Approaching end of Newcastle diet

[Deano72]

Hello

I was diagnosed T2 in November after mentioning to my doctor during a visit about something else that my feet hurt. Sadly it didn’t occur to me that throbbing feet had anything to do with diabetes, or anything other than uncomfortable work boots for that matter!
So my Hba1c came in at 65. Had a second test a couple of weeks later, which was 66.
Had a brief conversation with my GP, during which she mentioned the condition was reversible & there were tablets I could take that would help (Metformin).
I panicked a bit, knew I was going to have to get up to speed & was going on holiday 2 days later. So, I opted for the tablets & started taking 1x500mg Metformin per day, progressing to 2, then 3 just before Christmas.
Over the next month I started eating more sensibly. Less takeaways & junk. More real food (some of which I have since learned wasn’t the best choice) & lost around a stone in weight (19 stone 7 on diagnosis. 18 stone 7 just before Christmas). During this time I came across this website, amongst others & absorbed a wealth of information. Read Michael Moseley’s Blood Sugar Diet book, books on other diets, etc & started leaning towards giving the Newcastle Diet a shot in the new year. Spoke to my GP about it, who was supportive & assured me I had nothing to worry about by following a VLCD for 2 months.
Bought myself a blood sugar test kit & my first 100 shakes (opted for Shake That Weight), enjoyed Christmas (although more conservatively than I’m used to) & decided to start the diet on January 7th.
Took first BG readings on January 1st. 11.3 fasting & 10 2 hours after evening meal.
Ate sensibly for the next few days. Essentially portion control, low carb, low fat and my readings the day before starting the diet were 7.8 & 9.7. My weight on this day was 18 stone 8.
As others have said the diet isn’t easy. Some days, for reasons I can’t put my finger on are harder than others. The small amount of real food is a challenge to keep interesting, but the whole thing is easier than I thought it would be. Curry powder has been a life saver.
So, at the end of week one I’d lost 10.5lb & my BG readings, after improving daily were 4.9 & 6.1. All of this was very motivational. I stopped taking Metformin at this point. GP was fine with me doing this & it made no difference whatsoever.
The following weeks saw my blood results stay the same. Always between 4.5 & 5 fasting. And low 5’s to low 6’s 2 hours after either a shake or the food. Weight loss continued at quite a pace too. About half a stone a week & a loss of something every single day.
I am now in to week seven. My weight is 15 stone 12. Getting on for 4 stone down, nearly 3 since starting the diet, average fasting BG over the last 28 days is 4.8 & average overall BG over the last 7 days is 5.4. Just under 2 weeks to go. I am bored of the diet, but still motivated.
So, 2 reasons for my post (& I appreciate its long. I am a waffler!).
First, I have found other people’s stories I’ve read informative & inspirational. Hopefully my post can do the same for others.
Second, I’m really looking forward to eating real food soon, but am anxious. I’ve read many different takes on the best way to handle the transition back to food, maintenance & exercise regimes. I’d be really interested in any advice or suggestions from others who have completed the diet.

Thanks & good luck to everyone else on this journey...

 

[ziggy_w]

Hello @Deano72,

Really well done. Congrats on your lower blood sugars and weight loss. You must be very proud of your achievement and hard work.

I am sure you will inspire others.

 

[annie07]

Amazing results, well done!!

 

[Pipp]

Well done @Deano72 . You have done the first part. Now for the rest of your life. In the transition to real foods, take it slowly. I was advised to reintroduce one meal for the first few days, then add a second meal for a few more days, before progressing to three meals a day. The first few days have light protein and greens. Introduce carbs last. The important part is to continue testing blood glucose to see how the foods affect those. That way you will know what to avoid.

A long term way of eating is needed. Low carb is best. Don’t want to undo all that hard work.
Best wishes. Keep posting and updating progress.

 

[DCUKMod]

@Deano72 - I agree with @Pipp in terms of a steady reintroduction to foods. Some folks can end up with quite upset tumms if they just swicth too quickly, as their systems just aren't used to lots of food.

Secondly, the end of the Newcastle Diet is usually just the end of stage one of good diabetes control. You have lost significant amounts of weight, and I applaud you for that - you must feel fab! And your blood sugars have also moderated significantly (again a big well done), but the issue now is to maintain that.

Mobody wants to yo-yo diet; regaining weight lost or having increasing blood sugars again, but it does sometimes happen. Most often (but absolutely not always) it happens where a person thinks they've been there, done that and can revert to their pre-diagnosis lifestyle and food consumption.

Plan carefully, take small steps, test LOTS and very good luck with this next stage. It's time to consolodate your stellar work thus far.

 

[Goonergal]

@Deano72 congratulations! I’m with @Pipp and @DCUKMod re taking your time to reintroduce foods and low carb would definitely be the way to go. The key is to find things you enjoy as well as keeping your BG in check so that your way of eating will be sustainable.

Similarly with exercise. Build up gradually, do things you enjoy that fit around your lifestyle.

Do keep us posted with your progress.

 

[Diawara]

well done @Deano72 your story is very similar to mine i was diagnosed twelve months ago... followed mms book but cooking from scratch not shakes..i have to go to work now so will add more tonight (i lost same sort of weight as you and have maintained it since june 2018

 

[Deano72]

Thanks guys. I am feeling good about things. Hoping I’m one of the lucky ones the ND delivers a reversal of the condition for. However, I fully appreciate my chances are 50/50 at best.
To be honest, whether I achieve a full reversal or not I won’t be returning to my old ways. Yes, I intend to enjoy a few drinks & my favourite foods. But less than before. And balanced with lots of exercise & a good diet most of the time. I aim to keep the majority of the weight I’ve lost off, although some increase is inevitable. ND takes its toll on muscle as well as fat. Within a couple of pounds of 16 stone is my long term target. In new money that’s 22kg less than my weight on diagnosis, which if I am a responder to the diet, puts me well in to the safe zone.
To be honest the diagnosis was probably a good thing. With or without it I was on a journey towards health problems & it’s been a massive wake up call.
I will continue to post my progress...

 

[ringi]

Thanks guys. I am feeling good about things. Hoping I’m one of the lucky ones the ND delivers a reversal of the condition for. However, I fully appreciate my chances are 50/50 at best.

Your odds of doing well is a lot better then that, as you know about limiting carbs, and checking how much a meal increases your BG. You should be able to choose meals so your BG 2hr after starting to eat the meal has increased by under 2, idealy most meals will increase your BG by under 1.

One once is to switch to the "8 week blood suger diet", plan and buy the food for a week of meals. Then double the fish/meal in these meals the next week without increasing anything else. Intermittent fasting is also powerful, for example only having one meal a day for 3 days of the week.

As for exercise and muscle, one of the best option is resistance training, personally I like the method in the "Body by Science" book. HIIT also has good evidence of working well to control type2.

 

[Deano72]

I’ll take a look at that book. Focusing on getting a decent walk in every day at the minute. Struggled with this at the beginning of the diet, but managing 10000+ steps a day now I’m used to it.
Never considered using the Blood Sugar diet with increased protein portions for the transition, but I’ll look in to that too. Really enjoy the shakes to be honest, so thinking I’ll have the odd day on those as an alternative to fasting, but it’s all just ideas right now. Need to play around with things. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Resurgam]

You might want to consider LCHF just for its reduction in appetite, and any further weightloss as a bonus.

 

[OrsonKartt]

You might want to consider LCHF just for its reduction in appetite, and any further weightloss as a bonus.

Congratulations on doing the new castle diet. I found it brutal but hey it does work. At the end of the 8 weeks I went lo carb - I don't count calories nor carbs just keep the carbs to a minimum. You know no rice pasta veggies grown underground and testing. I find if I do my own testing I actually know what's going on rather than believe some one else. Anyhow 3 years later and I'm still testing and still technically non diabetic. Mind you I know that my body can't tolerate carbs nor fruit still. My diet now though is fab. Best tastiest food I've every eaten. Almost every meal is a genuine pleasure although it takes a little more planning. Good luck with it all and in the words of Spock " live long and prosper"

 

[jjraak]

fantastic effort @Deano72
well done on weight loss.

i went lchf, and got similar results, and now you are at that early stage of joining us, i think.

its good advice to find things YOU like that don't spike you.

i quite enjoy most meals now where as on the doctors original advice i was starving and so unmotivated by the boringness of it all...yet the advice on here showed me better ways that i COULD eat and still make progress.

For me ...advice would be rethink what you know about food. read up on here, what people actually eat and they STILL maintain good control and in most cases lose weight.

I thought a proper breakfast was a thing of the past, but the last 3/4 months egg sausage bacon, mushrooms..have been a regular on my plate ..and i still lost weight.

But do take it steady..i'd love to see you transition successfully to LCHF and begin to enjoy food (and life again, or at least that's how i felt )

plenty on here to offer support and advice, loads to read through for ideas about what YOU can eat and still maintain a healthy weight and BG levels.

i'd say check out HERE for food ideas when ready..to be super impressed check the stats of individual members re weight loss
and NONE of the foods could be described as Boring..delicious yes, buy boring..never

 

[Deano72]

Great to see so many replies coming in. Thank you all for taking the time. Quite a scary thing to deal with in the early days, but I’m getting my head around it now.
The theme of most of the advice is LCHF. Definitely something I will be exploring however, I am still hopeful that I will achieve the results some achieved in ND trials & not need to go strict low carb. Has anyone reading this achieved these results?
I know that low carb is good to maintain reduced weight & have zero plans to return to a high carb & sugar diet, but I opted for ND in a attempt to reverse T2. Am I right in thinking LCHF is merely a way of managing the condition & therefore a good fallback approach if ND fails?

 

[Krystyna23040]

Am I right in thinking LCHF is merely a way of managing the condition & therefore a good fallback approach if ND fails?

I think that low carb after the ND is good because (if you have T2) you have a body that cannot cope with carbs (unless the T2 was caused by meds). So if you go back to carbs you would most probably end up with T2 again. You would need to find out what level of carbs are OK for you and keep you in remission/reversal.

 

[bulkbiker]

Am I right in thinking LCHF is merely a way of managing the condition & therefore a good fallback approach if ND fails?

Merely? hmmmm
I would say that my T2 is reversed by almost every medical measure possible.. never needed to starve myself.
When we get some 5 year follow ups to the ND (which are probably due but don't seem to have surfaced) we might be able to see how effective it really is longer term. In the meantime well done on sticking with it. Don't be surprised if you put on some weight after stopping ND though... your body has had quite a stressful time so might take a bit of healing.

 

[jjraak]

Am I right in thinking LCHF is merely a way of managing the condition & therefore a good fallback approach if ND fails?

In a word NO.

From my viewpoint LCHF is the DEFAULT position for reversing T2D .the ND has come about by dint of LCHF having such great results, and the failing is as you mentioned...it's boring ...and most likely unsustainable over a long period of time, so failure keeping strictly to ND is almost built in sadly.

For the many on here who reversed it or more correctly imho out it into remission, all I think have used LCHF..

As @bulkbiker states when long term use of ND Results in similar it MIGHT be the equal, but until then I'd say it's a useful tool for some to get into a position of safety,

but it's too flimsy a raft to make a long journey, all those on it will transition to eating low carb..and possibly high fat..or some other alternative sensible measure or will simply watch the good results hard earned reverse over time.

 

[DCUKMod]

@Deano72 - could you describe how you plan to live your life, say 2 weeks after finishing the ND? I say 2 weeks, because whatever you intend, there will be a transitional period.

 

[Deano72]

@Deano72 - could you describe how you plan to live your life, say 2 weeks after finishing the ND? I say 2 weeks, because whatever you intend, there will be a transitional period.

Good question. The answer is I’m not sure. Jumped in to ND with the view that at best it would reverse the condition & at worst I’d lose a lot of weight, which would help manage the condition.
I have a loose plan at this stage but am digesting as much information as I can, from here & other reading, in order to firm my plan up.
Current thinking is:
First few days of week 1 - continue with 3 shakes & have a small portion of lean meat alongside vegetables.
Week 1-2 - As week 1, but replacing lunchtime shake with more veg & protein.
Week 2-3 - Make my evening meal more substantial & include a small amount of carbs. Dispense with the evening shake (with increased BG testing to understand impact of carbs).
End of week 3 onwards - a work in progress. Taking in the advice from you folks, also interested in the results from the previous week. Liking the principles of the Mediterranean diet. Certainly not discounting LCHF, but just a bit worried that a high fat diet could lead to other complications long term.
Also thinking, more from a weight management perspective than anything else, that a feast & fast approach, such as the 5:2 diet could be helpful.
I guess as others have said I need to understand what works well for me, so whatever plan I end up following will be flexible. Can see LCHF being a fallback position, but not sure I’m comfortable with it as a default plan straight away & on an ongoing basis.
Oh to have exercised more, ate better & not be in this position!!

 

[DCUKMod]

Good question. The answer is I’m not sure. Jumped in to ND with the view that at best it would reverse the condition & at worst I’d lose a lot of weight, which would help manage the condition.
I have a loose plan at this stage but am digesting as much information as I can, from here & other reading, in order to firm my plan up.
Current thinking is:
First few days of week 1 - continue with 3 shakes & have a small portion of lean meat alongside vegetables.
Week 1-2 - As week 1, but replacing lunchtime shake with more veg & protein.
Week 2-3 - Make my evening meal more substantial & include a small amount of carbs. Dispense with the evening shake (with increased BG testing to understand impact of carbs).
End of week 3 onwards - a work in progress. Taking in the advice from you folks, also interested in the results from the previous week. Liking the principles of the Mediterranean diet. Certainly not discounting LCHF, but just a bit worried that a high fat diet could lead to other complications long term.
Also thinking, more from a weight management perspective than anything else, that a feast & fast approach, such as the 5:2 diet could be helpful.
I guess as others have said I need to understand what works well for me, so whatever plan I end up following will be flexible. Can see LCHF being a fallback position, but not sure I’m comfortable with it as a default plan straight away & on an ongoing basis.
Oh to have exercised more, ate better & not be in this position!!

I would suggest you need a firm plan, because that will reduce the risks of going total your off-piste.

Obviously I don't know you. I don't know your character, but what I do know is that of those who do the ND, then drop back not eating carbs we see Lenny coming back to rerun the loop, having gained weight, experienced degrading blood scores and totally deflated.

The forum has a revolving door and folks are very welcome to use it, but if that is your choice, please do it with a clear mind.

Professor Taylor in his various papers, does state clearly that those having completed the protocol should be expecting to eat less after they have ended their cycle. He doesn't state explicitly in his papers, that I have noted, and strict approach thereafter.

When I got skinny, I wrote to Professor Taylor, explaining what I had done. I hadn't done the ND, I just reduced carbs and got skinny, and asked if he had any feeling for the best way forward. He stated that a reduced carb way of eating seemed popular for those who managed to maintain, and wished me luck.

It's up to you how you move forward, but do so with great care, recording and monitoring of your weight and blood scores. That is way more important when in the maintenance phase than when using the shakes.