I read the BBC article with interest on Monday, and of course it's always wise to take these things with a very big pinch of salt but I thought what the heck - I'll give it a go for one session and see if it results in a decrease in insulin requirements afterwards. After all what have I got to loose ? -
Well about 1 stone for starters.
No drugs and no cost involved to give it a try, and whenever I see the words "Do not try this at home" that's just a red rag to a bull for me.
So I started on Tuesday, and today (Sat) is the last day. I already had a Libre sensor running when I decided to give it a go so that came in very handy as approx 1 1/2 days in my basal requirements dropped right off and I have ended up running the rest of the time on a 40% basal rate.
(I'm guessing that's when I would have gone into fasting ketosis) If I hadn't had the libre CGM running then I would have landed myself in a hypo, which would have screwed the diet.
I have checked blood ketones a few times and they seem to be averaging around 1.3
Have been very surprised at the level of hunger, first couple of days hunger levels were a bit up and down, but never unbearable. Last three days hunger has been fairly minimal all the time (say around 3 out of 10)
My typical food for a day - 1 avocado, a handful of mixed nuts, 1 black coffee, a few olives, a tomato or 1/4 cucumber. Kept it well within the calorie, carbs and protein guidelines.
Tomorrow morning - first day of refeeding - Full English cooked breakfast (without the bread but a few sautéed sweet potato chunks)
So according to the paper and reading between the lines, if there's anything in it I should see a decrease in basal requirements after a few days back on normal eating. So I will wait and see.....
Of course there will be a slight decrease anyway because there's 8 pounds less of me now than there was at the beginning of the week but if there's a major decrease in basal requirements then I will know that there is indeed something in it.
As to how long any improvement may last who knows - I'm guessing the immune system will carry on attacking any new cells that may arrive. Anyway, the proof of the pudding etc.....
Cheers - Dave.