Newcastle-ish

[stevolution]

Well lookee who's back with a not-so-smug grin this time! :roll:

Some of you will remember me from earlier in the year when I disappeared from here with my diabetes under control and full of talk about becoming the next Rich Froning. Well it didn't quite work out like that...

I certainly managed to keep my BG down with very low carb for the most part, and I certainly got fitter and faster with CrossFit. But the belly remains!

No matter what combination of things I've tried, no matter how hard I train, the belly remains. :***:

I've been to see my dietician again this afternoon with a battle plan, and seeing as some other folks here have done what I'm about to do I thought I'd crawl back and post about it.

There was going to be a long precis here, but you don't want to hear the boring details. In a nutshell I'm starting on the Newcastle study diet tomorrow, with a slight variation on the theme. Like the mighty Defren I'll be using the Atkins shakes in place of the Optifast used in the study. You'll remember that the study stated that any supermarket equivalent could be used. I won't be having the veg on top because the Atkins shakes are a bit higher in calories. I'll be having an additional protein shake after training sessions (Sci-MX GRS-5 56kcal).

Despite the anticipated pleasing side-effect of losing shed-loads of body mass (and thus more of a chance at the elusive strict pull-up), my primary objective is to lose the fat around my visceral organs. It's been posited that I may have so much visceral fat around my organs, and in particular my pancreas that its function is being diminished so far that even the radical low-carb regime I've been using is failing to get enough insulin into my system. This would potentially have the effect of inhibiting take up of energy from my food and promoting fat storage instead. I'm convinced that this is what ails me.

I'm under no illusion that this is just a temporary kick-start measure to try to regain some of the pancreas function alluded to in the study. Once the eight weeks are up, I''l be re-introducing a low-carb program as I feel much better on this than even on a 'balanced' diet.

I'd like to thank Defren for the amazing diary that will keep me buoyed during the next couple of months. I know others have done it too, and I'm off to read about your experiences as soon as I finish this post.

Here begins the steak drought. :cry: You're all amazing. :thumbup: Please wish me luck!

 

[starlight1]

i wish you the best of luck :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[Defren]

Blimey Steve, where has all the hair gone? :lol:

Thank you for the kind words, but they really are not deserved. I did the ND for purely selfish reasons, but hoped my diary would help others. I will say one thing, even now, with about an absolute maximum of 2 stone to go to be at the low end of a normal BMI and only 7lbs away from being in the normal BMI range, I still have a tummy. I had a picture taken on holiday in shorts and a tee shirt and I have stick arms and legs, but still a tummy. I am hoping this last bit of weight is going to shift it, or I may have to up my target goal a bit as the rest of me will be very thin. I have prominent cheek bones, not a double chin in sight, so absolutely no spare weight except around the middle. I am a classic apple shape, and the tummy is the hardest to shift.

Back to the ND. I am thrilled you're going to give it a go. I would recommend this diet to absolutely every single T2 out there - it works. The Atkins shakes are in my view the best, simply die to carb levels. I looked at other ones, but am so carb sensitive I knew it was a non starter. My tolerance is slightly better now and my BG has stabilised beautifully. I put this all down to the ND.

I wish you all the luck in the world, not that I think you will need it, you're so much like me when it comes to the determination to control diabetes, and not it control you. In that vein, I am not remotely surprised that you have decided to give this a whirl. I did just three shakes, no solid food for 4 weeks, the last four weeks I added a small meal, I believe it makes the refeeding transition easier, but you must do what feel right for you.

I hope you will keep a diary. I found it helped and was also quite catharitic on odd days when I struggled, and the support from people here was invaluable. Go get 'em pardner :lol:

 

[stevolution]

Thanks Defren!

Far too hot for the hair - I might grow it back over winter! :lol:
Yes of course I'll keep a diary, this will be it.

My only fear is not having enough energy to CrossFit.
Having said that, as the fat comes off I'll be able to run faster and bodyweight exercises will become easier.
That strict pull-up will be mine! :twisted:

I went and stocked up with the Atkins shakes for a few days at Boots today.
I'll have a look on Amazon in a bit and see if I can get them delivered.

 

[Defren]

Try Boots on line, they deliver. Oh, by the way, the only downside to Atkins, they only come in vanilla and chocolate. I did sometimes do one scoop chocolate one vanilla just for some variation. I just kept telling myself "it's only for eight weeks, not life". That helped me.

You will be firmly and strongly in ketosis on the diet, your crossfit should be fine. Let us know though. I know I had oodles of energy on it. I am still in ketosis now, but do have slightly more than 9g of carbs a day that you get from the shakes.

 

[stevolution]

There's a cafe royale one now, too! :thumbup:
Just ordered some from Amazon.

 

[catza]

Steve just wanted to add my support and to wish you the best of luck. :thumbup:

Having watched Defren each day throughout her ND I realise how dedicated anyone has to be to complete the whole 8 weeks so I shall be waiting eagerly to see how you go on.

I am doing 2 shakes a day plus a light meal Mondays to Fridays, by no means the ND but it seems to be helping me so I may just go the whole hog one of these days.

 

[tree-peony]

just wanted to say welcome back Steve... and good luck

 

[stevolution]

Thank you Starlight, Defren, catza and tree-peony! :wave:

 

[stevolution]

Newcastle-ish Day 1

Well here we go. Play starts with 272.2lbs on the bathroom scale.

Pre-breakfast BG is 9.0 but I suspect I know where that came from.
I'll try to keep a log of BGs before and +2 after meals so we can hopefully see some progress with the old pancreas as time goes on.

First shake in its way down the hatch. Have a good day, everyone! :thumbup:

12:10 Half way through today an I'm not doing too badly. I missed my eggs and bacon this morning!
Been feeling a little light-headed, probably due to the lack of food but I expected this and I'm about to have my lunch shake anyway.

Also been doing more research into pancreas function when surrounded by fat and it's really starting to hit home what a precarious situation I've got myself into. You obviously don't know me, but I can tell you that very little of my body fat is subcutaneous, I have an awful lot of visceral fat that's surrounding my internal organs.

I feel that I might really be on the edge of freeing myself from what's seemed a really unfair situation whereby no matter what I've tried in the last few years, I can't lose body fat at an acceptable rate. It seems so logical now that pancreas function would be severely inhibited by fat, and this would decrease the process of energy production from food and make the fat storage process far more likely. Could it really be that straight forward or am I on the wave of another false assumption? Time will tell. Also, it's a bit too much to hope for, but is it even possible that I might not actually be diabetic? Could the fat surrounding my pancreas be inhibiting its function to the point that I'm just symptomatic?

I've been thinking about all the clothes I have that will fit me so much better in the next few weeks and I've been getting a bit excited about it. I'm far from a dandy, mind. I'm a strict jeans and t-shirt kind of bloke but I have some great t-shirts. The ones I'm most looking forward to wearing are the ones from my CrossFit box. I have two in XL (allegedly) that are just the wrong side of looking sprayed-on when I wear them. They'll be my first victory when I wear them without embarrassment.

I found a great link here that was useful for self-validation. A very good read for those feeling a little trepidation about this venture.

B: 9.0 | B+2: 9.0 | L: 8.4 | L+2: 7.2 | D: 6.2 | D+2: 6.3

 

[MaryJ]

Good luck with it steve and welcome back

Mary x

 

[stevolution]

Thank you Mary. x

 

[borofergie]

Good to see you back man!

It's not about the calories, but about fuelling your muscles for high-intensity exercise with carbs.

I did a few weeks of the old Newcastle just over a year ago, to try and accelerate my weight loss before my wedding. I was running 25 miles a week without much difficulty, but then you'd expect that low-intensity endurance type activites would rely more on fat burning (of which I have an practically infinite amount) rather than glycogen burning (of which on the Newcastle diet you will have a very small amount).

Conventional wisdom suggests that high-intensity training (such as CF) requires you to replenish your muscle glycogen supplies with carbs. However, there are plenty of low-carb-paleo CFers, so some people get by on very few carbs. If you find that you can't keep up with your WODs it might be worth supplementing the shakes with a small amount of sweet potato before sessions.

 

[Defren]

You have it in one. The problem a lot of us have is the visceral fat around our organs. The ND is supposed to help to reduce that and in my case I certainly do believe it helped my worn out and tired pancreas. I see as the day progresses your figures are coming down and I am smiling as I know as the days go on, these figures will become really high as your new body gets more and more control. I have to say for some doing the ND the weight loss is the main cheering point, for me it was the lower BG numbers, the weight loss was just a brilliant bi product.

Well done, day 1 almost done!!

 

[stevolution]

Hello Steve & Jo.

Yes, I'm almost at the end of day one and none the worse for wear.
I've taken the decision not to train this week to give me a chance to see what changes are going to happen.

Conventional wisdom has had a lot to say about me losing weight, and to a few peoples' chagrin it's been a load of old guff for the most part. :x
That's not to say it won't all come together once I start moving this inner fat though.

I've been disappointed and baffled by turns so much for the last months that I was reaching breaking point. :cry:
Nothing 'conventional' has worked and I'm now of the solid belief that it's this visceral fat that's causing my issues.
I can run 5k and deadlift my own bodyweight for a 5 rep max at greater than 270lbs. Something's not right!
This fat is what's stopping me from moving forward and I have to believe that the theory's going to work for me too.

My dietician told me something encouraging last night. She said she went to a conference about the Newcastle study and although the sample group was only tiny, the presenter had interesting news. He'd been getting emails and phone calls from all over the world since the study was published reporting the same results from similar trials. So even though the Newcastle group couldn't be called scientifically representative, the numbers add up.

I'm just going to roll with it and see. I'm not silly. If I think I need extra energy from somewhere before or after training then I'll take it but I'm really curious just to see what this 8 weeks does for me. I'm pinning my hopes on it restoring a lot of functionality back to my pancreas so that my energy synthesis cycle starts to perform like a normal person's. If it does then it follows that going forward, diet and exercise should have the same effect as it does on other people. That's the plan, kind of like replacing a knackered spark plug with a new one. I just really need a kickstart to get my metabolism running as it should. :cry:

 

[stevolution]

I am smiling as I know as the days go on, these figures will become really high as your new body gets more and more control.

Can you explain that please, Jo?
I would've thought the figures would get lower as time goes on. :?
The 9's are an irregularity thanks to me playing silly buggers over the weekend. I'm usually 4-7 when I'm being good.
Should I expect higher figures soon?

 

[Defren]

I am smiling as I know as the days go on, these figures will become really high as your new body gets more and more control.

Can you explain that please, Jo?
I would've thought the figures would get lower as time goes on. :?
The 9's are an irregularity thanks to me playing silly buggers over the weekend. I'm usually 4-7 when I'm being good.
Should I expect higher figures soon?

EEK!!! NO, so sorry, that will teach me not to read posts before I send. I would never smile knowing anyone's figures were going to go up. I meant they will drop. So, so sorry Steve, what an eejit I am!

 

[stevolution]

Ah that's a relief - makes much more sense! :lol:

 

[stevolution]

Newcastle-ish Day 2

Well that was a bit of a surprise - I'm 5 lbs lighter this morning.
I'm going to weigh myself every day for the first week and then weekly after that.
I'd thought it my imagination yesterday when I felt a bit emptier. And last night, looking in the mirror I thought my belly had dropped a little but I'm sure it's just down to water loss in the early days.

I slept very well indeed last night and Jean says I didn't keep her awake with snoring so much.
However, I'm not at all hungry this morning.
But I do feel rather buoyant and awake. Which is nice.

09:50 Hmm, a BG raise of 0.5 since before my breakfast shake. :shock:
I wonder if my 2 mugs of illy coffee has anything to do with it?
It's a hell of a sacrifice, but I'll try doing without tomorrow to see if it's to blame or if I can rule it out. :?

17:00 My jeans have definitely felt even looser today and I'll definitely have to use the last hole on my belt again tomorrow.
Just for curiosity I tried my smaller jeans on when I got home and I fit into them comfortably already. My BGs are down on aggregate from yesterday already and I expect them to be better this evening.
Although I'm not actually hungry I'm starting to miss food. However results like this will keep me focussed.

B: 8.9 | B+2: 9.4 | L: 7.1 | L+2: 7.0 | D: 6.2 | D+2: 6.1

Weight: 267.2 lbs | -5.0 lbs | -5.0 lbs cumulative

 

[stevolution]

Newcastle-ish Day 3

Fasting BG this morning was 9.7 - the highest for a while! :shock:
Maybe DP is making me suffer for doing this. I fully expect things to improve as I fall into a ketogenic state later this week though.

In other news, I'm 263.8lbs this morning. That's 3.4lbs down from yesterday and 8.4lbs down in total.
It's hard to stay ambivalent about this weight loss, even though I keep in mind it's just a pleasing side effect to the real goal.

I almost managed a strict pull-up last night! I just needed the tiniest of pushes with my legs to get me started. Exciting times!

Not hungry at all this morning, probably due to my blimmin' liver dumping all that glucose into my system.
It probably also accounts for the feeling of well-being, although the appearance of a little blue sky might have something to do withi it too.
I've been bemoaning the lack of anything resembling summer (again) up here in Manchester since this cold spell started to develop. As a photographer though, I've got the Autumn leaf colour changes to look forward to as long as they don't just go from green straight to muddy brown like they did last year. :roll:

I'm keeping the coffee this morning as it's a variable I don't want to remove while I monitor my BG in these early stages, and it's a variable I don't want to remove because I really like it!

10:30 2 hours after breakfast and BG is down almost 3 points.

B: 9.7 | B+2: 6.9 | L: 5.7 | L+2: 5.8 | D: 5.5 | D+2: 6.0