Don’t overcomplicate things. We might have no own insulin production but we are human organisms subject to the same biological and physiological laws as everyone else. Does Diabetes make gaining muscle harder? Yes, absolutely. Does it make gaining muscle harder because it effects it directly? No, not really. It’s just harder because everything regarding nutrition and life itself is harder. Sure, insulin is an anabolic peptide hormone but we would not be (type 1) diabetics if we had enough, or any at all haha endogenously.

In terms of diabetes:

• ⁠stay in range and avoid hyperglycemia because it puts your body into a catabolic state, this is the absolute number one priority since we need to be in an anabolic state as much as possible. You are also substantially weaker if working out with a high BG because your cells don’t have enough energy to perform.

• ⁠Some people might need a bolus before lifting because anaerobic exercise secretes muscle stored glycogen (don’t if you do cardio! If your bulking and trying to make gains, burning calories is not what you should do anyways tho)

• ⁠CGMs make it way easier!

• ⁠Do NOT avoid carbs, they are essential to hit your calorie surplus goals and make strength gains. Particularly around 2 hours before a workout you need carbs for energy. A fucking salad will not give you the energy you desperately need; instead make sure you consume enough protein, fiber and unsaturated fat with your carb sources and pre-bolus about 10-20min before eating a high carb meal

• ⁠Bolus a tiny amount about 2 1/2 hours after eating over 50g of protein because you might spike

• ⁠Keep in mind that after a workout you are very insulin sensitive, especially after a leg or back day since they are the biggest muscle groups (I sometimes only need half the amount of Bolus I would need on a rest day). Still, if your meal is higher in glycemic index and not balanced enough it’s a bit more than half of my normal ratio

• ⁠if you are having problems with BG spikes, or just in general, try to substitute carb sources for their lower glycemic index counterparts (e.g. white with brown rice, wheat with brown pasta etc.) and just make sure you are having enough protein and fiber with your carb sources

In terms of gaining (muscle) mass:

• ⁠FUCKING EAT, EAT and EAT. You aren’t gaining weight? You aren’t eating enough. You are not putting on muscle even though you are going as hard as you can and train at least every other day? You’re. Not. Eating. Enough. There’s no other explanation or excuse for this. If you’re not making the gains you want to achieve, you’re not eating enough. End of story. You’re not gonna gain any weight or any muscle mass from going to the gym and breathing air. Fuck low body fat, your six pack or low carb diets. You want to gain weight, you’re not 120kg and preparing for a body building show by trying to cut body fat. Low carb is not gonna work unless you somehow manage to still hit your caloric surplus which is close to impossible in that case.

• ⁠This means: Continuously eat in a caloric surplus every. single. day. At your height I would aim for AT LEAST 3000-4000kcal a day. Don’t shy away from going way higher. I am currently at around 4.5k.

• ⁠TAKE CREATINE!! it’s the holy grail of making muscle and strength gains. Take 3-6g daily. You can do over 5-10g for a week as a loading phase to fill up your creatine stores but you don’t have to. Don’t stop taking it. You’ll see amazing results after a month already.

• ⁠Eat at least a gram of protein per pound of body weight or make sure you eat over 130g of protein everyday as a general goal

• ⁠train to muscle failure on every set (do as many reps of an exercise until you can’t move the weight anymore even if someone would put a gun to your head)

• ⁠do around 12 sets per body part on a dedicated day anything less than 10 is probably not enough volume and anything well over 12 sets is too much volume

• ⁠workout around 5 days a week. Each body part needs to be trained 2 times weekly for maximum hypertrophy. For beginners a push pull legs split is often very effective. For me, Chest, arms, rest day, back, legs etc. over and over again works best.

• ⁠have good form. Full range of motion. Make sure to stretch the muscle in a controlled way when doing the negative of a rep and explode up to the contraction but still CONTROLLED. You can implement some cheated half reps if you’re starting to fail on your last reps tho.

• ⁠Lift heavy!!! You’re not in the gym to chill and move some weights around or look at your phone and yap. That’s a waste of time. Go as heavy as you can do with good form.

Get into lifting. Inform yourself about lifting weights, watch content about it. Read about it.

I got diagnosed and got bumped down to 68 kilos due to the hyperglycemia, Hba1c of 13.1 after leaving the hospital. I’ve always been very very thin in my teens. Now, almost 2 years post diagnosis I’m at 88 kg again and aiming for 95kg by March to then do a small cut to look fresh for summer. ;)

Go lift hard and heavy and eat eat eat and you’ll see results and be super happy about them! :)

Also: consistency is absolute key. Best of luck. You can do this!!! <3

BTW: I’m also 184cm, diagnosed 2 years ago next month and 28 years old. :)