- Messages
- 2
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
Hi guys. I'll keep it as short as possible. 50yr old guy. 181cm (5 '11"). Pre diabetes diagnosis last year. Started to do low cal diet after seeing Tom Watson (politician) lose all his weight.
Started October 5th 2018. Did 6 weeks. Stopped to new year then another 6. 12 weeks total dieting.
Start weight 104.7kg.
Everyday eat the same thing (more or less)
Breakfast - Black coffee only
Lunch 1-2pm - slim fast meal bar (200 cal)
7pm homemade soup (recipe below) essentially unlimited but approx 150-200 cals
8pm large salad (recipe below) approx 250 cals
9-10pm sugar free jelly (about 1 pint) plus 1/3 of a Muller light mixed in.
10pm-ish one or two (or three) options hot chocolates.
I think most days I'm in the 800 - 900 cal range.
Soup recipe. 1 cauliflower or 3 heads of broccoli. 6 cloves fry light fried garlic, 2 vegetable stock cubes. Tablespoon fish sauce. Tbs lemon juice. Fill the on with the chopped veg. Add 1/3 water and boil/steam. Then blend. If you add too much water the soup comes out too runny. 1/3 the height of veg with t by e lid on works for me.
Salad. Bunch of whatever leaves (asda by far the cheapest I found. Some baby plum tomatoes. 1/3 can chopped anchovies. Big squirts of 70% less fat salad cream. Some lemon juice or balsamic. 2 or 3 boiled eggs. Maybe some capers. It's a massive pile.
My experience.
I never went to bed hungry which was the most important thing for me. The tough time was mid afternoon but I really wanted to get home from work with 600 cals still to eat. So I kept busy during the day. Days I stayed at home were the toughest. On my blowout days I made sure I only ate protein/fat and stayed away from the beige carbs. On a couple of days I would cook and eat an entire roast chicken. But I found that the protein binges didn't set me back to much.
CARB FLU
I had really bad withdrawal after the first week. Started maybe day 5 and lasted 5 days. Felt like my brain was foggy.
HOW LONG?
I managed 6 weeks until mid November and moved onto a low carb high protein diet for a month (lots of chicken and bacon etc) . Then I ate 3 weeks of absolute junk over Christmas. Started again on the 800 calories on Jan 2nd. This time it was easier mentally and physically. Found I wasn't as hungry or counting the days to go as much.
RESULTS
Week 1 lost 4kg (clearing out the system I suppose)
After that I lost essentially 250-300g a day, pretty consistently. Some days I'd be up, some down, but I plotted my chart and the line was basically straight. I can't work out how to add a screenshot of the chart to this thread. If I stick to the diet I lost weight. I got down to 90kg in the first 6 weeks.
During my high protein low CARB month I put on about 1 or 2kg.
During my Christmas binge I put on another 2 kg.
So back to 94 when I restated in Jan.
Weight loss slightly less after Christmas. Maybe 170g a day. In the 6 weeks since Jan 2nd I am down to 85kg.
Final thoughts. I weigh myself almost every day. I am obsessed with the diet. I think about carbs a lot (love shreddies and bread). Love going to the loo twice in a day as I know I will have a better weight the next day. If I feel constipated i'll eat 3 slim fast meal bars and that makes things move.
NHS say I need to weight 82kg for my height. I'm pretty close and should by 'officially' a healthy weight for the first time in 25 years in 3 weeks.
Waist has gone from a tight 38" to a loose 36". Don't have any 34" trousers to test yet.
Eneregy levels. To be honest I don't feel much different. I have done practically no exercise. Just dieting. Maybe as spring arrives I'll get my **** in gear.
If you read this far I hope I've given you some advice or motivation. I didn't think I'd manage it when u started but it had gotten easier and easier.
If you have any questions or want to share your experience of problems let me know.
Ps I am angry that we have been allowed to think our old lifestyles were healthy. There is a documentary out there called "the truth about carbs". Worth a watch if you can find it (channel 4 or BBC I think).
Good luck.
Started October 5th 2018. Did 6 weeks. Stopped to new year then another 6. 12 weeks total dieting.
Start weight 104.7kg.
Everyday eat the same thing (more or less)
Breakfast - Black coffee only
Lunch 1-2pm - slim fast meal bar (200 cal)
7pm homemade soup (recipe below) essentially unlimited but approx 150-200 cals
8pm large salad (recipe below) approx 250 cals
9-10pm sugar free jelly (about 1 pint) plus 1/3 of a Muller light mixed in.
10pm-ish one or two (or three) options hot chocolates.
I think most days I'm in the 800 - 900 cal range.
Soup recipe. 1 cauliflower or 3 heads of broccoli. 6 cloves fry light fried garlic, 2 vegetable stock cubes. Tablespoon fish sauce. Tbs lemon juice. Fill the on with the chopped veg. Add 1/3 water and boil/steam. Then blend. If you add too much water the soup comes out too runny. 1/3 the height of veg with t by e lid on works for me.
Salad. Bunch of whatever leaves (asda by far the cheapest I found. Some baby plum tomatoes. 1/3 can chopped anchovies. Big squirts of 70% less fat salad cream. Some lemon juice or balsamic. 2 or 3 boiled eggs. Maybe some capers. It's a massive pile.
My experience.
I never went to bed hungry which was the most important thing for me. The tough time was mid afternoon but I really wanted to get home from work with 600 cals still to eat. So I kept busy during the day. Days I stayed at home were the toughest. On my blowout days I made sure I only ate protein/fat and stayed away from the beige carbs. On a couple of days I would cook and eat an entire roast chicken. But I found that the protein binges didn't set me back to much.
CARB FLU
I had really bad withdrawal after the first week. Started maybe day 5 and lasted 5 days. Felt like my brain was foggy.
HOW LONG?
I managed 6 weeks until mid November and moved onto a low carb high protein diet for a month (lots of chicken and bacon etc) . Then I ate 3 weeks of absolute junk over Christmas. Started again on the 800 calories on Jan 2nd. This time it was easier mentally and physically. Found I wasn't as hungry or counting the days to go as much.
RESULTS
Week 1 lost 4kg (clearing out the system I suppose)
After that I lost essentially 250-300g a day, pretty consistently. Some days I'd be up, some down, but I plotted my chart and the line was basically straight. I can't work out how to add a screenshot of the chart to this thread. If I stick to the diet I lost weight. I got down to 90kg in the first 6 weeks.
During my high protein low CARB month I put on about 1 or 2kg.
During my Christmas binge I put on another 2 kg.
So back to 94 when I restated in Jan.
Weight loss slightly less after Christmas. Maybe 170g a day. In the 6 weeks since Jan 2nd I am down to 85kg.
Final thoughts. I weigh myself almost every day. I am obsessed with the diet. I think about carbs a lot (love shreddies and bread). Love going to the loo twice in a day as I know I will have a better weight the next day. If I feel constipated i'll eat 3 slim fast meal bars and that makes things move.
NHS say I need to weight 82kg for my height. I'm pretty close and should by 'officially' a healthy weight for the first time in 25 years in 3 weeks.
Waist has gone from a tight 38" to a loose 36". Don't have any 34" trousers to test yet.
Eneregy levels. To be honest I don't feel much different. I have done practically no exercise. Just dieting. Maybe as spring arrives I'll get my **** in gear.
If you read this far I hope I've given you some advice or motivation. I didn't think I'd manage it when u started but it had gotten easier and easier.
If you have any questions or want to share your experience of problems let me know.
Ps I am angry that we have been allowed to think our old lifestyles were healthy. There is a documentary out there called "the truth about carbs". Worth a watch if you can find it (channel 4 or BBC I think).
Good luck.