Any idea on amount of fat loss needed to reverse prediabetes? (and a little about myself)

[serenity648]

Looks like people are talking about different definitions of reversed.

By reversed I mean my blood sugars have stopped going up and gone down to normal levels. The direction has reversed. The progression has reversed.

I do not believe it is possible to un-become diabetic and go back to eating whatever a person was eating before, and not become diabetic. If anyone has any proof to the contrary I would be interested in seeing it.

 

[douglas99]

Looks like people are talking about different definitions of reversed.

By reversed I mean my blood sugars have stopped going up and gone down to normal levels. The direction has reversed. The progression has reversed.

I do not believe it is possible to un-become diabetic and go back to eating whatever a person was eating before, and not become diabetic. If anyone has any proof to the contrary I would be interested in seeing it.

Yes, by reversed, I mean I can eat carbs.
I would suggest you are diet controlled.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I lost around 33% of my body weight and have maintained this for over 2 years. BMI reduced from 31 to 21.
My levels are non-diabetic, before and post meals, my meter and Libre sensor tell me this, but only because I continue with low carb. When I eat carbs it is a different matter. My diabetes is not reversed, just well controlled without meds.

 

[walnut_face]

Well done @Bluetit1802 I thought I had done ok on 20% weight loss my HbA1c is currently 43, and I see no prospect of reversal/remission in the short term.
My PFT is clearly a lot lower

 

[douglas99]

Not from what I've read from Dr Taylor; "The essential point is that substantial weight loss must be achieved. The time course of weight loss is much less important." - http://www.ncl.ac.uk/media/wwwnclac...re/files/reversing-type2-diabetes-leaflet.pdf

And again; "You don’t have to take such extreme measures as a 700-calorie diet, though, both doctors say. As long as you lose about 15 percent of your body weight, you may be able to reverse your diabetes, Dr. Taylor says." - http://www.menshealth.com/health/how-to-cure-diabetes

You can take your time reversing prediabetes/type 2 diabates.

Have a read around of the forum.

It does seem that 'reversal' ie the ability to eat a high carb meal again, seems to more prevalent with those that have done an intensive very low calorie diet for a shorter period, as opposed to 'remission' from slow weight loss by an unrestricted calorie diet, which is then continued to be used to control the diabetes in life.

I don't believe Prof Taylor has done any specific studies to validate his statement you quoted, only the original study, and a follow up one he is undertaking now on a larger scale.
And, his study was on a specific group of only obese patients, with diabetes.
Although, he is quite right, any weight loss is always beneficial for most conditions caused by obesity.

 

[Prem51]

Hi @NonStop and welcome to the forum. Well done for taking action to reduce the risk of becoming fully diabetic. I wish I had.
I don't think anyone can give you a figure for how much weight you need to lose to go back into the non-diabetic range, as your body is different to eveyrone else. Also it depends what sort of fat and where it is.
My fat was almost all around my middle which I believe would also mean that I would have had more visceral fat around my pancreas and liver which would have contributed to my T2 diagnosis. I don't know what my visceral fat levels were when I was diagnosed.
You can see from the figures in my signature below that I lost over 30 lbs in 6 months and came back into the non-diabetic range.
My weight has been creeping up again, and my visceral fat has also increased from 7 to 8, though both BMI and visceral fat are still within the 'healthy' ranges. My fbgs have stayed fairly stable at around 6.3, and I do now eat more carbs than I did when I was losing weight.
I do intend to start fasting again, probably in Feb or March to get back down to 140 lbs or less.

 

[hooha]

Hello all. So last Friday I was diagnosed with prediabetes - 6.1mmol/L fasting plasma glucose. I've been reading a lot about prediabetes/diabetes for a while (see below if you're interested) and I'm particularly interested in the Newcastle diet, or rather fat loss to reverse diabetes. It seems that the studies at Newcastle university seems to be very positive and after looking at the prediabetes page on the website here it seems that fat loss is of large importance to prediabetes too.

So my main query is how much fat have people had to lose to get rid of their prediabetes?

I'd also appreciate it if people let me know their thoughts on how I plan to attack my prediabates.
I intend to spend the first 6 months of 2017 on fat loss. I have always had a fairly decent body fat %, around 17%, I reckon and I always do a few days a week of resistance training (which I will continue). However, it wouldn't hurt to lose a stone of fat, so thats my first priority, especially if I can reverse my prediabetes on a not so restrictive diet. I intend to keep my carbs a little bit restricted, probably around 150g net carbs, maybe a little more or less. Yet my main focus will be maintaining a calorific deficit to create fat loss.

However, if fat loss fails to make much of a dent in my prediabetes, I will probably go to the other extreme and try a ketogenic diet. This is the second choice as I'd like to have a less restrictive diet, and my mind hasn't been made up on the implications of maintaining a ketogenic diet for years to come (I've had problems with insomnia and low-carb dieting before).

So there you have it. To also help make things easier, I'll be in a new job in January which is fairly active (I've been very inactive over the last 2 months except for resistance training). I'm also switching from beer to red wine/spirits in the long run to help reduce calories/carbs/alcohol, and in addition I think I'm going to try dry-January just to help with the diet.

Let me know your thoughts and thanks in advance!

HELLO NonStop This is EASY. Google up Guardian newspaper uk Richard Doughty who did the Newcastle diet and the figures are there. Usually it is 15% of total body weight must go, but it could be 20%.
Losing a stone probably wont domuch good.. I lost 15 kg, or 20% and I was not fat to start with. Neer felt better than this 20 years
You are LUCKY to be interested like this at the prediabetes stage. I was complacent and not warned ,and then became a full type 2 with a big shock. Thought my prediabetes was just a permanent 'norm' for me....little did I know . I did the low cal diet and with the help of the books by Dr M Mosley avoided the fast starches and thus actually ended up doing quite a low carb diet . When you cut out those sugars, white breads, actually all breads and rice and spuds....what's left is pretty low carb anyway -Good luck and get on with it
PS I reversed mine successfully-i hope permanently

 

[hooha]

I have lost only a few pounds, but my diabetes is in remission. I have a LOT of weight to lose, and a few pounds is an insignificant amount for me overall.

I dont think its the weight loss which lowers blood sugars. I think its the new way of eating, the reduction of carbs and low fat foods, which make blood sugars come down.

From the books I have read, and the latest dietary advice from the USA , I understand low fat is NOT the way to go. Eat lots of fat and everything except those high carb foods and see what happens. GREAT thing about the low carb way is that during the diet you don't have hunger pangs as the carb highs and lows are absent. See my post to NonStop.

 

[hooha]

Hi @NonStop and welcome to the forum. Well done for taking action to reduce the risk of becoming fully diabetic. I wish I had.
I don't think anyone can give you a figure for how much weight you need to lose to go back into the non-diabetic range, as your body is different to eveyrone else. Also it depends what sort of fat and where it is.
My fat was almost all around my middle which I believe would also mean that I would have had more visceral fat around my pancreas and liver which would have contributed to my T2 diagnosis. I don't know what my visceral fat levels were when I was diagnosed.
You can see from the figures in my signature below that I lost over 30 lbs in 6 months and came back into the non-diabetic range.
My weight has been creeping up again, and my visceral fat has also increased from 7 to 8, though both BMI and visceral fat are still within the 'healthy' ranges. My fbgs have stayed fairly stable at around 6.3, and I do now eat more carbs than I did when I was losing weight.
I do intend to start fasting again, probably in Feb or March to get back down to 140 lbs or less.

Dear Prem, I notice your HbA1c results are every month. How are you doing this ? Is it some kind of self testing or are you going to a lab to have a test every month ? If it's self testing how can I find out about it ? I thought HbA1c was a figure representing about 3 months worth of blood history, and thus didn't need to be tested more often than that. Would be glad to hear your opinion

 

[Prem51]

Hi @hooha Most of the figures shown in my signature below are an average of my daily fasting blood glucose readings for that month. I get them by testing myself every morning with a blood glucose meter. I add up the total for the month and divide by the number of days in the month. That gives the average fbg (mmol/L) for the month and I can convert that into the equivalent HbA1c (ifcc) figure.
I think that the average over 3 months gives me a rough guesstimate of what my HbA1c would be, and my last actual HbA1c result (in blue) was quite close (39) to my average fbgs over the previous 3 months (38).
My actual HbA1c blood tests are only every 12 months, so working out my average fbgs help me to have an idea of how I'm doing.

 

[themotherof]

I am encouraged with the hope the it can be reversed or in remission at least, I am trying to avoid a diagnosis what with being over weight and having a fatty liver, I suspect the next thing will lead to diabetes. I would like to change to a low carb diet but don't know where to start?

 

[bulkbiker]

Cut out as many carbs as you are able is a good place to start.
Bread,pasta,root veg,obviously anything with sugar,most fruit (berries maybe ok).
Eat meat,fish,green veg, eggs,salad,butter, cream,cheese.
There are many suggestions for great low carb food around even pizza bases.. just read around the forum.