Had a health check through my work health plan last week and was told that my blood glucose level was in the pre-diabetic range (8.7) so started on this diet and bought a blood sugar monitor straight away. Lost 2kg last week and blood sugar was 7.6 this morning however last weeks test also included a full HbA1c test which I received the results from today and indicate that I am actually in the diabetic range 62! when I should be under 42!

Can’t get an appointment with my GP for 7 days; bit knocked back by it all really. Only had a BMI of 26 and don’t consider myself to be unhealthy; room for improvement sure but Type 2 diabetic!

Any advice? feeling a bit sorry for myself really.

GM

Sorry about your possible diagnosis. You are in a good position to do something about it by following this plan. Get straight onto the Fast 800 and your BG should come down fairly quickly. Can I advise you to tell the doctor that you want to take matters into your own hands and do this diet before he even thinks about starting you on medication. I know you at not overweight but the plan is designed to hit the visceral fat (internal) especially around the pancreas and liver. With a BMI of 26 you might be a person who is thin on the outside but carrying fat inside. Hopefully your doctor will agree to using diet as that is what most recommend to start with and you will probably have another HbA1c in 8 to 12 weeks and the diet will have really kicked in my then.

Good luck.

Thanks sunshine-girl for both the support and advice, I will certainly tell my GP that I want to give the diet a go first. Having read the book the science sounds convincing and I’m a competitive person so feel I have a good chance of sticking with it.

Thanks again!

Hey general I have similar story and made agreement with doc to try diet first although he appeared sceptical he agreed. So on 19 Feb H1c was 54 yesterday got results and H1c is 40. In 3 months! Yippee! so it really does work. Did fast 800 for 8 weeks and now on 5:2. Feel great. First two weeks are hard and there will be blips along the way but if you keep to the overall way of eating you will succeed. Wish you great success!

General M – that competitive streak will serve you well! My GP was so sceptical of my plans (he just wanted to put me on drugs) that I ended up making a bet with him that I couldn’t turn my weight and blood sugar around in 3 months. I cannot wait to see him again at the end of June and see if he recognises me!

The first couple of weeks are hard but it does get easier (if never quite ‘easy’) and seeing results helps with a virtuous circle.

Good luck.

Thanks RobOAM and Luckyl for the support but your making me a little nervous about the response I am going to get from my GP about the diet. I just don’t understand why they would be so keen to push the medication route unless it was a last resort? If for no other reason than the NHS is skint and the money they save could be spent elsewhere?

GM

Don’t be nervous GM – you may find your GP very supportive. Equally you may have a really good diabetes nurse at your practice.

A highly cynical view is that pushing drugs is quick and easy for uber-busy GPs, and results in payment to the practice. But I don’t really subscribe to that view – I think it is more likely that my GP, and others like him, are too used to seeing folk who say the right things about changing their lifestyle but maybe don’t follow up (cos, let’s face it, it’s really, really hard). Moreover, my nephew, a junior doc who has just done a GP rotation, backs up what Dr M says in the book – many GPs have only a scant knowledge of nutrition and some of the more modern dietary research.

Perhaps when you go in to see the doc you should take the information page available elsewhere on this site. In my experience, most doctors are open to persuasion and given that they pretty much all go into medicine to help people, hopefully they or he will be supportive. If not, you can either do what I did – refuse the meds and take a bet on the results after three months – or ask to see another GP.

Back yourself mate!

RobOAM, thanks for the support and advice; I have printed the information for GP’s and will tell mine that this is what I want to try first or ask to try another GP.

I’ll post back with how I get on next Thursday :-).

GM

My GP was very supportive – starting BMI was 24 so everyone was convinced she wouldn’t be as 800 calories seems so low etc and as I was pretty slim with a waist measurement of 31 inches. However, we agreed it was worth a go for three months at least and far easier to tell if it is working when you haven’t got medication to take into the equation. My result was 54 but her approach was that it really wasn’t that high as lots of patients had them in the 100s (clearly not something to aim for but quite heartening when it seemed to me I was well over the threshold) so expect being in the 60s you should have a similar response. If you are willing to reassess after 12 weeks if required I can’t see why they would argue it with you as opting for a healthier lifestyle is always going to be a good approach. I am due to have my second hba1c next week so slightly on tenterhooks – most of my readings are now absolutely fine, just the fasting sugars which I can’t seem to bring down any further (usually in the 6’s) but hba1c will reveal if that is a problem as it can be caused by a few different factors. Agree with what everyone has said here about the first couple of weeks being tough – once your body kicks into ketosis and works out it can burn fat as a fuel instead, it suddenly becomes very straightforward and I found snacking on fats (full fat Greek yoghurt, flaked almonds, cheese) if not too much of it seemed to help with that. Not for everyone but I used diet shakes for the first three weeks to get myself out of my usual eating routine and because I didn’t have to think about it too much, that helped. Moving onto real food then felt like such a treat! BMI is now 20 and waist 27 inches so if hba1c comes back with little change, I’ll have to accept that it may in fact be late onset type 1 and will have a blood test for the antibody to confirm that. In hindsight I probably should have had that done earlier on and I think that would have been the next step in my GP’s mind because I was already fairly slim but the amount I have learned about my body and how it works in the last 12 weeks has been so educational and (even though I say so myself!) I look better than I ever have, both in physique and looking younger so whatever the outcome next week, it will have been worthwhile.

PS My mother in law is a nurse and has seen three or four patients reverse their diagnosis using this diet so it is clearly gaining a bit of momentum and may well mean GPs are becoming more aware too.

Hi GM – how did you get on with the GP today? Hope all went well and you got the support.

Hi RobOAM,

Thanks for asking; firstly to set the scene after two weeks on the diet I weighed in this morning having lost 3.8kg about 4.3% of my starting weight and amazingly my blood sugar has already dropped from 8.7 to 7.6 last week and an incredible 5.5mmol this morning (measured twice and will check again tomorrow for accuracy).

The GP reviewed my hba1c results from two weeks ago and was happy for me to continue the diet. We have left it that I will have another hba1c in three weeks time and if the average is showing improvement then no medication will be required.

Amazing result with today’s blood sugar reading, am a little worried about the accuracy after such a dramatic decrease but it seemed pretty accurate last week so no real reason for it not to be today.

GM

GM that all sounds fantastic – good on yer. Weight and blood sugars going the right way and your GP happy to support – all good news. Keep going fella – you’re smashing this.

Rob