Hi Barb, yes ive been on just about every medication my doctor could throw at me, and that has been a story in itself. A lot of diabetic medications make it hard to lose weight, and that is a medically accepted fact. In particular I had awful experience with pioglitizone which put 20lbs on me in the space of 3 months! Gliclazide is another drug that will cause weight gain although not as bad as pioglitizone. However, when it comes to medication most doctors will resort to metformin in the first instance and this is one of the few diabetic drugs, along with glucophage which is the slow release versionof metformin, that will actualy help lose a bit of weight.
The problem with Metformin is that it is exceedingly irritant to the gut, and causes a lot of diarrhea initially. It was so bad for me that I basically couldnt leave the house. I then went onto Glucophage as the slow release version is less irritant but I still had problems. I should have perservered with the glucophage though as after a few weeks things will settle down, but as I drive every day for work I just didnt have the luxury of giving it time. Looking back, I should have taken 3 weeks off work to get to grips with it, but I didnt know that then.
After that, my doctor tried just about every tablet going, and then finally I went onto the injectible Byetta. I think this was the last resort before insulin. Byetta was what turned everything around for me, not because it was good at getting my blood sugars down (which im not entirely convinced it did a better job of than anything else i had tried) but because it made me feel sick as dog all the time. I stuck it for 3 weeks and was going to call it quits, then realised I had lost 18lbs in that time. That spurred me on to stay with it and over 7 months I lost most of the 7 stone, but I was sick every day for about 3 -4 hours after each injection (2 a day). It ruled my life but got the weight and my eating under control. It was during that time when i was desperate to avoid the awful nausea as best i could that I discovered low carb made me feel less sick, so I went onto a low carb regime to keep the sickness under control and in doing so got my blood sugars right down and with it my weight.
Im no longer on the Byetta, ive had it with feeling sick every day, and im now back on the glucophage and doing ok with it in conjunction with keeping off the refined carbs. I cant say I never eat carbs, but im very very careful about it now and stick to high protein food with unrefined carbs (fruit veg brown rice, absolutely no pasta which is a killer and very very little bread).
Sugary stuff was never a great problem for me, I much prefer savoury food, but burgers and pasta were my favourite foods and my biggest downfall. I can eat a little dark chocolate every now and then and as it is a complex carb does not impact my bloods too much but i wouldnt go eating a bar of it.
At my last blood test results my doctor suggested that if my bloods remain at the normal levels they are now, and given that I continue with the way i eat, that i could come off even the glucophage, so that I will be totally drug free.
Also as a result of getting food under control my cholestrol which was always very high, is now very low, so another added benefit.