduce inflammation ( I have an autoimmune condition too, not diabetes). It's quite interesting stuff if you haven't looked into it yet.

There's a lot of good advice on here.

Unfortunately I'm not disciplined enough for anything like that. So the approach that has worked for me in the past is little changes:

Cutting out sugary drinks (Pepsi, tea / coffee, apart from one cup of tea in the morning).

Giving up biscuits and crisps (hard but do-able)

Getting out for a walk when possible

Doing some YouTube videos - yoga or whatever. Anything that got me moving really. As your tummy is your area that's bothering you most, I would just get it moving. So exercises like sitting down, holding something and moving it from your left side to right (it's hard to explain but it's a good one, you can feel it working all the core muscles).

I also ate a lot of eggs as opposed to carbs, so omelettes etc.

Good luck!

My dad is type 1 and I had gestational diabetes. I would recommend Fast 800, by Micheal Moseley. It's designed to reverse type 2 diabetes (though my dad found the recipes worked well with his insulin intake). Ignore the shakes but buy the book. Great simple recipes.

Also I would advise exercise. When my dad goes hiking he feels so much better has less hypos, more in control of his levels and just feels less aches. When he doesn't go walking he can really feel it.

My heart goes out to you, from having diabetes temporarily myself and watching my dad try to manage it I know how difficult it is. X

I just wanted to say how great a pump is. Your HBA1C is so good already,but a pump is great for exercise. You can lower your basal insulin before/after to counteract the drop in bloods so no need for snacks/glucose to cover the drop. You can add basal to cover the increase if just using weights ect.

DH and DS are T1 it's hard, no one gets it, it's full on. So sympathies.

My sister in law also T1 has had fab results with weight loss, again really low carb and lots of walking. Exercise and type one is such a pain and frustrating. She's lost a few stone it's come off slowly but she's stuck at it.

Do have you had your thyroid checked via hospital or GP? My DS has his checked annually by the hospital, maybe you'll get more investigation with the hospital team.

Weight loss is so difficult OP, I applaud you for being so open and honest. I fluctuate in my weight a lot but gained over 4 stone following psychosis, which then caused hypothyroidism as well. It was an absolute nightmare to get taken seriously.
To be brutally honest, for me the weight did not come off until I dropped my thyroid excuse. I spent 3 years telling everyone that wanted to listen how difficult it was to lose weight for me due to that. And yes weight loss is always hard, but I looooved my excuses and found plenty of them.

I have now lost just under 4 stone. I’ve worked my ass off - changed my diet massively (writing down everything really helps) and exercising. I walk everywhere, ride my bike with kids. I go lane swimming 5 times a week for 50 minutes a session. For me I needed the other swimmers to keep me going- you don’t want to be the person to leave early, you want to keep up in your lane. I started off in slow lane and happy with 40 laps. Today I wasn’t happy with 90 in the fast. It takes a lot of time and dedication but I can really recommend lane swimming. The feeling after you’ve completed it and achieved your personal best!! Amazing feeling. And swimming is such good overall body exercise. All of my limbs have toned right up, including my stomach.

Good luck!!!

I really feel for you OP, a big belly is uncomfortable and you also have the added issue of T1.

Talking about losing inches of the belly, I lost 10 inches by following (as already mentioned) Fast800. It just melted off and without any real exercise (that came later) I've never experienced anything like it. I'm still following the principles nearly two years in and it has truly transformed my health. I now get up at 6am to get into a 6:30am exercise class, the old me would have never ever done it.

Is there a reason why you won't consider low carb approach? By eating bread, pasta and drinking tea throughout the day (assuming you have tea with milk) will never allow you to lose the belly fat. Could you maybe try to cut the starches and carbs drastically but not to worry about the calories to begin with? Start introducing lower calorie days when you feel ready. And extend your fasting periods if your insulin management allows it.

Your GP may well be happy with your thyroid function but your endo may disagree.

Just Google subclinical hypothyroidism and see what pops up.

And the Eat Well Plate is criminally bad 😡All it does is keeps people sick and bewildered why they are still struggling with their weight and host of other health conditions.

www.endocrineweb.com/conditions/subclinical-hypothyroidism

Look up Don Tolman, he advocates eating fruit/vegetables to heal the body. You might be able to get one of his books from amazon. I've followed it, to heal an over active thyroid three times. It works, I no longer need medication.

It’s a bit shocking how many calories there are in a standard sandwich. A Tesco meal deal one can easily be 5-600, and if you add in crisps or a cereal bar that can be 800 for the meal.

A “Finest” lasagne for one, which is far more filling is about 450.

My husband used calorie tracking when he wanted to lose weight, and had to heavily reappraise which things he picked. Those 800 calories for a small lunch would make it difficult for him to have a normal meal at night, but also would make it really hard to make it through the afternoon without giving in to cravings and getting another piece of rubbish from the vending machine.

He switched to things like porage for breakfast, soup for lunch, and found that this worked much better for him.

I think your typical day illustrates your problem, OP. You don't do any exercise (ok, two short walks, but that's it); and at 5ft 3ins you're quite short so your daily calorie expenditure will be lower than average.
You're clearly eating too many calories for your needs. Sandwiches AND yoghurt AND a decent dinner AND snacks adds up to a lot of calories being taken in and not burned off, even if it's healthy food.
You also say in your OP that "even when you eat healthily" you don't lose weight - so if this is healthy, you're saying you were eating more than this before?

From what you’ve described it’s tricky to say how many calories you are consuming - I think you need to be clear and exact about it. Not on here, but to yourself - I get the impression you don’t know because I feel like if you knew how many calories you were consuming daily you would included that information earlier in the thread for clearer advice.

Calories for sandwiches, wraps and pasta can vary massively depending on the filling and portion size. I reckon you can definitely lose weight eating these things, but you can just as easily gain weight too. Pumpkin seeds are very healthy but pretty ‘calorific’ for what they are - so a pinch versus a table spoon can make a difference there. Jacket potatoes can be massive or tiny, the chilli could be made with lean or fattier mince… so you could be consuming just 1300 calories or easily 3000, it really depends on the details. And especially if you’re not doing a lot of exercise it’s quite essential to be mindful of the details.

@FatFatandfedup01 I'm a diabetes Dietitian and T1 is my specialist field

No way should you be fobbed off with eat well plate advice, most dietitians think that's outdated advice now

Anyone with T1 can now have access to tech, Libre, Continuous Glucose Monitoring or hybrid closed loop pumps, since the new NICE guidance in March
Get an appointment and talk to a DSN about your options

Also look into your local tier 3 weight management service

Diabetes UK do brilliant low carb meal plans and lots of great diet advice
www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/eating-with-diabetes/meal-plans

This is great too www.nhs.uk/better-health/lose-weight/

Yes, I agree. It's working for me. I feel much more energetic ( felt lethargic at first - detoxing I suppose, but two weeks in I feel better than I have for ages) I feel ready to step up the exercise now whereas before, I just didn't have the spoons.

Can you self fund a pump? It's easier for me to exercise now that I have a pump. I can adjust the basal rate but often that isn't enough so I stop the pump completely 2 hours before my exercise. For me that means that around the time that I would spike, I don't because I'm exercising.

It was so difficult with pens. I always ended up needing to eat carbs against the post workout hypo's.

I have to say I am not sure you are being truthful with what you are actually eating. 5.5 stone over your ideal weight is a lot which I know you know. I have a relative who actually sounded exactly like you. Almost down to the same words as you which was spooky. She used to talk to me all the time about her struggle with weight and how she couldn’t understand how she couldn’t lose anything. I spent a few days with her recently and what she was actually eating was way in excess of what she was telling me.

When I asked her why she was eating a couple of chocolate biscuits with her tea she looked at me as though I was mad and said didn’t everyone do that. Thing is she left it out of her list of things she did actually eat. She also said it was a treat for herself because she was feeling a bit low. Her portion control was confusing and she also ordered a large take away because it was the end of the week.

All of those things weren’t included in her calorie count. Have I gone mad or did I read once that when people are asked to list out what they eat over 50% leave out key information.

I find now I am older I cannot have biscuits/cake in the house. Much too tempting.