#1022 Diabetes Pro Tip: Weight Loss
In this episode of the Juice Box Podcast, Scott introduces the highly requested Diabetes Pro Tip on weight loss with type 1 diabetes. He reflects on the success and growth of the Pro Tip series, which condenses tools discussed in the podcast into individual episodes.
You can listen online to the entire series at DiabetesProTip.com or in your fav audio app.
You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.
Key Takeaways
- Insulin is a storage hormone: Weight gain after a Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis often results from the body finally being able to properly store calories that were previously lost due to unmanaged high blood sugars.
- Avoid overfeeding lows: If your basal or bolus insulin is too high, you will constantly treat low blood sugars with extra food, inadvertently consuming excess calories and causing unwanted weight gain.
- Food quality impacts insulin needs: Eating "cleaner," whole foods generally requires less insulin and creates less glycemic variability compared to highly processed items or starchy gluten-free substitutes.
- Check your thyroid: Underlying conditions like Hashimoto's (thyroid dysfunction) can severely impact metabolism, energy, and insulin resistance, making weight loss exceptionally difficult if unaddressed.
- Optimize Vitamin D levels: Vitamin D works at the cellular level to help cells utilize insulin properly. A deficiency can lead to increased insulin needs and resistance; optimal ranges are often higher than standard lab minimums.
Resources Mentioned
- Juicebox Podcast: Episode 1,022 (Diabetes Pro Tip: Weight Loss)
- Juicebox Podcast: Thyroid Episode with Dr. Benito
Introduction: The Complexity of Weight Loss with Type 1 Diabetes
Scott Benner Welcome back. (0:01) This is episode 1,022 of the juice box podcast, diabetes pro tip weight loss remastered for audio, free of ads for you because you're a subscriber. (0:11) Every time I think there's nothing more to do for the pro tips, then somebody asks something and I think, no. (0:16) No. That that would work there too. (0:20) And I'm
Jenny Smith There is the variables in life that I think will always bring in something to discuss in terms of what it could be in in diabetes like management.
Scott Benner Yeah. No. I'm really happy. I'm really happy to hear from people because I think that others perspectives can make me go, oh, yeah. Wow. Just because that hasn't happened here doesn't mean that's not happening somewhere. (0:44) And then it gave it gives, you know, good focus for what to do. (0:47) So this is it. (0:48) We're gonna talk about trying to lose weight when you have type one.
Jenny Smith As I mentioned, I think I I texted back to you. (0:54) I was like, this is a big topic. (0:56) It's not just like five minutes of well, just go out and start running. (1:01) I mean, it's it's kind of like a rabbit hole, honestly. (1:05) Alright. I I mean, there are many different, like, little avenues to kind of talk about, and you had a lot of really good questions that came in or, like, comments about, gosh, I don't understand this or why isn't this quite right or whatever. (1:18) So
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith Yes. We we can get topic.
Scott Benner So I'm gonna have very little to say here probably, and I apologize for that. (1:25) I guess this is the day the type the time we pretend like I just came on your Zoom and I'm like, hey. (1:30) How do I can you help me? (1:32) And then you just talk. (1:34) But what what's the I I mean, where do you think we should start? (1:38) Because to me, I think we should start at the idea that people correlate taking insulin with gaining weight and they Yeah. (1:45) And they don't think about calories and That Right. (1:49) Go. Hi, Jenny. Go. Can you help me, please?
Insulin as a Storage Hormone and Diagnosis Weight Loss
Jenny Smith Yes. Well, maybe. (1:58) Know it's a good place to start in terms of like one thing that everybody with diabetes specifically thinks about is that it's insulin. (2:06) And I think a good place to even go with why does that start is because it's often something that a practitioner will tell people. (2:14) Mhmm. (2:15) You know, using insulin, you may be likely to gain weight. (2:19) And I think that was one of, one or a couple of, like, the comments that came back about this topic were specific to, you know, why have I been told that I'm gonna gain weight? (2:29) Or why, you know, why is this going to happen? (2:31) Or why did I lose weight? (2:33) And now I'm gaining all of this weight back, like after diagnosis. (2:36) Right? (2:38) So insulin itself, whether your body makes it or you take it with an injection or with a pump, it's a storage hormone. (2:45) That's its job. (2:46) It's supposed to move a certain quantity of carb or sugar really out of your bloodstream and into places to either be used or stored. (2:55) Right? (2:56) So in terms of management, insulin can make you gain weight. (3:01) In terms of like initial diagnosis, a lot of people type one specific have lost weight prior to diagnosis. (3:09) Maybe it was very rapid or maybe it was like a lingering loss that people were like, well, I could just keep eating the whole cake and gosh, I don't gain weight, and I'm actually losing weight. (3:18) And then they're like, wait. (3:19) This is wrong. This is bad. (3:20) This shouldn't be happening. (3:21) Right? (3:23) So they go to the doctor. (3:25) Right? (3:25) They get a diagnosis of diabetes. (3:28) They've lost weight. (3:29) And in terms of that loss, it's often it's usually relative to the fact that their blood sugars have been so high that their body isn't storing those calories. (3:39) Right? (3:39) So you're essentially peeing them out, thus DKA and all of those things that can come about around diagnosis time. (3:47) But because you're losing all those calories and your body's not packing them in, once you have back the piece of the puzzle that was supposed to help you use that food that you were taking in, your body's gonna start storing it. (4:00) Right. (4:02) And so
Scott Benner And so and and that is the one confusion you see from newly diagnosed people. (4:07) It's like, I don't understand I lost all this weight, and they don't understand explaining the function of it, I think, is great. (4:13) I think boiling it down into one simple idea is that you were dying. (4:17) And Yeah. (4:18) Yeah. Your body is using itself up and not storing at the same time trying to stay alive. (4:25) And then all of a sudden, everything's okay. (4:27) Now the more weight listen. (4:30) If I'm if I'm talking out of school here, you'll stop me. (4:32) But if you've lost a lot of weight before you get to this skinny emaciated those are my ribs, you probably had weight to lose to begin with. Right? (4:40) Because it was there to lose.
Jenny Smith Likely. (4:42) And especially more as the adults who are diagnosed. (4:45) Yes. (4:46) Right. (4:46) If you had weight to lose for whatever reason
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith You may have just thought, like I said, oh, good. (4:53) I'm actually able to take weight off now. (4:55) I don't know why. (4:56) I'm still doing the same three mile walk every day, and now it seems to be working better. (5:00) Great. (5:01) But, yeah, once you get to that, like, shouldn't be able to see my lower ribs or gosh, my face looks really sunken in when I look at old pictures of myself. (5:10) That's not what you want.
Scott Benner And and I think that again, I I this probably sounds I don't want it to sound like distasteful, but if you had weight to lose, you were probably it's likely that you were taking in calories that helped you stay at that weight. (5:25) Meaning that when you start taking the insulin back in, there are calories there to be packed away to facilitate the weight gain again.
Jenny Smith And in that's in any case, whether you could have lost weight, you know, and successfully, hopefully, helpful, you know, left it off. (5:40) Right. (5:40) But the goal with starting insulin is in general to maintain a healthy weight then, right? (5:48) To get, yes, you will come back from the weight loss, but you should also with the proper insulin dosing, you should be able to get back to a stable, healthy weight. (5:59) You know, if you lost 40 pounds when you were diagnosed and, hey, 20 of that you could have definitely lost, and the other 20 you really didn't need to, great. (6:09) We should gain back maybe 15 to 20 pounds and then we don't need the other kind.
The Trap of Overfeeding Low Blood Sugars
Scott Benner Well, what is the functionality of the proper insulin dosing that makes you gain too much or not enough?
Jenny Smith In terms of insulin dosing, that's correct. (6:25) The amount of food you put in to work with it, of course, is a piece of the puzzle there. (6:29) But if your insulin is being balanced along with your use of the energy that it's working with, then you should be able to gain energy back to your body that gets stored, that keeps you at a healthy weight. (6:43) And you shouldn't then continue to gain if the dosing is correct. (6:48) And it so it kind of goes back to on a baseline initially, make sure your insulin doses are right for you. (6:56) And a lot of people wonder, you know, they I just leave it to my doctor.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith It tells me how much more less to take.
Scott Benner And does that mean that if you're not using enough insulin that your blood sugars are left higher? (7:08) So you're still having some of the action that you noticed before you were diagnosed. (7:12) Right?
Jenny Smith You're Yes.
Scott Benner You're a little you're too high in your body's not storing the the calories correctly, the glucose correct correctly, and so you're not gaining as much weight. (7:23) So you could have unhealthy blood sugars but feel like your weight's good, and then you kinda come to that point like, oh, I'm good. (7:31) And that really is the beginning idea of diabolimia too. (7:35) Right? (7:35) Correct. Manipulating the insulin to keep your weight down. (7:37) Okay.
Jenny Smith So It is.
Scott Benner Going the other way, if you were too low all the time, you'd have trouble putting on weight?
Jenny Smith If you're too low all the time, one, you've that's actually kind of an it's an opposite of what you would think.
Scott Benner Really?
Jenny Smith If you're low all the time, and that's a big reason. (7:56) And when we start working with somebody, we analyze insulin to begin with. (8:00) And the first thing we look for, even if there are highs, high highs, we first look for lows. (8:06) Okay. (8:07) Because if weight management is another piece that they're really concerned about,
Scott Benner then
Jenny Smith all of those lows that you're treating, you are feeding insulin. (8:17) And you're feeding insulin, which ends up packing away the excess that you're taking in
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith And you maintain a weight that you don't want or you keep gaining weight that you don't want.
Scott Benner So this this puts you in the position of having to look at carbohydrates as medicine and being scared because you're low, taking way more than you need, and then suddenly your back's back up again. (8:43) And maybe you've got enough insulin in there to handle the carbs for your blood sugar, but you've taken in way more calories than your Correct. (8:49) Once. (8:50) Got it. (8:50) Okay.
Jenny Smith Yep. (8:52) So that's it. (8:53) That's that insulin is it's kind of the key place to start, really. (8:57) Okay. (8:57) And, you know, and then a lot of people ask, well, how much insulin should I really be on? (9:01) How is this enough for me? (9:03) Is that enough for me? (9:04) I know we just talked about that
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith Kind of in-depth in another episode, but really, you know, figuring out about how much insulin you need based on a weight to begin with, that's kind of a starting place that you could go to. (9:19) How much total daily insulin are you using right now? (9:22) What's your, like, current body weight, etcetera? (9:27) Should you be using this much insulin? (9:29) Is it taking this much more insulin to counter things? (9:33) Or are you using, like, a heck of a lot more, like, let's call insulin. (9:38) Right? (9:38) But you see that your bolus insulin is for a lot of corrections. (9:42) And when you're looking at your data, you can see that the corrections are following lows. (9:47) There again, more insulin than you really need, and thus your body is going to pack away by allowing the insulin to use up the food.
Scott Benner It's funny because I wasn't a 100% sure what you were gonna say today. (10:01) And yet I feel like we're into this situation again where the podcast should maybe be three minutes long and it should say limit your variability. (10:11) Use the right amount of insulin. (10:14) And it kind of addresses so many things. (10:17) I I know this isn't weight loss, specific, but let me just ask you one question. (10:23) How many people you know, what percentage of people do you think, just a guess, are are getting to reasonable outcomes by mistake? (10:36) Like they're bolusing too much, but they're eating on time and their basil's too low and it works out. (10:41) Or their basil's too high and they eat before they get low and they don't have to bolus too much and it like, many people are getting their the wrong way, but it seems like it's working and then have underlying issues that they don't recognize?
Jenny Smith I wouldn't say it's I wouldn't say it's anywhere near a majority of people, honestly. (11:01) I'd say it's a small percentage of people who have figured out insulin needs even though the dosing strategy that they're using might be wrong. (11:10) Like you said, maybe there's way too little basal, but they're offsetting it with boluses. (11:13) And maybe the little amount of basal they're using is right for their overnights, and that's why it looks stable or, you know, vice versa, whatever. (11:20) But I don't think that's the majority of people. (11:23) I think the majority of people who are having issues with blood sugar fluctuations that they don't want and also likely are having some issues with weight management of some type, it's it's a start of let's look at what the initial factor could be insulin.
Calories, Metabolism, and Adjusting Insulin
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith And then you move on further and, you know, lifestyle is a big part of it, obviously.
Scott Benner Right.
Jenny Smith So then we look at things like calorie intake. (11:52) And I think some of the some of the questions that came in were kind of, you know, around that. (11:58) Well, you know, I've run a calorie deficit, and I've, like, run myself ragged going to the gym or, you know, exercising ninety hours a week or whatever, and it's still not working.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith But I you know, and then, you know, there's the fasting component and all of these things that people try to put into the picture. (12:17) Mhmm. (12:17) But from the standpoint of calorie, your calorie needs should meet your baseline kind of need Okay. (12:26) In general. (12:27) And then if you were working out on top of that or, you know, a training athlete or whatnot, then calorie needs go up. (12:34) But at a minimum, there is kind of a minimum on average that needs to be there. (12:40) It's about a thousand calories a day, give or take person to person. (12:44) But when you start dipping below that, oftentimes what ends up happening is your body conserves because you're not meeting a need. (12:52) And then you wonder, well, I'm at a deficit. (12:56) Why am I not losing?
Scott Benner Because your body thinks you're lost on a desert island and it doesn't it's trying to hold on to everything you put inside it. (13:03) Exactly. (13:04) I've had that problem where I've by eating more food, I've lost weight and eating less, it it didn't it didn't impact me as as a fact in fact, it sort of made me go the wrong way. (13:14) So okay. (13:15) So if someone asks you, is it not as simple as, hey, I need to lose weight. Can you tell me where to start? (13:22) Is it really person to person? (13:25) Like because what do you have to do first? (13:26) Like like, think about if you were listening to this right now and you could be any of the varied people who are listening, like, where do people start?
Jenny Smith I would definitely say with well, first might even be an analysis of where are you and where do you wanna be Mhmm. (13:44) Or where have you been weight wise. (13:46) Right? (13:46) What's your goal to get to and how much more are you above that than you want to be? (13:53) And also in that timeframe, it goes back to insulin analysis. (13:59) If you've gained weight as many people have in this past year, if you have gained weight, but your insulin doses haven't really shifted, therein lies a piece of the puzzle too. (14:15) Right? (14:16) Usually, for about a 10% change to your baseline, like, weight, you're probably going to expect a need to change your your basal and your bolus ratios by about 10% as well to be more aggressive and to take, you know, take into consideration that gain. (14:33) Now when people are looking for loss, they're like, yeah, but I don't wanna use more insulin Mhmm. (14:38) Because that's not gonna work.
Scott Benner And they think no insulin put the weight on them.
Jenny Smith Correct.
Scott Benner Okay. (14:44) Gotcha.
Jenny Smith But really they need to first manage their blood sugars.
Scott Benner Right.
Jenny Smith And then they can start working on whittling away or whittling back. (14:52) And some of that comes into, okay, let's look at the lifestyle things. (14:56) Okay. (14:56) Let's look at, are you exercising or are you active enough? (15:00) Does your calorie intake meet what your actual need is? (15:04) You know, where can we whittle away some things so that weight comes down? (15:08) And along with it then, as you do lose, the same thing happens with insulin.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith Your insulin doses should be adjusted back based on loss.
Scott Benner You you are making me think so strongly about when somebody comes to me and says, hey, I just got diabetes and, I play a sport or my kid, you know, is on the team and we're so worried about this. (15:31) And I very badly don't wanna give them a Band Aid answer about how to get through the sport. (15:36) I wanna tell them, let's take the time now and get your insulin right so that during the activity, there really isn't any issue.
Jenny Smith Right.
Scott Benner And it's hard for people to believe that once they've seen it. (15:47) Once they see cause and effect, once they see I ran around and my blood sugar went down, they imagine that is going to happen no matter what all the time. (15:55) And Arden's I'm sure you're the same way, but Arden's insulin is so well balanced at this point. (15:59) Like, activity doesn't make her lower or higher, really. (16:03) It's not it doesn't really change too much.
Jenny Smith Yeah. (16:06) It I think that brings in, you know, the consistency of exercise or activity. (16:11) Right? (16:11) The more attuned your body is, let's say you go out for an hour every single single day to get some form of real exercise.
Scott Benner Right.
Jenny Smith Right? (16:19) Your body gets used to that. (16:21) So initially, you might see that your insulin needs drop off within the hours of the active time. (16:28) Right? (16:28) And maybe even stretching several hours later depending on what you did. (16:32) But over time, that impact is lessened. (16:35) You will usually need to be less aggressive with insulin adjustment or maybe not at all. (16:41) I mean, I can typically take my kids to the park and not really worry too much about that unless I know I'm really gonna run around crazy with them, and I likely have insulin on board.
Scott Benner Right.
Jenny Smith So then something needs to be, you know, offset. (16:57) But so yeah. (16:58) I mean, once you get to the point of, like, lifestyle adjustments and a base insulin that's working, your fluxes in insulin dose then will be minimized. (17:08) You also have to I think oh, sorry. (17:11) Go ahead.
Scott Benner I was gonna say I think people need to be certain too that once they start exercising, their body is going to use the insulin better. (17:18) The answer then is not to feed the low, it's to adjust the insulin. (17:22) Correct. (17:22) You know, maybe the first time you have to feed it, but then you have to learn from there and make an adjustment so that you're not constantly battling yourself because that is what happens. (17:30) Right? They exercise, they get low, they eat. (17:33) It it out the it out it overpowers what they meant to accomplish. (17:37) Okay.
Jenny Smith And then they and then you end up getting frustrated too. (17:40) Well, goodness. (17:40) I go to the gym, but I have to eat like a whole sandwich and a half a banana in order to go to the gym and not have a low blood sugar. (17:47) What's the purpose of that when I'm trying to lose weight?
Scott Benner And then I stopped doing it because
Jenny Smith And they stopped doing it. (17:52) Right. (17:52) Right? (17:52) Or on on the other side of it, you know, someone who may actually, okay. (17:57) I'm going to really focus in on my diet. I'm gonna clean it up. (18:00) I'm gonna, you know, cut my macros down and actually meet the caloric need that I'm at right now. (18:06) Mhmm. (18:07) And then what they end up with many times are lows, especially the cleaner the diet gets and the more accurate intake of calorie value is for that person. (18:17) Your insulin needs will actually come down sooner. So to avoid lows and needing to treat in the time period where you're really trying to be, let's be good, let's say.
Scott Benner Right.
Jenny Smith Just take your insulin doses down by maybe even it's just your basal. (18:33) Take it down by maybe five to ten percent across the board.
Clean Eating vs Processed Foods and Insulin Ratios
Scott Benner Okay. (18:37) So it's get your insulin right. (18:40) So it's understand diabetes first. (18:43) Mhmm. (18:43) And then it's the normal stuff we all talk about. It's being active, getting your heart rate up. (18:51) Sedentary lifestyle leads to more resistant blood sugars, which leads to more insulin, which probably leads to more lows because you get out of balance blood sugars. (19:00) And what you just said about clean eating, we don't really talk about it. (19:06) Like, we like, if we were all out in a field. (19:08) Okay? Let's just say this. (19:10) If it was four hundred years ago and somehow insulin existed, but we were still just farming and breakfast might be an apple you found on the ground. (19:20) And maybe on Wednesday, if you're lucky, the guy up the street kills an elk and we get a steak. (19:26) Right? (19:27) Like, if we were still eating like that and we had man made insulin, people would not be using nearly as much insulin as they
Jenny Smith use now. (19:33) Jenny just Oh, like no. (19:34) Not at all. (19:35) I mean, you were living on, like, berries that you picked along the trail that you were tracking the elk on and then you stopped and you ate some of the watercress, You get your vitamin c out of the, like, stream that floated by or whatever. (19:51) No way. (19:52) No.
Scott Benner You might not need as much insulin. (19:54) Right.
Jenny Smith No. (19:54) You wouldn't. (19:55) And you're also active level that I mean, most, like, let's call them, you know, cave dwellers or whatever at that point of life. (20:02) Right? (20:02) Activity was part of your day. They didn't have a gym that they went to. (20:07) Yeah. (20:07) That's moving. (20:07) Their hunt for the bison man was like activity.
Scott Benner I bet you running from a mountain lion burns carbs. (20:16) What do you think? (20:17) Do you think?
Jenny Smith I bet you it does. (20:18) Exactly. (20:19) Yeah.
Scott Benner So I guess my point is is that while I'm not telling anybody how to eat and I'm not certainly telling you that my daughter's counting macros or anything like that, Processed foods, right, man made foods, stuff that comes in bags, oils that don't belong in your body, all the stuff that we consume all the time that we're not aware of, it's making your variability greater and it's making it more difficult for you to use insulin.
Jenny Smith True. (20:44) In fact, I've also kind of heard people and there's truth to it. (20:48) Many people have found that if they eat a true carb, let's say they eat an apple and they bolus for it, they end up with the ratio that they're using for that simple, like, very clean carb
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith To go low.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith And then when they mix it up and let's say they have potato chips or something along with the apple or they have something, you know, more processed along with it, their carb count ends up looking clean. (21:17) Like, okay, it comes out. (21:19) I don't get low later. (21:20) So what gives? (21:21) It really is that the body processes more natural food in a better way. There's less leftover to kind of linger in impact. (21:35) And a lot of people are basing their insulin to carb ratios more specifically around combination meals that are not quite as, for lack of a better term, clean.
Scott Benner Right. (21:47) So Right. (21:47) Your your heavier insulin ratios work better if you have the orange with the potato chips. (21:54) But if you just eat the orange, the orange doesn't need as much insulin, so the ratios you have are too heavy. (21:59) Correct. Yeah. (22:01) I now Arden's ratios are heavier because she doesn't you know, she eats a a diet that has processed foods mixed into it. (22:07) Mhmm. (22:07) But she'd go on a kick around this time of year about oranges where I have to buy, like, 10 pound bags of oranges to keep around the house. (22:15) And, she's like, I want an orange. I want an orange. (22:18) Now these are big, like softball sized oranges that I'm Are
Jenny Smith they the Caracara oranges? (22:21) Those are my favorite.
Scott Benner Yeah. (22:22) I think they are. (22:23) And they're really good. (22:24) Right? (22:24) And Yeah. But I bet you and I've never looked, but I bet you that the carb count on them has gotta be more like 25 or something like that.
Jenny Smith Like They're huge.
Scott Benner It could be more. (22:34) Right? (22:34) But I only give her enough insulin for like 11 carbs. (22:37) And I and she does a little one thirty rise and comes back again because Yeah. (22:41) I you know, because I know her ratio is higher to handle other things which is why you look at plates and go, okay. Tonight, I don't need as much, you know, for the Right. (22:53) But this is not this is not gonna be a satisfying. (22:56) You know people just wanna hear, like, please just tell me what to do and I'll do it and this will work. (23:00) But nobody wants to hear, I guess, this. (23:05) I know I don't. Like, you know what I mean? (23:07) I don't have diabetes and I as I'm listening, I was like, oh, this is how I would lose weight too. (23:14) Yeah. (23:15) You know, it's it's just do you think that we've just spent so much time as a society looking for marketable sellable ideas about how to get around the idea of being in shape. (23:28) There's no it's it's exercise and calories. Right?
Jenny Smith And I think that's the reason that there are so many I mean, if you look at around the first of the year, they're I can't remember which publication it is, but they come out with an analysis of, I think, like, the the top most or maybe it's the 25 top most, like, used call them diets Mhmm. (23:52) Right, in the past year. (23:53) And what's kind of proven true to what it promotes and what really isn't, it's kind of, like, flimsy. (24:00) Right? (24:02) And some of the top ones are things like the Mediterranean diet.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith By no means am I promoting that or whatever. (24:10) I'm just saying that that ends up being top from a lot of different health parameters. (24:15) And it's also a clean way of eating. (24:18) Most people think Mediterranean and they think, well, lots of breads and lots of starchy things. (24:22) And that's actually not true. A lot of it is plants, especially the really good nonstarchy vegetable types of plants. (24:31) And then if there are grains, they're the heartier grains. (24:35) Right? (24:35) I mean, it doesn't tell you to eat your carbs as a bag of Doritos. (24:40) It tells you to go and eat some quinoa on your salad with, you know, an orange on the side. Right? (24:47) But I think it brings in diets. (24:50) Yeah. (24:50) This idea that there is the perfect thing out there.
Scott Benner Right. (24:54) Right. (24:54) And and that it's gonna be doable for somebody because maybe listen. (24:57) Maybe macro accounting, maybe there's a biologist somewhere that could give you the perfect diet for your body. (25:02) But where am I getting that from? And where are most people getting that? (25:05) I I have to tell you that a couple of weeks ago, I started getting achy. (25:09) Right? (25:09) And then I looked in the mirror and I was like, my face looks puffy. (25:12) And I went to the Costco and I bought two little roaster chickens and four steaks. I smoked them all, sliced them up, put them in the refrigerator. (25:22) I've been eating those and salads and some of those oranges because they're around the house.
Jenny Smith Oh, they're really good.
Scott Benner Yeah. (25:29) For about the past eight or nine days, I'm easily ten pounds lighter than I was. (25:33) And I know that I know I'm a fluctuating person. (25:35) Like, I know I jump around. (25:36) Like, because what'll happen is at some point, someone's gonna give me a piece of bread. And I'm gonna pick, oh my god. (25:40) Bread. (25:40) Does everyone remember bread? (25:42) And then I then I'm gonna eat a lot of bread for a week, and then I'm gonna go, now my back's stiff, and I feel like I gained five pounds and and all that stuff. (25:51) But just if I explained to you that most of my meals have been, like, a couple of eggs in the morning and a couple of tiny slices off of that steak. And then at lunch, some some of the chicken and some of the steak with a salad. (26:03) And I've I feel great. (26:04) And I know it's true, like, because I've been through it enough now now to talk my stupid childish inside into, like, just continuing on that way, that I don't know if I'm ever gonna get to do. (26:15) But I do know it's honest and it works for me and I've seen it work for other people too. (26:19) Like, you take out processed food and carbs and you're you're better off. Like, I don't know. (26:25) It just seems obvious. (26:26) But
Jenny Smith And it's and it's, you know, like you said, you're not focusing on, like, macros. (26:30) You're not focusing on how many do I need in a day. (26:33) You're what we end up finding, and I think this is the premise behind a lot of the, like, the paleo kind of diet and the keto type of diet. (26:42) Right? (26:43) It's if you're following the rules of those plans pretty well, they can be very clean eating plans. Yeah. (26:52) They can. (26:53) There can also just like being vegetarian can be or vegan can be very healthy way of eating. (27:01) But there are also, like, the complete, like, backside of that where you're eating a lot of processed vegan or, like, the the keto, like, kinds of things that are, like, the treats and whatnot. (27:13) If you're focusing your intake on a lot of that kind of stuff, you're lacking in quality. And then your macros may very well without you realizing it be completely out of order. (27:23) Mhmm. (27:24) And I think that's why a lot of, like, plans like this end up failing. (27:28) You know, I followed keto, and it was supposed to be this magic, like, weight loss. (27:32) And I also have diabetes, and it was really supposed to help with my blood sugar management and whatnot. Well, I haven't lost any weight. (27:39) Well, maybe there are some things then to evaluate within it. (27:44) Keto diet is a way to get your body to start utilizing fat instead of carbs. (27:53) So if you haven't really analyzed how you've broken that down to make sure that you are one maintaining ketosis in the right way, and that the kinds of like carbs that you're eating are really not off setting, then it may not work well for you.
Scott Benner Don't you find that you have to be in tune with what what satisfies your body? (28:18) Like not not what satisfies your brain. (28:20) Right? (28:20) But what satisfies your body. (28:22) And I've absolutely I've seen myself go either way. Like, where you're just eating for taste and flavor and comfort, and that's never usually good for your body. (28:33) And then there's a way where you're just sort of never hungry. (28:36) It it's it's that's where I am this week. (28:38) I have not been hungry this week. (28:40) And if I have had any, like, inkling towards a sweet, I've been specifically careful to take just, like, dark chocolate. Like, just a little bit of dark chocolate. (28:49) It's like, this will this will get me through, Like, with Mhmm. (28:52) What I'm assuming is basically withdrawals from flour and sugar and stuff like that. (28:56) You know? (28:57) So I don't know. Like, are you telling are you telling me that all these questions aren't even worth looking at, or should we ask them?
Jenny Smith No. (29:03) I think they're very worth looking at because I think some of them may relate to what we've kind of already gotten into. (29:10) And then some of them, I think, are really good questions in terms of the why it wouldn't be working.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith Right?
Scott Benner Let's do it.
Jenny Smith Or why it might actually work. (29:21) So, yeah, let's Alright. (29:23) Take a look.
Scott Benner Do you have a favorite or should I just pick?
Jenny Smith You just pick.
Navigating Celiac Disease and Gluten-Free Alternatives
Scott Benner Alright. (29:26) Well, so Jennifer's asking about her son. (29:28) She says, any any advice on how to balance all this high carb gluten free food for my growing always hungry 14 year old t one d with celiac? (29:37) So she has a son who seems to need slimming down and at the same time, she's giving him a lot of carb heavy stuff because it's like it's some of this, for the celiac diet, seems like. (29:50) Right? The gluten stuff.
Jenny Smith Right. (29:53) And that's I mean, celiac is a hard addition. (29:57) Mhmm. (29:57) It definitely is because while we now have a plethora of gluten free, very tasty products on the market, most of them are made with very, very processed, very high glycemic. (30:12) I mean, higher glycemic than even your wheat based bread, you know, type of pasta, it might be.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith So when you start processing things like rice into a flour or, you know, potato into a flour, you have a quicker digestive component to that. (30:34) Mhmm. (30:34) And it raises the blood sugar faster. (30:37) Its glycemic index is just high comparatively. (30:40) So when you have to do these types of things, especially if you have a teen who is growing, is active, but also could maybe use some slimming down or maybe needs to gain a bit of weight. One, it's maybe sitting down honestly with a a dietitian Right. (31:00) To see what are my child's growing nutrition needs right now. (31:04) Are we, you know, keeping kind of a log a couple of days of what are they really intaking? (31:10) And then looking at what their nutrition needs should be for the point in life where they are. (31:16) Are they moderately active? Are they heavily active? (31:20) Are they kind of couch potato video gamers? (31:23) What is it and what do they need? (31:26) And then looking at the kind of food that you put into their caloric need.
Scott Benner Right.
Jenny Smith Again, I mean, parents are typically the purchasers of the food in the house. (31:37) Yeah. (31:37) Give or take.
Scott Benner You don't think this 14 year old's got a credit card?
Jenny Smith Yeah. (31:41) Yeah. (31:41) No. (31:41) I mean and my kids, gosh. (31:43) I mean, if we walk down the aisles in a grocery store and they see, like, the pretty packages and, you know, like, I've never go we don't put eat cereal, so I don't go down the cereal aisle. But they'll always have something on, like, an end cap Mhmm. (31:56) You know, at the grocery.
Scott Benner Yeah. (31:58) You're like, oh.
Jenny Smith Especially my eight year olds. (31:59) You'd like, boy, that looks really good, mom. (32:02) I'm like, yeah. (32:03) And it's not really good for your body.
Scott Benner That's why they have to make the picture so nice.
Jenny Smith Like, poor kids. (32:09) Right?
Scott Benner Like, And there's no fun here. (32:12) Stop it. (32:14) Well
Jenny Smith So I think, you know, from from that standpoint, you have to look at what is the child in need of? (32:19) Are you meeting it? (32:20) Are you creating excess? (32:23) And then potentially from a gluten free standpoint
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith Finding substitutions that can be fit in to meet his tastes. (32:32) Because all kids and teens are different, you know, as much as you want them to eat asparagus, they might not.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith So, you know
Scott Benner Right. (32:39) So so you have to be it's listen. (32:42) I know if if you've been listening for a while, you know that I it took me a while to diagnose my low iron thing years ago. (32:48) And during that, a doctor made me eat, like, gluten free for a month, and I gained a lot of weight because I went out and bought all these gluten free items. (32:57) And somehow in my mind, I was like, gluten free equals health. That's how it felt to me. (33:00) So I was like, oh, it felt like zero calorie stuff when I was going in and man, it was just not. (33:06) I think if this was me, if Jennifer was me and I didn't know what I was doing, I think I'd introduce, like, lower carb, more meat friendly, like, meals. (33:18) Like, that's what would occur to me first. (33:20) Right? Make some chicken, make some steak, put it with a a salad or a vegetable, and maybe cut down on carbs. (33:26) But then you gotta remember, like we spoke about earlier, not to dose it as harshly as you would some of this gluten free stuff or you're just gonna create a low and you're gonna
Jenny Smith And then have more.
Scott Benner What you did by with the
Jenny Smith meat. (33:36) Right. (33:36) Okay. (33:37) And I think, you know, when we look at, you know, going back to just that, like, clean eating idea, quite honestly, you can be gluten free if you're choosing to not buy as much processed food pretty easily. (33:52) Mhmm.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith I mean, you know, things like quinoa or, like a wild rice or even like a brown rice or what that's a 100% gluten free.
Scott Benner Yeah. (34:02) It's the fun stuff where it causes your problem.
Jenny Smith Right. (34:05) It's not taking it out of the diet. (34:07) It's just that you know, and I know the struggle with kids. (34:10) I work with plenty of kids and teens to know that what they get at home under mom and dad influence because this is what you're eating turns around and it changes considerably once they start to do things with their friends. (34:24) Mhmm. You know? (34:25) Now gluten free in the picture, if the child is paying attention to that and knows that they just can't have gluten, they may already then have limitations even compared to what their friends are eating because they know that they just can't do it or they're not gonna feel good. (34:43) Right? (34:44) But in that circumstance, then it kinda takes sitting down and figuring out, well, what that what will possibly be there that you could have.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith Knowing that it's still more of like a process tree kind of thing, but also that, you know, we're not gonna do this at home.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith But you could have it when you're out.
Insulin on Board and Intermittent Fasting
Scott Benner Right. (35:05) Okay. (35:05) Laura has a question. (35:06) It says, is it true that insulin on board prevents the body from breaking down fat? (35:11) Meaning that in order to burn fat, you need to have stretches of time with only your basal insulin and no insulin on board. That's interesting. (35:19) I've never heard that.
Jenny Smith Yeah. (35:21) It is a I guess it's an interesting way to frame it. (35:23) I mean, we know that in the we know that in the overnight time period without any food on board and on basil only, our body does get into more of that, like, fasting state
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith Right, of actually transitioning to some fat burn, etcetera, because you're on a low level of insulin.
Scott Benner I see what she's saying. (35:45) Okay.
Jenny Smith But when you have insulin on board, technically, there's a reason for the insulin on board. (35:53) Right. (35:54) Right? (35:55) You're dosing for food. (35:56) So that insulin on board should be covering food that is there. So yes, your body's processing carbohydrates and your body is not at that point then going to be in fat burn mode. (36:10) It's kind of correct in in a way of stating it. (36:13) Yes. (36:15) I mean, the same thing for a high blood sugar that you've corrected. (36:18) Now you've got IOB.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Jenny Smith And the high blood sugar indicates that there's excessive sugar there and your body needs to process it. (36:27) And as such, it's using the insulin to process it and break it down and get it in the right places. (36:32) So, again, technically, as long as there's not an insulin deficit in that high blood sugar scenario and the insulin is working to get it down, then your body isn't also breaking down fats either.
Scott Benner Then is that a a vote for intermittent fasting for type ones?
Jenny Smith It could be. (36:55) And can intermittent fasting work?
Scott Benner Right.
Jenny Smith It it can. (37:01) But, again, a blanket statement is to say that any plan that you choose, no long term that you can continue this.
Scott Benner Right.
Jenny Smith The problem with the diets that are out there isn't the diet itself. (37:18) In fact, there's a lot of research around a lot of the diets that proves long term, these people have had this success in weight management and cardiovascular benefit, etcetera, etcetera, but they've stuck with it.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith It is the, oh, I'm gonna do intermittent fasting. (37:32) Oh, I'm gonna do the keto diet. (37:34) Oh, I'm gonna do the, you know, cabbage soup diet for the next month. (37:38) And once it starts kind of showing benefit
Scott Benner I'm having a point.
Jenny Smith Like, if I can be a I can kinda step outside of the rules, the parameters, which are often for diets, very black and white.
Scott Benner Yes.
Jenny Smith Do this, this, and this, but don't do this. (37:55) And as soon as you do the don't do this Mhmm. (37:57) You've broken the piece of that plan that was getting you to your goal.
Scott Benner Right. (38:03) I I found intermittent fasting the easiest to stick with. (38:07) Because to me, what it was was as long as I don't eat like, don't eat after eight and don't eat before noon. (38:12) That's basically how I did it. (38:14) And I have to admit, it's very effective. Now, I realized while I was doing it that Arden basically does that already without the late night thing. (38:24) But she's so young, I don't think it matters. (38:26) Right? (38:26) But she gets up in the morning and is not normally hungry in the morning. (38:30) And so I've had to, over time, thoughtfully balance out how her insulin works in the morning. Right? (38:35) How do I come out of sleep into feet on the floor off to school without a rise that needs a bunch of insulin so that I don't create a low because she really doesn't wanna eat until she's done with school or till lunchtime. (38:47) Right?
Jenny Smith Sure.
Scott Benner So, basically, Arden does intermittent fast except she doesn't do sixteen is it sixteen? (38:56) Wait. (38:56) Eighteen, nineteen, twenty. (38:57) Yeah. (38:58) Sixteen eight. That was embarrassing.
Jenny Smith It's like I have to think again.
Scott Benner A lot of people would edit that out, but I'm not going to. (39:05) She doesn't do sixteen eight in as much as she probably does, like, maybe fourteen ten, something like that. (39:12) But also, she's 16, so she can
Jenny Smith Right.
Scott Benner You know, she can like, we overbolised her meal last night for dinner. (39:19) We had stuffed, peppers, like, stuffed peppers and and a salad. (39:25) And my wife my wife, like, swung at it really hard. (39:28) And about a half hour after she ate, I was like, hey. (39:31) Your blood sugar is, like, stuck at 70. I was like, I this doesn't look okay to me. (39:34) Like, I think this is gonna go the wrong way. (39:36) You know? (39:37) And so as it started to trend away, Arden got a little light in her eye and she goes, cinnamon toast crunch, please. (39:43) And then so she knew she had basically pre bowl a cereal. So she was like, let's do it. (39:48) And and she had some of that. (39:50) Had my wife gone, I'm gonna guess, 10 or 15 carbs less on the bolus? (39:54) She hit it right on. (39:55) She was so close. Yeah. (39:57) But but, you know, that's a young kid.
The Hidden Impact of Thyroid Health and Vitamin D
Scott Benner And Arden's also helped by other things that I I think are worth mentioning here too. (40:06) Because those of you listening have type one diabetes or love somebody who does, you really have to get your thyroid levels checked.
Jenny Smith Yeah.
Scott Benner Like, you could be fighting against a borderline thyroid problem that's making weight loss impossible. (40:21) Correct. (40:22) You know, and you if you're going to do that, you really need to go back and listen to the thyroid episode with doctor Benito because the range that your doctor's gonna say your thyroid, your TSH level's okay in, a real badass endocrinologist will not accept. (40:38) You know what I They will not like, if you're over a two, doctor Benito's giving you thyroid hormone. (40:45) Like and there are people right now who are listening like, oh, my TSH is a five. My doctor said it's okay. (40:50) I'm borderline.
Jenny Smith Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah. (40:51) Right? (40:52) But I but my hair does fall out a little bit or I'm having trouble losing weight or I'm a little nasty sometimes or whatever the other things come. (40:59) Right? (40:59) I'm just telling you, if your thyroid's moving the wrong way, deal with it because it makes a lot of life easier.
Jenny Smith And it's a lot within this whole topic of weight management. (41:10) Absolutely. (41:11) If you've the Hashimoto's, which is very common autoimmune, once you've got type one, it's good to get tested thyroid levels at least once a year, if not every six months, especially if you've got other family who has a thyroid disorder known already. (41:26) But that's huge in terms of metabolic.
Scott Benner Yeah. (41:30) But you have to you have to advocate for yourself. (41:33) You can't say, oh my god, Scott. (41:34) You're right. (41:35) I am tired all the time, and I can't lose weight and blah blah blah. And then go to the doctor, the doctor say, oh, your TSH is four. (41:41) You're fine. (41:41) Your TSH is four. (41:42) You are not fine. (41:43) That's the equivalent. That to me is the thyroid equivalent of in diabetes when somebody says, oh, your blood sugar your average blood sugar is one eighty. (41:50) You're doing great.
Jenny Smith Right.
Scott Benner Right? (41:51) You well, you might Yeah. (41:52) You know, you're not dying, but you you're not living at a healthy level and that has other impacts on your life. (41:59) This thyroid thing is it is crazy. (42:02) It is like the equivalent you trust me at this point, I've seen everyone in my family except for me deal with it. It's like taking a long metal like paper clip and just touching it on a computer circuit board. (42:12) It just messes with stuff. (42:14) You know what I mean? (42:14) It doesn't shut you off, but it
Jenny Smith with with Arden's doses, have you noticed that when things get out of order, do you notice a shift in her insulin need? (42:24) Because that's very common
Scott Benner Right away.
Jenny Smith That, you know, metabolically she's feeling more sluggish and fatigued and insulin is just not working like it was supposed to work. (42:35) And there's a timeframe in terms of adjustment or even just starting on a thyroid medication where you will then start to notice a shift back to normal insulin dosing. (42:46) Mhmm. (42:46) See, again, that insulin manipulation in terms of the weight management piece with thyroid in the picture, you have to be very kind of eyes on Right. (42:56) To make sure that you're adjusting then where you had bumped everything up in terms of insulin need. You're going to need to start bumping down. (43:05) And if there's weight loss in the picture at the same time, definite need to bump down or you're gonna just run lows.
Scott Benner Yeah. (43:12) I there's some ideas I think I should even have a flow chart for myself. (43:15) Like, if this, then that kind of chart because you're right. (43:19) If the thyroid level starts to get away, then her insulin needs go up. (43:24) And then we adjust it. It doesn't happen right away and her insulin needs start coming back down again. (43:29) The same thing with, she had to start a a birth control pill to regulate her periods. (43:35) I lost three months of my life to figuring that out. (43:40) Like, it was just first, they gave her a pill with not enough estrogen in it, so it was basically just two wasted months. (43:47) She was exhausted all the time because she was bleeding constantly. Yeah. (43:51) So I had to get her through those pills. (43:53) Those aren't the right pills. (43:54) Put her on the right pill. (43:55) That started working. The bleeding regulated. (43:58) Yay. (43:58) Now she's lost so much blood. (44:00) I had to go get her an iron infusion. (44:02) Got her the iron infusion. Now we're waiting for that to come back up. (44:05) When the iron infusion comes on board, her insulin needs are gonna change again. (44:08) Yeah. (44:09) Vitamin d levels seem to impact insulin needs. (44:12) Yes. I just
Jenny Smith In fact, many people for vitamin d that you bring it up, that's another, like, piece. (44:19) And I think in terms of, like like, again, going down the rabbit hole of discussion and weight management, we're kind of on the track of, like, medications and medications in terms of thyroid as well as things like iron, but vitamin d. (44:33) Your lab will tell you optimal is between or standard is thirty to 100. (44:40) Optimal according to the female specific physician that I'd worked with years ago before I had my first son. (44:48) She was like, you know, optimal range is really 50 to 70 for vitamin D.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith She's like, and if it is not in there, you need to be being supplemented because otherwise, especially with diabetes, vitamin d works on the cellular level, and it allows insulin to be seen correctly, for lack of a better term, by the cells. (45:11) And so it lets insulin actually work the way that it's meant to of one of the many things that can. (45:17) So if your vitamin d level is off, supplement. (45:21) I mean, in general, someone with type one adult wise should be supplementing at least two thousand IUs a day. (45:27) Mhmm. And if your levels are not optimized, at least four thousand a day, and if they're really on the low end, you need to be doing, like, the hyper significant doses of vitamin d for a short period of time.
Scott Benner And give you, like
Jenny Smith And then
Scott Benner four fifty thousand IUs, and you take one once a week or something.
Jenny Smith Like once a week or I've even seen some doctors do like one ten thousand IU a day for, you know, a couple of weeks and then retest, but vitamin d is huge.
Scott Benner And I'm not a doctor, but there's something about vitamin d deficiency and autoimmune that go hand in hand. (46:00) So just Look at
Jenny Smith the studies out of Finland.
Scott Benner Right. (46:02) I tell you I listen. (46:03) I take five thousand a day and I I take five thousand a day of vitamin d. (46:08) I take a zinc tablet. (46:10) I take an ascorbic acid with iron, and a b twelve. And that's that's what I do every day. (46:18) And that's what, you know, my kids do and and everyone here is doing because when the d levels drop, again, problems with insulin. (46:26) I'll tell you right now too, because Jenny mentioned ranges that you need to be in versus what lab values will tell you. (46:34) Doctor Benito back in the thyroid thing said if you were a woman of childbearing years, anything under 70 for your ferritin is too low. (46:43) And they're not gonna tell you you're low till 20. So she's like, if you are having a period, you you gotta be above 70.
Jenny Smith Mhmm.
Scott Benner And so there's a lot of things. (46:53) And then all of these things also impact your body's ability to work correctly, which is in part and parcel losing weight or maintaining weight.
Medications, ADD, and Menopause
Jenny Smith Right. (47:02) There was one in here that does go along with medications that I think is a really important question. (47:10) This woman has a son on a medication that is more for, like, attention. (47:15) Mhmm. (47:16) And it's specific to using it versus not using it, school year versus spring date break or summertime, and what ends up happening in terms of insulin needs. Okay. (47:26) And I think it's an important one because I've seen a lot of kids who are using ADD, ADHD kinds of meds. (47:34) And a very, very common thing with those is that it decreases appetite.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith And if they're using it in their school day and they're also the brain uses carbs. (47:48) And so the more thinking that's going on and the potential that they're really not hungry, they may not even finish the lunch that you packed for them. (47:57) They may pick at the lunch that comes from the school lunch because their brain is just saying, I'm not hungry enough to eat.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith You may end up having to have two types of Bazel profiles. (48:08) Maybe one for, like, a spring break time off, another one for school days. (48:15) And again, as kids get more into the teen years, that becomes really beneficial in terms of growth and the potential for weight gain in the wrong direction. (48:25) Because if you're constantly feeding Lowe's again or constantly adjusting insulin up and down, but it's kind of willy nilly and not quite right on with need Mhmm. (48:35) It's a medication adjustment kind of thing that goes along with adjusting insulin again.
Scott Benner We're right up on it, but there's enough questions in here that all circle around menopause. (48:47) Do you have any feelings about what happens at that time? (48:50) And Jenny's like, she's like
Jenny Smith That's a
Scott Benner fun one. (48:53) I'm worried
Jenny Smith about that for myself. (48:55) Mean, in general, menopause in and of itself, I mean, perimenopause really is the start of kind of that time period in a woman's life where your cycles might start to get less evenly spaced. (49:07) Right? (49:07) Let's say you were the typical, like, twenty nine days and you was right on spot. (49:12) And now like, now it's like twenty six days and next month it might be thirty two days and then maybe twenty nine days. And, you know, periods can get a little bit more aggressive, or kind of look more spotty, but that perimenopause kind of leading into menopause, which is really a woman has not had a cycle in a twelve month time period.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith Right? (49:35) So insulin needs can look very jumpy. (49:39) You might even find that, again, as we get older and these things come into the picture from a female perspective, our metabolism does slow down. (49:50) We oftentimes start to need a little bit more insulin, or it takes a little bit more activity to maintain or burn off what we were able to do when we were 30. (50:04) That doesn't work anymore when you're 45 or 50. Right? (50:08) So a menopause, perimenopause, it brings in a whole circle of hormone impact
Scott Benner Right.
Jenny Smith That may more aggressively change your insulin needs, especially around your cycle times.
Scott Benner So not unlike, I guess, aggressive, but not unlike having your period and seeing hormone fluctuations throughout the month.
Jenny Smith Right. (50:29) And then once you're in menopause, oftentimes, you know, outwards of a year or two post no longer having a a cycle, many times then insulin levels should get more stable because you don't have that hormone flux. (50:47) As we age, men and women have less and less and less growth hormone cycling anyway. (50:53) And so we end up, especially women past about the age of 65 or people past about the age of 65, oftentimes their baseline basal needs definitely go down.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith And the reason there is because their hormone cycling has kind of started dropping off.
Scott Benner Okay. (51:11) Alright. (51:11) Did we do this justice in an hour? (51:13) Because I feel like we did, but I don't know much.
Jenny Smith I think that we did as much as we could get in in an hour. (51:19) I mean, if we really wanted to focus in, again, dig really deep into that information hole, there's a whole bunch about meds that are very specific to, like, weight loss and, you know, things like the GLP ones and things like the SGLT twos and what despite them being type two meds, they are getting a lot more. (51:47) They're kind of climbing on the ladder of benefit for those with type one and who are just insulin users.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith And they do have promise in terms of weight management if used the correct way. (52:01) Okay. (52:02) So
Scott Benner Do and do you feel comfortable talking about that? (52:04) Because maybe we'll just say here that if you like this episode, look for that one coming in the future. (52:09) Okay. (52:10) Great. (52:11) Thank you. Yeah. (52:12) Jenny, you were
Jenny Smith That was great.
Scott Benner You got to do all the talking. (52:14) I I I was at some points uncomfortable. (52:18) I was just like, I not for because you, was like, There's not a lot for me to
Jenny Smith do here. (52:24) Was just checking sit back.
Scott Benner I was just saving files and checking rates and looking at questions. (52:28) I was like
Jenny Smith Feel like I should've just gone and gotten an extra cup of tea.
Scott Benner It's kinda nice. (52:32) I should've just said, Jenny, tell me about weight loss. (52:34) I'll be back in an hour. (52:35) Anyway, you worked out
Jenny Smith It really is. (52:37) I I was looking at all the questions. (52:39) I mean, there are a lot of really good questions, but I think a lot of them honestly go back to insulin. (52:48) Yeah. (52:48) Dosing it the right way for what you're kind of taking in. And then also secondly, looking at what are you taking in?
Scott Benner Right. (52:56) Yep. (52:56) Obviously. (52:57) In my mind, these questions all are they're similar. (53:00) They're tied together. Whether it's vitamins or your thyroid level or your calories or or whatever it ends up being, there is a balance that optimizes your body. (53:09) It's not gonna be the same for everybody. (53:11) Some people's vitamin d level can be crashy, low to the floor, and they'll never notice it and it won't matter to them. (53:16) But for some people, does. (53:18) And when you get those things in the right balance, then you feel better. And feeling better to me is you feel stronger, you're more rested, like, all of this stuff happens. (53:28) You're clear in your mind. (53:30) But how but some of these things nobody would even know to look into. (53:35) No. (53:35) You know? Even vitamin d. (53:37) Like, I can remember ten years ago, my nurse practitioner going, we're gonna start checking vitamin d. (53:42) Was almost like a mandate came down from a mountain. (53:44) You you know what I mean?
Jenny Smith Yeah. (53:46) Actually, I don't even know when that would have been, but if it wasn't I remember when I was working in DC, and the endo practice I worked with within the our director was very, like, high up within the whole, like, diabetes management, like, realm of Mhmm. (54:03) Information. (54:04) And his he was like, we are testing vitamin d levels for every person with diabetes. (54:09) And at that point, it was really just if the thought was it was relevant more to type two. But as we started testing, then I went to my own end to when I was like, you know, I run. (54:20) I'm outside all the time. (54:22) I have, like, you know, like, brown skin from being outside. (54:26) I was like, I don't think my I'm like, I'm sure it's fine. (54:29) In fact, my vitamin d level came back, and my doctor himself called me, not his nurse. He was like, this is really weird. (54:37) But he's like, I want you to go and get it tested again. (54:39) He's like, this can't be right. (54:40) And my level was 18. (54:42) Yeah. 18. (54:44) And so I went and got a test again. (54:46) Nope. (54:46) It was 18 again. (54:47) He was like, he did he that was the one time a week, the fifty thousand IUs. I came back in eight weeks, and it had moved to 21. (54:55) Mhmm. (54:56) And he was like, so I he sent me to see, like, a naturopath who is also a physician who knew a little bit more in that realm. (55:06) And she actually had me started she started me on oral drops.
Scott Benner Okay.
Jenny Smith And the drops get absorbed through your oral mucosa rather than having to go through your gut. (55:17) And because we know there's a lot in terms of gut and absorption in autoimmune disorders, she's like, I guarantee your body's not absorbing it.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Jenny Smith She said that's the problem. (55:29) And as within about, I think it was ten weeks after that, I got it retested and was already up in the high forties.
Scott Benner Yeah. (55:35) You know, I have to, I I thought I was gonna have to live getting iron infusions my whole life because I couldn't absorb it through my gut. (55:42) And I do probably have some, like, weird stuff going on down there too. (55:46) Sure. (55:46) And instead, I mix it. So first of all, I use a really pure, like, supplement from a company that, you know, you can do your own research and find one that you like for yourself. (55:56) But I researched out, found a really pure supplement, and I have to take the iron with an ascorbic acid at the same time. (56:03) Absorb. (56:03) I do that, it it absorbs great. (56:05) If I take just the iron tablet without the ascorbic acid, won't won't work.
Jenny Smith Yeah.
Scott Benner And that's it. (56:11) There's a over the counter one called Vitron or Vitron d or something like that. (56:14) It's it's a iron that comes with its c, vitamin c put together that helps that too. (56:20) But, yeah, these are the kinds of things no one's gonna tell you about, or they're just gonna blur it out. (56:24) We're testing for vitamin d now. Then you come back, quote, unquote, in range, and they don't give you one anyway. (56:29) And you're like, well, this was a lot of fun. (56:31) So, anyway, everybody balance your body, balance your insulin, things should get better. (56:37) That makes sense? (56:38) Alright. Thank you, Jenny.
Jenny Smith Yay. (56:40) You're welcome. (56:41) Absolutely.
Scott Benner Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. (56:48) Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan.
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