My personal hypothesis - T2 - Low insulin Diet

Following on from my investigations into the entire issue of levels of circulating insulin, I devised my own version of the 8 week Newcastle diet - focused instead on getting the maximum nutrients possible in one full meal per day where fats are around 60% of the total and Omega 3 : Omega 6 is as close to 1:1 ratio as I can manage and no industrial seed oils . I expect the meal to comprise about 1,000 calories using low insulin response principles ( which is also effectively the ketogenic diet ).

I began this yesterday. My goal is to use it to reduce from 91 kg to 79 kg before xmas.

My initial observation following my first day is that - looking forward to one lovely meal feels really nice. Eating zero the rest of the time is a principle which seems easier to follow instead of making individual food choices . - It will be interesting to see if I crash and burn as a result of the restriction.

What is already clear is that this eating method will pretty much flat line by blood sugars and therefore isolate the extent of the morning liver dump using the freestyle which IF the diet is working , should start to go down.

Interestingly I started to move towards this diet 4 days ago by implementing 1000 calories and a much more restricted eating window. I had not at that stage got to trying to match Om3: m 6. However currently everything is looking promising - weight has gone from 91.6 kg to 87.8 kg in 4 days. The acid test for me is whether it will enable me to get under 85kg which has been my personal stumbling block for months.

The 1000 calorie meal caused a "spike" to only 5.6 , was well under 5 within 3 hours and stayed there for the next 13 hours.

I did an OGTT test last month, which indicated that I am already in the " remission" state based on 12 months using LCHF. Therefore IF this diet does actually help to " reverse "diabetes as opposed to simply enable it to be controlled - an OGTT test done at the end of the process should show an improved response. If it doesn't AND I have managed to lose the 2 stone of additional weight, then I will personally conclude that diabetes is probably not " reversible" but is in fact" fully controllable " - which in any event will probably leave me less prone to other diseases than much of the population anyway!

I will post the results on my blog
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-insulin-theory-diet.1818/#comment-2212

If anyone is interested in why I am following this path you can read about it here if you've got a while
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/a-unifying-theory-of-disease.1795/

bulkbiker said:

Wow good luck.. putting your theory into practise..
You may get a bigger audience updating this thread? You may or may not want to do that..
I'm pretty sure you'll have great results.. might even join you for a couple of weeks.
Have fun with it
Regards
Mark

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I'm happy to provide updates here , just I'm conscious I'm a bit verbose so don't want to bore people. I'm also conscious that my will power is generally zero, so I've no idea if the fact that I now think I know what I should do will translate into actually doing it.

The fact that I'm down 3.8kg in 4 days is a very encouraging start !

The first proper day was interesting . I ate 1,000 calories in one sitting and was quite surprised to feel quite hungry again within a few hours. I was rather expecting to remain feeling full for longer . Having said that having made the commitment to eat NOTHING , made it a lot easier to actually ignore the enticing sweet potato chips and coleslaw my companion left - it was also very nice to be able to say - Well I'm not eating this evening, but if you want to go out for a steak blow out one day next week I can do that ! - that seems a lot more liveable with than three shakes for 8 weeks!

The other thing is just how easy it is to not realise what you are doing - this morning I took my swig of apple cider vinegar and the cod liver oil, before realising that, that was silly - much better to have it directly before eating.

I've decided to do a a rather luscious seafood bouillabaise for dinner this evening ( as one of my courses! ) As part of that I'm making a stock with the prawn shells and a bit of turnip swede, broccoli, spinach, kale , onions, saffron and spices.saffron almond flour, olive oil, codliver oil, cream, butter to which I will finally add cod, crab, prawns.

During the process of making the stock, I realised that I would have eaten raw, probably about 1/4 of the quantities of veggie ingredients I was putting in the pot without even thinking about it. I had to physically stop myself at least half a dozen times from sticking that last little bit into my mouth. Even the " tasting" to make sure its ok was probably detrimental to weight loss efforts.

It makes me wonder just how much damage I was doing by these tiny tidbits before , especially having seen what five grams of candied ginger ( which she chose as being the healthiest sweet thing on offer) did to my non diabetic friend's blood sugar.

That particular event showed me that is possibly NOT the actual quantity of bad foods that one puts into one's mouth that creates diabetes - it is quite possibly the mere fact of their existence that sends insulin into overdrive with all its consequences.

I'm guessing that IF it does work, a big part of the reason will be that most of us entirely underestimate what we are actually putting in our mouths in tiny bites(certainly me).

Today's, mega meal menu

Prawn bouillabaise with mackerel cod and salmon and konjac noodles

Pork kidney stew with red wine mustard, mushroom ,onion green beans and broccoli

blackberries with chocolate sauce, cream yoghurt , nuts and seed

1023 calories 94% total nutrients omega 3 4.5g omega 6 3.7 g

Dinet said:

ditto, good luck CherryAA and pls keep posting.
btw rapid weight loss is often due to dehydration, so worth staying exta vigilant about your water intake....

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Thanks
I'm conscious about the water loss- and in fact I know that this partly explains the weight loss. I periodically check to see if I am yet in sufficient control of my body to get rid of tablets for high blood pressure. Currently when I do this I quickly put on a couple of kilos as it becomes clear that I'm not yet well enough to get rid of them. When I then restart the pills as I did 4 days ago, the water flushes back out- so I am not counting 2 kg of the weight loss as being at all meaningful re the diet.

At this point I am actually going to try this diet in the hope that that will be the final element to get my blood pressure down. I already know I can keep my blood glucose and Hba1C within non diabetic ranges through the LCHF diet alone.

So day 2 is over - what did I learn?.

1) Its important to not eat AT ALL other than the one meal. Though I do drink my trusty spiced black coffee, black tea and water.

The reason for this is that if I have nothing - then with the extended fast ( I eat at 4pm each day) - it means that I can see whether the morning increase which I get every single morning is actually reducing or not. The area under the curve during my morning liver dump definitely went down today compared to yesterday in any event.

2) I did my first session of HIT today - I managed 1/3 of the super-duper 30 minute work out I chose - and watched in amazement as fit young men moved their bodies into extraordinary positions which I don't think mine will be adopting anytime soon. Still it did get my heart rate up.

3) The exercise session itself did increase my blood sugars a tiny bit this in turn meant that I went into my 1000 calorie meal at 5.6 instead of the 4.9 I was at yesterday.

4) The increase in blood sugars after the meal which included 33g carbs and 90g proteins was 0.8 mmol . This compared to an increase of 0.9 mmol yesterday for a meal that included 23g carbs and 61 g proteins . Overall therefore that seems to be a better reaction compared to day 1 as well.

5) Its very important to select ALL the foods that I am going to eat in the mega meal session BEFORE I start to eat. The reason for this is that even after eating 1000 calories in one hit, my body still feels hungry when I've finished. It takes a good half hour before the feelings of satiety set in. So if I had not organised it first I would then be inclined to overeat even a 1000 calorie meal

4) It was very nice to be able to produce two entirely new proper recipes today - I thoroughly enjoy cooking so this felt normal, even though sticking to not tasting it or eating the bits of vegetables was HARD, I did have a fully proper - not dieting meal with three courses and some chocolate to finish.

5) I went swimming for 40 minutes about 1 hour after my mega meal finished. On completion of my swim the 6.4 had gone back to 4.3 . I.e. within 90 minutes.

6) My overnight fasting blood sugars have come down dramatically from 5.3 yesterday to 4.5 today. My average blood sugars for the 24 hour period have also come down dramatically from an average of 5.3 yesterday to 4.9 today. These numbers are actually at the low end of what my non-diabetic friend was recording. The difference between her figures and mine is that she simply does not get the liver dump in the morning.

7) My blood sugars have now flat-lined at about 4.0 over the last 6 hours. I doubt whether I can drive any more glucose out of my fasting and food reaction levels now, so it will be interesting to see if the diet drives down the liver dump.

I've attached the free style chart for these two days. I am recording the foods too, so if this works, people can see exactly what I ate to get there.

8) It is EASIER to stick to one big meal, than it is to try to manage three small ones, because it is a binary decision - eat or don't - not I'll just have a little bit of........

Day 3 weight 86.9 That is now down 4.7 kg in 5 days. Waist down to 91cm - 3 cm in total .

Overnight average glucose now down to 4.2 mmol a reduction of 20% in 4 days.

I think I may be onto a winner here !

Today's mega menu - 4 courses as it's Sunday
cider vinegar and cod liver oil dose first
a) Aspaargus tips with butter and salt
b) prawn 100g , crab 80g , avocado100g salad with spinach,lettuce, onion, tomato, beetroot, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a small side of pilchards in tomato sauce 50g ( which is bringing up Om 3)
c) pork , carrot, lentil and pearl barley stew with brussel sprouts ( will be very interested to see the bs spike from this )
d) celery, salt and cream cheese

100% of daily nutrient requirements 86g proteins 46g carbs 57g fats, Om 3 3.9g /6 4.3g so nearly matched. Sat fat 16% of total calories
To get to 100% I had to remember to add in more salt ( 2 shakes with every course) and 4 more glasses of water than natural to me.

Having planned my meal I hope the anticipation is enough to stop me eating any of it until 4 pm.
Off for my black spiced coffee which appears to be giving me roughly 20% of my daily nutrition needs all on its own !

Freema said:

Wow I’ll long to see How you are doing it really look promissing

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Yes I'm quite excited about it at the moment .
I haven't looked up " one meal a day" on you tube before
If you look at this stuff, there is a suggestion this stabilises blood sugar in 4 DAYS. it' s certainly pretty much done that with me - my numbers were already excellent.

https://www.healthline.com/health/one-meal-a-day#overview1

I'm pleased that I got to this diet by a process of reading the science and deduction rather than just " believing what some internet pundit said "

Goonergal said:

Following with interest. I’ve twice - the first time unplanned, the second planned - eaten only 1 meal a day for 5 consecutive days while on holiday. Since I was away from home, the one meal was not as meticulously planned as yours, but according to my nutrient guesstimates, pretty similar in calories, but lower in carbs and higher in fat than yours.

The first spell (early July) in particular had a big impact on blood sugar levels - especially fasting levels - and weight loss. The second spell (end August) also helped with blood sugar levels, but not weight loss: in fact I stayed the same weight and didn’t start losing again until I added in an additional meal for a few days after my return.

I now aim to have 2-3 one meal a days a week and eat 2 meals a day the rest of the week.

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I guess I will find out soon if this merely gets me back to my same threshold 85kg then stops, (which if it does is still a handy way to quickly get back to my personal threshold) , or enables me to power through it to a new level. If weight loss stops dead at 85kg then I will know that this truly is my threshold.

Spiced Coffee.

Over the course of my research I kept coming across various things which were supposed to be good for me.
this includes
coffee
cocoa
turmeric
cumin
pepper
cinnamon
nutmeg
ginger
those are my basic ingredients.

I basically do one table spoon of each of the other stuff added to a standard about 250g of ground coffee.

I have further added in bits and pieces of green things as I went along - that includes teaspoons of spinach and broccoli powder morning olifiera chlorella , spirulina wheat grass, gilroy and kelp largely on the principle that someone somewhere has identified some good properties so why not mix a bit in.

I stick the stuff into a standard cafetiere, and drink the resulting brew. When not trying this one per day meal lark, I have been adding in almond milk to cool it a bit, and a table spoon of double cream to sweeten it .

Many friends have tried it and rather like the taste as a normal drink .


Nuts and seeds.

Lots of similar research on these items as well
so I now have mixed jars of both
Nuts
nuts - I just crush together macadamia, hazelnut, walnut, cashew, almonds, pecan , brazil, peanut, into a big bag then sprinkle 5-10g on top of deserts.

Seeds
ditto for a seed mix which is
hemp, flax, chia, pine nuts, poppy sunflower , linseed - sprinkled on salads. 2-5 g a bit like pepper but grittier !

There is debate about whether LCHF can "cure" diabetes of itself, or merely be a control mechanism which controls carbs and therefore glucose production, which would suggest that a VLC diet somehow does something different metabolically.
I don't believe a VLC diet does do anything at all differently other than being a mechanism to STOP SNACKING and thus give a diet a chance to work properly.

If I am completely honest with myself I think my " wall" is as much a function of trying to live a normal life whilst dieting and thus letting in tiny treats all over the place ( even if only an extra piece of carrot) and it is this which is preventing me getting further. If anything I think that is why the one meal a day 1000 calories may work.

In deciding what to eat. I have decided to trust in my body . All animals have a "natural frontier" that is a combination of natural foods that will tend to maximise fertility and then longevity. I have therefore decided that for my 1000 calories I can eat anything natural that adds up to the 1000 calories in order to design a meal that taste good, that I WANT to eat and that I can look forward to eating, and savour whilst eating. For me that its naturally a bit higher in carbs and a bit lower in fats. i.e. 30-40 g carbs , That of itself also gets me a lot closer to " healthy " thresholds of fibre.

All too often people think that eating an LCHF diet involves actually eating the fat part. I already have the fat part myself so I don't think it matters if the proportion of fats I eat have gone down a little as a result of this - it is still an LCHF diet.

it will be interesting to see the effect of my more carby dinner on blood sugar responses today.

I thought people might be interested in what 1000 calories in one meal that meets 100% of all nutritional requirements looks like !
I am looking forward to this.
I ended up with 5 courses so as to keep the pilchards separate from the crab, prawns and avocado .
the sauce is a butter mayo, made with butter, olive oil, double cream mustard lemon and lime
The whole lot will be started with apple cider vinegar, and a tablespoon of cod liver Oil (Vit D) with balsamic vinegar added to the salads,