Newcastle diet advice needed

Sorry, can't advise on the ND, but you might want to check out The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet by Dr Michael Mosley. 800 calories a day, using real food. Lots of good reports and success stories. Talks a lot about Prof Taylor and his work on the ND in the book and Prof Taylor is happy for folk to follow the BSD. I lost 27 pounds in the 8 weeks as well as reducing my fasting BG levels.

fionamarie said:

I was diagnosed with type 2 in October 2014 and have been on metformin 2000mg daily. With health problems mainly osteoarthritis my weight has jumped up and my bmi is now 38 . One of my daughters is getting married in August this year and I really need to shift this weight, not only so I look acceptable but to help my health. My doctor put me on xenical 120mg x 3 times daily 3 weeks ago, however my weight hasn't decreased any.

I am due back next monday to the doctors for a check up (for my weight) and I have been thinking of trying the Newcastle diet.

I notice the Newcastle diet states no dairy products not even full skimmed milk but the shakes I have purchased says make up with milk. Do i substitute the milk with water?
~TIA~

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I have no idea about swapping water for,the milk. You also need to consider what impact that would have on the calorie value of each shake.

Have you considered just low carbing? Many lose weight readily doing that. I certainly did, with no effort at all. Clearly that doesn't apply to everyone.

Do you know what might have led to the weight gain?

fionamarie said:

I put the weight gain down to not being relatively active due to arthritis, back problems and torn tendon in elbow. I had 2 knee replacements 2012 & 2013 and as I was less mobile the weight began to creep up. Now because of the excess weight I find it puts more stress on my joints so its a vicious circle.

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Hi@fionamarie
I am in my last few days of the Newcastle diet. It has been amazing for me and I have used the 3 x shakes a day and Steamed Veges for tea. The shakes I use Optifast are made up with water. You just need to check that the total calories of the shake including the milk are around 200. If so they should be right. Good luck with your decision. The first week or so is hard but the results will drive you on.

I got a lot of support from this forum so I suggest you post your progress including fasting BG and ask questions as you go along

I went cold turkey from metformin alone three years ago without my doctors involvement, blessing or knowledge and went full blown on the ND. To a large degree it did what I wanted.

My diet was a hybrid because my glucose readings were terrible with the available and recommended foods, but I maintained the 800/day for the 13 weeks and upped it to 1200 beyond that (what a feast that was), slowly returning to normal levels in about 4 months. I made sure I had plenty of protein and essential minerals and vitamins so there was no nutritional risk other than the extreme Calorie restriction.

With your medication list I would hesitate to do so without the full involvement with your GP.

I still feel cold all the time. Two and a half years later. Before I was heat intolerant now its cold intolerance 24*7*365. I have to wear three layers of clothing. I just came back from the Swiss alps, where I had to have 5 layers on all the time.

The Extreme Calorie restriction puts the whole system under extreme stress and particularly hits the thyroid and the other main main hormonal system organs harder than most people realise (myself included at the time). Its why many people suffer cold intolerance whilst on the diet. I think my problem may be a permanently affected thyroid.

The Newcastle diet is a great tool for attempting to reverse Type II diabetes and is worth trying even if it can potentially affect you in other ways. It is not really a diet I would recommend if loosing weight is your only goal. You would be better choosing a diet that slowly brought your weight down.

One thing that all dieters should know about is the bodies "starvation mode". A Diet may push your body into and out of this mode which will change the economy on which your body runs short term from glucose gained from burning fat to glucose from burning protein. At this time your body weight refuses to drop.

This happened to me about 4 times over the 13 weeks of the ND.

It can happen during any diet. It is a strange time where you suddenly stop losing weight at all even on an 800 calories a day diet! this period lasted about three days each time for me. Mad but true.

It suggests that its likely that dieters give up on their diet when they see no improvement for days on end just when its starting to really work ....

I hope this is of use. Whatever you do, good luck.

Good Luck, One final word. It's very hard to do. When you get hungry and are tempted to eat something over budget. Drink water instead. 5-10 minutes later the cravings for food subsides.

black tea - lots of black tea

Yeah, anything that gets water into the stomach triggers a form of satiation, and definitely brings up glucose levels to wipe out the shakes and carb cravings. Not really sure how that actually works but I noticed that long before I ever went on the ND. My particular vice is coffee. Its worth heading over to the discussion on coffee for a look at what others say. Caffeine is not the only constituent of tea and coffee so there are other factors at play, and tea is probably more benign for the stomach as I notice you are on Omeprazole (as am I now). I guess Tea may be less of a problem for some, but I have no experience of it. If you have to have milk or sugar, measure it and count it! You are in control now. We're here to help.