Hi all,
I don’t know whether this is the right place to post this, but I have surprised myself by being a bit of a success story (so far!) for the Blood Sugar Diet. Hopefully it might give other wople hope and encouragement – I was almost proud of how badly I used to eat, and thought that the misery a diet like this would cause would outweigh the health risks! I was quite wrong, and actually came to find it interesting (dare I say fun?) working out my calorie counts and recipe plans.
I got diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the beginning of September 2023 with a blood sugar on the HbA1C test of 70mmol/mol. The doctor weighed me in at 16 stone 6lb (104kg/230lb), which put me just over into the NHS “obese” category for my height of 6ft (180cm). I also had high blood pressure and my cholesterol was 5.4mmol/L (the healthy threshold is below 5). Now, I was prescribed medication for all of these, so dieting possibly can’t take the entire credit for my improvement, however…
I spent a bit of time looking at the Diabetes UK and NHS websites, the DESMONDS approach, and found it a bit depressing that it was all about managing diabetes without ever making any difference. I saw a reference to the Walk Away from Diabetes pilot, under which the NHS prescribes soups and shakes adding up to 800 calories a day for 8 weeks. The pilot was not available in my area, but I did a bit of googling and found the Blood Sugar Diet by Michael Mosley, whom I recognised from the telly.
I read the book in fascination and started my 8 weeks on 24 September. My goal was to lose 10-15% of my body weight, which my GP said was a good aim to see if diabetes remission was possible for me.
I used some of the recipes from the book, but also used the My Fitness Pal app to record all of my calories. I went almost keto because I was a bit uncertain about a some grains – I definitively cut out sugar, potatoes, rice, bread and pasta. My main tip for anyone starting this journey is to find something you can eat which you like – in my case, inspired by a holiday to Tunisia many years ago, I ate half a tin of tuna with a teaspoon of harissa for either breakfast or lunch most days.
I also heard Michael Mosley on the radio extolling the virtues of an apple every day, so I stuck to that religiously. Otherwise my diet consisted of eggs (often hard boiled, but sometimes omelettes or scrambled eggs or even fried with a couple of rashes of bacon or veggie sausages!) And the evening meal would be something like a steak or a quarter of a grilled chicken with salad or peas. I became very daring with cauliflower, which takes all kind of spices beautifully and can be eaten in almost limitless amounts on this diet.
So I finished my eight weeks on 19 November and weighed in at 13 stone 4lb (84.5kg/186lb) this far outstripped my goals and I was delighted, although it was slightly irritating that this was still slightly above the ideal weight range for a 6ft man on the NHS website, which tops out at 13 stone 3lb.
I went onto the 5:2 diet on a more permanent basis, and was a bit more lax over Christmas, like most people, with a Yorkshire pudding and a small dollop of mashed potato. There was a bit of an admin mixup at my GP surgery with the results of the HbA1C test I did at the beginning of December so I did the test again on 3 January. This was very slightly irritating – I was worried about how much of my good work I had undone over Christmas.
However, I just got my results today. I currently weigh 12st 12 lb (81.6kg/180lb) and my blood sugar is now 34mmol/mol! I am going back for another test in April to check on progress, but my doctor was very congratulatory and said he had to check he had the right person’s results. He has kept me on the Metformin for now but cut the dose in half.
In addition, my blood pressure is now well within the normal range and my total cholesterol is down to 3.5mmol/L.
Anyway I hope this is interesting/encouraging to people rather than seeming smug, but I was very excited to get my test results today!
All the best everyone.
Bob
