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Need advice about Newcastle diet

F

Faz137

Newbie
Messages
4
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Other
Hi, I have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes over 6 months now. My blood glucose levels vary between 9-12mmol while fasting. Currently I am taking metformin 500mg three times a day and my wieght is 83KG. my hba1c level dropped from 134 to 99 over a six months period.

Last week I spoke to my GP about newcastle diet and he gave a green signal to go for it. Now I am planning to start it new week. Can someone advise me which things to consider before starting this diet?
 
Hello, Faz
Welcome.

I have had some success with Newcastle diet. Was there anything specific you wanted to know?
 
I'm interested in trying this shortly as well.
 
@Pipp thanks for replying. Yes i would like know which food replacements to use? I mean there are many brands like slimfast, optislim, optifast etc.
 
This has been the subject of some discussion before.
The amount of carbs has often been looked at, as some have decided to try to modify the diet to be a low carb, low calorie.

I don't intend to, I'm going to stick as closely as possible to the original, and have a fairly high carb content, such as tesco's, and make the rest up with non starchy vegetables.
My own reasons for keeping the carbs in the shake is simply because I don't want to change the experiment, and also because I find if I reduce carbs, I tend to be over sensitive to them later again, which doesn't work well for me.
 
Faz137 said:
@Pipp thanks for replying. Yes i would like know which food replacements to use? I mean there are many brands like slimfast, optislim, optifast etc.
Click to expand...

Ah, right.

Speaking only from my own experience, but having maintained non-diabetic blood glucose as tested in regular HbA1c tests for 3 years, here goes:

I found that Optifast is not readily available. Reading the Newcastle university literature available at the time (2011) I noted that any commercially available meal replacements = 600calories a day were advised as being OK. I think this is because the theory was that it was the calorie restriction rather than carbohydrate restriction that is important.

I chose to use LIPOTRIM (other products are available, I have no interest in advertising this particular brand), which is only available at pharmacies. It is a Total food replacement method, but has the advantage of being monitored weekly by the pharmacist included in the cost.

Advice to anyone thinking of doing Newcastle diet:
Read the research papers and get GP to do the same.
Choose your timing carefully to avoid times when you would be expected to eat at social occasions.
Make sure you explain to people close to you what you are doing and get their support.
Follow the guidelines in the research papers.
Drink lots of water.
Don't 'cheat'.
Be realistic, it is not a 'quick fix', you need to consider how you will eat after you finish the Newcastle diet.

Hope this helps.
 
douglas99 said:
This has been the subject of some discussion before.
The amount of carbs has often been looked at, as some have decided to try to modify the diet to be a low carb, low calorie.

I don't intend to, I'm going to stick as closely as possible to the original, and have a fairly high carb content, such as tesco's, and make the rest up with non starchy vegetables.
My own reasons for keeping the carbs in the shake is simply because I don't want to change the experiment, and also because I find if I reduce carbs, I tend to be over sensitive to them later again, which doesn't work well for me.
Click to expand...
@douglas99

Why Newcastle diet? Your numbers for BG etc do not indicate the need?
 
Pipp said:
Ah, right.

Speaking only from my own experience, but having maintained non-diabetic blood glucose as tested in regular HbA1c tests for 3 years, here goes:

I found that Optifast is not readily available. Reading the Newcastle university literature available at the time (2011) I noted that any commercially available meal replacements = 600calories a day were advised as being OK. I think this is because the theory was that it was the calorie restriction rather than carbohydrate restriction that is important.

I chose to use LIPOTRIM (other products are available, I have no interest in advertising this particular brand), which is only available at pharmacies. It is a Total food replacement method, but has the advantage of being monitored weekly by the pharmacist included in the cost.

Advice to anyone thinking of doing Newcastle diet:
Read the research papers and get GP to do the same.
Choose your timing carefully to avoid times when you would be expected to eat at social occasions.
Make sure you explain to people close to you what you are doing and get their support.
Follow the guidelines in the research papers.
Drink lots of water.
Don't 'cheat'.
Be realistic, it is not a 'quick fix', you need to consider how you will eat after you finish the Newcastle diet.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the advice. I ll make a appointment with my GP again and ask him to read the original notes too.
 
Pipp said:
@douglas99

Why Newcastle diet? Your numbers for BG etc do not indicate the need?
Click to expand...

@Pipp

I tried a low GI, calorie restricted diet, and have got my weight to where I want it to be.
I'm happy to stay on the types of food I eat, as I have also diversified a lot more recently.
And as you say, I have also got good numbers, and I can tolerate carbs surprisingly well.
But my diabetes is not totally reversed.
So that's what I want to give a shot.
I can still afford to lose more weight, I don't particularly mind if I feel hungry, so I've got no downside really.

I've noticed recently, the more carbs I eat, the better I seem to recover the next time.
I tried pigging out on chinese recently, (a lot of chinese) and although I went high, (actually not as high as you'd think, only just into the diabetic range), I have found my fasting level has since dropped, and my post meal reading are lower.
So, I'd be interested in the results, although the Newcastle is very calorie restricted, it's still a high percentage of carbs overall.
 
douglas99 said:
@Pipp

I tried a low GI, calorie restricted diet, and have got my weight to where I want it to be.
I'm happy to stay on the types of food I eat, as I have also diversified a lot more recently.
And as you say, I have also got good numbers, and I can tolerate carbs surprisingly well.
But my diabetes is not totally reversed.
So that's what I want to give a shot.
I can still afford to lose more weight, I don't particularly mind if I feel hungry, so I've got no downside really.

I've noticed recently, the more carbs I eat, the better I seem to recover the next time.
I tried pigging out on chinese recently, (a lot of chinese) and although I went high, (actually not as high as you'd think, only just into the diabetic range), I have found my fasting level has since dropped, and my post meal reading are lower.
So, I'd be interested in the results, although the Newcastle is very calorie restricted, it's still a high percentage of carbs overall.
Click to expand...

I don't understand @douglas99 . Your BMI and HbA1c suggest all is well. Not sure what you mean by 'diabetes not totally reversed'?

Concerned that folks new to diabetes could think 'pigging out' on high carb food will result in good diabetes control. (Do not try this at home people)! You must be unique if this is the case for you @douglas99 . I would be interested to know of any other forum members who can do this.

Newcastle diet does NOT have to be high carb. The principle is very low calorie. I agree so of the meal replacement products consist of high percentage of carbohydrate, but overall the calorie intake, which is low would still mean not a lot of carbohydrate is being consumed. However, it does not have to be undertaken with meal replacement products it could be real food.

If you do decide to try the Newcastle method, please make sure you read up the academic papers. An important feature is the diet consumed after the initial 600 - 800 calorie phase. (Doubt it would include 'pigging out on chinese). So you could be wasting your time and effort following Newcastle method if you are not going to take this into account.

Hope you stay well.
 
Pipp said:
I don't understand @douglas99 . Your BMI and HbA1c suggest all is well. Not sure what you mean by 'diabetes not totally reversed'?

Concerned that folks new to diabetes could think 'pigging out' on high carb food will result in good diabetes control. (Do not try this at home people)! You must be unique if this is the case for you @douglas99 . I would be interested to know of any other forum members who can do this.

Newcastle diet does NOT have to be high carb. The principle is very low calorie. I agree so of the meal replacement products consist of high percentage of carbohydrate, but overall the calorie intake, which is low would still mean not a lot of carbohydrate is being consumed. However, it does not have to be undertaken with meal replacement products it could be real food.

If you do decide to try the Newcastle method, please make sure you read up the academic papers. An important feature is the diet consumed after the initial 600 - 800 calorie phase. (Doubt it would include 'pigging out on chinese). So you could be wasting your time and effort following Newcastle method if you are not going to take this into account.

Hope you stay well.
Click to expand...
@Pipp
My diet is normally good.
But, sometimes, I am faced with only a carby snack, such as an instant porridge or pot noodle. I scuba dive, and if that's what is available between dives, that's what's available.
My control is good, my BS is good, but as a totally unscientific GTT, I did consume too many chinese snacks, once, recently.
But I have noticed, that my levels appear to have decreased after the requirement to produce insulin for that meal. I posted the results in a thread I started.
(Next time I'll do a proper GTT)

I did a reduced calorie diet, quite well, with good results, low fat, low GI, but Newcastle was always a high percentage of carb, and I'm wondering if the carbs are key to keeping insulin production going during the low calorie period.
A carby shake isn't low GI, in theory it should produce quite a high spike.

Basically, I really don't know what will happen, but I'm game for a shot if I can.
Worst that can happen is I'll lose weight.
 
@douglas99

Good luck with all that then.

As the OP Was looking for advice, don't want to hijack his thread.

I am sure you will keep us informed on your own thread of your progress.

Hope it goes well.
 
Hopefully it'll be useful for the op.
With the Newcastle diet, personally, I think if it was done in the way it was done, and that's what worked, don't change it.
 
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