Reversing diabetes without VLCD?

ReverseDM said:

I had gestational diabetes 5 years ago, after which i got the prediabetes diagnosis/hypothyroidism. Immediately was able to lose 40-50 pounds following a vlcd (optifast), which lasted for a short while, after which i have gained weight. . Every effort to lose the weight with the VLCD again didnt work, its been a cycle of lose some gain more, lost some gain more. 5 years later i am much heavier and now fiinally have now progressed to diabetes with higher morning sugars of 8 or 9. I really do not want to start metformin, I want to reverse this DM, but wont be trying the VLCD shakes anymore, so please has anyone reversed thier DM with any other thing than a VLCD? can i do low carb/keto of probably 1500 calories (for example) or mediterannian and still reverse the DM?

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If you cut down carbs enough you'll probably find that the calories don't matter..certainly didn't with me..

Crash diets rarely lead to sustainable weight loss and won't help that much with remission from T2 either.

What was your reason for using meal replacement shakes rather than selecting low carb foods in the past ?

You should find low carb real food sustainable. You may not need to go very low carb - but you are unlikely to get immediate results.

Lost 5st by just counting carbs, not calories, ate 2 meals a day, drank wine instead of beer, walked dog.
It's the carbs

I only ever counted calories once many years ago on a very low calorie diet, before I ever had T2 , and while I definitely lost weight it went right back on again.

However after my T2 diagnosis 9 years ago I cut right down on carbs, and within 3 months I'd lost 20 kilos and reduced my diabetes to pre-diabetic levels without ever counting a single calorie.

My weight remained stable until recently when it had a slight upwards wobble, partly caused by fluid retention due to oedema, but it's gone back down now and as a bonus I've also lost a further 10 kilos. Again, not a single calorie was counted, but I am still happily eating my low carb diet.

Oh, and I stopped taking metformin over six years ago...

@ReverseDM, You're talking about using real food to lower your carb-count nutritionally speaking? Sounds good to me!

One of the keys to long-term weight loss with remission in mind is sustainability. You need to be able to live with your nutrition regime/eating and drinking patterns longterm, in order to keep weight lost off.

In my experience (long and hard!), the only way to do this is to experiment. Give yourself month-long experiment lengths, I would suggest. Write it up, share it in here, or just do it. Experimenting with different ways of eating can even be fun though! And really interesting to see how your body is with different ways of eating, in terms of informing you where you are on the high-carb-intolerant spectrum (which is how I see it).

Food is very personal, very intimate. Ditto what you like to drink. As is our response to particular food and drinks. You have already done two big experiments with the shakes! Think of how exciting doing experiments with different low-carb ways of eating might be??!!!