Six Weeks Of Newcastle - Approaching The End!

it's been a hell of a journey, but I'm finally approaching the end of the beginning! Today marks six weeks on being on a vet low calorie diet (VLCD) with the hope/intention of reversing/curing my Type 2 metabolic disorder diabetes. I've learned a lot on this journey, both about myself and my disease, in large part thanks to the posts and resources on this forum.

In short, I was a 250 pound male (down from 260) when I was diagnosed with T2 in early January. 36 years old, smoker, with a random blood glucose reading of 350ish mg/dL (19.5mmol/L) and an A1C of 10.9%. My fasting glucose readings after diagnosis were regularly around 250 mg/dL (13.5 mmol/L), and coupled with a BMI of around 35, I was in rough shape. I was put on Metformin and Glimepiride (a sulfonylurea mix) and told the condition was chronic and irreversible.

After about three weeks of transitioning to a low carb/high fat diet (LCHF), I had lost some weight and brought my fasting blood glucose levels down from "dangerous" to just "bad." Then I read about the Newcastle study, which purported to reverse diabetes (which I read as "cure diabetes") through a radical, 800 calorie a day diet for eight weeks.

I did it (or rather, am doing it). The links in my signature chronical the process, particularly the blog (hosted by this site) and my first forum post on this site. The blog is a day by day account of my experience on the Newcastle diet; if you are interested in trying this, you can read my full (ongoing) experience there. If you are just interested, I hope it is not too boring of a read - when I started, one thing I wanted was a day by day diary that answered some of my questions, and couldn't find one, which is why I started a daily diary (at the time, not even knowing if I would come close to finishing, nor knowing if it would do any good at all or if I was relying on a crackpot study conducted by attention whores). Whether this works for me or not, I want to share my experience with the diabetic community; more information is always better than less. Let me tell you, it has been a seesaw of emotion and trouble, with plenty of high points to keep me going.

The forum post linked in my sig goes into more depth regarding what the Newcastle diet is, why it claims to work, and how. A lot of regular, crazy smart folks from these forums filled in a lot of gaps in that post, and I still reread it on occasion - the Internet is full of good (and bad) information, but it is almost always dispersed into a variety of discrete chunks across a variety of sites, and (selfishly) I started that post to try and get some consolidated information to rely on. I didn't expect the support that came through - my previous experience on reddit turned into a mini troll fest

I'm six weeks into an 8-10 week diet (started as a plan for just 2 weeks, evolved to 8, and now might extend just slightly past the 8 week mark) and at the end, I plan to 1. Transition onto a healthy diet, 2. Build myself up to over 150g of carbs per day for a week, and 3. Perform an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to truly measure any change in my pancreatic function. After that, regardless of the test result, I'll be 1. Returning to a low carb diet, 2. Getting on an exercise training program to complete a 5k race and then a mini/sprint triathlon, and 3. Quitting smoking. I will have either cured my diabetes, or put myself in a great position to properly manage my continuing disease for what will hopefully be a long, long life.

Here's to hope!

brettsza said:

I am joining the ND wagon soon, I wish you all the best

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Are you going with a private company, or just with support of your doctor? What is your plan?

m.zak said:

Firstly, I want to thank you for your inspirational blog. I have noticed many sceptics and I wanted to post my story. I was diagnosed as Type 2 in Dec 2013, the same year I got put on BP meds. As I was diet and exercise controlled, I didn't pay much attention to the figures.
Last December I went for my check up and it totally depressed me, my BP meds were doubled and I was put on Metformin. My HbA1c was up to 49 (up from 42 the previous year). My cholesterol was 7.5. My weight was 158 lbs (overweight for 5'3"). I decided there and then (Xmas Eve!) to go on diet and up my exercise as I am running a marathon at the end of next month.
I had another blood test at the beginning of this month (March 2015). My HbA1c is down to 43. My cholesterol is down to 3.2 (with meds) and my BP is low to normal (may have to half meds again). My weight is down to 136 lbs. My long run is 14 miles at the moment so I can't restrict carbs to the level that you are, but I am taking my Metformin with meals that contain carbs. I see the diabetes nurse for a review on Thursday the 19/03/2015.

Please keep on blogging. I hope that if I can get my BMI down to my pre-diabetes of 21, I may not be regarded as diabetic anymore. If people are wondering why a "low" and specific BMI figure, I will add that I am of Asian descent and we are considered overweight at a BMI of over 22.9
After the marathon, I hope to fast for a bit, to bring my weight down to 120 lbs (if I haven't reached it by then) but of course, as my figures are encouraging, I definitely want to use diet and exercise to then keep diabetes at bay for as long as possible, in the long term! I know I wouldn't be "cured" and because of my genetics, I am prone to it.
Good luck x

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Amazing story, loved reading every-single-word. I'd wish you continued luck, but you don't sound like you need it

brettsza said:

Hi HJ

Well I want to do it to have a chance of reversing or putting diabetes into remission, I am doing LCHF at the moment, to be honest I have not had too many carbs to test how my bloods behave if I eat normal amount of carbs but if I do ND I have a chance of leading a healthier and better life and not worry too much before I put anything in my mouth whether it has carbs or not. I am sure I will never be the same even if I reverse diabetes, like I will not eat carbs or sweets like I was before but atleast I could have let's say a high carb food and not really worry about my bloods too much.

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Counting calories is much easier than counting calories AND counting carbs, to be sure. I hope things go your way - my doctor was hostile to trying a VLCD at first as well, and to be honest, I kinda just started it anyway and more or less demanded that he support me with regular blood work to check organ function/electrolyte balance/basic metabolic function. And I researched my pants off before starting - there are definite downsides to a VLCD, but in my situation the potential upsides more than outweighed the potential downsides, and the actual downsides are manageable with willpower (which has been growing as fast as my waist has been shrinking). I hope my results mimic the results of the Newcastle study, but even if they don't, and my first phase insulin response doesn't return to normal, I'll know two things:

1. I gave it my absolute best, and can rest easier at night knowing that I took a chance on a promising opportunity rather than always wondering "what if," and

2. I just set myself up to avoid all of the other complications that come from being overweight, both diabetes related and not.

At that point, with a normal BMI, my challenge will simply be to maintain a new (to me) healthy diet, with liberal exercise, and continuing to help my body maintain itself rather than throwing it constant curveballs and unnecessary challenges.

On a side note, I've really started exploring other long-term "fasting" diets, like the 5:2 diet and general intermittent fasting diets, which both claim to improve insulin resistance and look to be easier to follow than other types of long-term "diets." Intermittent fasting in particular meshes with my old eating habits to a degree; I've never been much of a breakfast eater.

brettsza said:

What you said is absolutely right.
I have got down from 142 to 39 on my a1c but I really want to give it a try and not think later that why did I not do it earlier. I am 33 so I can take this easy now and the more I delay the more chances I have of complications. I will give it a shot and see what happens. If it reverses me I will be very happy. If it does not I will just think I went on a crash diet to loose weight. I am not overweight but lately I did go into that category by 1 kilo in terms of my bmi.

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That's tough - to be as relatively fit as you are and still be dealing with Type 2 diabetes. In my case, I was obviously obese, and the answer seemed clear (even before I read the Newcastle study). Major props to you for taking initiative, but just be careful.

AloeSvea said:

An HBA1c of 39 IS already T2D in remission though, right?! (40 and below is non-diabetic. 41-48 intermediate hyperglycemia/pre-diabetic, 49 and above is diabetes.) You have done amazingly well with diet and exercise alone. You don't have doctors and loved ones cheering you already? Because you should be heartily cheered! And a BMI of 22 (ok - 22.5) - is the kind of BMI Newcastle dieters pray for every time they hit the scales.

To keep going down the HBA1c scale - you can do with continued careful eating and moving your body as you have been doing. Developing even better insulin sensitivity than you have redeveloped already.

You know all this, right?

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Aloe is right, you have a LOT to be grateful for and proud of. Your numbers are amazing! This is nothing I say lightly (pardon the pun) but your weight sounds pretty fantastic; you sound like you are at the point where replacing fat with muscle is probably smarter than losing weight. Muscle gains and cardio endurance will probably do you more good (in terms of insulin resistence) than "defeating" your organs (mind you, this is my opinion from the cheap seats, I have no idea what you look like or where your first phase insulin response is - I can just see those fantastic numbers!).

Keep it up - you'll outlive us all, and enjoy yourself immensely while doing it!