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I have a friend who has started injecting Rx insulin - she claims that it causes her to gain weight. But she has not been able to describe to me how the medication works.

When she is going to eat, she checks her blood sugar for her insulin dosage.... If she is in need of insulin, does she have a healthy reason to eat? Could she only eat when her blood sugar level dropped to a normal range? Wouldn't that be healthier? And if there are circumstances when she eats with high blood sugar & insulin, isn't that a time to eat very sparingly?

It seems to me that the insulin injection converts the blood sugar to fat storage, so the when she eats more, the blood sugar level won't be dangerous for her health. But, doesn't it mean that she already ate more than she needs - that's why her blood sugar is high? Is there a correlation between insulin injecting and weight/fat gain?

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I have been taking insulin injections for 19 years, I was diagnosed with Type one diabeties since I was nine years old. I can touch breifly on the questions you are asking, but to fully understand you really need to do some reasearch on diabeties and insulin.

For a diabetic, blood sugar levels should be checked before every meal to help them understand how their body feels in correlation to their blood sugar level.

Insulin is a natural substance that non diabetics bodies make to turn food into simple sugars for your cells to get energy. So your question if she needs insulin does she need to eat, yes she needs to eat. Just because blood sugar levels are too high does not mean food is not needed. The body can not survive without food. Without the correct amount of insulin food is not broken down into simple sugars, and cells are not feed. This causes your body to eat it's own fat (wight loss) and to produce ketones ( a harmful chemical for your organs).

Too much food and a lot of insulin will cause your body to store fat for diabetics and non diabetics.Normal consumption of healthy fruits and vegatables and whole grain foods do not cause blood sugar levels to rise as much (less insulin needed). Exercise is crucial for diabetics even more than normal individuals. I think your friend needs to find a balance between food intake, medicine, and exercise as does every diabetic.

One thing to note is losing weight is difficult for diabetics because of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). So gulcose levels should be monitored closely.

I am not a doctor, but you should tell you friend to discuss these points with her endocrinologist.

Food should not be consumed unless blood sugar levels are normal, with fast acting insulins of Novalog and Humalog this would not take longer than 30 minutes.

Insulin will convert food to energy for your cells not fat storage. The food is stored as fat because of eating more than you are using as energy. Lack of exercise/too much food.

The corelation between type 1 diabeties and weight gain is your friend is controlling her blood sugar levels with food. Medicine and exercise need to be balanced.

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