Hi, I have recently started the NHS low calorie diet, it’s total diet replacement with shakes and soups. It’s making me feel awful, I’ve had diarrhoea (sorry), I’m really weak and lightheaded. But the strange thing is is that my blood sugars aren’t reducing. I’ve been on it for 4 days now and I thought I’d see them go down but they haven’t. Does anyone have any experience with this? And know why it might be happening. I’m on literally 800 calories a day in liquid form, it’s hard going.
Hello,
@Ames37
Are you taking Metformin, or any other medication? If so talk to the doctor or health professional or whoever should be supporting you with this method of weight loss / diabetes control.
I have used total food replacement way back in the distant past, before the NHS took it up. After the first couple of days I felt really well, no problems with bowels or anything else. In fact I felt quite well because after a couple of days, due to the meal replacements being low carb, ketosis set in. Which meant I was using my stored fat for energy.
Your diarrhoea could be due to whatever is in the meal replacement product not agreeing with you, any medication you take , or even withdrawal symptoms if you previously had a high carb intake. If the diet is not suiting you then it is your choice whether or not to continue. I would always tell anyone contempating this method that they need support from HCPs. Are you getting that, or have you been passed on to an outsourced provider, who provides only online, remote support? It seems to be more common for GPs to do the latter, but it is not satisfactory to leave a patient with no means of having any queries or worries addressed, particularly in the early days.