Hi, I started the diet on 25th April and stuck to less than 800 calories a day, every day. I wrote down everything I ate, I weighed everything and recorded every calorie eaten, even the milk in a cup of tea. I lost a stone and a half in the eight weeks and by week three my morning bloods were generally in the 5 region. I reduced my carbs to a minimum, I haven’t eaten bread, potatoes, rice or pasta for three months. Since the end of the eight weeks I have continued with low carbs but increased to 1000 calories with the occasional naughty treat and have now lost two stone. I have just returned from my appointment with my GP following repeat blood tests on Monday and he has told me I am no longer ‘diabetic’!!!!!!! He is delighted and I am the first patient he has had do this diet and I don’t have to go back and see him for 6 months, I just need to make sure I don’t go back to the old bad habits of the past. I want to lose another stone and am looking forward to finding new foods to eat such as low carb bread mix I am picking up from the local health food shop tomorrow. Lentil pasta is a good one as well.

So, to all of you on the eight week plan – keep going, it is worth it in the end.

And to Michael Mosely, thank you so much for putting me on the right track.

Hi Peta, Congratulations, that is what we all want to hear, plus a supportive doctor. I am sure we would all be interested in knowing more. How long have you been diagnosed diabetic, I ask because this is supposed to reverse it if it is a recent diagnosis (4 years max I think) whereas I have had it for nearly 11. Were you on tablets or insulin or controlling with diet. Have you done a glucose tolerance test to see how your sugars behave now. Sorry for all the questions but this is an experiment and we are all interested in the results.

Thanks Sunshine Girl. His first reaction was to reach for the prescription pad when he diagnosed me but I asked him about the 8 week plan. He said he only new about it vaguely but if I wanted to try it rather than drugs to go for it. I started that day. I guess because I was newly diagnosed it has been very effective quite quickly. He was really pleased at the outcome and told me my blood test results today would not have led him to even consider I was diabetic. I just wanted to encourage anyone out there to keep going as I know I found it really hard but so glad I stuck to it.

Sunshine-girl, Prof Taylor is quoting reversal of up to 10 years so 11 years could still be doable!

Oh this is taken from Prof Taylor’s paper on restoring normal glycaemia by use of a very low calorie diet in long and short duration Type 2 diabetes

“In conclusion, in people with Type 2 diabetes of > 8 years’
duration, a therapeutic trial of a very-low-calorie diet may be
undertaken with a 50% chance of achieving non-diabetic
fasting plasma glucose levels, without any other antidiabetic
therapies. For those who do not achieve non-diabetic plasma
glucose levels, general health, blood pressure and lipids will
be considerably improved. These insights highlight the
potential for use of a very-low-calorie diet in long-duration
Type 2 diabetes and carry implications for everyday clinical
practice”

I am new to the diet, but did not know about the time limits. I had diabetes for 20 years, controlling with diet, exercise, and metformin. Then I ended up in hospital with a stroke, sepsis, kidney failure, and a ruptured. I am putting myself back together now that i can walk and talk, etc, but my blood sugars spiraled out of control. I started 5/2 4 days and have decreased my blood sugars to almost normal levels and lowered the insulin that i take by several units. Is this diet not supposed to help me if I have had type 2 for so long?

I Chiangmai, I would say that any improvement is fantastic. We are doing this to avoid the sort of things that have already happened to you and I am so sorry for that. Sorry that some of us didn’t know about this diet before, there are stories that it has been around a long time but I think that was just the general advice to eat healthily (which means different things to different people) and even doctors cannot agree on what that is.

It is so good you have now found this diet and are already seeing results in your blood sugars. Way to go and keep on the diet, it is a life changer.