Weight loss is difficult, but it pays tremendous dividends in controlling type 2 diabetes. Here are ten reasons type 2 diabetics should make an effort to lose weight:
1. Losing a little weight actually helps you lose a lot more. Excessive body fat interferes with the production of adiponectin, an appetite control hormone. When you lose body fat, your body makes more adiponectin and becomes responsive to it, so you naturally want to eat less.
2. Losing weight relieves stress on your feet, ankles, knees, and hips. Type 2 diabetics who have been overweight for a very long time before losing weight are often amazed how much easier it is just to get around... and easier exercise makes both weight loss and blood sugar control easier also.
3. Losing weight can lower blood pressure. Two of the most serious complications of diabetes, kidney disease and diabetic retinopathy, are far more likely to occur when there is a combination of uncontrolled blood sugars and uncontrolled high blood pressure. Losing just 5 to 15 pounds (2 to 7 kg) can lower blood pressure 5 to 15 points. That's as much as most blood pressure medications.
4. Losing weight may preserve beta-cell function. Many type 2 diabetics eventually need insulin because their insulin-producing beta cells simply "burn out" over years of constant stress. Recent research shows that losing weight may keep you from ever needing insulin by protecting beta cells from free radicals.
5. Losing weight may make it possible to control type 2 diabetes with a minimum of medication. Most diabetes medications are expensive... and with the exception of metformin, most diabetic medications that are available for $4 to 5 a month in the US, have the terrible side effect of stressing beta-cells so that you eventually needs insulin injections. Losing weight reduces medical expenses and lowers the risk of long-term complications.
6. The more weight you lose, the less you have to rely on exercise to control your blood sugar levels. Very few diabetics control blood sugars without exercise. Once diabetics achieve a more near normal weight, however, they do not need to exercise as often to keep blood sugars in a healthy range.
7. Losing weight makes breathing easier. The belly fat that causes type 2 diabetes presses down on your lungs. Losing just a few pounds can make breathing astonishingly easier.
8. Losing weight reduces inflammation throughout the body. Even more than cholesterol, inflammation is the real cause behind the arterial changes that lead to heart attacks and stroke.
9. Losing weight helps you sleep better. Fat on the throat interferes with nighttime breathing. The constant interruption of sleep caused by this condition known as apnea, is a major contributor to high blood sugars that resist treatment.
10. Losing weight can lower cholesterol and triglycerides. Cholesterol and triglycerides, as you probably know, are fats. Reducing weight, especially losing belly fat, keeps cholesterol and triglycerides from flowing into your liver and throughout your body to cause arterial damage.
And even if you don't lose weight, simply choosing salads (without the bacon bits and oily dressings!), steamed vegetables, fruit, and lean proteins over white sugar, white bread, white rice, white potatoes, and sweets will result in lower blood sugars, lower blood pressure, lower triglycerides, and a much greater sense of feeling super.
Would you like more information about alternative ways to handle your type 2 diabetes?
To download your free copy of my E-Book, click here now: Answers to Your Questions... its based on questions many diabetics have asked me over recent months.
Beverleigh Piepers is a registered nurse who would like to help you understand how to live easily and happily with your type 2 diabetes.
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