Protecting Muscle and Weight

In Type 2 diabetes, weight coming off is usually good news. In LADA it often is not, and reading it correctly matters.

Insulin does more than lower blood sugar. It is also the signal that tells your body to store energy and build tissue. When insulin runs short, glucose cannot get into your cells and is lost in urine instead, so your body breaks down fat and muscle for fuel. You lose weight while eating normally.

That is why unexplained weight loss is one of the classic signs that insulin production has fallen — and why responding to it by eating less makes things worse.

What helps:

• Eat enough. If you are lean and losing weight, cutting food further is the wrong move.
• Include protein at every meal — dal, rajma, chana, curd, paneer, eggs, fish or chicken. Protein has little effect on blood sugar and supports muscle.
• Keep some resistance work in your week, so the weight you hold is muscle rather than only fat.
• Weigh yourself on the same scale, at the same time, once a week, and write it down.

A steady fall of two or three kilograms over a couple of months, without trying, is worth a doctor's appointment rather than a wait-and-see. It usually means your treatment needs revisiting.

Once treatment is properly matched to your insulin needs, weight typically stabilises, and some of the lost weight returns.