About 2 years ago, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and was prescribed metformin. My mom bought generic met, which I've been taking for almost a year. Well, i'm not religious in taking my medicines to begin with.
Anyway, I was wondrin' why I haven't lost weight when those people I know with diabetes naturally lost weight. I've read that glucophage is prescribed to obese patients with Diabetes to help them lose weight. Is this true at all? If it is, what daily dosage is safe to take?
Thanks a lot!
There are several things to consider in your case: what is the dosage of metformin you're taking daily? Is it a slow release or immediate release?
Usually Glucophage is a slow release drug, which means you usually take it once or twice daily, with food (at dinner, or at breakfast and dinner), but you should first understand whether your glucose levels are in check with the dose of metformin you are taking now, and you can do that by checking them with a blood sugar test meter (they sell them in every pharmacy). Diabetes can be a bit difficult to control, especially if you're not being regular in taking your medication. If you, however, decide to be regular about it, and change your diet a little to help your body stay in good health, you will definitely see a weight loss as a side effect.
What glucophage does is as simple as stopping your liver from creating sugar out of the foods you eat. That alone is never a guarantee that you will lose weight. And actually losing weight -because- of diabetes is not a good sign, it means those people you are mentioning are not keeping things under control. The weight loss should go hand in hand with a healthier diet instead.
Allison,
Thank you so much for this post!
I don't take my medicine regularly - not that i don't like it, but because I keep forgetting about it 
. For some reason, taking met hasn't become part of my system. What I did though is started to modify my diet - shifted to fruits and vegetables and I did lose 4 kilos in a month's time.
But, do you know if it's okay not to take glucophage anymore after shifting to a healthier diet? Thanks a lot!
I have had diabetes for just over 18 years and I have NEVER been overweight, in fact I was always classed as being underweight as I only weighed about 8 stone. In spite of that I have been on Metformin for years and it was only after I had diabetes that I started to put ON weight and am now about 9 stone so Metformin is given to anyone, regardless of their weight. This is why it annoys me very much when I hear or read that Type 2 diabetes affects overweight people, it doesn't just affect them as my twin sister who is lighter than me has it and my father had it and he wasn't overweight either.
Metformin three times a day as well as three injections of quick acting insulin and one injection of long acting insulin every day is my treatment at the moment which I am quite happy with and I would love to not have diabetes but as I've got it I make sure that I take any medication that is prescribed for me. Although its not nice to have diabetes because of all the side effects it can actually be a good thing because it hopefully makes people eat a much healthier diet and, if they are overweight, will help with weight loss. It's no good just relying on tablets to make you lose weight, it's all down to diet and exercise. As Metformin has to be taken with food it should be quite easy to be able to remember to take it rather than keep forgetting and you can get tablet boxes with separate containers for each day and those are separated into three or four sections so its easy to fill them up at the beginning of the week and take out one day's tablets at a time which is also very useful when eating out. Take any medication that is prescribed and adjust your diet and hopefully the diabetes should be more under control. It's a good suggestion about getting a glucose monitor as that is the way of finding out what food affects your blood sugar which means you can avoid the things that put your readings up. It's surprising what makes it go higher, even the way food is cooked has effects, for instance, mashed potatoes are worse than jacket potatoes and fruit juice makes blood sugar rise quicker than eating the whole fruit, it's just a case of doing some research and maybe, with the right diet and losing weight you eventually MAY not have to take any medication but can just control it with diet alone.