How Zein manages type 1 diabetes with low carb and exercise (plus insulin)

August 7 by , medical review by in Diabetes stories, Exercise, Low carb & high fat, Success stories, Type 1 diabetes

287 views

When Zein started to treat her type 1 diabetes with a low-carb diet she was seeing really good results for the first time. She had found research at Diet Doctor demonstrating that a low-carb diet could help and she embraced the low-carb way of eating after finding that it actually did work for her.

Zein is now a personal trainer and she wants to people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes to manage their disease with a low-carb nutritional approach, combined with an exercise program.

Check out this video to learn more about Zein and her journey.

Transcript

Zein Gajraj: We were on a family holiday and I was thinking, “Well, how did I get to this point? “How am I now at 14 stone with diabetes, with painful heels that felt like I was walking on stones?” And I was at a real low point; I thought I just can’t go on.

Expand full transcript

My name is Zein Gajraj and I am a personal trainer from Surrey, and I am age 49, 50 in August. I started actually developing the symptoms of diabetes, but I didn’t actually recognize the connection because, you know, it was far from my mind.

From some research that I had been following up on Diet Doctor, I found that the best way and the simplest way was to go to a low carbohydrate diet. This is the first time that I was actually seeing results, when I embraced, you know, when I started my low carb-way of eating.

You will lose the weight in a natural way by eating real food and feeling energized and just transforming yourself, transforming your health. It’s really important to feel you are eating real, fresh food that’s actually nourishing your body, energizing you, stabilizing your blood sugar.

And if you are struggling with weight loss, which I did for many years, the key is to set a hormonal environment where you are going to be able to lose weight in a natural way, and that should keep that weight off. You do that through stabilizing your insulin. You want to keep your insulin level low and you want to keep it stable.

You see, if people exercising at the gym and they might have some carbohydrate before and then they’re bur– they’re using that carbohydrate for energy. But when you eat natural foods and you keep your insulin level low and stabilized you will utilize your stored energy in your body for that exercise as well.

So, I’ve now qualified as a personal trainer, and what I’d like to do to help people with type 1 and type 2 is guide them through the low-carb nutritional approach.

And I’m actually hoping to give people with diabetes the nutritional coaching, and if they would like an exercise program that will help them with their general fitness, combine that as well, so that’s quite exciting. And I’m looking forward to that.

Transcript pdf

About the video

Recorded in London, May 2018. Published in August 2019.
Interviewer: Kim Gajraj
Camera and sound: Giorgos Chloros and Lars Siltberg
Editing: Harianas Dewang

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4 comments

1
Jude
August 7
I am guessing that Kim is a close relative of yours. Thank you for telling us your story, a pleasure listening.
2
Helen
August 8 1
Is this implying that Type 1 diabetes can be managed just with diet and exercise? Management of T1D has 3 cardinal realms: diet, exercise, and INSULIN. To ignore the latter is fatal. This story is very vague given the sensational headline.
This woman sounds like she has Type 2 Diabetes, not Type 1. Please clarify this.

Reply: #5
3
Tanya
August 8
I have T1D and follow LCHF, but I cannot go without insulin completely, because the carbs from e.g. vegetables and nuts will raise the blood glucose. I quite often also experience low BG at night, despite BG being stable throughout the day, so my experience is that, as a T1D, you cannot be on a strict LCHF diet, but liberal LCHF works OK. Also from my experience, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to reach ketosis on liberal LCHF, but it does make it easier to stabilize BG.

I would love to hear more details on how Zein manages her diabetes, especially insulin wise (the ratio of long-acting and quick-acting insulin) and how she avoids low BGs.
1 comment removed
5
Reply to comment #2 by Helen
Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, MD Team Diet Doctor
August 8
Helen,
You're right, the headline is potentially misleading. Diet and exercise are just two components of the management, insulin is also necessary (except sometimes in an early "honeymoon" phase).

I'm updating the headline to make it more clear. Thank you.