When people who have type 2 diabetes lose weight they tend to become less insulin resistant, have lower blood glucose and LDL cholesterol, and lower blood pressure.

The only way to lose weight and keep it off is to change your lifestyle so that you are consistently eating a healthy diet and being physically active. There are a lot of diets, but ALL of them only work as long as you are on the diet. As soon as you go off the diet the weight will come right back. That’s why you have to make permanent lifestyle changes if you want to lose weight.

One good way to start a healthier lifestyle is to limit the amount of fat in your diet to less than 30% of your total calories. In the end, the only thing that matters, in terms of weight loss, is the number of calories that you are eating and the number of calories that you are burning. But people tend to eat more food when they eat a high-fat diet, and less food when they eat a low-fat diet.

We are not talking about getting rid of fat altogether. Very low-fat diets can have negative side effects in terms of blood levels of glucose, insulin, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. If you are eating 1800 calories a day, than 30% of that is 600 calories or 60 grams of fat as a maximum. That’s hardly starvation. You should especially limit the saturated fat and trans (hydrogenated) fat, because these are the worst for you. Try to get most of your fat from monounsaturated fat, because it will lower your cholesterol.

Start exercising. Physical activity not only burns calories while you are doing it, but the more muscle you have the more calories you burn when you are just doing nothing. Even better, exercise is the best way to keep off the weight you lose. So if you keep moving, your weight will keep moving in the right direction.

Home | Blood Sugar | Nutrition | Exercise | Weight Loss | Smoking | Complications | More Info

©2003-2006 De Vries Design & Technology, Inc., all rights reserved. Web hosting donated by Arrow Bay Internet Services.