Glitterbritches
Well-Known Member
it's been a hell of a journey, but I'm finally approaching the end of the beginning! Today marks six weeks on being on a vet low calorie diet (VLCD) with the hope/intention of reversing/curing my Type 2 metabolic disorder diabetes. I've learned a lot on this journey, both about myself and my disease, in large part thanks to the posts and resources on this forum.
In short, I was a 250 pound male (down from 260) when I was diagnosed with T2 in early January. 36 years old, smoker, with a random blood glucose reading of 350ish mg/dL (19.5mmol/L) and an A1C of 10.9%. My fasting glucose readings after diagnosis were regularly around 250 mg/dL (13.5 mmol/L), and coupled with a BMI of around 35, I was in rough shape. I was put on Metformin and Glimepiride (a sulfonylurea mix) and told the condition was chronic and irreversible.
After about three weeks of transitioning to a low carb/high fat diet (LCHF), I had lost some weight and brought my fasting blood glucose levels down from "dangerous" to just "bad." Then I read about the Newcastle study, which purported to reverse diabetes (which I read as "cure diabetes") through a radical, 800 calorie a day diet for eight weeks.
I did it (or rather, am doing it). The links in my signature chronical the process, particularly the blog (hosted by this site) and my first forum post on this site. The blog is a day by day account of my experience on the Newcastle diet; if you are interested in trying this, you can read my full (ongoing) experience there. If you are just interested, I hope it is not too boring of a read - when I started, one thing I wanted was a day by day diary that answered some of my questions, and couldn't find one, which is why I started a daily diary (at the time, not even knowing if I would come close to finishing, nor knowing if it would do any good at all or if I was relying on a crackpot study conducted by attention whores). Whether this works for me or not, I want to share my experience with the diabetic community; more information is always better than less. Let me tell you, it has been a seesaw of emotion and trouble, with plenty of high points to keep me going.
The forum post linked in my sig goes into more depth regarding what the Newcastle diet is, why it claims to work, and how. A lot of regular, crazy smart folks from these forums filled in a lot of gaps in that post, and I still reread it on occasion - the Internet is full of good (and bad) information, but it is almost always dispersed into a variety of discrete chunks across a variety of sites, and (selfishly) I started that post to try and get some consolidated information to rely on. I didn't expect the support that came through - my previous experience on reddit turned into a mini troll fest
I'm six weeks into an 8-10 week diet (started as a plan for just 2 weeks, evolved to 8, and now might extend just slightly past the 8 week mark) and at the end, I plan to 1. Transition onto a healthy diet, 2. Build myself up to over 150g of carbs per day for a week, and 3. Perform an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to truly measure any change in my pancreatic function. After that, regardless of the test result, I'll be 1. Returning to a low carb diet, 2. Getting on an exercise training program to complete a 5k race and then a mini/sprint triathlon, and 3. Quitting smoking. I will have either cured my diabetes, or put myself in a great position to properly manage my continuing disease for what will hopefully be a long, long life.
Here's to hope!
In short, I was a 250 pound male (down from 260) when I was diagnosed with T2 in early January. 36 years old, smoker, with a random blood glucose reading of 350ish mg/dL (19.5mmol/L) and an A1C of 10.9%. My fasting glucose readings after diagnosis were regularly around 250 mg/dL (13.5 mmol/L), and coupled with a BMI of around 35, I was in rough shape. I was put on Metformin and Glimepiride (a sulfonylurea mix) and told the condition was chronic and irreversible.
After about three weeks of transitioning to a low carb/high fat diet (LCHF), I had lost some weight and brought my fasting blood glucose levels down from "dangerous" to just "bad." Then I read about the Newcastle study, which purported to reverse diabetes (which I read as "cure diabetes") through a radical, 800 calorie a day diet for eight weeks.
I did it (or rather, am doing it). The links in my signature chronical the process, particularly the blog (hosted by this site) and my first forum post on this site. The blog is a day by day account of my experience on the Newcastle diet; if you are interested in trying this, you can read my full (ongoing) experience there. If you are just interested, I hope it is not too boring of a read - when I started, one thing I wanted was a day by day diary that answered some of my questions, and couldn't find one, which is why I started a daily diary (at the time, not even knowing if I would come close to finishing, nor knowing if it would do any good at all or if I was relying on a crackpot study conducted by attention whores). Whether this works for me or not, I want to share my experience with the diabetic community; more information is always better than less. Let me tell you, it has been a seesaw of emotion and trouble, with plenty of high points to keep me going.
The forum post linked in my sig goes into more depth regarding what the Newcastle diet is, why it claims to work, and how. A lot of regular, crazy smart folks from these forums filled in a lot of gaps in that post, and I still reread it on occasion - the Internet is full of good (and bad) information, but it is almost always dispersed into a variety of discrete chunks across a variety of sites, and (selfishly) I started that post to try and get some consolidated information to rely on. I didn't expect the support that came through - my previous experience on reddit turned into a mini troll fest
I'm six weeks into an 8-10 week diet (started as a plan for just 2 weeks, evolved to 8, and now might extend just slightly past the 8 week mark) and at the end, I plan to 1. Transition onto a healthy diet, 2. Build myself up to over 150g of carbs per day for a week, and 3. Perform an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to truly measure any change in my pancreatic function. After that, regardless of the test result, I'll be 1. Returning to a low carb diet, 2. Getting on an exercise training program to complete a 5k race and then a mini/sprint triathlon, and 3. Quitting smoking. I will have either cured my diabetes, or put myself in a great position to properly manage my continuing disease for what will hopefully be a long, long life.
Here's to hope!
