The Dangers of Dieting with Diabetes?

If you have Type 2 Diabetes and are overweight, losing 5-10% of your current weight will help improve your blood sugar levels. However, losing weight often requires you to assume a healthier life style and behavior change, not simply putting yourself on a diabetic diet. Many of the diets advertised today may be harmful and do not promote a holistic diabetes life style change.

So what are some of the Problems with dieting?

• Reduced intake of fiber, vitamins and minerals and take diabetes vitamins and supplements

• Reduced calories (units of energy that help the body function)

• Depending on medications, increased risk of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)

• Too difficult to follow long term which often results in regaining weight

Low in fiber, vitamins and minerals: Many fad diets eliminate certain food groups all together. Over time, these types of diets may cause vitamin and/or mineral deficiencies that can have a long-term harmful effect on the body. Diets that eliminate carbohydrates are often also very low in fiber. However, fiber is important for a healthy body, especially when managing Diabetes. Fiber makes you feel satiated so that you are less likely to overeat. Fiber also helps to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of certain types of cancers.

Too few calories: Most diets have too few calories. Believe it or not, you have to eat to lose weight! Following a very low calorie diet will eventually cause your metabolism to slow down. This will cause weight gain in the long run, not weight loss. Many people who follow low calorie diets and diabetic diet foods end up with “yo-yo” weight loss and gain.

Increased Risk for Hypoglycemia: Depending on your diabetes medicine, following a diet may increase your risk for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in this situation always check your blood sugar level through diabetic glucose meter. Skipping meals or eating too little at a meal could result in your blood sugar going too low. This can be especially dangerous if it happens at night or while operating heavy machinery such as a car or truck, as hypoglycemia often leads to fainting and light-headedness. Always prefer to take diabetes meal plans for Hypoglycemia.

Too Difficult to Follow Long-Term: Many diets are too restrictive or too difficult for anyone to follow for a long time. The result is usually weight gain, often more than you lost. Many people end up on a cycle of weight gain, loss, and gain. This is hard on the body and not good for the metabolism.

What Should You Do to Lose Weight?

If you wish to lose weight, you should choose a variety of foods for diabetics that provide your body with the nutrients it needs. Cut back on your portions, eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and limit saturated fats (fats from animal products and hydrogenated oils). Don’t deprive yourself of the foods you love, but remember it is important to eat everything in moderation and always use to check you fat by using body fat monitor and scale constantly. Remember, if a diet sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Exercise with Diabetic Footwear: Many people dealing with poorly controlled diabetes may suffer from damage to their nervous system.  In particular, the diabetes nerve damage can occur in the feet. A common result of this would be residual numbness which is extremely problematic. When your feet become numb, you may not notice minor injuries and diabetes foot pain. This, in turn, means you do not get quick, proper treatment for the problems. Such a scenario may lead to the problem becoming far, far worse. Diabetic footwear, plus inspecting your feet daily can certainly reverse a number of dangerous problems or prevent such issues from occurring in the first place.

The design of diabetes footwear, aids in reversing a host of potential problems. On the most basic levels, the footwear can provide support for the heels, arches, and overall structure of the foot. These shoes offer extra toe room to begin with.  These shoes also offer removable insoles that can be removed to create more space for swollen feet or more space to insert orthotics like arch support.  This can definitely aid in improving comfort levels and alleviating pain. Additionally, such diabetes shoes can improve circulation which can also reduce potential problems and physical ailments.

Some may be concerned that diabetes footwear it is not exactly fashionable. They may assume they may look, for lack of a better word, ‘geeky’ wearing such footwear. While there are definitely some items out there that are kind of dull in their appearance, some footwear are actually quite fashionable. So, you need not assume that footwear specifically designed for medical purposes lacks any fashion sense. Some folks out there put a lot of effort into the development of quality footwear. Do not dismiss their sense of style out of hand. You may really like some of the items in their inventory. Walk A Few Miles in These womens and mens diabetic shoes. And Some Lose Weight!