Eat, Fast and Live Longer

I've been really interested to watch the program and to read all your comments. I have been truly inspired by them and by the incredible thread posted by Defren about the Newcastle Diet, and the benefits she has gained from it, its clear that eating less is really important. But I had a real epiphany this morning which may explain why my very low carb diet is not resulting in weight loss right now ... its ok to be hungry ....

So for years before I was diagnosed I was on and off Slimming World where you could eat as much as you like of X or Y, Before I was diagnosed but when I clearly had uncontrolled diabetes, I would shake and feel really terrible if I got hungry, and would gorge on jelly snakes or jelly babies and then when I was first diagnosed I was suckered into the 'carbs with every meal' mantra so would have highs and lows and again feel rotten when I got hungry.

Now that I am eating very few carbs, certainly no processed food just carbs from fruit, veg, nuts and dairy, I have realised that being hungry is not going to hurt or make me feel lousy. So my new policy is to feel really hungry before I eat, not just eat for the sake of it, or because its a particular time of day. Maybe I am not yet brave enough to fast 2 days a week but I can certainly regenerate a brain cell or two between breakfast and lunch.

Fraddycat said:

I've been really interested to watch the program and to read all your comments. I have been truly inspired by them and by the incredible thread posted by Defren about the Newcastle Diet, and the benefits she has gained from it, its clear that eating less is really important. But I had a real epiphany this morning which may explain why my very low carb diet is not resulting in weight loss right now ... its ok to be hungry ....

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Thank you. I am now going to try the 5:2 fasting. I can't help but feel, you have to stay on top of this condition all the time. While my tolerance to carbs did get a bit better, I find that I am sliding back to lower carbs again. This may well just be me, conditioning myself to believe I need lower carbs. I plan to fast each Tuesday and Thursday and see how I go. My one concern is, I am almost at optimal weight now, once I reach it will I have to stop fasting or end up underweight? Lessons for me to learn as I go along.

Fraddycat said:

So for years before I was diagnosed I was on and off Slimming World where you could eat as much as you like of X or Y, Before I was diagnosed but when I clearly had uncontrolled diabetes, I would shake and feel really terrible if I got hungry, and would gorge on jelly snakes or jelly babies and then when I was first diagnosed I was suckered into the 'carbs with every meal' mantra so would have highs and lows and again feel rotten when I got hungry.

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I did Slimming world years ago, and it worked for me. My problem was steroids. I would get to a good weight, then flair up and need steroids again. Thankfully this has not happened for quite some time and I have not had steroids in a good while, so I could lose the weight without that worry this time. Now, I will be seeing how I go fasting, as I was ill Thursday after fasting too strictly on Wednesday. My BG went so low - not nice.

Fraddycat said:

Now that I am eating very few carbs, certainly no processed food just carbs from fruit, veg, nuts and dairy, I have realised that being hungry is not going to hurt or make me feel lousy. So my new policy is to feel really hungry before I eat, not just eat for the sake of it, or because its a particular time of day. Maybe I am not yet brave enough to fast 2 days a week but I can certainly regenerate a brain cell or two between breakfast and lunch.

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The fasting days are made up with one meal of 500 calories maximum, so not a complete removal of food. The only reason I was ill, I was bl**dy stupid and deserved all I got, I took in around 160 calories all day. That was foolish, and I will certainly be more careful, but a 500 maximum calorie fast should be fine. I will do my next one on Tuesday.

Defren, I have to agree, diabetes is our contant foe, we have to constantly battle against it. If for some reason we let our guard down, then diabetes wins. It gets me up and out on my bike at the weekend, and walking during he week. But its so hard to fight against when you are stressed, travelling on business, tackling something new ... thanks to all of you, you help so much with my motivation!!

I am starting today!! Just got up and am starving already, LOL!!!

I am going to have about 100 cals for breakfast, then try to skip lunch and have the other 500 for dinner tonight. I know you are supposed to have it all in one meal but I don't think I can go that long so a little bit for brekkie will hopefully keep me going til dinner (barring any hypos of course - then I shall scoff the entire contents of the fridge!!!).

Good luck to anyone else starting today.

Fraddycat said:

Defren, I have to agree, diabetes is our contant foe, we have to constantly battle against it. If for some reason we let our guard down, then diabetes wins. It gets me up and out on my bike at the weekend, and walking during he week. But its so hard to fight against when you are stressed, travelling on business, tackling something new ... thanks to all of you, you help so much with my motivation!!

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You're very welcome. That help is like a Mexican wave, we all get it when we need it, then pass it along when we feel a bit more confident.

Tomorrow is my fast day, I will do Tuesday's and Thursday's. However, not next week or the week after as I will be away. I am going to do this week, so I have a good idea what it's all going to be like. I will start full time in September. I wonder if one of us doing the fast should start a new thread on, say the weight loss forum? Just so we can keep a diary of how we are doing.

Whaddya think fellow fasters?

I wrote this earlier today - perhaps it should be here since its relative to the programme :roll:

I'm sure that combined with my LCHF I should shed some weight however it was the bg, bp & cv controls that really persuaded me

angua said:

Wow at last ! after 36 hours fasting (with an injection of 500 cals at the appropriate time) I woke this morning with a fasting reading of 5.5

and for the first time some colour on my ketone stick (albeit still quite light)

I haven't felt 'starving' and manage to distract myself when I'm feeling want - y - plus I went into my fast loaded (relatively) with a recipe of WJ's so I didn't mind too much

So far fasting is definitely working for me - anybody else with magic numbers ?

Gilly

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Gilly

angua said:

I wrote this earlier today - perhaps it should be here since its relative to the programme :roll:

I'm sure that combined with my LCHF I should shed some weight however it was the bg, bp & cv controls that really persuaded me

angua said:

Wow at last ! after 36 hours fasting (with an injection of 500 cals at the appropriate time) I woke this morning with a fasting reading of 5.5

and for the first time some colour on my ketone stick (albeit still quite light)

I haven't felt 'starving' and manage to distract myself when I'm feeling want - y - plus I went into my fast loaded (relatively) with a recipe of WJ's so I didn't mind too much

So far fasting is definitely working for me - anybody else with magic numbers ?

Gilly

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Well done! Fasting seems to be a good move for you as the Newcastle Diet was for me, and I am hoping fasting will be. My body does seem to react to dietary change quite well, so I am hoping I am going to see good results. I just have to remember to test. I really don't test much at all theses days, but with a new regime, won't have a clue what's going on if I don't.

Really pleased for you Gilly, keep up the brilliant work :clap: :clap: :clap:

Jo

Well done Gilly! Impressive!

Good luck Defren, looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Fraddycat said:

Well done Gilly! Impressive!

Good luck Defren, looking forward to hearing how it goes.

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Thanks. I wish I had thought on and taken some BG tests today, I could have compared them, but it's a bit late now. Oh well, I will post myself some sticky notes for tomorrow, and Wednesday and see how it is during and the day after. The actual fast doesn't worry me, the figures are going to pique my interest to see how they go. It's also going to be interesting to see what if any effects happen long term.

Yesterday I fasted. No breakfast or lunch and tested every hour. It was handy as I could check my pump basal levels and turns out they are probably a bit high in the afternoons because I was hypo by about 5pm. Managed to only eat a couple f wine gums to treat it and then had dinner of 500 cals at 6pm.

I have just woken this morning in another hypo!!

I am going to fast again on Thursday to see if this is a pattern for the basals.

I did notice I had a headache by mid afternoon and also have one this morning, but I think that is because I don;t drink enough water.

Defren said:

Fraddycat said:

Defren, I have to agree, diabetes is our contant foe, we have to constantly battle against it. If for some reason we let our guard down, then diabetes wins. It gets me up and out on my bike at the weekend, and walking during he week. But its so hard to fight against when you are stressed, travelling on business, tackling something new ... thanks to all of you, you help so much with my motivation!!

Click to expand...

You're very welcome. That help is like a Mexican wave, we all get it when we need it, then pass it along when we feel a bit more confident.

Tomorrow is my fast day, I will do Tuesday's and Thursday's. However, not next week or the week after as I will be away. I am going to do this week, so I have a good idea what it's all going to be like. I will start full time in September. I wonder if one of us doing the fast should start a new thread on, say the weight loss forum? Just so we can keep a diary of how we are doing.

Whaddya think fellow fasters?

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good idea

I want to fast on wednesdays and fridays, so that means starting tomorrow but i'm a bit worried about how hungry I will be lol. I Intend to have a meal in the middle of the day, rather than breakfast in order to break the day up, so will need to look up the most filling foods for the calories. Something low GI i expect. I also want to keep it low carb.

I assume sweeteners in green tea are a no no, but i can drink what i like (within reason) throughout the day? I'd think that broths would count towards your calories?

Does anyone have any real research on why we have to eat breakfast for instance? I could easily drop it from my day as I'm never hungry in the morning; just come coffee and I'm good to go.

I know people say 'most important meal of the day' and your body goes into 'starvation mode' if you miss it but that sounds kind of hokey to me? What is the evidence for that?

This thread is all about how it's good for you to fast - well what if I break me fast at lunch and not breakfast I wonder if that would have a similar effect?

Best

Dillinger

I think (i could be wrong) that the recommended meal to eat at is lunch time - i think there was some research referenced earlier in this thread. It would make sense to eat halfway through - to me, at least.

Heres Dr Briffas take on intermittent fasting taken from his web site - http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/03/01/my-t ... t-fasting/

Dr Briffa said:

Intermittent fasting has merit, I think, but it’s not for everyone. Those who should avoid intermittent fasting include individuals with a history of eating disorder and diabetics. Other individuals who are generally unsuitable candidates for intermittent fasting include those who are generally ‘stressed’ or have chronic fatigue. Stress can weaken organs known as the adrenal glands, and intermittent fasting can weaken these glands further, which may exacerbate symptoms such as fatigue.

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I have always read that it is important that diabetics eat regular meals.

I think that the ability to skip meals is one of the side benefits of a low-carb diet. Once you've trained your metabolism to burn fat (and eliminated your dependency of BG spiking carbohydrates), then it gets very easy to skip a meal or two.* Ketosis is paticular is a "starvation protection mechanism", it helps to regulate your BG, and damps out hunger pangs.

I don't do it often, but if I'm busy at work I can easily get away with a 23 hour fast, between evening meals. I always fast before I run, because I want to be in "fat burning mode" and because I want to avoid "joggers trotts".

*On diet only. I assume it's much more difficult to calculate your insulin dose if you are skipping meals. Even metformin takers probably need to eat some food with their tablets to avoid gastric distress.

People with type 1 diabetes, kidney disease and any other form of disease should only fast under medical supervision.

I dont quite understand the 500cals a day thing, the whole idea of a 24hr fast is to give the body a good rest so it can get on with regenerating those cells, so VERY light gentle 'meals' and drinks only. Eg vegetable broths, liquidised, fruit and herbal teas and plenty of water.
A 500cal meal is not going to be restful is it?? Forgive me if I am wrong, just that I have been doing those 24hr fasting periods every week for the past 6 years without fail.

WhitbyJet said:

I dont quite understand the 500cals a day thing, the whole idea of a 24hr fast is to give the body a good rest so it can get on with regenerating those cells, so VERY light gentle 'meals' and drinks only.

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So trifle is OK then?

:lol: :lol: No, its not, not for fasting, you can have it the next day, somehow it tastes better next day, the vanilla custard with the sponge, fruit, whipped cream....mmmmMMMMMM YUM

The programme said if you did intermittent day fasting, you could eat whatever you liked on non-fast days, so trifel would be ok :lol:

Hi I saw the programme with my wife. On my last clinic visit I was a bit over weight (79Kg) up 3 kilo's from this time last year and I really do want to get rid of some of the tummy. But I am a bit useless with diets, although we do live pretty healthily eating veg and fruit from the garden. Anyway we decided to give it a try, we're actually on our second day now. Last time we had a breakfast of 50g oats plus some logans and raspberries from the garden. We skipped lunch and then had a tin of pilchards between us and loads of Mange tout (once again from the garden) It wasn't that difficult and the next day I didn't feel any temptation to binge. One thing that fasting makes easier is BG control because really having so few carbs it's mainly background insulin doing it's thing. One thing that it revealed was that I am taking too much background. I've now put it down and things are very well under control. I know that it's early days for this experiment, but I can't see that spending 2 days a week only eating about 500 kcal is going to hurt anyone and like Mr Mosely I would like to live an active lifestyle for as long as poss.