I have diabetes...

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I just found out this past week that I have diabetes. I am a 5'7" white male and I weigh 300 lbs, with a huge gut, so it wasn't completely unexpected. My grandfather had it too, and he was heavy too. I'm trying to lose weight but I've actually gained, not lost, over the past 6 months. I don't know what to do to lose weight. I try the gluten and casein free diet but I can't help cheating it seems. I eat too much salt, then crave sugar, then crave salt. I am also schizophrenic and the wheat seems to set off the voices. I don't know how to stick to my diet, and lose the weight. All I do is gain, never lose.

What I would suggest is Overeaters Anonymous This way you would deal with the internal reasons for weight gain, not the externals.

Sweet Pea hugs

in many cases, gastric reduction surgery has proven to stop type 2 diabetes in its tracks. one doesn't have to get the roux-en-Y surgery [permanent] but can opt for the gastric band to get similar results.

Just cut out all of the sugar, fat, carbs, and anything else that makes you gain weight. I've been dieting for 9 months now and have lost over 30 kg. Most of which was without exercise. If you just keep working hard, you can lose weight too.

that is far easier said than done for a lot of folk for whom tasty food is their only ready comfort in life.

I used to be 350+ lbs, with type II diabetes, hypertension, all that fun stuff. I wouldn't recommend surgery, or extreme exercise, or any other highly evasive treatment. Instead, read this book. It changed my life: http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-Ab ... 307474259/

Diabetes is gone, hypertension is gone, and my doctor is absolutely flabbergasted.

You'll see food completely different after reading it. I'm now down over 90lbs and into the 260's with NO EXERCISE! Once you know what's REALLY going on, why you're REALLY diabetic, and REALLY fat (here's a hint...you're actually starving), it's pretty easy to make the changes.

dr. adkins discovered this [increasing metabolism via carb restriction/ketogenesis] back in the 60s, it is not news but it is still controversial. the main thing is to avoid fast-metabolising foods, get adequate proteins [to avoid hypoprotenemia and its associated ails such as a propensity towards hernias] and to keep well-hydrated. daily exercise is also highly recommended.

That book goes FAR beyond Atkins...and no, exercise isn't recommended until weight is managed due to risk of joint damage; Unless doing zero impact exercise (like swimming).

I do not "overeat", I do not use food as comfort, although I have in the past. My lower GI tract is shot from years of eating nothing but fast food and candy. Therefore, I can't lose weight if I eat even minute amounts of wheat or dairy. A year ago I bought the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis, he has some of Atkins's ideas but fingers wheat as the main culprit. The problem is, wheat is in nearly everything, it's put in as an appetite stimulant, that and MSG. My main problem is that I'm so sensitive to wheat, I avoid it the best I can but it's not easy to cut it ALL out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13887909

My diet is simple as hell

Plants and animals.

eat real food. Veg and some meat is an adequate meal.

Carbs are not your friend. Try not to exceed 300 grams per day.

If you want to be sustainable about food and diet, the only real choice you have is cooking your food yourself from scratch. Buying frozen food is pretty much the same as eating at McDonalds. People picked on fast food so much, but not frozen/box crap.

Personally, I don't believe "carbs" are really bad. You could have some issues with it, but I believe it's more a case by case thing and not a rule that everyone is sensitive to carbs in general. Look at Asians, they eat tons of rice, and they're rail skinny. Since you're diabetic, you probably have an underlying issue of high cortisol causing it. High cortisol causes you to have higher blood sugar levels even without eating. Diabetes is pretty much intrinsically linked to stress in lots of cases. So I believe the low carb diets are a lot of times used as a bandaid for diabetes caused by high cortisol. It works, but it's not ideal in my opinion, and it's quite expensive really, doing things like eating a pound of meat a day and all that crap. I've done it, and I used to espouse it (if you look at my earlier posts, I did) but I pretty much got myself sick on a diet like that. I'd recommend for your diabetes, check with a good Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor, I've had good success using Chinese medicine formulas, and they're relatively cheap as far as medications go. Like $5 OTC at my Asian market. They might be able to help your schizophrenia and diabetes. It's worth a shot in my opinion.

But going back to the cooking thing, that's your challenge. Everything you eat has to be cooked yourself on a stove from scratch. Or at least like 90% of it. If you're not doing that, you're completely utterly spinning your wheels. As far as "what" you exactly eat, just think of a traditional diet of another country. Pick foods from Asia, Europe, what have you, most will work fine for you (as long as you don't have giant boreks or pizzas every night or something) be somewhat mindful of their nutritional content, but really, don't worry too much. You should at least be feeling better after that, and able to think more clearly, and probably will lose some weight.

As far as exercise, you have to find an activity you actually LIKE doing, and make it a hobby of some sort. That's the only way you can sustainably "exercise" as if you cared enough about your vanity to exercise, you'd have already been doing it. For me, it was figure skating, my sport I chose. I was 210 or 215lbs, a doctor at 19 years old had diagnosed me with high blood pressure (150/90) and told me "I don't think you can solve this just with exercise and diet alone" and to prove him wrong, I did. Within 4 months I got down to 180 with an hour of skating a day, and maybe 3x 45 minutes a week of the punching bag, and my blood pressure had normalized. The important thing is, to do something other than stay home. The exercise should be relaxing, too. No need to do some stupid highly intense aerobics or anything. Just walk around outside or something. Do something to relax. You're trying to defeat high cortisol here, remember. My next favorite activity after skating as far as how it makes me feel is hiking. Hiking, assuming you can get to a local park with some trails, is easy and fun, and you can go your own pace. In my case, within like 3 miles of where I live there's probably half a dozen or more places to hike. Even doing things like walking to the grocery store or something. But find some athletic thing you like doing, and do it everyday.

You need carbs. You just dont need LOADS of them like most people get

The trick is balancing sugar intake and burning carbs also avoid too much alcohol. Sometimes it can be hard to quit though because the food tastes so good. For me when I want to lose weight I eat raisen bran or oatmeal squares in the morning naturally sweet high in fiber and delicious. Set up some walking goals avoid soda and drink water ice tea or power aid.Bananas are good to eat cheap and filling for meats tuna is good to have.

pezar, I don't believe you overeat either. While I agree, wheat is bad, it's not the only thing. The book I linked above is more than just 'Atkin's is right', or 'don't eat what'. Gary Taubes gives you a true, in depth, and very detailed explanation for what's going on with you. Even to the point of redundancy (his book prior to this one was soooo technical, folks begged him to write this one). It's takes less than a day to read too. If you're more of the instant gratification type, I'd be more than willing to lend you a copy. Just shoot me a PM.

Again, take it from someone just like you, what do you have to lose?