'Newcastle diet' advice

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2131tom said:

I started using the treadmill again when I started the diet on 12th May and I believe it does help quite a bit.

I'm a bit wary of setting the calories burned by the exercise against the diet, though. The Newcastle Diet advice (IIRC) warns against 'overestimating the effects of exercise' in this way but the figures are at odds too: My Reebok machine tells me that my 40 mins at 5mph burns off 400 kcals whereas Myfitnesspal suggests it's 547.

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Yes, I think myfitnesspal overestimates calories burned in exercise too. If I took too much notice of how many cals my staggering walking uses I would be able to eat twice as many Ultraslim meals.

Andrew Colvin said:

lol what is "O"

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Haha, I really wish I knew.

I need some opinions/advice please. Having in the past achieved objective of apparently 'reversing' diabetes and losing 42kg, blood glucose , HbA1c under 40 for almost 3 years. Some weight regained (approx 15kg) in last year due to immobility, surgery, and not being careful about diet. Blood glucose HbA1c recently 41. Fearing that I was regressing back to diabetic mode decided to go back to Newcastle dieting.
Four weeks on Newcastle diet. First two weeks lost a total of 5kg. Next two weeks a total of just half a kg. This is despite increasing duration and intensity of exercise.

Is it possible that I have already got all the benefit I am going to from Newcastle diet method? I am considering reintroducing food gradually, but staying with low carb. Could it be the amount of carb in the meal replacement products (Tesco Ultraslim) that is halting the weight loss? Last time I used Lipotrim with no supplementary vegetables. I still have a BMI of 40+ so do need to be considering diet post-newcastle.
Any advice appreciated.

Thanks
Pipp

Andrew Colvin said:

It could be that you are building muscle at the moment from the exercise and therefore looks like you have plateaued but haven't really. It is difficult to answer really. If you are worrying about the amount of carbs you could always only have 1/2 a packet and make up the lost calories with other non carby foods such as nuts. For me it would be raw carrots

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Thanks Andrew
I had thought about muscle as I know it is heavier than fat.
Maybe I am impatient, as last time I did Newcastle I was also exercising, probably more than I am now, because despite being so big then (BMI 50+) i was doing at least 8 hours a week water based intense workouts. The weight loss then was averaging 3-4 kg a week. I know I am probably more fortunate than a lot of others who are posting on forum in that having been diagnosed T2 9 years ago, I have been 'reversed' diabetic for 3 years. I fear that if I don't get to a lower weight I am just inviting high blood glucose back.

In the long term I will need to find a sustainable lifelong way of eating, so maybe now is the right time? I know low carb prevents rise in my blood glucose levels, but worry that if I get calories needed from high fat that is advocated elsewhere on forum, I will see a raise in cholesterol. I need a method that will keep blood glucose stable, cholesterol too. Also be calorie restricted to enable weight loss, but not muscle loss, and give me enough nutrients to be able to exercise to the extent I used to. Dieticians just seem to churn out the usual rhetoric of low fat, healthy carbs at every meal. Every time I put more than very minimal carbs back in my diet I get weight gain, water retention, headaches etc.

Thanks again for your support and encouragement.
Pipp

Andrew Colvin said:

That is interesting. I have put back some of the carb in my diet (you have been following that thread) and have left my fat intake (mainly from nuts as mono-unsaturated) alone. This seems to have worked for me and I am not craving more carbs when I do it them. I am also at the point that with exercise I am losing one pound a week so that is a deficit of about 4k calories per week. My carb intake is generally a mix of low GI and Medium GI with a few High GI of which I know when I am having them and can think about any impact they may have and counter them with 10 mins of exercise if needed.

I do not think I will ever get back to the carb levels I used to eat - just do not have the spare calories so I am not craving them at all and do not find it difficult to turn down cakes, sweets, etc, nowadays. May be I was in that spiral in that I was craving them because I couldn't process the glucose.

If the carbs aren't working for you I think the decision is made, stay away from them. By the way how are you with berries and apples? I find these really work for me.

Sorry a little unstructured

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Thanks Andrew

I never really have had a sweet tooth, so don't have sugar cravings I sometimes notice other people have. Prior to, and in the early years of being diabetic I followed the advice of medical practitioners of wholemeal bread, pasta, brown rice etc to make up a third to half of food intake. I am somewhat annoyed at my gullibility at that, but what is in the past cannot be changed. As all of my recent blood tests, including cholesterol, blood glucose etc have been normal range and I have stopped metformin, I don't want to do anything to tip that balance. My need for weight loss is not vanity. When you have been as big as I have been, even though still big the transformation feels good.

I think I need to do some more reading and consider carefully what to do next re diet. I can happily do without the bread, pasta, rice spuds etc. Maybe time for me to forget Newcastle method now as the objective of returning to non-diabetic blood glucose has been maintained. Also I prefer natural fresh foods, and by necessity the meal replacement items would probably be full of additives. So, thinking of introducing real food gradually, then sticking with low carb, Mediterranean type diet. Berries and apples sound good, especially if I can add yogurt and seeds. Love almonds and walnuts, but they could be my downfall, as I could quite easily pig out on them.

To anyone else considering Newcastle diet though, I would say if you are committed to giving yourself two months of your time to concentrate on the possibility of improving your chance of reversing T2 diabetes it has to be worth a try. I am glad I did three years ago, and would certainly do so again if I needed to. I just think that it probably is not what I need right now, due to my objective this time to being weight loss rather than the necessity to get blood glucose control.

I appreciate the support and encouragement here.
Thanks
Pipp

Andrew Colvin said:

Good for you Pipp. We will continue with the support we can provide and encourage and as I said before - I am following you. Who knows in 3 years time I may well be in the same place as you.

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Thanks Andrew

Feels a bit weird to think I am being followed. Have to make sure I set a good example. Hope you can get to long term non-diabetic status, but perhaps not where I am in weight!

Just shows though, that we all have different processes going on in our bodies that mean there is no one single perfect method to achieve blood glucose control weight loss and cholesterol levels etc. complicated beings that we are.

zand said:

Exactly that, Pipp there is no one single perfect method. What suits one doesn't always suit another and what suits us today may not work for us further down the line. What is important is that we still encourage one another while we find out what does work.

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Thanks zand I agree.
That is much better than being adamant that the way we chose is the only way, and being critical of someone else's choice. I hope I don't ever appear that way to others.

zand said:

Nope but I bet I do sometimes

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Not as far as I am concerned, zand.