We are off on a hiking holiday to France next month, so decided to get in a couple months walking, hill climbing and a bit more time with the weights before going.
Pushed my BMI down from 23.8 to 22.4 and another inch off my waist. After a month of that, started to test a bit more frequently (I'd pretty much stopped testing apart from one fasting per week, relying on the Bayer A1c at home test every couple of months).
Average levels down, which is what you'd expect, but what surprised me is how much more tolerant of carbs I've become without spiking. I've probably not been this fit, or of such a low weight, for nearly 40 years.
Fasting has been between 4.3 and 4.7 all week, in fact I've not exceeded 5.1 even two hours after meals. Last night, I had 5 medium length bread rolls with salmon - originally, that amount of bread would have elevated my levels for 24 hours or more. This morning, only 4.3 - ok, I did have two glasses of wine as well which tends to drop the level a little. I did a Bayer A1c test just now - 4.8, the second-lowest I've ever had (4.7 being the lowest).
I'm going hiking with two guys from work - also diabetic - who have found much the same effect (but they've turned into Lycra clad full-on power cyclists, unlike me).
All three of us have found that pushing BMI down to ~25 (from 38 in my case, 36 and 41 in theirs) made a huge improvement in BG.
But... getting down to 22 or so seems to bring even more benefits in terms of insulin resistance.
A BMI of 25 has always been the holy graill, but that is only the *top end* of normal, so maybe aiming a bit lower still is the way to go. None of us are on any drugs now, even stopped Cinnamon a few months ago.
Be interested to see if the three of us are just a statistical fluke, or if anyone else has reduced their BMI from 30+ to low 20's and found similar effects.
OK, you may not be able to 'cure' diabetes, but it sure looks like you can suppress it very effectively.
mark.
Pushed my BMI down from 23.8 to 22.4 and another inch off my waist. After a month of that, started to test a bit more frequently (I'd pretty much stopped testing apart from one fasting per week, relying on the Bayer A1c at home test every couple of months).
Average levels down, which is what you'd expect, but what surprised me is how much more tolerant of carbs I've become without spiking. I've probably not been this fit, or of such a low weight, for nearly 40 years.
Fasting has been between 4.3 and 4.7 all week, in fact I've not exceeded 5.1 even two hours after meals. Last night, I had 5 medium length bread rolls with salmon - originally, that amount of bread would have elevated my levels for 24 hours or more. This morning, only 4.3 - ok, I did have two glasses of wine as well which tends to drop the level a little. I did a Bayer A1c test just now - 4.8, the second-lowest I've ever had (4.7 being the lowest).
I'm going hiking with two guys from work - also diabetic - who have found much the same effect (but they've turned into Lycra clad full-on power cyclists, unlike me).
All three of us have found that pushing BMI down to ~25 (from 38 in my case, 36 and 41 in theirs) made a huge improvement in BG.
But... getting down to 22 or so seems to bring even more benefits in terms of insulin resistance.
A BMI of 25 has always been the holy graill, but that is only the *top end* of normal, so maybe aiming a bit lower still is the way to go. None of us are on any drugs now, even stopped Cinnamon a few months ago.
Be interested to see if the three of us are just a statistical fluke, or if anyone else has reduced their BMI from 30+ to low 20's and found similar effects.
OK, you may not be able to 'cure' diabetes, but it sure looks like you can suppress it very effectively.
mark.
that's very impressive. Could you translate those Body Mass Index figures for me, just so that I can get a better understanding of them?
