Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I do have a plan B which is to input my final weight into an NHS calculator to see how many calories I need to maintain it. Then weigh weekly at least to catch myself if I exceed it. Plus starting daily walks after Covid.I have no access to any fancy tests nor the money to pay for them, but I am able to do home tests OGT with the help of my packet of glucose and a mini kitchen scale to weigh it. I have to infer my insulin secretion from periodic OGTs and FBGs, with the occasional HBA1C from my GP. I am hoping to identify my "Personal Fat Threshold" by tracking my weight loss and comparing it with the glucose tests. When the glucose tests are acceptable I shall record the weight at the time and religiously stick to it.Hi @Tannith , a few points -
I Googled the nutritional breakdown of the typical Newcastle diet plan and believe the first three months protocol of 800 cal (500-600 from liquid shakes and 200 from greens) should be approximately 50% carbs, but at this level of food intake the absolute amount of carbs pretty much falls into low carb territory anyway. Then next two transitional months gradually adding back more calories/different foods until you find your personal "sweet" (pun intended) spot of cal/carb tolerance that will keep both weight and BG levels stable. Is this what you are planning?
But from what I understand of Prof Taylor's results even after 5 months this only normalises BG levels for the future PROVIDED THAT your post "formal diet" eating habits are modified to prevent ANY regain of weight and even then will not necessarily 100% guarantee no increase in insulin resistance and possible T2 in any given individual's future. If it works for you, brilliant!
But do you have a plan B? You have done enough research to see what might be the timeline to potentially maximise your beta cell recovery, but what do you plan to do to ensure they do not immediately start to degrade from your diet changes in the future, post next Newcastle round? Pragmatically this dilemma is the source of health and soul destroying yoyo dieting for almost everyone.
Also, who diagnosed your beta cells as "exhausted" (apologies if this was in a much earlier post)? For me this was a diabetic endocrinologist specialist after reviewing a clinically administered OGTT on diagnosis, followed by 3 months of exogenous insulin reducing my AcHb1 to semi respectable levels - sadly his hope was wrong - my C-peptide (very accurate marker for our own pancreatic insulin production) was too low, but antibodies too high - my pancreas wasn't suffering burnout - it was under autoimmune attack. Hopefully you never need to deal with this. But C-peptide is a critical test for T2 as well, as it is the main clinical test for endogenous insulin levels and very helpful to identify insulin resistance. Try to get this test if you haven't already had it. Direct insulin levels are almost never measured outside of formal clinical research trials (maybe sign up to one if you can?).
You are spot on in identifying that it is visceral fat (especially pancreatic fat and liver fat) that are most dangerous and very much more so than subcutaneous fat. I have plenty of the latter that I hate! But also sadly some of the former - fatty liver diagnosed through ultrasound. You seem to be very focused on measurements - have you been able to access any visceral fat assessments? There are no good home users proxies, but could be highly motivational if you can afford abdominal ultrasounds and body fat Dexascans.
You appear to put a lot of energy into managing your health. But in your research efforts for what to do next please be very careful about 'confirmation bias' = only focusing on data that supports your current opinion - this is really hard for anyone to neutralise!!! Also 'false precision' - biological science is horribly complex and horrendously messy to measure - applied (clinical) science is even worse - results may be okay at estimating likely effects in a population of a million, there are zero hard and fast rules at the individual level.
Finally, perhaps consider starting a new thread under the Low Calorie Forum to share how you get on with your second attempt using the Newcastle Diet - I suspect this could have an appreciative audience on how this diet works in practice.
Good luck and best wishes.
That is IF my vlcal diet works. I am well aware (and pretty scared) that it may not because I know for certain I have had T2 for 4 years. For most people the diet still works at 4 years, but we are all individuals. It could work, but only partially, eg only some but not all of my beta cells might recover. I shall only be able to tell when I have lost sufficient weight and get to the point where losing more gives no further improvement in FBG/OGT. Fingers crossed.
If the diet doesn't work for me I shall have to look at metformin or low carb to control my blood sugars. But I hope not as metformin gives some people horrid digestive side effects, and low carb provides too little fibre for bowel health and too much saturated fat for my liking.