Andrew and Paulins
I am so grateful to you both for your encouragement and sharing info.
I maybe need to be a bit more open about myself. I find it difficult to share personal info but I am prepared to risk it. If it is boring you please feel free to ignore.
I was diagnosed T2 aged 50. I weighed 144kg. Prescribed metformin 500mg 3 times a day. Also blood glucose monitor, fasting reading in morning varied between 8.4 and 11.6. Referred to weight management clinic and started exercising in water once a week, on low fat diet. Later increased exercise to 2 or 3 times a week. After 3 years of this I still weighed 137kg and was offered bariatric surgery. I refused this and queried why if patients having this surgery had normal blood glucose readings within days, could I not just follow their diet without the surgery. I was told I would not be able to, as I would be hungry all the time. Searching for any evidence that it could be done I came across Prof Taylor's research. It was in the early stages, and there was not as much info available as now. Six years after my T2diagnosis I persuaded my GP to let me try it. I was to scared to do it alone. He agreed, as long as I was monitored by the surgery or pharmacist. I was not aware that the first Newcastle trial participants had supplemented the diet with vegetables, and was using Lipotrim, which gave approx 600 calories a day. So that was what I did, just the Lipotrim products as prescribed, and lots of water.
I began Newcastle regime in September 2011. I stayed on Lipotrim for 9 weeks to start. Within days I was having fasting BG readings around 4.8, and even the post prandial readings were normal. BG levels have remained stable within non-diabetic range since. After the initial 9 weeks I repeated the diet for another 6 weeks. This was more to lose weight than to control BG, although I was worried that as I was still obese the better BG might be temporary.
My lowest weight recently has been in May 2012, when I was 95 kg. 49kg less than when I was first diagnosed. Since then, although I have been ill, had two major operations with complications, and gained some weight, (was112kg a few weeks ago) BG has stayed below diabetic levels. I want to stay that way, which is why I have started Newcastling again. Alarmed by a slightly raised recent HbA1c of 41 recently. I must emphasise my surgery was not diabetes related, it was to repair damage due to previous surgery years ago.
I would be interested to know if there is anyone else who has maintained non-diabetic BG for a significant length of time, following Newcastle diet, despite still being obese.
My original motivation was the sheer terror of having complications of diabetes. My motivation now is a worry that having perhaps removed some of the risks, through gaining weight I am inviting those risks back into my life.
Thanking you both, and striving to achieve sensible weightloss to the level you have.
Pipp
