Her doctors suggested surgically implanting a shunt to correct the condition and urged her to lose weight to help regulate her blood sugar, but the Fort Wayne, Indiana, woman said she pushed their advice aside, saying she lacked self-worth at the time. But one day everything changed. Giddens was watching an episode of The Dr. Oz Show, in which a woman improved her health simply by losing 20 pounds (lb). “She was emotional and talked about how her weight loss would improve her life with her kids. When I thought about my own children, I sobbed and realized I needed to make changes, too,” says Giddens, whose children are now 18 and 22. For Giddens, the path to wellness and taking control of diabetes required much trial and error, but eventually she discovered a solution in an unusual weight loss approach: intermittent fasting combined with exercise. RELATED: 8 Steps to Weight Loss Success for People With Type 2 Diabetes
Starting Her Journey to Weight Loss and Managing Her Blood Sugar
Giddens signed up for Weight Watchers online, and after 18 months, she had lost about 120 lb. She also joined the YMCA, hired a personal trainer, and tried a bodybuilding-type diet and paleo, but her weight loss eventually plateaued. Her ultimate goal was to lose 175 lb. She then discovered CrossFit — a fitness program that focuses on fast-paced, functional movements that are done at high intensity. CrossFit workouts include aspects of gymnastics, weightlifting, rowing, and other sports. Giddens also hired a nutrition coach who taught her about counting “macros,” or macronutrients, which include protein, fat, and carbohydrates. The nutrition coach introduced her to intermittent fasting (IF), a plan that includes periods of normal eating with periods of fasting. Although no kind of fasting is recommended for people with type 2 diabetes because it may cause dangerous blood sugar swings, leading to hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia, Giddens says she has found success with her own version of the plan, and she did it with supervision from her personal trainer. “I monitored my blood sugars at home with a home monitor. Being a nurse, I knew what the risks were, how to monitor for them, and how to treat myself if my blood sugars got too low," Giddens says. Giddens’s fasting diet alternates 17 hours of fasting with a seven-hour window to eat between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. Unlike the other diets she tried, Giddens says, she didn’t feel deprived. For one thing, a small study published in February 2018 in Diabetic Medicine suggests intermittent fasting can increase the risk for hypoglycemia in people with type 2 diabetes. Low blood sugar symptoms include nausea, headache, shakiness, and in severe cases, hypoglycemia can lead to serious complications such as diabetic coma, seizures, or even death, according to the British diabetes association Diabetes.co.uk. That’s not the only benefit of keeping your blood sugar levels stable if you have type 2 diabetes. “Keeping blood sugar levels steady is super-important because it can help with weight management,” says Despina Hyde Gandhi, RD, CDE, a dietitian at New York University (NYU) Langone’s Weight Management Program in New York City, and the president of the Greater New York Dietetic Association. For people with diabetes, IF can put the body into starvation mode, slowing down metabolism and making the body hold onto fat. That extra weight can in turn negatively affect blood glucose levels, Hyde says. Fasting periods can also make people feel tired, weak, shaky, and overly hungry. “Feeling that way, you’re more likely to overeat and make bad choices,” Hyde Gandhi explains. “You would of course lose weight, but it’s not in a healthy way.”
How Intermittent Fasting Helped Giddens Boost Her Well-Being
Combined with IF, Giddens has made healthy eating and regular exercise a priority in her life. She now starts her day with “Bulletproof”-style coffee with coconut oil — a combination that is touted to suppress hunger and boost energy, though research on this combination is lacking, and it should be noted that coconut oil may raise levels of LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol, worsening heart health. Her first meal usually consists of turkey chili with 10 types of vegetables, celery sticks and fat-free cheese, and Greek yogurt with berries. RELATED: Which Type of Yogurt Is Best for People With Type 2 Diabetes? Snacks include cottage cheese with tomatoes, sugar-free Jell-O, or a protein bar to fend off the urge to indulge in office sweets. Dinner might be “egg roll in a bowl,” which includes shredded pork, vegetables and sweet potatoes, along with a high-protein dessert such as Lil Buff cupcakes or Halo Top peanut butter ice cream. “I have more energy, I sleep better, I get sick less, and I feel better about myself and the things that I can do,” Giddens explains. “My confidence is so much better, and it’s less about weight now and more about health.” For exercise, Giddens does five to six days of one-hour CrossFit workouts in addition to a few days of 20-minute high-intensity interval training (HIIT), strength training, or gymnastics. Once not able to do a single push-up, Giddens can now complete a set of 45. She can also back-squat 240 lb and deadlift 325 lb. Experts say each person is different, but caution should be taken by someone with type 2 diabetes who decides to do both IF and HIIT, especially for those who are taking insulin. “Just having diabetes, there’s a higher risk of going hypoglycemic, especially in the combination of fasting with HIIT workouts,” says Megan Ostler, a registered dietitian nutritionist for iFit based in Logan, Utah. With these diet and lifestyle changes, Giddens has been able to drop more than 220 lb and counting, with her weight now hovering around 170 to 175 lb. “I’m amazed every day at the things my body is able to do now,” she says. RELATED: What to Know About Exercising With Diabetes Before You Start In addition to IF, Giddens says the key to weight loss and maintaining her new pants size lies in planning her meals for the week using the MyFitnessPal app. “I eat a lot of the same things every day because it’s easier to prepare and I don’t tend to get bored. But if I want to change it up, I plan that as well,” she says. Now, in addition to her weight loss, Giddens’s A1C is normal and she no longer takes metformin. The benefits haven’t only been physical. “I am more mentally healthy than I have ever been in my life,” she says. When people hear her story and ask her what her secret was to losing the weight, she tells them there is none. “It’s hard work and it’s commitment. It’s eating and it’s exercise. There’s no magic bullet that’s going to fix it,” she says. “If I can do it, anybody can do it.”
