Hi, It has taken 8 months but I finally have a normal morning blood sugar reading. My hba1c has been normal for some time. Thankyou Michael Mosley and thankyou Forum members that have advised, supported along the way. To those of you out there with diabetes and embarking on the diet – persistence is key. You can do it!

Hi bigeater
I’m so pleased for you. I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes beginning of August and started BSD mid-August so still early days for me. Yours is one of the stories I’ve been following and it really does help hearing such positive news. I bet your thrilled just to get all the numbers in line at last. Congratulations!

Thanks so much for your kind words. I know you can do the same. You have the added benefit of recent diagnosis and are making changes now! The odds are better for you so stick with it and don’t waver! All the best

Bigeater

Great feeling isn’t it!!!

I came off medication a month ago and now that the initial elation has worn off I need to make a plan to stay in remission. I’ve done lots of reading and weight loss seems to be given the greatest amount of credit for changing BS but I must admit, for me, I feel that it’s the carbs. I think I will need to stay low carb but also not put any weight back. I have my next HbA1c in two months so time will tell!

Well done. We know it can be done. Now we just have to keep on keeping on….

Hi Verano, Thanks for yr post. I had thought your numbers were still a bit high. Clearly not. Again, well done. Yes I think low carb is essential and I will stay on that path with no deliberate divergences. Then if I sometimes go off the rails – albeit in a small way – that can be accommodated. I don’t want it back so no carb it is. Also don’t want to start putting weight back on, in fact I still have plenty to lose. I know from experience it is very easy to gain again. We have to keep it off and say no to those pesky carbs, for life!

Verano and everyone. I shot an email off to Roy Taylor to thank him. The response was – now the focus must be on avoiding weight gain – whilst enjoying life. It is like communicating with a superhero! Yay

So there we have it …. focus on no weight gain!

I also still need to lose more weight bigeater but no longer feel quite so desperate to do so. My HbA1c was 44 eighteen months ago, on metformin, and as with you it came down quite quickly to 37. My last one was 34 with a half dose of metformin and now I’m on my own!! My impression is that metformin only reduces your numbers by around 10-15%. The crucial thing is that eventually it becomes less effective, so another drug is added and so on and so on. I didn’t fancy that way of life, much prefer this one!

Good luck with your continuing journey.

Hi Verano,
I don’t think that metformin does much at all, yes reduce numbers by about 15% but in terms of diabetes complications my research showed that it had no effect. Only my research though.

Thanks for good luck – and to you too. Seems we are on a similar path at present.

Yep. Let’s not regain weight.

This is a “wonderful-news” post Bigeater! And good to hear from your corner of the world, Verano, and good news on maintaining! I hope all the new starters out there do as amazingly as you two!
I’m going to throw my weight (ha ha) behind the no-carb rule for maintenance — although of course we do eat carbs, I have truly found that restricting them is the MOST important thing for maintenance — calories, not so important but carbs are key.
My body seems to know how to burn calories just fine in the absence of carbs but add in carbs and I can feel the weight gain almost the next day. Especially sugar, the white stuff, and refined flours plus sugar — deadly.
My thought is that it works two ways — first, low carb keeps your insulin low and allows your body to use your fat and secondly, not eating all those bad carbs just cuts out a lot of junk with empty/stupid calories.
Do I blow it now and then? Of course, but I go back to low carb ASAP and I’ve thrown in a few fasts — am liking them a lot but I have only made it 24 hours so far, but they are really, really helpful.
So best wishes for ongoing maintenance journey! Life is so much more fun when I am not struggling and fighting my body every day. Honestly, my body seemed to be my enemy before and now it is my friend. It is a huge psychological relief.

Hi California girl, I have to agree with you that Carbs , well bad carbs are the real enemy. The science points to carbs causing sugar spikes and also, after bariatric surgery, blood sugar seems to return to normal way before substantial weight loss. So, for me, I think I will always stay away from the nasty white stuff, which to be honest I have no desire for now anyway. My ‘treat’ at the moment is a small rosy red apple from my tree for breakfast. Who would have ever thought that an apple would be a ‘treat’!!’

Bigeater it’s always good to have someone else on the same ‘page’. I have been more or less maintaining for the last four months. Once I knew that I needed surgery and also needed to lose a stone in weight I sort of went into denial mode. I don’t think I work well under the pressure of timescales. BUT, I didn’t gain. So now that my surgery is behind me I’m feeling ready to move on downwards again. My next goal is to lose 12lbs which will take me back to my ‘normal’ overweight level of more than 15 years ago so a really good challenge!

Life works in strange ways and I actually think that the break from counting and weighing, but still following the BSD principles, has led to my now renewed enthusiasm. So it’s back to slightly more restraint for me!

My last HBA1C test resulted in “56” Increased greatly from complete and utter foolishness with sweets and other carb monster fare.

Read the book from cover to cover, took a deep breath and embarked on this way of eating on 30th May at 12st 8lbs (176lbs, 80kgs) and a BMI of 29

Introduced 16:8 fasting fairly early on. I was never a big fan of breakfast so it was quite a relief not to have to eat it! Did I fall off the wagon at all? Heck yes! I just climbed back up and carried on without too much self-hatred!

I attended Diabetic Clinic on Friday – HBa1C = 35. Yes – 35!!! D Nurse absolutely delighted ! No more Metformin or Trulicity. I’m on my own to keep Blood Sugars under control. Am I worried? Heck no – low carb is king! Michael Moseley and Jason Fung are my heroes. This forum site is my inspiration – big thanks to all who contribute.

Oh my weight? 3 stones weight loss (42 lbs 19kgs) BMI now 22.4 – healthy weight for a woman of my age and height – yay!! Not the most important but a most welcome benefit of taking action to get my act together. I’m 60 next year so look forward to health in a size 10-12 wardrobe – hooray (ok so I am a vain soul really!)

Here’s to maintaining my blood sugar (the weight will be fine as I do) and cheers to all of you – keep posting

SV x