Will taking insulin make you fat?

For many diabetic patients, they find that they gain weight after injecting insulin. This is a common phenomenon. In theory, injecting insulin will prevent blood sugar metabolism disorders, then blood sugar can be controlled and obesity problems can be avoided. However, in order to avoid hypoglycemia after injecting insulin, some patients will eat more food, which is also a reason for weight gain.

Will taking insulin make you fat?

The typical symptoms of diabetic patients are "three mores and one less", and the "one less" is weight loss. In other words, it is precisely because of the blood sugar metabolism disorder that the human body is unable to absorb the necessary energy, which leads to the occurrence of weight loss; and through exogenous injection of insulin, the human body's blood sugar metabolism can be maintained at a normal level, which enables the human body to absorb sufficient energy, therefore, it will gain weight.

1. Insulin is the only hormone that lowers blood sugar and can promote the synthesis of glycogen, fat and protein. Insulin is like a "porter" and human cells are like "warehouse managers". The functioning of the human body is like a "porter" carrying blood sugar into the warehouse. When the number of "porters" is insufficient, or the "warehouse manager" requires some "porters" not to enter human cells, it is equivalent to that the sugar can only float outside the warehouse and cannot enter the human cells managed by the "warehouse manager", thus failing to provide energy to the human body, so people will become thinner and thinner. The sugar in the blood cannot be used reasonably, so the blood sugar level will be very high; when exogenous insulin is supplemented, the sugar is able to reopen the door of tissue cells under the guidance of the "key" and enter the tissue cells from the blood. The human body can absorb the energy from sugar and promote the synthesis of fat and protein, so it will gradually gain weight.

2. Many diabetics will eat more food after taking insulin to avoid hypoglycemia. Some patients will also consume too much food after hypoglycemia to relieve the symptoms of hypoglycemia, and gain weight unknowingly.

In other words, the weight loss that occurs before insulin injection is abnormal, while weight gain is a sign of returning to normal.

There are 3 solutions:

1. Try to choose insulin that has less impact on body weight, such as long-acting insulin. Accurately adjust the insulin dosage to reduce high blood sugar while preventing hypoglycemia.

2. In addition to using insulin, oral hypoglycemic drugs, such as metformin, can be used in combination to further improve blood sugar while reducing the dosage of insulin.

3. Regardless of the treatment adopted, the diet should be strictly controlled and moderate-intensity exercise should be performed 3 to 5 times a week.