Hello all,
I am a 59 year old male and was diagnosed with T2 diabetes in Sept 2014. I was put on Metformin and HbA1c went down to 62 to 65, but not further. After diagnosis I was eating a healthy diet, no more fizzy drinks, lots of fruit and veg, few sweets, but I like pasta, potatoes and bread. Weight was stable at about 10 kg overweight. Early in 2019 Doctor asked me to take more medicine (Gliclazide), but I decided to lose weight and to start exercise instead.
Since April 2019 I have been doing 5+2 diet (Michael Mosley) with 600 calories on fast days (200 breakfast/ 400 dinner, water for lunch). I travel a lot for work, but found ways to fast while travelling, On fast days, I basically don't eat carbs. Surprisingly I don't feel hungry as you can eat lots of soup and vegetables. I also drink lots of water during the day. For exercise, I have am cycling regularly, even use hotel gyms. In addition, I started judo, but I had to stop due to shoulder pain for which I am doing physiotherapy now.
Since starting 5+2 diet I have lost 10 kg most of it in the first 4 months. I now weigh 80 kg, which is the same as when I was 19 years old. My waist reduced from 105 to 90 cm. My HbA1c dropped from 65 to 52 (in July 2019) to 42 mmol/mol (end of November 2019) and my blood sugar measurements (in the morning before eating) now average just below 6 mmol/litre. I also noticed that my resting pulse decreased from 68 to 58 per minute.
Last week I went to see the doctor and we agreed to stop Metformin. I am not on any medication anymore. Wow!
I have also continued reading up. I am a scientist and knew about the Newcastle diet (8 weeks very few calories) which reversed diabetes, but couldn't see myself doing it. Thus when Mosley's books convinced me that there is a chance that you could achieve T2 reversal with 5+2, I decided to give it a go. I was also wondering why intermittent fasting works, where as I know that everyone who ever went on a diet ultimately failed. Recently I have read "The Diabetes Code" by Jason Fung. Now all makes sense. There is a scientific basis for why diabetes is a dietary disease and it can be reversed. You need to reduce and/or remove temporarily sugar/carbs. While fasting your body burns fat, which is simply an evolutionary survival tool.
What is next for me? Of course my plan is to keep my weight down. Should I continue to fast regularly or only when weight or blood sugar start increasing again? Do I need to lose more weight? How far have I reversed T2D, e.g. has my insulin resistance stopped. Are my beta cells in the pancreas functioning again. Can we measure this? Should I ask for more detailed tests - liver fat, insulin resistance, ... ? How long do I need to have HbA1c < 42 mmol/mol and blood sugar below 6 mmol/litre without medication before I can consider my T2 reversed?
Looking beyond my personal journey what can be done to make sure that everyone is getting correct advise? For two generations, people have been told to eat low-fat, but all studies trying to prove link between butter and cardiovascular disease failed. Guidelines to eat low-fat led to sugar being added (for flavour) to almost every food (even bacon). This is almost certainly a main cause of the huge increase in obesity and diabetes. NHS webpage on T2D still basically says eat a healthy diet which includes eating carbs. If diabetes is a dietary disease, medication only lowers blood sugar, but make diabetes worse. Apart from all the unnecessary suffering, there is lots of money to be saved.
I am a 59 year old male and was diagnosed with T2 diabetes in Sept 2014. I was put on Metformin and HbA1c went down to 62 to 65, but not further. After diagnosis I was eating a healthy diet, no more fizzy drinks, lots of fruit and veg, few sweets, but I like pasta, potatoes and bread. Weight was stable at about 10 kg overweight. Early in 2019 Doctor asked me to take more medicine (Gliclazide), but I decided to lose weight and to start exercise instead.
Since April 2019 I have been doing 5+2 diet (Michael Mosley) with 600 calories on fast days (200 breakfast/ 400 dinner, water for lunch). I travel a lot for work, but found ways to fast while travelling, On fast days, I basically don't eat carbs. Surprisingly I don't feel hungry as you can eat lots of soup and vegetables. I also drink lots of water during the day. For exercise, I have am cycling regularly, even use hotel gyms. In addition, I started judo, but I had to stop due to shoulder pain for which I am doing physiotherapy now.
Since starting 5+2 diet I have lost 10 kg most of it in the first 4 months. I now weigh 80 kg, which is the same as when I was 19 years old. My waist reduced from 105 to 90 cm. My HbA1c dropped from 65 to 52 (in July 2019) to 42 mmol/mol (end of November 2019) and my blood sugar measurements (in the morning before eating) now average just below 6 mmol/litre. I also noticed that my resting pulse decreased from 68 to 58 per minute.
Last week I went to see the doctor and we agreed to stop Metformin. I am not on any medication anymore. Wow!
I have also continued reading up. I am a scientist and knew about the Newcastle diet (8 weeks very few calories) which reversed diabetes, but couldn't see myself doing it. Thus when Mosley's books convinced me that there is a chance that you could achieve T2 reversal with 5+2, I decided to give it a go. I was also wondering why intermittent fasting works, where as I know that everyone who ever went on a diet ultimately failed. Recently I have read "The Diabetes Code" by Jason Fung. Now all makes sense. There is a scientific basis for why diabetes is a dietary disease and it can be reversed. You need to reduce and/or remove temporarily sugar/carbs. While fasting your body burns fat, which is simply an evolutionary survival tool.
What is next for me? Of course my plan is to keep my weight down. Should I continue to fast regularly or only when weight or blood sugar start increasing again? Do I need to lose more weight? How far have I reversed T2D, e.g. has my insulin resistance stopped. Are my beta cells in the pancreas functioning again. Can we measure this? Should I ask for more detailed tests - liver fat, insulin resistance, ... ? How long do I need to have HbA1c < 42 mmol/mol and blood sugar below 6 mmol/litre without medication before I can consider my T2 reversed?
Looking beyond my personal journey what can be done to make sure that everyone is getting correct advise? For two generations, people have been told to eat low-fat, but all studies trying to prove link between butter and cardiovascular disease failed. Guidelines to eat low-fat led to sugar being added (for flavour) to almost every food (even bacon). This is almost certainly a main cause of the huge increase in obesity and diabetes. NHS webpage on T2D still basically says eat a healthy diet which includes eating carbs. If diabetes is a dietary disease, medication only lowers blood sugar, but make diabetes worse. Apart from all the unnecessary suffering, there is lots of money to be saved.
Last edited: