After the Newcastle Diet Real World

bulkbiker

BANNED
Messages
19,576
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
@bulkbiker
The OP asked for specific advice and information from people who had tried the ND method.
I have no intention of seeing this thread derailed by a debate on whether LCHF or ND is better.
As @DCUKMod has already mentioned, there are many ways to achieve the same goal, and we each have to find a method that suits our own individual circumstances.

I was in fact trying to give the OP some actual info on the ND not derail the thread..and to be fair they asked for input from everyone not just those who had done the ND.
 

Oldvatr

Expert
Messages
8,470
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi

That’s why social situations have left me in almost a state of fear since I came off my meds in May, I don’t want to eat or drink in a unsuitable things when I am at home and control what I eat my bloods are totally fine and are always in the normal range and I know what I can handle and am happy with my diet, but going out where food and drink is involved is a totally different matter and if I don’t get involved or restrict where we go or eat etc I feel for lack of a more appropriate word for this forum a bit of a prat, so it’s why I don’t want to socialise and out myself in these situations since I came off the medication.
You are not a prat. You want to get the winning goal, and thats a noble task,
 

Muzzer

Well-Known Member
Messages
157
Type of diabetes
Type 2
@AM1874 if you havent done it please do not put out your view of the truth without really understanding just because you want to push low carb.

@DaveSyl I completed a low calorie diet which I did forlonger than 8 weeks some years back and now eat completely normally. This includes sweets, biscuits and cakes when I want to and my blood sugar level stays within normal at all times. My HbA1c since has been consistently 33 so it has worked for me. The only other thing I will add is what have you got to lose in trying it? If it doesnt work then you are no worse off and if it does (even if it lasts for a few years only) then thumbs up.

I am 6 weeks in on my ND
I am 2.5lbs away from reaching 15% weight loss (15st 2lbs down to 12st 8)
My BG was, at best 15.9 & average in 20's, now low 5's
My BP completely normal.
BMI now 24.8
I think I'm getting there
Intention is to go low carb and eat as normal a healthy diet as poss with the occasional treat as and when they crop up.
 

Kristin251

Expert
Messages
5,334
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
@AM1874 if you havent done it please do not put out your view of the truth without really understanding just because you want to push low carb.

@DaveSyl I completed a low calorie diet which I did forlonger than 8 weeks some years back and now eat completely normally. This includes sweets, biscuits and cakes when I want to and my blood sugar level stays within normal at all times. My HbA1c since has been consistently 33 so it has worked for me. The only other thing I will add is what have you got to lose in trying it? If it doesnt work then you are no worse off and if it does (even if it lasts for a few years only) then thumbs up.
I agree with @AM1874 I don't eat rubbish

Sweets, biscuits and cakes are not healthy fare. FOR ANYONE. Especially a type 2!!!!
 

AM1874

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,383
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Not much
@AM1874 if you havent done it please do not put out your view of the truth without really understanding just because you want to push low carb.

@DaveSyl I completed a low calorie diet which I did forlonger than 8 weeks some years back and now eat completely normally. This includes sweets, biscuits and cakes when I want to and my blood sugar level stays within normal at all times. My HbA1c since has been consistently 33 so it has worked for me. The only other thing I will add is what have you got to lose in trying it? If it doesnt work then you are no worse off and if it does (even if it lasts for a few years only) then thumbs up.
FYI, over the past ten years or I have tried the Newcastle diet .. and 5:2, Slimmers World, Weight Watchers etc etc ad nauseum. In every case, my attempts have resulted in failure because I have been hungry all the time. That's why I now believe that any diet which requires you to eat less than you need to satisfy your body's needs is unsustainable.
I do accept, though, that there are many different ways in which different people can acheive their individual goals of reducing their weight and/or blood sugar levels. I also accept that @DaveSyl was not asking for the sort of comments that I posted and, for this, I apologise if my post appeared to be an attempt to derail his thread.
And in response to @andcol and @Pipp I am not "pushing low carb" .. I am simply trying to give people who ask (particularly newly diagnosed T2s) specific information and advice about what has worked extremely well for me

Hope this clarifies ..
 

Indy51

Expert
Messages
5,540
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I thought that part of the ND was a permanent restriction of calorie intake for life of about 33%?
That's the way I recall it too.

Anyone who undertakes the Newcastle Diet is wise to have a well thought out "after plan" for keeping the weight off. Regaining the pancreatic/liver fat will be an ever-present risk factor for a return to a Type 2 diagnosis.
 
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Begonia

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Messages
120
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
My understanding of prof Taylor's work is that the key is to clear fat out of the liver and pancreas by losing weight.

After the diet you need to keep the weight off to keep liver and pancreas clear of fat.

Your new weight will be substantially lower than before the diet (e.g. 15% lower). Hence you will need to eat less than before the diet in order to maintain the new weight. This is where he estimates about a third fewer calories.

I don't think he cares how you keep the weight off, so long as you keep below the level at which fat builds up in liver and pancreas (he calls this your personal fat threshold).

If Lchf is best choice for keeping weight below personal fat threshold that's fine.
 

VioletViolet

Well-Known Member
Messages
408
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi

That’s why social situations have left me in almost a state of fear since I came off my meds in May, I don’t want to eat or drink in a unsuitable things when I am at home and control what I eat my bloods are totally fine and are always in the normal range and I know what I can handle and am happy with my diet, but going out where food and drink is involved is a totally different matter and if I don’t get involved or restrict where we go or eat etc I feel for lack of a more appropriate word for this forum a bit of a prat, so it’s why I don’t want to socialise and out myself in these situations since I came off the medication.
Fearing social situations is something I understand very well. It's not just the anxiousness of the situation itself its the build up, the event and the exhaustion afterwards. If you're trying to not to draw attention to yourself and blend in not eating/asking for something off menu can be mortifying. I have no answers as I only attend bare minimum family pressure ones ( its beginning to look a lot like Christmas ) but just wanted to say that you're not alone re: social terrors for whatever reason.
 

DaveSyl

Member
Messages
8
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi I just want to thank everyone for your responses and I have decided to go ahead with the diet, I decided last week that this would be a good week to start as I have a week off work so it would be easier to settle into the diet like this.

As for once I have completed the diet my plan and I don’t know if I am being naive here was to carry on as I am now, the way I read Professor Taylor’s recommendations were to eat a third of what you eat before the diet or before diagnosis, now if I skip back two and half years and explain my whole adult life I was probably eating and drinking 3000-4000 calories a day of mostly pure junk, I was living off takeaways I would go to McDonald’s and order two burgers fries and a large coke, I would eat a large pizza by myself, I smoked 20-25 fags a day with no physical activity I was single and would get home and play my PlayStation for hours, the only thing I could "cook" was warming up ready meals, the heaviest I have weighed is 17st plus in my late 20s and I lost around 2 stone through slimming world before stopping as people were telling me I looked so much better when I should have carried on looking back the biggest surprise is that I was only 15st 4 upon diagnosis,

Fast forward to today and my life is totally different I eat a average of 1700-2000 calories a day I go cycling 2-3 times a week for a total distance of around 100 kilometres, I do resistance training twice a week I wear a Apple Watch to monitor my activity, on most days I walk between 12-15000 steps without trying, I am also now engaged so I’m not sat in front of a PlayStation for hours and just simply live a healthy lifestyle I feel so much better within myself, my biggest regret was that I let myself get into this situation before I changed my lifestyle and I have zero intention of going back to my old ways as I have never felt better my whole life.

At diagnoses my target was just to be on as little medication as I can get away with, however it has now ending on me being of all medication already and maybe this sounds weird but my concern and cold feet wobble yesterday was that this diet was just getting people to where I already am and off medication, I feel if this gives me the chance to completely "reset" my diabetes I owe it to myself to at least give it a try.

Anyway I will post updates in this topic of my progress with the diet I know this is day 1 and I am currently only one shake down but for what it’s worth this morning I weighed 11st 6lbs and my fasting glucose was 6.6.
 
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DaveSyl

Member
Messages
8
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Fearing social situations is something I understand very well. It's not just the anxiousness of the situation itself its the build up, the event and the exhaustion afterwards. If you're trying to not to draw attention to yourself and blend in not eating/asking for something off menu can be mortifying. I have no answers as I only attend bare minimum family pressure ones ( its beginning to look a lot like Christmas ) but just wanted to say that you're not alone re: social terrors for whatever reason.

Thank you none of friends or family or work colleagues bar my fiancé get it and think I am being weird and anti social,the problem I have is a lot of these situations are through work which I can’t get out off, and when there I am honestly sick to death of getting blank looks as people just think diabetes is just can’t have sugar and desserts with no concept of what carbs do, explaining this then results in the conversation being about diabetes or my "ill health" when ironically I have never felt better or been fitter my whole life, and I also don’t want it to be about me as itderails why we are there in the first place.

But it’s also what is available to eat I know I can handle around 20-40g of carbs depending on the food with my main meal however these occasions usually put me in a situation where it is much more or just plain unsuitable carbs resulting in these massive spikes with glucose levels in the teens for a few hours which then leave me worried about developing complications.
 

Indy51

Expert
Messages
5,540
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
@DaveSyl - the description of your pre-diabetes diet makes me think you could be one of the lucky ones. Quite a few of the cases I've read about of success have been of youngish males with absolute **** diets who give up the junk food and take up exercise. You've got a lot going in your favour so I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Good luck :)
 

Chook

Expert
Messages
5,095
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
People who think they know everything.
I'm on the Newcastle Diet at the moment but instead of doing it with shakes I'm doing it with 800 calories of real food - but I'm keeping mainly to very low carb. At the end of the 8 or 12 weeks - or longer - whatever is necessary to achieve my aim of reaching my Personal Fat Threshold - I intend to just slowly increase the amount of calories I'm eating but keep to very low carb until I'm eating enough to maintain my weight.

Good luck!!! Keep posting and let us know how you are getting on. :)
 
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VioletViolet

Well-Known Member
Messages
408
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Thank you none of friends or family or work colleagues bar my fiancé get it and think I am being weird and anti social,the problem I have is a lot of these situations are through work which I can’t get out off, and when there I am honestly sick to death of getting blank looks as people just think diabetes is just can’t have sugar and desserts with no concept of what carbs do, explaining this then results in the conversation being about diabetes or my "ill health" when ironically I have never felt better or been fitter my whole life, and I also don’t want it to be about me as itderails why we are there in the first place.

But it’s also what is available to eat I know I can handle around 20-40g of carbs depending on the food with my main meal however these occasions usually put me in a situation where it is much more or just plain unsuitable carbs resulting in these massive spikes with glucose levels in the teens for a few hours which then leave me worried about developing complications.
It can be a nightmare, especially work wise where the catering norm is sandwiches and cakes. Im often asked to tick options such as gluten free, vegan etc etc. If only low carb were on there. I'd welcome a boiled egg or lump of cheese rather than carry a cool bag of baby bels around with me.
 

Mbaker

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,339
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Available fast foods in Supermarkets
A little surprised at the intolerance of well meaning posts above to try to assist the OP. I see this a few times when a Type 1 or Type 2 or vice versa comment on the others conditions, it would be great if well meaning comments were allowed as the OP then has more information to make a decision; had I been given all the options I would have saved one year, opted for ND diet with LCHF for maintenance, as opposed to HCLF, which was harder work for me.

My thoughts are that @DaveSyl has made remarkable progress and is looking for a potential push to cement a non-diabetic position potentially. I think the sentiment of the some of the posts above were / are suggestions as what to do after the 8 (or maybe 12) weeks as a maintenance phase. If I were in your shoes I would maintain with LCHF, just because I am adjusted and happy with this, in your case it appears this is not a lifestyle which suits you, so maybe a hybrid of low glycemic / Mediterranean or WFPB with your choice of treats would work / the minus 33% of the original intake (which you indicated). I have not mentioned the Eatwell option as you are concerned with spikes.

I am strong believer in that if the weight is kept off (unless weight goes up via muscle) it is possible to maintain excellent control. If possible I would recommend that you invest in some Tanita scales for circa £35.00 and plot these measurements to understand any correlations as to what your body composition does in relation to your ultimate numbers.
 
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AloeSvea

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Messages
2,051
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
I know what you mean @DaveSyl and @VioletViolet - I am a very social person, but the treating my T2D with diet does cause some mortifiying social problems from time to time. Mostly, my close friends and family are all good and I am proud of what a good understanding of T2D and low carbing they have attained :), via me and the food I eat.

But every now and then something will happen and I realise that I have a big tight ball in the pit of my stomach with social anxiety over food on the table.

Recently, with very dear friends feeding me and Herr Svea, my hostess, who knows about me and my LCHF in rather boring detail - poor thing! - put a full bowl of ice cream and canned fruit salad in front of me too at the end of a meal in which I openly chose the LCHF options. I didn't know what to do, as social niceties precluded me reminding her of my predicament (how could she forget?), so I just left it there, hoping she would remember the ol' diabetes and diet thing, and take it away. It was still there a couple of hours later. Even when the hostess cleared everything else off the table. Yeah - ice cream all melted. (Was this a taunt? Was this just forgetting?) And really sad for me, as I actually used to really like ice cream and fruit salad! Having it sit in front of me for hours was just kind of tragic. But the longer it was there the harder it was to say anything.

I am pretty open about telling my friends and family that the diabetes-loneliness at the dinner table is something I am very happy to live with! ie that none of the prediabetic folks I know join me in the T2D stakes. But it IS lonely there sometimes.

Anyone want to organise huge diabetes friendly feasts where we can eat without having to say a word to other diners about how we treat BG dysregulation with diet? :)

(I guess if it is post-ND low-calorie diet remission/reversal-maintenance there wouldn't be a huge feast?)

Sigh.
 

Kristin251

Expert
Messages
5,334
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
A few mighty ago we were out and I ordered my standard martini rocks as this bartender knows me. He decided I might like some lemonade in it. Of course one sip I asked what he added. He said it better with lemonade. Of course I reminded him I was diabetic and can't have sugar. He said he he was sorry and didn't want me to throw up lol. WHAT WHAT??? Least of my problems.
 

Freema

Expert
Messages
7,346
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Yes really worth a try the most ideal HbA1c are under 36 so there is still room for progress ... you have done very fine progress so if you can do that Ultimate diet Then go for it , some can eat normal levels of carbs for a while But gaining back all the weight would in the Newcastle theory bring back the fullblown diabetes once again so essential to keep a healthier lifestyle afterwards too
 

DaveSyl

Member
Messages
8
Type of diabetes
Type 2
So it’s only been 24 hours and so far nothing has actually really happened I still weighed 11st 6lbs this morning and my fasting glucose was in its normal range a 7.3 this morning, I had three of the Excante shakes all I can describe of them was meh, however despite the sugar content in these, average of around 13-15g from 18g of carbs the spikes were really not that bad the highest reading I had was a 8.7 a hour after and it was averaging 7.5 give or take by the 2 hour mark, but by the four hour mark I was averaging low 5s.

The last meal was using the recepies from the Newcastle uni website and I had a 200ml bowl of their vegetable soup with the curry powder in and I have to say that was delicious, that recipe will be kept and used even when I am no longer on this diet, and that 200ml was also more than I expected, I had nightmares of 3 or 4 spoon fulls for some reason.

I also ordered some Ketostix yesterday which should hopefully be delivered today, but I will wait until Thursday of Friday before testing as right now I feel perfectly fine with no hunger pans at all, and also none of the symptoms headaches coldness etc the Newcastle website is warning to expect for in the first few days.

And just another thank you too all you for the responses I have just caught up before writing this message, and @Mbaker (I hope I done that right) thanks for the advice on the scales I just had a quick look and will have a further look in a bit and possibly order some or pick some up if I can get them locally later.
 
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Freema

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Messages
7,346
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
If it is almost unbearable my fif was chewing some sugarfree gums when I did 1000 calories it tastes a long time and feels a bit like eating , But there are carbs in even being sugarfree so remember to count it in