Dear diary: My life on the fast 800 + 16:8 intermittent fasting diet

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  • posted by neohdiver
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    As of this morning, I am no longer overweight! I am glad to reach that goal before I have to switch to maintenance in advance of surgery next Tuesday.

    I’m also planning to switch surgeons. I love the one I’m seeing, but her administrative support is sending my blood sugar and blood pressure through the roof (or at least my particular version of the roof). My mother’s surgeon left the facility where I knew my insurance provided coverage, and I had been reluctant to keep wandering about from facility to facility. But the stress their inability to communicate in a timely and accurate manner (which matches the uniform and consistent experience of everyone I have ever encountered who has dealt with this particular facility) is not healthy for me. So I confirmed that my insurance will actually cover the doctor’s new home – and have an appointment set up for next Thursday. (She can meet the same surgical schedule I had in mind – as long as she agrees with the treatment plan.)

    Now I just need to get the grading done, and the office moved, and I’ll be in great shape!

  • posted by Eureka
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    Hi neohdiver
    Very good news on your weight goal after all your hard work.
    I’m also pleased you are switching surgeons & to a support & admin system that hopefully will be all you desire. It was upsetting me to think you were having all this extra stress at this crucial time for you, goodness only knows what it was doing to you?
    With every good wish for you in the coming weeks ๐ŸŒบ

  • posted by hashimoto
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    Hi neohdiver,
    What a lot you are coping with and organizing. I’m pleased your insurance company have approved your choice of facility and hope all is plain sailing from here on. Like Eureka I was upset for you over all that administrative mayhem which you really don’t need at such a time.

    Congratulations on achieving your goal of being in the healthy weight range, you are a marvel to manage to reach that goal in your situation. Wishing you all the best for Tuesday and a speedy recovery x

  • posted by neohdiver
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    And the saga continues . . .

    I am now formally done with the Fast 800 BSD until after breast cancer surgery (need to have enough calories on board to heal).

    I’ve been carbing up for the last 4 days for a DIY Oral Glucose Tolerance test that I just completed.

    The good news is that I AM NO LONGER DIABETIC (progress – yay!). The bad news is that I’m still glucose tolerance impaired, and close to diabetes . 10.21 @ 2 hours (Diabetes starts at 11.1). I won’t consider myself in remission until an OGTT is normal (below 7.77 at 2 hours. But there’s enough progress that I’ll have another go at 8 weeks-800 calories once I’ve healed from surgery. That will top off my weight loss – and (I hope) be enough to put me into remission.

    As to surgery – new doctors; new eyes. She’s seeing more than my prior surgeon did. I’m grateful for eyes that see small differences, even though it may mean the cancer is more advanced than the other two doctors suggested. I’d rather have a few more tests up front so that these new observations can be addressed (or ruled out – as I hope). So I had another biopsy on Thursday, and have a 3rd (possibly a 4th) scheduled for Wednesday. If everything is negative (meaning good, in medical terms), surgery will be the 24th. If the results show micro metastasis, larger metastasis, or a second tumor, all bets are off.

    Looking through the thread, I see I didn’t update the grand total for my 6 weeks on the BSD. So here are the final stats for now:

    Week 1 – Fasting blood glucose: M: 5.05 mmol/l, T: 5.28 mmol/l W: 5.06 Th: 5.39 (highest in months) F: 4.44 S: 4.39 Sun: 4.44
    Week 1 – Starting weight: 150.2 lbs – Ending weight: 147 lbs
    Week 1 – High for the week: 7.72, Low for the Week: 4.06, Average for the week: 5.5

    Week 2 – Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.83 mmol/l, T: 4.72 mmol/l W: 5.11 mmol/l Th: 4.79 mmol/l F: 4.83 mmol/l S: 4.33 mmol/l Sun: 4.6 mmol/l
    Week 2 – Starting weight: 147 lbs – Ending weight: 144.8 lbs
    Week 2 – High for the week: 6.83 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.5 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.27 mmol/l.

    Week 3 – Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.61 mmol/l, T: 4.72 mmol/l W: 4.67 mmol/l Th: 4.9 mmol/l F: 4.5 mmol/l S: 4.33 mmol/l Sun: 4.66 mmol/l
    Week 3 – Starting weight: 144.8 lbs – Ending weight: 142
    Week 3 – High for the week: 7.22 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.9 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.5 mmol/l.
    Note: High stress precipitated by early stages of cancer diagnosis.

    Week 4 – Fasting blood glucose: M: 5.05 mmol/l, T: 4.83 mmol/l W: 4.61 mmol/l Th: 4.67 mmol/l F: 4.67 mmol/l S: 4.67 mmol/l Sun: 4.33 mmol/l
    Week 4 – Starting weight: 142 lbs – Ending weight: 140.8 (2 lbs from a normal BMI!!!)
    Week 4 – High for the week: 8.39 mmol/l (in the wake of incompetent administrative stress) Low for the Week: 4.33 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.27 mmol/l.

    Note: Formal breast cancer diagnosis came on Monday, before my fasting BG reading. Might be why it was a bit higher!

    Week 5 – Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.89 mmol/l, T: 5.06 mmol/l W: 4.83 mmol/l Th: 3.83 mmol/l F: 4.83 mmol/l S: 5.39 mmol/l Sun: 4.61 mmol/l
    Week 5 – Starting weight: 140.8 lbs – Ending weight:140.0
    Week 5 – High for the week: 7.05 mmol/l (High stress day) Low for the Week: 3.83 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.44 mmol/l.

    Week 6 – Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.83 mmol/l, T: 4.17 mmol/l W: 4.56 mmol/l Th: 4.5 mmol/l F: 4.89 mmol/l S: 4.72 mmol/l Sun: 4.44 mmol/l
    Week 6 – Starting weight: 140.0 lbs – Ending weight: 138.0
    Week 6 – High for the week: 7.22 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.94 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.28 mmol/l.

    Weight loss on Low Carb/Moderate Protein (179 days): 47.1 lbs Average BG 6.0

    Weight loss on 800 Calorie Mediterranean Style food with 16:8 intermittent fasting (42 days): 12.2 lbs Average BG 5.39 mmol/l (lower, even after the breast cancer diagnosis – which came in bits and pieces starting the middle of week 3, to the first day of week 4, with added stress associated with too little time to wrap up affairs before surgery mid to late May)

  • posted by orchid
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    Hi Neohdiver,
    Firstly, congratulations on your achievements! That is impressive and being able to state ‘I AM NO LONGER DIABETIC’ deserves a really big cheer from us all!
    I am glad you are getting more tests and investigations up front albeit that it is delaying the op. Better to be prepared for the correct treatment than for the surgeon to find once they start the op that things are not what they expected. I hope and pray that the results are favourable.
    Take care – Ruth

  • posted by Igorasusual
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    Neohdiver – many many congratulations on fabulous BSD results and very very best wishes for your next steps.

  • posted by neohdiver
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    Diabetes and breast cancer update.

    On the diabetes front, I have resolved the question of whether it is weight loss or the diet. Since stopping early, and eating higher carb for roughly a week, my BG is higher than it was before I started the BSD – with no weight change. That tells me it is either the diet or the fasting that made the dramatic difference. If things don’t settle down, once I’m recovered from surgery, I’ll do a second full 8 week run at it (with a gradual off-ramp at the end) to see if it makes a difference.

    As to breast cancer – I switched doctors after my last post. The new doctor found a second lesion and an enlarged lymph node. Both have been biopsied, and have come back negative. (Whew.) Surgery (lumpectomy) is scheduled for tomorrow morning, bright and early!

  • posted by hashimoto
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    Hi neohdiver the best of luck with your operation and recovery.

    You are inspirational the way you deal with what life throws at you and the way you record and analyze what is happening to your diabetes during this diet x

  • posted by Switzerland
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    Hi neohdriver,
    Sending you my very best wishes for your surgery. Just know that you have a global reader audience with your good health and wellbeing in our collective consciousness.

  • posted by Igorasusual
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    Yes, neohdriver, very best wishes to you for your surgery. Thinking of you.

  • posted by captainlynne
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    Best wishes neodriver.

  • posted by neohdiver
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    Back home, and looking forward to being lazy for a few days!

    No surprises during surgery. “Peanut” is gone, with clean margins (as much as they can tell by visual inspection) along with three (by all appearances) healthy lymph nodes. With any luck, that will be confirmed by the pathology – which will come back a week from Thursday.

    I’m pain free – but that’s probably the narcotics speaking. I’ll give it a couple of hours. ๐Ÿ™‚

  • posted by Switzerland
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    Hi neohdriver,

    So good to read that you’re back home. Be kind to yourself.
    Best wishes for a trouble free recovery.

  • posted by hashimoto
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    Hi neohdiver, glad to hear surgery went well. Make sure you do rest for those days!!! As Switzerland said, be kind to yourself, you deserve it : )

  • posted by orchid
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    Hi Neohdiver, I am so glad to hear the surgery has gone well and you are feeling ‘reasonably’ okay. Hope the recover phase goes as well as the op did – looks like you found yourself the right surgeon at the end.
    BTW – your earlier post on the your BSD results are definitely interesting!
    Take care

  • posted by Stephie63
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    Glad to hear the surgery went well, and although it’s the pathology that will confirm everything, surgeons generally know what they are looking at. I work as a surgical assistant, and although they won’t commit 100% to anything without a path report, I haven’t known any of them get it wrong yet. So if it looks likes clear margins and healthy lymph nodes, you can rest assured that’s highly likely what it is.
    You might want to up your protein and vitamin C intake during the recovery phase, it certainly won’t do you any harm and in all likelihood will help with healing.

    And congrats on getting your diabetes under control ๐Ÿ™‚

  • posted by neohdiver
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    Hard to believe it’s been a month since I dropped by! Recovery, training a new assistant, and tracking down all my students who scattered to the wind while I was out (for a week) has taken all my spare time, and more.

    The tumor was 1.3 cm, only about half the size they expected (odd since it was measured on 2 different MRI machines at between 2.1 and 2.6 cm), so solidly stage 1, grade 1- the very early stages of cancer, still with all of the best receptors. I’m now healing before radiation – likely early July, assuming I follow their recommendation to have radiation. The radiation creates a very small risk of a very deadly cancer – so my choice is a slightly higher risk of a likely slow-growing cancer OR a much smaller risk of a cancer I could not detect early enough to save myself from it. Typically, if there is a small percentage and a large percentage outcome, I end in the small percentage – reliably enough that I’ve had doctors refuse to make predictions, expressly because their earlier predictions have all been wrong.

    I’m down another 5 lbs. I’m not intentionally losing weight, but the idea of upping the fat in my already very fatty diet enough to maintain just isn’t very appetizing to me. That’s compounded by the fact that the physical stress of surgery elevated my blood glucose again – so after being consistently in the ranges reported above, my fasting BG has been pretty consistently slightly higher than 5.55 since surgery. I’ve been lowering carbs to nudge it back down, but that means upping fats even more. Discouraging. And discouraging that my weight may be too low for me to be comfortable going back to 800 calories for another 8-week stint (since I had to interrupt this one for cancer treatment).

    There seems to be a slight turn-around the past week – and today 5.55 is the highest reading I’ve had. So, perhaps, progress!

    I’ll be very irregular here until early August (and then I’ll have to see what the fatigue does).

  • posted by orchid
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    Hi Neohdiver,
    I am delighted to hear your news on your progress since your operation – for the moment it certainly sounds like good news. On the 800 front, you may not be able to repeat that, but you will be able to follow a fasting period of 16:8 to get the benefits of that even if your calorie intake is higher.
    Anyhow – that is something for the future – take care and rest, glad to hear you now have an assistant!
    Will be thinking of you….
    Orchid.

  • posted by neohdiver
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    @orchid,

    Thanks!

    As near as I can tell fasting and the 800 calorie diet work differently – fasting seems to be more of a long-term management tool; 800 calories, for a short period of time, is remission inducing. (At a minimum, the main proponent of fasting as a means to reversal has not published any studies, and does not disclose his fasting protocol or sufficient details about his results for me to give it any scientific credence, by my standards. On the other hand, there are two (small, but well designed and compelling) studies that suggest 800 calories actually induces remission in many diabetics.

    I can manage my diabetes just by eating low carb; my goal here is remission- so while I believe fasting past the liver dump has some ability to aid in management, I have no illusions about fasting creating remission..

  • posted by Imogen
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    Hi neohdiver

    Wishing you all the best for a speedy and complete recovery!

    Glad to hear that the surgery went ok, and hope that the pathology reports bring good news on Thursday. It will be easier for you to make an informed decision about radiotherapy once you have your results. For now, focus on rest and recovery.

    Take care

    Imogen

  • posted by Switzerland
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    Thanks for posting neohdiver. I was wondering how you are. As Imogen said – focus on rest and recovery. Very best wishes and know that I’m thinking of you.

  • posted by neohdiver
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    I’m back, on the other side of cancer treatment!

    I’ll start a new thread in a day or two , but for now I thought I’d update anyone loosely following this one.

    I went through radiation therapy from August 2 – 24. I am grateful it has been as “easy” as everything else on this journey. Very mild radiation burns, and no sores/moist tissue damage. Only one day of fatigue I can’t explain by the life I lead (which included tossing around 100 lb boxes of books, moving slightly lighter boxes up and down stairs in the process of moving from one temporary home to another, and participating in leading a 5-day seminar for incoming students). Since there was only one inexplicable day of fatigue – I’m suspecting it wasn’t really radiation related either.

    My doctor was able to keep hot spots to a minumum, and the ones that were necessary were only at 105% of the therapeutic dose (she typically has to go to 108% of the therapeutic dose).

    I drew a picture, inspired by zentangle, one day at a time during radiation to turn an inherently negative process (it creates a small risk of a very deadly cancer) into something positive. I included the radiation marks (purple lines and + signs) and the crane the radiation oncologist gave me the day we met. Here’s the image: http://www.butterskotch.com/images/The_Last_Day.jpg

    I am now cleared to resume my normal activities/diet/etc. I’m going to make at least a 4-week run at the 16:8 IF + 800 calorie diet again. It took my body quite a while (most of the summer) to get over being mad at the surgery and to return to the blood glucose levels I’d achieved by the end of 6 weeks (when I was ordered to stop to conserve energy for cancer treatment). They’re still bouncing around a bit (primarily the fasting BG levels). Four weeks from today is my birthday. I’ll take stock again then – and it’s possible I’ll take a celebratory-done-with-radiation-meal before then. My weight goal was 130, and I’m only 2 -5 lbs from there (depending on what day I measure). 4 weeks will likely take me down to around 125. Not a bad endpoint. I’m still hoping to put diabetes into remission, rather than just under control. (During the first six weeks, I moved from diabetic to pre-diabetic – so there is a good possibility I can nudge it farther.)

    See you in the new thread I’ll start later: Dear Diary – Take 2!

  • posted by Imogen
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    Welcome back neohdiver!!!๐Ÿ˜Š

    The picture is beautiful. So glad you have come through this process with such positivity!

    Good luck with the ‘re- start’

  • posted by orchid
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    Hi Neohdiver, I am so pleased to hear from you, I have been wondering over the last few weeks how you were getting on. Your news is wonderful and a great example of turning a negative experience into a positive one – love the picture, I will remember that approach for the future.
    Looking forward to your new posts and insightful analysis of your progress.
    Welcome back!!

  • posted by neohdiver
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    Thanks for the welcome back! I took a break from most social media. July is always one of my busiest months – and most of August is my easiest (but became one of my busier months this year due to radiation). Unfortunately, life is goin to get even more hectic due to changes at work – so I we’ll see how active I can continue to be.

  • posted by captainlynne
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    Welcome back neohdiver. Great to hear from you again ๐Ÿ˜ƒ๐Ÿ’๐ŸŒป๐ŸŽˆ

  • posted by Christi1948
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    Hi neohdiver,
    Welcome back, love the picture.
    Christine

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