Maintaining a healthy weight is key to managing type 2 diabetes, but sometimes when you are dieting, you can feel all alone in the world. Calorie Count Plus, About.com's online diet community, now has groups.

What are groups? Members of Calorie Count Plus, can now start an online group of like-minded people who want to discuss their weight loss trials, tribulations and successes. You can join a group and meet others who all have an interest in the same topic.

Some topics include:

• Food and Cooking
• Motivation and Challenges
• Family and Parenting

Become a member. Join a group. Or start your own group.

Dieting just became a lot more friendly.

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In the third chapter of our monthly series, Jim's Journey, we meet up with Jim and check in on how he's doing.

Jim was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in August of 2007. When we talked to Jim last month, there were several areas that he wanted to improve in his diabetes treatment plan. He wants to exercise more, so he's investigating alternative fitness plans. He's lost 10 pounds but wants to lose more. He's also working on trying to quit a 3-pack-a-day smoking habit. How is Jim doing this month with some of these issues?

Read the rest of Jim's story here...

• Real Life with Type 2 Diabetes - Jim's Journey

Scientists at Temple University School of Medicine have discovered that fat cells are more healthy in normal weight people than in overweight or obese people.

In the study, fat cells found in the thighs of obese subjects didn't work as well as the cells found in the thighs of thinner subjects. This information leads researchers to conclude that if the cells don't work like they should, then they are "sick" cells.

In a quote from a press release, “The fat cells we found in our obese patients were deficient in several areas,” said Guenther Boden, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Endocrinology. “They showed significant stress on the endoplasmic reticulum, and the tissue itself was more inflamed than in our lean patients.”

Being obese puts stress on the cells, especially the part of the cell called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). They are an important part of cells and their job is to synthesize proteins. When cells are stressed it causes the protein synthesis mechanisms to malfunction which can lead to insulin resistance, and possibly type 2 diabetes. This would explain the connection between obesity and type 2.

Losing weight may help lower the stress on fat cells, and subsequently lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Have you been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as an adult? There aren't many resources for adults with type 1. Most of the literature, and most of the support, is geared toward kids because typically type 1 strikes kids and teens. Not so long ago, type 1 diabetes was known as "juvenile diabetes."

How does it feel to be hit with a disease that is usually diagnosed in children? E-mails and comments from readers to About.com talk about some of the issues of dealing with a new diagnosis of type 1 as an adult.

• Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as an Adult? You Are Not Alone

Read additional comments and stories here...

• Diagnosed with Adult Onset Type 1 Diabetes? Let us Hear Your Story

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