ASK GINGER - Serious T1 teen athlete frustrated with weight gain

Reallllly good point. Thanks for adding that, Svati!

-gin

I'd like to follow up on what Ginger was saying in reqard to eating too little but still gaining weight.

In our brains, we hold our metabolic control centers. Its called the arcuate nucleus and its housed in the hypothalamus. Here, in this control center about the size of the tip of a pin, feedback from many hormones  with cool names like AgRP (agouti-related protein), ghrelin, leptin, POMC (pro-opiomelanocortin) and CART (cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript) send and recieve feedback as too what and how much you are eating and how much you are expending energy wise. These hormones are responsible for telling the rest of your body what to do whether it be to increase your cellular metabolism causing you to lose weight or to slow it down causing you to gain weight. In a way it says to itself " Well she hasn't been feeding us enough lately so lets slow down her metabolism and make sure we store enough fat because we don't know when were going to be fed enough again". This happens despite the amount of physical activity you are getting. I would strongly recommend reading some of the other articles and share posts on here on how to start a diet to help you lose weight.

Additionally, like the last poster said, insulin may be the culprit. Insulin is the most powerful hormone in the body in my opinion and its like a double edged sword. On one hand, its extremely anti-catabolic and we need it to transport glucose and other nutrients into our cells and out of the blood stream. On the other hand it hurts us because by blunting fat loss and stops the use of fat as a fuel source. If you constantly have high levels of insulin in you body, you will not be burning fat. You need insulin to keep your blood sugar in line but the key here is to manipulate your needs by controlling what you eat. A diet that has 5-6 small feedings, higher in protein and uses a lower amount of carbohydrates as you need them will help you decrease the amount of insulin you will need leading to an increased opportunity to burn fat and lose weight. When doing this it is of extreme importance to monitor your bood glucose religiously. In my experience with working with Ginger Vieira and other type 1 diabetics, sometimes things will go smoothly and other times for seemingly no reason, you bllod sugar will be out of whack and you have to control it by either eating more carbohydrates or taking more insulin depending on whether you are too high or too low. So..make sure you check your BS as often as possible.

hope this helps

Andrew