It was a good moment. Don't get me wrong he is a good MP and I have been seeing him for years but he is very old style and was quite unsettled by the level of the improvements not just in the HbA1c but also the cholesterol and kidneys function.I'd love to have seen his face!
Hi @Pipp
You are spot on. I took all of my weekly records in with me. To be fair he spent a lot of time asking me questions and took many notes. Even with the HbA1c I suggested i would like to put it off for a month so that the 3 months was from just after I started the ND. He actually pushed to do it straight away as I think he was very keen to see the results himself. As it turned out Professor Taylor and Dr Mosley were on Australian TV on that same night and I suggested he should watch it.
I will continue to work on him as I will be pushing for an further HbA1c and possibly a GTT. There was no doubt he was very surprised by the results
I think we have to tread softly, and gently with the health care professionals. They have for a long time now been taught the low fat complex carbs mantra. They are cautious about deviating from that. To be pioneers for the alternative management methods we have to be organised, as you have @muzza3 by keeping accurate records, have available copies of respected research, but most importantly sustain the weight loss and good blood glucose levels over a long period of time. (That last bit is the most difficult). Unfortunately, many health care professionals I have seen, are reluctant to acknowledge the progress, and very keen to be proved right, should I start to gain weight or slightly increase HbA1c.Hi @Pipp
You are spot on. I took all of my weekly records in with me. To be fair he spent a lot of time asking me questions and took many notes. Even with the HbA1c I suggested i would like to put it off for a month so that the 3 months was from just after I started the ND. He actually pushed to do it straight away as I think he was very keen to see the results himself. As it turned out Professor Taylor and Dr Mosley were on Australian TV on that same night and I suggested he should watch it.
I will continue to work on him as I will be pushing for an further HbA1c and possibly a GTT. There was no doubt he was very surprised by the results
Good luck with it all @muzza3@Pipp
I agree and it is really important for me right now to follow thru and loose the additional 9 kilos that will achieve my weight goal and get my HbA1c into the 30's before I can clam job done. I will keep working away at my Doctor with my further results and supporting information.
Thanks for the feedback @AndBreathe. The experience of people like yourself and @Pipp who have achieved these great results and maintained them over time is what makes this such a great Forum. I suppose my thinking is that my drop in Avg Weekly BG's really kicked in in week 4 so I would think that the first 2 weeks of ND would have had less impact. Also the four weeks prior included Xmas and New year and two weeks of holidays and some of the eating and celebrations that took place in that period. Given that is 6 weeks it would be half of the testing period.You probably got the truest reflection of the ND effort by testing now. The 3 months quoted for the HbA1c is approximate - depending on how long the individuals' Hb survives ( a bit like any cell, we each "refresh" at differing rates), and also the impact of time on the HbA1c is sort of wedge shaped, with the biggest impact from the near recent time, so your furthest month will really have a disproportionately small impact on that score.
Had you waited, although you are hoping to sustain the improvements you have made some of the frank impact of the ND, as opposed to ND + then LCHF could have been tailing off.
Thanks for the feedback @AndBreathe. The experience of people like yourself and @Pipp who have achieved these great results and maintained them over time is what makes this such a great Forum. I suppose my thinking is that my drop in Avg Weekly BG's really kicked in in week 4 so I would think that the first 2 weeks of ND would have had less impact. Also the four weeks prior included Xmas and New year and two weeks of holidays and some of the eating and celebrations that took place in that period. Given that is 6 weeks it would be half of the testing period.
Either way I need to kick on with the LCHF and continue to my weight goals and lock in the results of the ND to achieve long-term results as you have so that one HbA1c test really becomes just part of the pattern
@PippGood luck with it all @muzza3
An important observation, even with HbA1c in 30s and weight loss complete, although it feels like 'job done', which is a brilliant achievement, it is possible if one does not remain vigilant, for job to become undone again.
Not trying to take anything from your achievement, just a reminder that at this stage the euphoria of that achievement can make one vulnerable to missing out on the forever maintenence phase. I refer to the advice on maintenence from the Newcastle diet advice pages. Not aimed at you, personally, @muzza3, but for anyone contemplating Very Low Calorie Diet as a method of managing diabetes. It is often overlooked. This is what the Newcastle research says:-
After achieving your target weight - how do you keep your weight down in the long term?
- Once you are at your personal target weight, the critical thing now is to become accustomed to eating approximately 2/3 of the total amount you used to eat. There need be no restriction upon any particular food stuffs, although naturally foods that are very calorie-dense are best avoided. The goal is keeping the weight down [you may find your weight increases 1 – 2 kg over a few days on returning to a higher calorie intake; this is because your glycogen stores return to normal and glycogen is stored in the water inside your body].
- If you are increasing your exercise, do not adjust your calorie intake, as it is so easy to over- compensate for exercise.
- Most people maintain a consistent healthy weight; most successfully by:
a) Weigh weekly - and write it down
b) Walk, cycle, stairs. Maintain a high level of everyday physical activity
c) Party but payback. Enjoy life and especially occasions to celebrate, but there is a price.
You must eat only about half your current intake for a few days
Fair Cop! I appreciate the feedback and particularly the straight shooting. Yes I am moving forward ND done and more work to doOf course, I'm going to sound unsympathetic, but if you're going to discount two weeks of the ND because you didn't think they were so effective, then you are trying to skew the results. The results are what the results are.
The thing about Christmas, New Year, holidays and celebrations is they have a habit of coming back after a while, so why count them out.
I had a protracted period of stress, initially mainly mental, then the physical stress of surgery and recovery to contend with, but I couldn't justify deferring my HbA1c just because of it. I really do hope I don't have to repeat the investigations, surgery or complication and recovery again, but that was my life from May until January. Sure, my HbA1c rose by a couple of points, but with this thing, like it or not, even in a remission/resolved/reversed/cured situation, over the years our scores are likely to vary, within our own personal range; whatever that is.
There's a lot to get our heads around, and I still sometimes have round and round arguments with myself over certain aspects the thing.
You are right and as has been pointed out to me if I lose the plot then all I have achieved just becomes another YO YO Diet. There are many skeptics on here regarding the long-term value of the Newcastle Diet and they have been around long enough to have seen this happen and to some degree are justified. Thankfully there are also some here that have gone thru this process and kept their control/reversal and I have received great advice from them as you can see aboveI appreciate the discussion of how people cope long term with the diet change this all demands. I've not even tried the ND because I have a lifetime history of yoyo dieting, with the overall weight just going up over my life. The times I was successful in losing weight were with calorie-counting, and I was never able to keep it up long, long term. For some of us, that's the real problem - living with permanent change.
I'm now on a low-carb diet, and see a similar pattern - I manage to keep it low (below 100g) for many weeks, then it creeps up (though never to what it must have been before). The meter and daily weighing help to keep me on track. And long-term I'm fairly optimistic. I was diagnosed just under a year ago, and I've already made significant change and learnt a lot about myself. I think many of us need to do a lot of the latter as part of all this.
You are right and as has been pointed out to me if I lose the plot then all I have achieved just becomes another YO YO Diet. There are many skeptics on here regarding the long-term value of the Newcastle Diet and they have been around long enough to have seen this happen and to some degree are justified. Thankfully there are also some here that have gone thru this process and kept their control/reversal and I have received great advice from them as you can see above
Thanks for your support AtkinsMoWith the exception of tinned fish, tomatoes and olive oil, I just don't stray into those supermarket aisles where the stuff with labels are! Ooh, I almost forgot 85% chocolate, makes shopping a whole lot quicker, basically zipping around the vegetables, fresh meat and fish and dairy!
I just went strict LCHF (20g) to lose the first 35 lbs or so, then increased it to where I am now, about 40-50g including a glass or two of red wine every night, and I lose about 3-4lbs a year (now 43lbs in total). And I also try to do 10,000 steps a day. Now getting to the lower end of overweight BMI, but according to research, this may be the best place to be for lowest mortality. I am sure you are going to enjoy your LCHF food and that is the secret, to find an eating plan where you actually enjoy the food.
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