Fighting back against diabetes

Well I said yesterday that I'd write about my very low calorie diet (VCLD) journey, so here it is.  You might be asking what is a very low calorie diet?  Well, it's one of those shake and bar diets that gives you all your daily nutrients, but where you don't eat 'proper' food.  I have been a real sceptic about such diets in the past, they are not 'real' are they and you are bound to put all of the weight back on the minute you go back to eating normal food.

What changed, well I'm diabetic (type 2) and my last check up didn't go well.  My HbA1c had gone up from 7.9% to 9.7%.  I knew why, I was eating all the wrong food and my carb addiction was out of control.  So, I was prescribed more medication and insulin was mentioned.  Metformin doesn't agree with me and I didn't want to take more pills but the status quo clearly wasn't an option.  Not if I want to avoid diabetic complications in the future.

Looking about for alternatives, I found the Newcastle Diet and while the patients in the study had all been diagnosed in the last 4 years and I've been diabetic for a decade I figured that if nothing else at least I'd lose some weight.  There are lots of different shakes out there, but I decided to go with Exante and their Total Solution VLCD.  Their shakes are nice and the bars are convenient for work.

Well, I hear you say, how's it going.  OK, 7 weeks after I started I'm still taking the shakes/bars with only a couple of slips to celebrate family birthdays etc.  I've lost 27 lbs and my BMI has reduced by 4 and best of all my diabetes control is much improved.  My daily blood sugar tests are typically in the 5-6 range, as you can see from this chart.

Some think that this type of diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, but I don't think that's the case with me.  If I have carbs my blood sugar level goes up as a diabetic's would.  I'm still diabetic and I still have to avoid the bakery section in a supermarket!  But, my diabetes is currently well controlled.  I'll find out how well when I get my HbA1c done again in October.  Until then I'm going to keep going.  I'll let you know what happens.