Hi guys, I’m new to the forum/site today and will hopefully be reading a lot of your stories for inspiration and picking the brains of the old hands over the next few weeks.
I’m a type 2 diagnosed in January with blood sugars through the roof, at over 10% on my HbA1c. But since then I’ve already lost 44lbs with sensible eating and regular exercise and a 1600 calorie a day diet that I stick to religiously, resulting in my last HbA1c being a 6.2 which amazed my doctor in the 4 months.
So why am I here? I want to go faster and harder, lose the other 50lbs I need to get to my goal, get off the drugs and kick this disease into touch.
Anyway, that’s me and hello to all the people I will be chatting with.

Hi Moon and well done so far. There are quite a few of us who have managed to come off metformin, insulin and other drugs. Also lots of people who have been newly diagnosed with pre-diabetes or T2 have been saved from starting medication by following this way of eating.

I think most people will agree that the carbs are the most important factor in reversing T2. It’s possible to have a relatively low calorie diet but still be eating lots of carbs. Try using an app like Fatsecret or myfitnesspal to log all you eat and drink. If you haven’t been counting carbs you may be surprised at how high some foods are. Most people try to stay below 50g of carbs a day but for some, who are very insulin resistant, that figure needs to drop to 20g a day.

There are lots of good books, podcasts etc. and the Dietdoctor website has some great graphics showing low medium and high carb foods. Also there is lots of information on these threads try searching ‘take a look at this’ which lists all sorts of links.

Finally, well done, keep going it is possible to reverse your T2, just follow the plan!

Thanks for the warm welcome Verano. I use myFitnessPal to monitor my intake on a daily basis and have found it really useful syncing with their workout apps too. You are right about the difference between a low calorie and a low carb lifestyle, the low carb option I selected in the setup of MyFitnessPal has me at 45% carbs, or 170g a day in my case, so this is going to be something radically different for me.

I ordered Dr Mosleys’ 8-week diet book and the accompanying recipes yesterday, so I’m looking forward to the postman today to have a good read before I make a start on Monday with any luck. The book I have previously had good results with is Nichola Graimes “Big Book of Low Carb Recipes”, hopefully, this has put me on the right track in regard to correct food choices to give this diet a real good go.

I’ll have a good read through the threads you suggest today. Thanks again.

The 8 week Blood Sugar Diet book is really informative and enlightening. Just one word of warning about the recipes which are counted per serving and not per recipe, unfortunately many people have found inaccuracies in the calorie counts. Use the recipes with caution. Better still add them to your MFP to get a better calculation.

Hi Moon
Wow, what a fantastic result! Our stories are very similar in that my initial HbA1c last August was very high and had dropped significantly after 4 months so I know how thrilled you must be. But I did it on the BSD with all the support of the people on this Forum, including Verano. To do it on your own and get those weight loss as well as blood sugar results is just brilliant.

I’ve no doubt you’ll be just as successful on the BSD. Good luck going forward. I’ll look forward to hearing how you go on.

Marie

nb I’ve not heard of the book you mention but it sounds like you found it really useful. If you recommend it you could post about it on the Take a Look at This thread – as Verano says it’s where people post links and identify resources they’ve found helpful.

Thank you, I’ll do that with the book Marie as I have found the recipes very useful. I wish I had discovered this site earlier as to be drug-free is a primary goal for me.

Moon – My HbA1c on diagnosis was 11.8% and it dropped significantly in 4 months. It’s now 5.5% – and back in the normal range. My primary goal was to be drug-free and I am. (I was prescribed Metformin but didn’t actually take them as I decided to give the diet a go first – they’ve now been un-prescribed).

I’m writing this so you can see how similar our HbA1c pattern has been – I’ve no doubt you’ll reach your primary goal – and we’ll all be here celebrating with you when that happens.

I understand what you’re saying about finding this earlier, but remember you’ve done brilliantly without it!
Marie x

nb
Just for info I started straight away on <20g carbs. I did that because that was the number of carbs that I’d read people recommend on the diabetes.co.uk forum, where there are a lot of people doing low carb, as well as some people on here. You may not need to go that low, especially since you’ve done so well on your current level. Quite a few people start at <50g and drop down gradually if they need to.