I am diagnosed with diabetes since 2018 December 16 th. I was taking insuline, Metformin and Januvia at the begiining of the treatment. I weighed 236 pounds. 7 weeks later, I do not take insuline anymore. I just take the same doses of Metfomin and Januvia. My sugar bloods is around 5 mmol per liter. So it’s great. I exercise myself 5 times per week (cardio training) and have a low carb diet, eat well. My weight is now 214 pounds. I really want to cure. I lost a lot of muscles. I have yet to lose the abdominal fat, but I want no more to lose my muscles. How to adapt my diet? And which type of exercise should I do? Thanks for your responses.

Hi there Eric, I have already answered another question you put on. As someone newly diagnosed you have every chance of reversing your diabetic status to that of a non diabetic if you follow this plan carefully. You have some success with weight loss but are worried about loss of muscle. Must ask, is the weight you have to lose mainly fat or are you built like a muscle builder. If you are carrying fat you can lose that without loss of muscle but you must keep up a similar type and level of exercise you have been already been doing. Muscle loss will not come from the diet but from you not doing the right exercise. Obviously, depending on which muscles you want to build or retain then you should be using weights or doing specific exercises for the arms, legs, shoulders etc. I do a series of arm exercises using increasing weights and do lunges and other exercises for the legs. As a post menopausal woman I am unlikely to build any muscle but want to keep what I have. Hope you find a good plan.

Thank you very much for the help! Are you diabetic like me?

Yes, T2 since 2005. I have greatly improved my BG as well as reducing most of my meds but as I am long time diabetic it is doubtful I will have a full remission. My aim is to stay as well as I can for as long as possible. I didn’t want to go down the route of ever increasing meds and having more and more illnesses, which has always been what we have been told will happen. Not on my watch it wont. I have also reduced my BP, cholesterol and triglycerides and got rid of those meds too. I dont rattle as much as I used to.

Good luck and stick with it. Or as I am known to say, keep on keeping on…

I’m on Jardiance rather than Januvia, otherwise I’ve a lot in common with Eric Side except I’ve been a diagnosed T2 diabetic for around 12 years. I started on the Fast800 (except in my case it was the “NotQuiteSoFast1000” until I could ease into 800) around the end of November and since then I’ve lost around 7% of my body weight. I was on two doses of Lantus Insulin per day totaling 48 units, and I’m now on one dose per day totaling 18 units and that’s still too much (fasting blood sugars under 5 every morning). I’m having an assessment at the local Diabetes Clinic on Wednesday. However the disappointing element for me is that my weight loss has plateaued. I’d wanted to lose around 10% and was looking forward to it, but I’ve stayed roughly the same weight for the past 4 weeks. I also notice the recommendation is not to stay at 800 for more than 12 weeks and (although I did ease into it) my 12 weeks will be up shortly. Any comments?

Hi BloodyDon,
I’m also a T2 diabetic (never been on meds – now in remission). Firstly, wow and congratulations on reducing the insulin and meds – that’s brilliant news. Something is clearly working in relation to your Type 2. Good luck with the assessment on Wednesday.
About the weight loss, people can experience long plateaus on this way of eating. But, I’m also wondering how many carbs you are consuming per day. It may be that you need to drop your carb levels slightly lower to kick start the weight loss again. It might be worth a try.
When I was first diagnosed I had a lot of weight to lose (nearly 6 stone) so after the 8 weeks I carried on the BSD (800 cals, 20g – 25g carbs) doing it for around 5 to 6 months with no problems. (I’m back on it now because after a couple of years I slowly put 2 stone back on – stayed low carb but forgot to watch the portion sizes!)
A lot of people on here have continued with the BSD until their weight is where they want it to be.

Best wishes with everything – I’ll be really interested to hear how you go on with your meds assessment and the weight loss
Jennie
ps – intriguing name!

Thanks for the suggestion about reviewing my carbs as well, Jennie. I use two (free) iPhone Apps – FatSecret and Calorie Mama – and they sometimes give quite different assessments of Carbs and Calories. I’ve just finished breakfast – half a cup of muesli followed by a latte – which they both assessed as 202 calories, but only because I “created” a latte for Calorie Mama to make it equal to FatSecret. From my use of both in parallel for three weeks my guess is that there’s a bit of a “dark art” to Carb and Calorie counting; I can end up with 100 calorie difference by the end of a day between the two. Calorie Mama says I consumed 80 carbs yesterday and 76 the day before. Fat Secret has those figures as 81.41 and 73.35 – quite close but as I say a bit of a dark art. I started with FatSecret because it has a lot of Australian foods built in eg. my favourite hommus, but later decided on Calorie Mama because it integrates with Glucose Buddy which I’ve been using for years to keep track of my blood sugars. But back to your point – my muesli intake alone is almost half my daily carb intake according to those two Apps (37), and I’m reluctant to cut out breakfast altogether as I already start the day close to the “hypo” level – yesterday was 4.2!!

Update: I’ve posted elsewhere about the Diabetes Clinic’s reaction when I mentioned I was following the BSD (https://thebloodsugardiet.com/forums/topic/dietician-at-our-med-centre/#post-104618) – all good. I’ve also decided to give up on Calorie Mama and focus on FatSecret as a calorie counting App as it seems more in tune with Australian ingredients

As Sunshinegirl has said, following this woe shouldn’t result in muscle loss. However, you should pay attention to your protein intake along with the carbs and fat. The post and calculator below from LindaA has served many of us well. https://thebloodsugardiet.com/forums/topic/20th-feb-starters/page/4/#post-58403

Would also suggest adding strength training to your exercise regime will pay dividends.

I’m sorry my post has gone awry. But if you click on the BSD bit and go to page 4 you will find the calculator posted by LindaA

Maybe this one will work! https://thebloodsugardiet.com/forums/topic/20th-feb-starters/page/4/#post-58403

hi everyone! I thought I would share my experience with the BSD and muscle mass— I did about five months of BSD 800 three years ago and lost about 3 stone (close to 50 pounds).
I LOVE exercise and sports so I worked out HARD most of that time and had this response:

1.) I lost weight faster when I modified the workouts to sort of low/moderate level. Very counter-ontuitive but hard workouts seemed to put my body into “hold fat” mode.
2.) I GAINED muscle during those five months
3.) I definitely had to eat a bit more food on big exercise days or I just got famished. I focused on adding high quality protein like meat and fish and fats like cream, butter and olive oil.

So you definitely CAN gain muscle but you might need a bit more protein and fat (100-300 calories more was average for me and only when I had “earned” it)
My workouts included two or more weight classes (Les Mills Body pump) and 2-3 sporty/hiking/aerobic/boot camp classes per week.
If I got tired I took a couple days to recuperate and come back strong.

Hi California Girl,

I was glad to read your post as i am finding much the same although I am at the start relative to you.

Walking for miles – no problem ! Rebounding – great !
Heavy weight lifting ? Nope ! Sustained muscle work, e.g heavy dutyish gardening ? Nope.

Have definitely needed to put another 200 calories in when trying any of the heavy muscle work.

I feel reassured !

No, 50 or even 100 mindless bodyweight squats won’t suffice as a replacement for leg day if your high volume squat days typically consist of four sets of eight at 60-70% of your 1RM. Yes, volume is crucial (and we’ll talk about it in more detail below), but you also need to take into account the distinctions between ordinary bodyweight training and strong loading stimulation.

Hi Imence99
This is a very old thread but I’d be happy to get more information and updates on the issue of muscle building with the BSD. I’ve been paying close attention to the research that links muscle mass with longevity.