Newcastle diet journey

woowoo82 said:

Week 1 results are in..... -6 3/4lbs, 1 1/2 inches off bust and waist and 1 off hips. Only really felt hungry when I've been due a meal, proving that most of my eating habits were in my head! Here goes for week 2!


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Congratulations and well done for keeping it up. I am 5 1/2 weeks in and have gone from 12st. 10lbs to 11st 1lb. A lot of inches gone. Nowt over 5.8mmol two hours after meals. Drops to 4.6-4.7 after hard exercise which i do find too low for me. I get a bit dizzy and uncoordinated. 5.3 seems to be a comfortable place for me.

Mongoose39uk said:

Drops to 4.6-4.7 after hard exercise which i do find too low for me. I get a bit dizzy and uncoordinated. 5.3 seems to be a comfortable place for me.

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That's might be a combination of BG levels in the lower range plus the hypocalorific diet. You might not feel as bad with 4.6 - 4.7 when you start to eat normally. Hopefully, I don't know for sure, it's a sign that your more easily converted energy stores are running low and your body is having to work harder to make up the shortfall in energy consumption.

I am dieting slowly but have lost a lot of weight, 30 Kg. Periodically, I monitor to see patterns. A couple of days ago I had a morning reading of 5.0 before breakfast and, following 15 mins exercise, a 4.6. Yesterday, following the same pattern, I was 5.3 before breakfast and 4.3 after 2 hours and 15 mins exercise. Today I was 5.1 before breakfast but 5.6 2 hours after but this time with no exercise. I then did my same 15 min routine and I hour later was 4.5.

The exercise is doing pretty much the same for me as for you, dropping down from the 5s to the 4s but, in my case, I don't feel bad. However, I am eating porridge for breakfast, same amount every day and I eat probably around 1500 - 1800 cals per day, now that is, I ate less to lose the 30 Kg, but never as low as 800. However, I'm not losing weight at anything like the same rate now. Hence your feeling a bit dizzy might be more to do with lack of food generally than lower BG levels specifically.

Just had my first small normal meal and tested at 3.6 after 2 hours, re tested as I thought that was too low so different finger and 3.2. Tested with a different machine (SD codefree) and got a 4 on that.

Fish a few chips and mushy peas was probably not the best meal top start back on real food but I did enjoy them . Back to the healthy stuff now and try to find the balance of calories in and out.

Feel fine but just grabbed a few grapes to bring the levels back up a bit.

Yorksman said:

Mongoose39uk said:

Drops to 4.6-4.7 after hard exercise which i do find too low for me. I get a bit dizzy and uncoordinated. 5.3 seems to be a comfortable place for me.

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That's might be a combination of BG levels in the lower range plus the hypocalorific diet. You might not feel as bad with 4.6 - 4.7 when you start to eat normally. Hopefully, I don't know for sure, it's a sign that your more easily converted energy stores are running low and your body is having to work harder to make up the shortfall in energy consumption.

I am dieting slowly but have lost a lot of weight, 30 Kg. Periodically, I monitor to see patterns. A couple of days ago I had a morning reading of 5.0 before breakfast and, following 15 mins exercise, a 4.6. Yesterday, following the same pattern, I was 5.3 before breakfast and 4.3 after 2 hours and 15 mins exercise. Today I was 5.1 before breakfast but 5.6 2 hours after but this time with no exercise. I then did my same 15 min routine and I hour later was 4.5.

The exercise is doing pretty much the same for me as for you, dropping down from the 5s to the 4s but, in my case, I don't feel bad. However, I am eating porridge for breakfast, same amount every day and I eat probably around 1500 - 1800 cals per day, now that is, I ate less to lose the 30 Kg, but never as low as 800. However, I'm not losing weight at anything like the same rate now. Hence your feeling a bit dizzy might be more to do with lack of food generally than lower BG levels specifically.

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A well considered response, thank you.

Nice one mongoose! Something to aim for too - fish and chips must be the food of the gods I reckon!


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woowoo82 said:

Thanks mongoose, fasting bloods down to 7.9 having stopped metformin, not bad for just one week in! I only test first thing, should I be doing more? I'm sure the slimfast shakes will send them sky high after meals!

Fish and chips sounds good, think you are allowed a treat after all that time, I'm looking forward to a big juicy steak!


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My GP wants me to test 2 hours after each meal for a full day once a week. These have been pretty consistent at 5.7mmol. He wasn't so bothered about fasting.

I have stopped at a couple of weeks short of the full 8 weeks. I am still a couple of pounds over what I set as my target weight. However I do get a lot of exercise, not much of what is left of me is fat. My weight is down from 12st 10lb ( I had already lost about 4lb before starting though) to 11st 1lb. My waist is down from 38in to 30in.

My blood pressure had been sneaking up for some time but not enough to trigger medication (130/80) with a resting pulse of about 80 a few months back. 117/57 now with a resting pulse of 53.

I get my hbA1c etc checked in a few weeks and then its back to the GP. I don't know if the Diabetes has reversed or not and realistically I think it will be some time before I do know. However, the general improvement to my health has been worth it I feel.

Now if I can just stay away from the fish and chips...........

Hi
I have been on my own 800 calorie a day diet. I weigh everything and count calories. Typical meals would be Breakfast - low fat greek yoghurt with added blueberries.
Lunch - leafy salad bulked out with tomato, cucumber, beetroot and celery. I add a bit of Hellmans 'lighter than light' mayonnaise. I add about 5 fried mushrooms and 2 medallions of chopped up bacon. Evening meal - Steamed fresh veg, broccoli, cauliflower, mange tous, asparagus etc with Fish(Lidl trout or smoked salmon) or chicken breast. This would come to about 750 calories. I do not eat any ceareals, bread, rice or other carbohydrates.
I have lost just under 3 stone since march and now weigh 11st 3 ibs. I have reduced my waist size from 44" to 32". I also exercise at least 5 days a week. I have not noticed any difference in my blood glucose levels which I take 2 hours after each meal. I have continued to take my medication (metformin)throughout the diet. I had hoped that my glucose levels would improve with the weight loss and exercise but this has not happened. I am due for my annual check up in October and will then be able to see if my Hba1c has improved.
male aged 66
diagnosed Auigust 2012
metformin 2 x 500 Mg daily
Losartan and Simvastatin

Hi Dusty,

With that sort of weight loss and diet and with the less around the middle waist, it would be highly surprising if you haven't had a major improvement in HBA1c. I imagine your BP has dropped quite a lot too. Fingers crossed.

Hi everyone

just been reading all your posts about the ND diet. I have been type2 since 2009 and have steadily gained weight, especially when medications were changed about 18months ago. I read about the ND but decided it was toooo hard for me, I knew I would not keep it up - I think all of you are very brave to take it on. I have been told many times by my Medicine Generalist - I live in France and his is equivalent to an English GP. And I knew I should but knew I would not stay on a "faddy" diet. Have tried Atkins and lost wight, but when I stopped put weight back on. I know the ND is not a "faddy" one but I know I could not keep to it. I like real food too much and the 2 glasses of wine a day.

I then read about "The Fast Diet" or as it is also known the 5:2 diet - downloaded the book to my Kindle PC and liked what I read. So decided to try it for a month. I lost some kilos and my BS went down. So went to GP to show him but he was not impressed, although he had said I should lose weight. His recommndation was that I should eat regular meals with a high carb intake. Have tried that diet given by dietician, but I just put on weight. My body does not deal very well with carbs. But I told GP I was going on it anyway.
I went back to see him after another month on this regime, plus monitoring BS levels and with a new blood test, which showed lower readings all round. He did not know what to say as I believe he had expected BS etc to have gone up.

I have now lost over 5kg and my HbA1c is now down to 7.3% from 8.1%. I used to take meformin, gliclazide & repaglinide, but now only ake gliclazide 2x per day with a half metformin in the evening, which is when I eat my biggest meal.
I now eat a "maintenance" diet with just one 500cal day a week and have maintained my weight loss and low BS. I will be going back to the 5:2 diet to try and lose more kilos.

It is not like a diet for me - more of a changed way of eating. It suits me because I am not a great breakfast person - weetibix, milk and seeds & nuts is all I want; neither do I eat much at lunchtime so the 500cal days are OK for me but not everyone would take to it. If you are interested to know more just Google "The Fast Diet"

Just did the 4th test to see about early day patterns. All days start with a BG reading and then a breakfast of porridge. Days 1 and 2 had a 15 min cycling routine before the 2 hour postprandial test, days 3 and 4 had the 15 min routine after the 2nd test and were followed up with a 3 hour test.

Day 1: 5.0; (15 min exercise); 4.6

Day 2: 5.3; (15 min exercise); 4.3

Day 3: 5.1; 5.6; (15 min exercise); 4.5

Day 4: 4.9; 5.5; (15 mins exercise); 4.6

Porridge by the way used to add a 2 to 3 whole points on postprandial readings but it looks like it is about half a point now. The effect of exercise though is noticeable.

I ought really to do the same with a series of readings for after lunch and then another for after dinner.

Good results there Yorksman

I have been on this diet for exactly two weeks. I would not have been able to keep it up, I don't think, without the support of you guys on this forum. I have lost 4.3 kilos, and fasting blood sugar is down from 170mg/dl (with glibenclamide) to 120 mg/dl.(without glibenclamide). I am coming off the diet for two weeks, and eating a 1000 cal/day --- low carb., then going back on it for another two weeks. I'll let you all know how I get on after the two weeks of relatively normal eating!!!

Thanks again guys-----

Keep in touch and let us know how you get on.

This diet is hard enough to stick to with just a husband who still needs feeding, but who decided that he wouldn't eat any of my fave foods while I was on it, but with 2 small children who don't understand what Mum is doing, and why, it must be doubly so. I was fortunate that apart from one day, when I put on 3 tenths of a kilo,( which then took another 2 days to go! ) the scales moved every day in the right direction, and this was encouraging. I decided before I started that I would use the diet on a two week on, two week off basis to start with as I couldn't see me sticking to it for longer than 2 weeks at a time (loads of willpower no won'tpower). Actually, having stuck exactly to it for 2 weeks I might well have been able to do the full stretch in one go, but social outings have all been scheduled for the "off" weeks, so the original plan is still on.

Are you still taking the same meds as before you started Woo woo? I found I went too low with the meds on the diet, so cut back, and then stopped altogether. Anyway, after an attack like the one you described, perhaps a visit to your GP might be an idea.

We are all here to help each other on this forum, so please don't feel alone, and keep us all up to date.
Good luck

woowoo82 said:

Well, sort of got my head back in gear, just the occasional wobble. 4 weeks done, 1 stone gone so that's 1st 5lb since the start of September. Must keep going and keep my hand out of the treats!


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Keep at it. It is worth it.

I have finished now I should have my blood results later today.

I'd be interested in seeing your results please Mongoose


Thanks Cara

Not as interested as me .
I know I am getting 5.5 2 hours after meals even if I have been a bad boy.