Newcastle diet.

So a better day today - Week 2 - Day 14 - 25% through the plan.

So my division of shakes seemed to work well today. A bigger morning shake and slightly smaller lunch and dinner had about 4-5 hours apart. Morning peeked at 7.3, the lowest so far - lunch and dinner 6.4 and 6.6 peeks - lowest so far for smallest shakes. All below 8 for the first time so very happy to have moved the spikes. But it might be a one off - I have seen similar before so will not be counting any chickens.

BG goes to below 5 pretty quickly in the third hour in all three occasions.

I found that on the ND site they have a menu plan that includes carrots, mushrooms & onions so I had a different kind of dinner tonight which was delicious! Total carbs today probably more like 85 as shakes account for 75 and veg probably another 10.

Chook said:

You are doing so well to stick to those shakes - I absolutely know I couldn't have stuck to them for as long as you have!!

I remember back in the day trying the Slimfast shakes and having a constant upset tummy and other antisocial emissions (which I couldn't blame on the dog).

I'm following your ND thread with a lot of interest.

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Yes the shakes are not great. But funny enough when you eat little else suddenly they become delicious

I will keep posting regardless of the eventual outcome.

Week 3 day 15.
Another reasonable day - I think as far as I can tell I stayed below 7, just, all day after meals. My FBG was a shade under 5 before each meal. I now seem to be able to tolerate though not enjoy the shakes. For me in actual fact that is quite amazing that I can tolerate 75g of carbs in a day and not go above 7 so delighted with that.

I spent a lot of time brushing up on the ND studies last night and found the Insulin graphs and I noted that the insulin level hardly improves in week 1 and 2 and actually seems to drop back slightly week 4 before quite a climb in week 8. So I have lowered my expectations for the next few weeks and raised my expectations for week 9! I did do quite a lot of walking today so my three hour returns were much stronger in the low 5s.

DCUKMod said:

Hi Fleegle, I do admire you for embarking on such an extreme route. I didn't do the ND and by the time I learned about it, I was one of those infuriatingly lucky folks who had done quite well anyway.

In terms of the ND papers and updates, I'd urge you not to get too hang your hat on other folks' metrics, even from the study. Of course such data helps us gather an insight into some of what could be possible, or not, and that can't be a bad thing. However, as we all know, diabetes is so infuriatingly fickle and not everyone reacts in the same way to the same actions, but you know that already!

I really do wish you well in your endeavours. It looks like whatever the outcome, you have achieved so much already.

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Thanks for your reply. I am not hanging my hat on anything though so do not fret. I am not doing this for the fun of it either I want to improve my BG levels. And as I am following almost to the letter the original trials it was worth me re-reading the material and familiarising myself with the average (no one person) response to the ND which is as I reported. And I hope to achieve those myself I really do.

Perhaps I will perhaps I won't but I am really clear what it is I am aiming for and how I can see my response compared to the average.

Week 3 day 16. Tomorrow I will be below 40 days left to go.
This morning I had a larger shake - 40g of carbs. It did raise my BG more than I wanted - but less than the same shake Saturday. By an entire 1.2mmol. So a high of 8.3, down to 6.7 after two hours, the top was short in duration and 5.7 after three hours.
Lunch was complex, smaller shake and an enforced walk (I like to sit still for 2 hours to get non-exercised out results) meant it did not get to 6 and was down in the low 5's by 2 hours. Evening shake with my now 200g of veg (so achieving about 700 calories a day now) so a peek of 6.4 but a really slow decline to 5.9 by 2h 40mins. It is interesting to me that the higher the spike the quicker the drop!

I was really hungry today at points - really unusual and I put that down to two reasonable walks. Not hungry after dinner. Now I have expanded the range of veg and added a tiny amount of oil level to prevent stones it is all really delicious. Not missing meat at all and this is the longest since a baby I have been without meat!

I wouldn't say there was any great change - slower climbs, less of a peek but also slower declines so on balance all a bit square.

DCUKMod said:

Fingers crossed for you. From all I've read, the ND is neither easy, not sociable, so I admire your fortitude in going for it.

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You are so right - last night a quiz night at a pub. I dash home to have my shake and veg, then arrive at pub. I drink water all night - and then watch everyone tuck into squid and garlic bread, fish and chips (I could of just had the fish)... Mind you, I think our teams score was higher as a result of me remaining sober
No doubt though - business trips are by far the worse!

And thank you very much for your support. Anyone following this should know I am absolutely following it as close to the letter as I can - and absolutely no cheating at all.

Week 3 day er 17 so 39 days to go.
This morning I took a 40g shake for breakfast, BG up to 8.1 and down to 7.1 in two hours. Lunch was the remainder of the shakes and went to 7.8 then down to 6.9 after two hours. Both of my declines took longer today - so I was around the 6 more than the 5 most of the day. Some veggies (200g) for dinner. So far I am not seeing any great decline, certainly not getting anywhere near to back where I started in 2 hours and I am now just a little worried that in face insulin resistance might be getting worse as I hit myself with 85g of carbs a day. We will see. I am also bored of the shakes, but enjoying my vegetable stir fry for dinner.

Got to try and see this thing out and I know not to expect results. I am not comparing myself or wanting others results but I seem to recall that after this time I have seen others getting sub 6's and even 5's in two hours and I am nowhere near that just now. I wish there was more average details from the study but they just talk about FBG and since about June my FBG has always been good though in the last couple of months before this diet I was getting a liver dump that ran till lunch time.

I suspect my total average BG is lower than before because I find myself at 5 for long periods - late evening and low at night though difficult to be sure because the Libre is not reliable at night depending on the sensor. In fact as many say, as a tool for measuring trends it is good but not so good on absolutes. New sensor tomorrow and then I will have to do my own manual in my head calibration with a few finger tests.

Week 3 day 18 - so I am now 30% through - thank goodness.
Just a stat update on weight.
I started this on a Wednesday and weigh in on a Saturday so it is not fair to attribute the weight loss to the ND alone because in the few days running up to it I was preparing by eating a lost less. None the less.
I lost 4lbs last week which brings my total loss to 13lbs. Not that I was doing this solely to lose weight.
My visceral fat is now down to 10. This is indeed good news.

What is not such good news though the scales like BG meters are never 100% is that my body fat has gone down by 2lbs this week but so has my muscle and I need to watch that - I do not want to lose muscle just fat and visceral fat, well indeed only the fat in my pancreas.

Waist to height now just a few mm's from the healthy range, BMI I am in the normal healthy range and I could squeeze into 32inch trousers if I really wanted to do so.

My weight is now just 6lbs more than I was when I got married almost 30years ago. In fact just one more stone I will be at my lowest ever adult reading when people referred to me as the tall skinny bloke so surely that elusive fat threshold should be around here somewhere?

All that being said, I know I am carrying more weight around my waist than I did 30years ago and certainly had more muscle so the two reading are not really that informative.

Week 3 day 18 - BG update.
No Libre most of today - it is new sensor day so in the fluctuation period just settling down.

Same as before. I did three even shakes today and some veg for dinner - probably 85g carbs total for the day.
My BG now, almost three hours after eating is 6.9 so I am anything but happy about that (Libre and Finger test).
It does seem to me that my BG are going up slowly not down. I am going to give it another week on the shakes because I have enough for that but if it is still going up and not level or hopefully down I am going to need to consider perhaps two shakes and a larger vegetable meal in the evening or something.

What ever happens I am sticking as long as I can on no more than 800 cals a day but I am now convinced that either I am becoming more insulin resistant or possibly producing less insulin I really do not know.

I am still seeing this levelling out at about 30-40mins in where it stops rising levels for a little while then goes up and I don't think my peeks are as high (though three even shakes now so not an exact science). I am also seeing that I can very easily walk this stuff off. If I go for a walk I can easily get from 7 odd to quite low 5s in 20mins. That isn't always desirable though due to driving as an example.

So I am carrying on but really would like to see some arrows coming down and not going up all of the time.