Hi,
Week 6, day 3 for me. After a blip in FBS readings in week 3/4 they now seem to have come back down, so much so that I’m tempted to stop or reduce the 2000mg daily (4 tabs) of Metformin, without my doctor’s say so.
As an indicator my FBS readings over the past week have ranged from 7.5 to 5.4 with other times in the day being 6.9 down to 5.6. Can reducing or stopping do any harm? Thanks in anticipation!
(P.s. Having now lost 10% of my starting weight, I read up on the health benefits of 10% loss and apparently this figure has the same effect as tablets on blood sugars. Encouraging for me!)

Leeanne I cut my dose in half at first and monitored my sugar readings for a couple of weeks. Last weekend I stopped them altogether and TBH I’m not seeing much, if any, change in my levels to when i was on them

Hi Bill, thanks, I think I’ll go to half dose for a week and see how it goes. Bet you’re glad to be rid of the drugs!!

Oh believe it!!!
No more of those embarrassing Metformin moments or sticking injections into my stomach twice a day.
For me getting off the meds and the sugar down was by far the most important part of the lifestyle, the weight loss is a major added bonus. 🙂

I bet you look and feel like a new man! What a success story!

I’m in the last bit of week 2 and my FBS readings are varying from 4.5 to 6.5 – lower then they were pre-BSD. Hurrah! My plan is to drop to half my metformin dose at week 4 and monitor. If everything stays the same I’ll stop the last two tabs too at the end of week 6. Without meaningful support from my GP I feel that a bit of DIY is called for.

Hello SteveT,
My GP once said to me “you’ve got high blood sugars, so what! Tablets will sort it”.
I get no support from him so like you am doing some DIY! ! (Have now gone to half dose with good readings so far).

I am midway through week 3 and have halved my Metformin and plan to stop in another week or so.

I’ve been T2 since last June, my first daily bs reading was 10+ mmol, weight 99.8kg but by Oct my a1c was 5.7. By Nov weight was 86.6kg with good diet and plenty of exercise and plenty of walking. We had an exceptionally cold and wet winter here in HK which cut my walks (or maybe that was the excuse) and my diet was a bit heavier so weight crept up slowly to 90kg. However, since late March I got it back to 86.6kg. But my BS readings had drifted up to the high 5 to mid 6 range. I told my endocrinologist at the start of the month that I wanted to try 5:2 to get my weight and BS down, and was OK with that. I’m on 500mg Glucophage and 100/1000mg Janumet a day, plus 20mg Lipitor and 100mg Cartia, and she said that the dosage would not let my BS drop to low. But last week I discovered the BSD, and decided to jump right in. On Wed and Thurs, my BS was 5.3, 5.4, about the same as the few previous days, and were the same at bed time, then on Friday morning it was 4.6, the lowest reading I’ve ever had. This morning it was 4.4! Is this a normal response, and should I be concerned that it’s dropping too fast? Advice welcome

Hi Donno,
Welcome to the BSD. Sounds like you’re off to a great start.
Your blood sugars will drop fairly quickly on this diet. You are exactly in the non diabetic range at the moment so you are doing really well.
The janumet has metformin in, on top of the metformin ( glucophage) you are also taking. Metformin works by slowing down the release of sugar into the blood from the liver, as well as slowing sugar absorption from the gut.
One of the aims of the BSD is to get rid of sugar, stored as fat, in the liver and pancreas. You may want to talk to your GP/Endo at some stage to discuss reducing your meds. Many people on the BSD have reduced/ ceased their meds altogether after a few weeks.
Neither of your meds should cause you to have a hypo.
Keep posting, it will be great to hear more about your success in beating diabetes.

Thanks Cherrianne,

Everything is still going well, with fasting blood sugar 4.4 – 4.8, going to 5 only on one day. I’ve taken several post prandials, all 5.4 or less. My meals are basically what I’ve been eating for the past year, just smaller portions with no evening meal or snacks. I’ve also given up my evening glass or two of red wine for the time being. I’ve adapted to black coffee too.

Breakfast is a couple of tbs of plain, full fat probiotic yohgurt followed by a small bowl of all bran with some nuts and a few strawberries and blueberries and less than 200ml full cream milk. Twice in the past week I tried a handful of wilted spinach with a small drizzle of olive oil, topped with two scrambled free range eggs and a small slice of smoked salmon. Really delicious and satiating.

Lunch and dinner is a large garden salad from a salad, eaten in two portions, of baby spinach, arugula, baby tomatoes, lightly cooked broccoli, and maybe a few olives, jalapenos, a bit of feta and a small scoop of meat, usually shredded chicken breast or sliced roast beef. No dressing. It’s pretty much the same every day, and I’ve been eating for almost a year, it fills me up and I never get tired of it.

It’s probably over 800 cals, but my weight and, vitally, my blood sugar are dropping to uncharted territory, so I’m pleased with that.

I go to the gym most mornings and take an 1hr evening walk after work, listening to recorded lectures. I listen to the headspace app on the way to work, and maybe a Gregorian chant or something soothing. I have a high stress job, working peculiar hours which my endo says contributed to my condition on top of my obesity and family history of the disease. But at least I feel I’m getting it under control, for which I’m eternally grateful.

I’m also blessed to have a wonderful endo, the best doctor I’ve ever had, who’s put me on the right track and corrected several other issues – cholesterol, got my liver enzymes back to optimal, and discovered a moderate coronary stenosis in an otherwise healthy heart that will probably require an intervention at some stage. But I haven’t felt this well for years.

Cheers,
Chris

Hi Chris, I’m so pleased to hear of your success with falling blood sugars. Cherrieanne is right about people reducing, even coming off, their meds on this diet!
🙂

Hi Hashimoto, thanks for the encouragement. My main goal is normalising my bs. I weighed in at 86.1 kg this morning, the lowest since I was diagnosed. But my BMI is 30.1, still obese. The doc and I would like to get that down to 70kg (I’m barely 170cm tall) so I’m halfway there. Realistically I probably won’t hit that in eight weeks, but every kilo lighter is a good thing. If, not, I’ll just keep working on it.

Hi donno, if you stick to the diet you could possibly meet that target, or at least get close, the average loss for 8 weeks is 15kg!
Keep working on it and you will be amazed!!! 🙂

My target loss is 16kg. Well, here goes

Good luck Donno! You’re right about every kilo counting. To remind myself how much thst actually is I keep a kilo bag of flour in the cupboard and pick it up every now and then. It helps keep me focused. I lost a lot of weight in the first week. The scales dropped like a stone – literally. After that the weight loss has slowed but even though the scales don’t move as much I can feel and see the difference in my body and the way my clothes fit me or, rather, don’t fit me. People are now commenting to me about how I’m looking different somehow.

Keep faith, stick to your guns and you’ll do well.

Donno, well done so far. In another few days you’ll be overweight rather than obese, I crossed that a couple of days ago and it is a great feeling. Aim for 16kg loss in the 8 weeks, some have done it, but if you are short by a couple of kg you can always extend the diet by a few days, or do a few weeks of 5:2 to get there.

Hi Cherrianne, Hashimoto, SteveT and FoFi,

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement. Yesterday marked the end of week two. the time has flown and I’m really enjoying it. I’m not strictly calorie counting, but as I did before the program minus snacking, a daily glass or two wine, or an evening meal. I start the day by testing blood sugar abd blood pressure. I have two tbsp of biodynamic plain full milk yoghurt, a daily tonic that predates my diagnosis last June but has given the best functioning intestinal tract I’ve ever had. Then I have a small bowl of all bran (30g) with a few nuts and seeds, strawberries and blueberries and 160ml of whole milk. Some days i have instead wilted spinach, two free range eggs and two slim slices NZ smoked salmon, which is incredibly satiating. on my to work i stop by the salad bar and get a large salad of rocket, baby spinach, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and grated carrot, and small servings of kidney beans od chick peas, jalapenos, olives, some feta and chicken breast or roast beef. No dressing. That’s eaten in two servings at work, half for lunch and the rest before I go home, then nothing for bedtime. i do this every day, and I love it. it offers a wide range of ingredients but also a constant I can measure fluctuations in BS etc against.

This morning my FBS was 4.2mmol. Blood pressure 124/69. Weight dropped 1.5kg in the past week. BS spiked unexpectedly in the past few days, up to 6, for unknown reasons. Then last night I passed a lot of fluid, and felt remarkably well after. my BS dropped straight away to 4.4mmol. has anyone experience anything similar?

Hi Donno, it sounds as if you are doing really well!

I know Bill and Cherrieanne sufferd bs rises part way in the diet which stayed high for a while before dropping but as yours has gone back down after releasing retained water your experience may be a little different. I’m not diabetic so I can’t offer advice

Hi Donno
sounds like you had a major flush out of stored glucose which is of course what we are aiming for.
Well done on the good readings 🙂

thanks Hashimoto. The diet is quite an interesting process. I’m trying some Fast Exercise ideas in my workouts. I’ve always ridden an eliptical (cross) trainer because of weak ankle and knees, 20 mins in four min sections of stepped intervals. It’s a good workout, but I tried the truncated version the other day: 2 mins warm up, then cranked it up to mid intensity for 20 secs, up a bit more intensely for the next 20, then to high and flat out for final 20secs, followed one min on medium rest. Repeated that two more times with a 2 min rest on the last time, total workout time 9mins. I felt just as good after than the 20min workout

thanks Hashimoto and Bill. The diet is quite an interesting process. I’m trying some Fast Exercise ideas in my workouts. I’ve always ridden an eliptical (cross) trainer because of weak ankle and knees, 20 mins in four min sections of stepped intervals. It’s a good workout, but I tried the truncated version the other day: 2 mins warm up, then cranked it up to mid intensity for 20 secs, up a bit more intensely for the next 20, then to high and flat out for final 20secs, followed one min on medium rest. Repeated that two more times with a 2 min rest on the last time, total workout time 9mins. I felt just as good after than the 20min workout

Wow, donno, you put me to shame! I just do a few pilates exercises for my back and am chuffed when I do more than 10,000 steps! 🙂

Thanks, hashimoto. It’s not that vigorous. But I live on an island in Hong Kong where we have to walk or cycle everywhere in the village. BTW, does anyone have any medical literature or other info on the liver glucose flushes? I’d like to show it to my specialist.

Hello!
Im a recently diagnosed pre-diabetic and have been on 500mg Metformin three times a day for a year.
I started the 8 week diet last week and lost over 4lbs. I mentioned this to my diabetic nurse and asked if I should stop taking my Metformin and she said absolutely not! It would be helpful to have some considered advice, please. By the way I need to lose a stone to be at my ideal weight!
Thank you.

Hi Gilliancrantock, welcome to the crew and your journey to health. You didn’t mention what your current bs levels are, but a couple of months ago i had to stop taking my meds (1x 500 glucophage, 1 x 100/1000 Janumet) for four days to undergo a cardio angiogram. There was no change in my BS levels in that time. I mentioned that to my endo and she said that metformin can take weeks or months to achieve stable results, and would probable continue to do so for a similar time if you just stopped. However, if there is no underlying positive change in your condition, such as achieving and maintaining an ideal weight, healthy blood pressure, cholesterol etc and of course exercise and diet, then soon enough your diabetic symptoms would return. i think this program is wonderful – I’m feeling better by the day – but I think it’s important to get your doctor on side, ideally an endocrinologist, and work together to achieve your best results. Diabetes is a very complex condition, and affects each patient in unique ways. I’m getting good results after nearly three weeks, with some super bs levels that I never thought would be possible,, but they cannalso spike for no apparent reason even as I lose weight and maintain a good diet an exercise. I will see my doc at the end of the month, by which time I’ll have six weeks of data to show her. But I’m staying on my meds regardless of the result until then (unless it’s huge, like a hypo).

Help anyone?
I’m on week 10. My 2 hrly post-prandial blood sugars are now in the 6’s. Just now it was 6.3 with no Metformin today. I’m on half dose having reduced it myself from 2000mg to 1000 mg (4 tabs to 2). Is it wise to drop to one? A bit dubious! I read a post (? From neohdiver??) that Metformin slows down sugar release and works against the BSD aim of ridding stores sugar from the liver.

Hi
I went to my doctor yesterday who has booked me in to do some fasting bloods to look at the longer view of the Type 2 diabetes and gauge the dosage to drop me down to or even remove. She was delighted with the progress and my readings, she has taken me off the blood pressure tablets and wants to be really sure its safe to reduce Metformin too. Book yourself in and reduce under supervision

Thanks sianeyb, I’m due for my annual bloods, feet, etc next month but the surgery where I go is having a bit of a crisis with no staff, etc, so although I’ve been informed I can have the bloods done, they’re not doing diabetic reviews until further notice! Big help! I’ll try and get a GP appointment after the bloods – I should get one by Christmas! ! Like you I’m also on a 20mg BP tab and a small dose 20mg Statin but have continued these.

Hi Leeanne
I initially dropped half of my metformin dose and TBH I saw no difference in my sugar levels
I’m off them altogether now and apart from the odd fasting spike, all is well
Give it a go, if things go pear shaped yu can always start it again.

Hi Leeanne

My experience so far mirrors Bill’s. I cut my metformin daily dose by half 2 weeks ago and there’s been no difference in FBG levels. In fact, if anything they are lower at (typically) 5.1 before breakfast and 5.3 or so two hours later. I plan to drop metformin altogether from Monday when I start Week 7 and see what happens.

As Bill says, if it all goes pear-shaped I can start tsking it again. Nothing to lose and everything to gain? I think so.

Thanks everyone, I’m still on half dose for the moment. At the end of week 10 now. Have got yet another cold!! Blame it on less fat to keep me warm lol! Got most of my clothes for sale too due to being too big now. Just got to get my Metformin sorted. Onwards and upwards.

Just curious about everyone’s drug reductions. Went to my gp yesterday who was totally dismissive of my bs readings. (Fasting in the 7s) I want to reduce my metformin and glymperide but not sure the safest way to do it. Do I halve everything or miss out my morning or evening metformin?

Crazy morning readings
I see why morning fasting reading drives people crazy
Mine started 8.1 rose couple hours later to 8.7
I had nothing to eat since last night and too first reading at 8am then 10 am
Where does this sugar come from and continue to rise in morning
Maybe early exercise will burn it off ?
Alan 5 weeks gone

Hi Syb. That must have been disappointing for you given the effort you’re making. I can only talk about my own experience really.

I have now stopped taking metformin as part of my plan for Week 7. My FBG readings for the last two weeks (on half-dose) were 4 or 5. This week, three days into a zero dose, they are 5 or 6. I hope that they will settle down but if they creep back up I guess I’ll have to start back on the half dose, and under my DIY rules the trigger for that will be if I start getting readings in the 7s. I will find that disappointing but, hey, it’s not the end of the world and I went into this knowing that the BSD won’t reverse diabetes for everyone. I have at least lost over 2 stones and discovered a healthier way of living/eating. If it comes to it I’ll have to be be content with knowing that I’ve done everything I can to help myself and manage my condition.

You don’t say how far you’re into the BSD or how much weight you’ve managed to shed. If it is early days for you on the diet perhaps you should go cautiously on reducing metformin given your present FBG readings?

Steve, only week three and most of my sugars fasting and post meals in the 7s, which for me is amazing. I thought about it a lot and decided to halve my tablets. And so far my sugars are about the same. I know it’s only early but I needed the mental feeling I was getting somewhere. I’ll keep going on the diet and the half meds and when the sugars drop I’ll think about dropping more.

I halved my dose of Metformin in about week 7 (I’m on week 11 now). I now take 1000mg a day (2 tabs). I’ve accepted that in my case my readings will continue to be in the 7s. Today’s FBG was 8.8!!. One more stone to go to reach my ideal weight – maybe that might make a difference (lost 2 stones already).

Well done Leeanne – keep going.

I know that feeling Syb – after all, the whole point is to try to reduce or do without medication. So good for you! I was more cautious than you (but only a bit!) and cut my metformin in half at the end of week 4.

Leeanne: keep on truckin!! (Showing my advanced years lol).

Hi I am mewly Diabeticread my profile. I drink water when I am not thirsrty. I cutout soft drinks altogether including starchy foods.