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Fat loss and diabetes: the ultimate diabetic guide to losing weight

What do you do if you want to lose weight, in a healthy way, with diabetes? Do fat loss and diabetes combine easily? That’s a question we get a lot on Diabetic South Africans. We have some weight loss tips for diabetics, but we thought it would be helpful to get specific advice on fat loss and exercise for diabetics. We’ve invited Nicholas Caracandas from Diabetic Athletic to share his best tips in a 4 part series.

fat loss and diabetes

Diabetic Athletic

My name is Nicholas Caracandas from Diabetic Athletic and I’m a strength and conditioning coach and Type 1 diabetic for over 24 years. I’ve owned fitness facilities for over a decade and am an online virtual diabetic lifestyle and fat loss coach continuing my education with the Australian college of nursing. 

My programmes are for diabetics. Diabetics wanting an answer to fat loss, to the struggles we face daily – we’re looking for answers when we need them. I’m living the very same struggle you are every day as a diabetic, and these are the answers I’ve found.

I grew up with a Type 1 diabetic mother who struggled with diabetes and its management, and I saw very early on how one can so easily be consumed by this beast of a condition. I needed the very service I now provide. We all have struggles as diabetics. The majority of our struggles can be turned into success with the right support, increased activity, a good nutrition plan sprinkled with a little knowledge, mindset and an upgraded lifestyle. 

Motivation and mindset

Most of us look for motivation before we start our journey. If you’re like me and are diabetic, we don’t have that luxury. Regardless of how motivated we are, if we want to avoid diabetic complications, we need to actively start seeking results as far as our health, mindset, fat mass, diabetic confidence and diabetic control are concerned.

What more motivation as a diabetic do we need?

Let’s start this by asking a question or two… After reading them, stop and think for a second. If you’re really invested, write your answer down: take it from just being a thought in your head to a reality.

What is stopping you from getting started? Starting a new hobby, training plan, better eating habits or just being better at your approach to your diabetes?

Is it that you’re not motivated?

Here’s the thing… drum roll, please…

Motivation comes from results. All you have to do is get started. You will be motivated once you start seeing the results that you’re getting (losing fat, building muscle, or having less dependence on your medication).

nicholas caracandas

A step-by-step guide to fat loss and diabetes

Motivation doesn’t come easy, and it definitely doesn’t come just by doing nothing. Motivation is an emotion like happiness and anger (it’s not ever-present).

So, if you want to be motivated, first you just have to start. Make the decision to start, commit to yourself, and remember the more action you take, the more results you see, the more motivation you will have every day.

As diabetics, we have an above-average strength within us all. We are warriors!

What are you planning to start?

You can sign up to my free 3 week training and nutrition program for diabetics here.

Fat loss and diabetes: 4 parts

  1. Mindset and motivation. I am a huge believer in setting a solid foundation and promoting methods that are simple, tried, tested and easy to action.  Read: Fat loss and diabetes.
  2. How much to eat. How to calculate how much you should be eating in order to reach your fat loss goals with better diabetic control. Read: How much to eat to lose weight.
  3. Popular diets for diabetics. Everything you need to know about fat loss and why it does or doesn’t happen. Read: Popular diets for diabetics: why they don’t work
  4. Resources and tools along with four important principles of weight loss for life. Read: What to eat to lose weight.

Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

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Sweet Life is a registered NPO/PBO (220-984) with a single goal: to improve diabetes in South Africa. We are funded by sponsorships and donations from aligned companies and organisations who believe in our work. We only share information that we believe benefits our community. While some of this information is linked to specific brands, it is not an official endorsement of that brand. We believe in empowering people with diabetes to make the best decisions they can, to live a healthy, happy life with diabetes.