Weight. I lose it.

"It's harder with Diabetes" I tell myself. "It takes more planning, and MUCH more effort" I'd explain to people. "You can't just diet and exercise hard - you HAVE to eat carbs, and you go low when you do cardio. It's almost impossible!" I'd rationalise.

The truth is, while some of that is based in truth, it's largely B.S. excuses.

There are elite athletes that have T1D. And while, yes, they do have resources the rest of us may not - funding, support systems, dieticians, personal trainers, coaches, and various medical professionals monitoring them, it's obviously possible to be in peak physical conditions and have T1D.

NB: Obligatory disclaimer stating the painfully obvious - that bloggers typically (certainly, in my case) are not medical/health professionals, so don't take their advice when it relates to your health (ya, eejits!)

Calories in < calories out = weight-loss. It all boils down to that. Eat less and move more (this catch-phrase has received a lot of criticism - largely because people took it too literally - but I think it's a succinct and accurate way to remember the equation - so if you don't like it, I'll probably survive.)

Of course, that's very high-level/very simplified, but the theory's sound - when the body starves, it doesn't get fat, right? So we can all agree, it's physics... chemistry, bio-chem-sisc? The body is a machine. Machines run on fuel. If you don't feed them, they starve and stop working. In the case of the human machine, if you don't feed it, it uses it's fuel reserves (fat) until you feed it again.

You can go into more details, like 'good' and 'bad' calories. More and less efficient forms of exercise. Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). H.I.T training. Resistance vs. aerobic training, absorption of the calories you consume (i.e. your body is not 100%, so if you consume 100 calories, there's no way of knowing if on any given day you body actually absorbs all 100 calories) etc. This is all 'fine-tuning', though. Exercise (in all its forms) and your body's basal calorie consumption (BMR) i.e. the amount of calories your body would burn if you sat it a chair all day - I'm not going to talk about diet, but obviously it's a significant part of the efficiency debate - are the 'calories out' part of the equation.

Everything you eat and drink is the 'calories in' part. Make sure that your 'calories in' is LESS than your 'calories out' and you'll lose weight, over time. Your 'fine-tuning' will impact how much faster, or slower, you loose weight, but the most important thing is the equation. Try to keep things simple too - try to do too many things (training regimes, warrior diets, don't eat legumes past 7:43PM, milk diets, counting calories to the individual calorie, blah, blah, blah.) Not only does no-one have the time or patience for that B.S. but it would make your life a misery and you'll never stick with it - you'll probably end up over correcting and worse off than before you started. The habit-forming exercise and diets are the ones that require the least amount of thought, effort, and can be easily (path-of-least-resistance) incorporated into your normal life.

And don't try to do things too fast! You didn't put that 10KG on in 1 week, so don't expect to loose it that quickly. While it hypothetically could be possible, it absolutely won't stick and you'll probably put 11KG back on shortly after. You could hurt yourself or even damage your organs! Say it with me, people "yo-yo diets are bad, mmm-kay!?"

I fast. Turns out I unintentionally do (something akin to) the original Warrior Diet. I fast until 12PM, eat up until 6 or 7PM (not continuously, just inside that window - typically i eat lunch and dinner and try not to snack) and I try to eat protein/fat over carbs. For exercise, I take my dogs for a walk at lunch time, and that it. I'm obviously not running marathons anytime soon, but it's better than nothing and it's for heath, not weight loss, anyway (exercise is not very helpful for weight-loss, in case you missed the memo. It makes you healthier! but it's relatively inefficient - and often causes over-corrective eating habits that negate and far exceed the caloric costs of the exercise - at burning fat, That's just how it is. Diet for weight loss. Exercise for health and strength.) What I do is simple - requires minimal thought and planning and so is easy to maintain - or at least, it does not feel so burdensome. And no, I don't get hungry during the day! You very quickly get used to fasting.

I am not promoting this, or any other type of diet, exercise, or health related lifestyle changes. There's no magic bullet - this works for me, as a Type 1 Diabetic, and the lifestyle I lead. It may not work for you. Talk to your GP, nutritionist, diabetic educator, or endocrinologist, before trying anything new that could change your ratios, sensitivity, or have any impact on your personal health.