Another Newcastle Diet

Some of this data is approx, from memory. Will check with GP next time I visit to e.g. see when I was actually diagnosed.

Age: 45
Gender: Male
Height: 6ft
Approx. Duration of Diagnosis at start of ND: 4 years
HbA1C at diagnosis: Not sure. 7.5% rings a bell.
Maximum recorded weight: Approx 137kg ~12 years ago
Weight at diagnosis: 120kg
Weight at start of ND: 95kg
T2 medication: None
Other medication: None

History:
Diet controlled at diagnosis.
Went off rails for at least a year. By mid 2017, was off work, sleeping up to 20 hours a day, and had a HbA1C of 90. Was put on 4 metformin and then an extra type of medication on top was recommended. I tried to tackle things naturally instead, and stopped metformin. Started testing and taking it seriously. Typical bg during day was about 16 mmol/l. Highest recorded was 19.5 mmol/l. Couldn't get morning fasting readings below 9.5 while eating typical food types and quantities.

Last ~4 months before ND, have been doing various experiments and improvements. Generally in a better place, back at work full time, HbA1C down to 42 at end of 2017. Lost about 3 stone in those 4 months.

Have had serious problems with discipline, plus my stats make me a fairly good candidate for the ND approach. Might as well try something strict and regimented now. Next HbA1C is about 2.5 months away, so might as well try the ND until then to see what happens.

Approach:

Diet:

* 3 x Tesco Ultraslim or ASDA Great Shape shakes a day. These will be made with SKIMMED milk as per their instructions. These add up to 600 calories a day.

* Approx 200 calories from a wide mix of non-starchy vegetables.

* Other things which are on the 'allowed' list on the Optifast website, such as garlic and stock cubes, which will help make the veg into palatable soups.

* Supplements: One vitamin D tablet a day. One multi-vitamin & mineral tablet a day.

* Extras: One teaspoon of olive oil a day. Not every source recommends this, but some people suggest it is a good idea in order to avoid gallstones. In the spirit of keeping this a very low fat diet, I'll never use more than 1 teaspoon a day. I'll also be taking a small amount of Psyllium Husk in an effort to avoid constipation.

Overall it is a high-carb, low-fat diet, but the total carbs should normally be less than 100g per day.


Exercise:
No regime will be enforced.

Logging:

Daily I will record:
* Morning blood glucose. 1 reading, with meter inaccuracies balancing out over time.
* Exercise notes
* General notes

And once a week I will record:
* Weight (kg)
* Girth (around belly button)
* Morning 2hr postprandial reading after breakfast 'shake'. It will always be done with the same brand and flavour of shake. It will have about 25g carbs in it. I'll take 3 readings either side for accuracy. I will sit still for the 2 hours. This will be a mini carbohydrate tolerance test and a way of detecting any changes to metabolism.


Reporting:

I'll post the latest graphs here once a week. If anything interesting happens I'll also post here.

Bluetit1802 said:

Good luck!

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Thank you!

Rachox said:

Well done on your achievements so far and all the best with ND. I look forward to your graphs!

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Haha! I've just spent quite a long time wondering about the best way to graph it. I'm going to post my first graph in a moment. Thanks.

I think this is going to be the main graph that I post here when I do updates. It shows the most important info at a glance.

For the solid red and blue "target" lines I've used data from a study re what is "normal" blood glucose here:

https://www.diabetes-symposium.org/index.php?menu=view&id=322

The blue line is the average morning bg for a non-diabetic, and the red line is what their bg was 2 hours after breakfast. Breakfast was, I think, whatever they want, so not the most useful comparison there!

I may do the same graph but instead of using the averages from that study, I'll use the worst-cases, i.e. highest numbers the normal people got, which is probably a more realistic target to aim for. Might as well start with a high standard though!

The blue squares are my morning bgs, which I'll be taking every morning. The red diamonds are my 2 hour postprandial bgs after the morning shake, which I'll take probably every Sunday. I've taken one today, but only did 1 fingerprick reading so it won't be as accurate as future readings.

The idea is, at a glance, I can see:

1) Is my morning reading going down towards the normal range?

2) Is my 2hr postprandial reading going down towards the normal range?

3) Is my 2 hr postprandial rise decreasing? If the gap between the blue squares and the red diamonds narrows, then my metabolism may be improving. If it gets as narrow as the gap between the blue and red solid lines, then that's a very good sign indeed. If that ever happens, I'll start looking at 1 hour postprandials instead.


photos uploader

AlcalaBob said:

Good for you. You already have a good track record of making serious improvements so I reckon, once you're in your stride, it'll be fairly straightforward. First few days for me were the ones with a few minor hunger pangs but they passed very quickly. I tried to think of the ND more as a medical intervention than a diet and that helped keep me very firmly committed. I really want to get rid of this nasty bag of tricks! In my head, I perhaps see a diet as something more optional whereas focusing on the health kicked me out of any potential complacency. Best of luck. I'm sure you'll have great success.

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Thanks. I suppose I do have a decent track record of you look at overall progress in the last 4 months. The problem I have is indecision, and sticking to any one plan for more than a week! I've got to just buckle down and get on with this one now. I've been thinking I'd do the ND for a while. Your thread was a big part of the inspiration to finally commit to it.

I like the idea of thinking of it as a medical intervention rather than a diet.

ringi said:

Try recording Weight every day, take the mean over the preceding 7 days. (Remember that your weight can change on any given day by over 2kg just based on when you go to the WC and how much water you drink.)

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Yes I'll probably end up taking weight measurements most days. It is the variance that made me think initially there's only any point in getting a rough idea, therefore weekly would do. But this is a one-off and interesting process so I might as well gather as much data as possible.