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DM123@

Active Member
Messages
31
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi all,

Recently diagnosed 2 weeks ago with a HbA1c of 89. Started on a low carb diet and lost 12lbs in 2 weeks (I was at 23st 3) down to 22st 2 and planning to do the Newcastle diet, 8 week 800 cal diet to speed things up, with a low carb keto shake recommended on the Newcastle uni website for 8 weeks then slowly introduce low carb meals back into my diet and eat 2/3rds of the portions I used to.

Bought a blood glucose monitor GlucoNavii as recommended on the forum and average readings around 6.8 to 7.3. Fasted morning reading usually about 7.2. (Will this go down?)

Recommended the eatwell plate and not to self test by my GP nurse...stay off fizzy drinks and sweets was the advice. Have been placed on x2 Metformin a day, morning and evening. Thank goodness for this forum and you good folk who take the time to pass on your wisdom.

Planning to use a 4 week freestyle libre BG monitor once I'm back on normal food to understand how my body reacts to different foods.

Anything else I'm missing to give myself a good shot at beating this?
 
hello and welcome @DM123@

You have made an excellent start and are all on the way to beating it.

The idea of testing regularly once you are back on food is something I really recommend. Carb creep is a real thing and I suspect a very slippery slope.

Good luck and welcome
 
DM123@ said:
planning to do the Newcastle diet,
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Prof Roy Taylor,the inventor of the diet, is very clear, it's not the method you chose, it's the weight loss that's important.
Many of us have done it our own way with low carb & intermittent fasting.
There's nothing magical in those shakes, it's merely a repeatable method that works at practice level.
DM123@ said:
Recommended the eatwell plate and not to self test by my GP nurse
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Utter poison for a T2, not the nurses fault but ever wonder why T2 is meant to be progressive & chronic.
Getting a meter is the most important thing you can do outside of low carb.

DM123@ said:
Anything else I'm missing to give myself a good shot at beating this?
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Keep coming back & ask questions, you've got this
 
DM123@ said:
Recently diagnosed 2 weeks ago with a HbA1c of 89.
Click to expand...
DM123@ said:
Bought a blood glucose monitor GlucoNavii as recommended on the forum and average readings around 6.8 to 7.3.
Click to expand...
Your hba1c of 89 means your average blood glucose was likely close to 14, which you've already reduced greatly in only two weeks!
This is a pretty extreme crash diet. Diabetes is a marathon, not a sprint.
While this diet can help, it might not be necessary to go to such extreme measures, for many people the more restricted their diet is, the bigger the risk of falling off the wagon.

Have you thought about a sustainable diet that gives you pleasure in eating so it can be kept up for a long time, but doesn't mess with your blood glucose instead of doing such an extreme starvation diet?
Many of our members have found they do not need to reduce calories to get their BG at a normal level, just the carbs.
 
DM123@ said:
Anything else I'm missing to give myself a good shot at beating this?
Click to expand...
Brilliant start.
I'd only add: start thinking of low carb as a way of eating for life, not just a short term diet
And, never say never. e.g don't say "I'm never going to eat bread again or "I could never give up bread". You have no idea how your tastes and appetite may change, or how your diabetes may develop, so why add the pain of breaking promises made to your self?
 
Thanks for the reply Antje, I'm really just going by Roy Taylors book in that he advises to loose 15% of body weight as soon as you can, which would bring me Into the 19st bracket, then from their I'm thinking I can transition into something more sustainable.

Michael Mosley's book and Roy Taylor's work seems to indicate evidence that the rapid weight loss can increase motivation so fingers crossed. But I do take your point that this is a life long change to low carb and I need to create long term eating and exercise habits.
 
Hi Ronancastled, thanks for the response and points noted.

My nurse actually made it very clear that this was a progressive & chronic illness, and I have to say the testimonials of people on the success forum section of this site helped mentally to give me some hope, I have read them multiple times from my diagnosis.
 
Excuse me laughing - because it is only by laughing at such foolish advice from people who should know better that I can prevent myself weeping.
So many people have suffered so much by following the advice to eat 'healthy' carbs because they are an essential part of a Human's diet. Blindness, kidney failure, numbness and amputations, constant fatigue and so much more - yet a diet low in carbs is often all that is needed and that has been known about for centuries.
Dr Atkins was vilified for curing many type 2 diabetics and reducing the amount of insulin required by others, and for helping so many to lose weight without major surgery. One could be forgiven for thinking that some HCPs don't want people to be healthy and feel well again.
 
I applaud your positive attitude - you have every chance of getting your bloods under good control with a lot less aggro than it seems at the moment. No need to diet dramatically unless you want to. Many of us T2s find the weight comes off with no effort once we start to low-carb or keto. It could well be the case with you. See where it takes you, and we are here to help every step of the way.
 
Yes, a great start, for each of us who has been through this it is a very individualised experiment and self-monitoring is the key. The hypothesis from the Taylor and Lean studies is that elimination of ectopic fat will pretty well normalise blood glucose in the majority of cases. Opinions vary as to cause versus correlation here; but broadly, if you shed 15+kg over a few months, by any method, you have a good prospect of pulling A1c right down. The question then will be what state your metabolism is actually in after all this upheaval. If you had had a good quota of beta cells to begin with and if most have re-differentiated then you may be able to live thereafter eating carbs ad libitum, subject to maintaining weight and sticking to high quality whole natural foods. Or, you may find that despite a normalised A1c you are left with a weakened first phase insulin response making you subject to excess spiking, in which case you will need to keep carbs low for ever. Unless you are able to get some penetrating clinical tests done to see where you stand, once you’ve normalised, you will need to rely on self-metering to guide you. In any event, take heart and have faith, for most this is a manageable condition and you will be ok.
 
Thanks for the reply Chrisjohnh, I understand your point in the beta cell damage, this makes sense.
 
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