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Newcastle Diet - Lets Go!!!

Weekender said:
No alcohol or refined carbs for 34 days. The first two weeks I had a serious attempt at less than 1200 calories (soups + salads), then had a go at healthy eating + exercise. This didn't really work out as exercise resulted in compensatory eating and I was kicked out of keto / gluconeogenesis.

Fasting bloods were back to being high on week 3, so I used a bit more will power on time restricted eating - nothing between 7pm and 1pm to no effect. Horrible 'flu started in week 5 (ongoing) and fasting became less of a priority.

Fasting bloods depressingly high week 5 and 6 despite weight reducing. I have now stopped measurement first thing in the morning when I was getting 7.3 - 7.5. I now wait till before I eat at lunch time when I get 5.3 - 5.4

So I have concluded neither 'a few weeks fasting to reset' or calorie restriction / time restricted eating worked on blood sugars. Next week I have 10 hours travel to and from my new job, so I'll put the thing on hold. Hopefully I won't resume drinking alcohol though, so some success

Weight Kg

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Fasting Bloods
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Those readings are all pretty well the same as they are within the permitted accuracy of blood glucose monitors. Many find they suffer from morning readings being higher than the rest of the day for before meal readings as the liver releases glucose in the absence of food to give you energy for the your organs to function.
 
Week 8 Update
  • Lost 3.4 lbs
  • Total weight lost is 29.3 lbs
  • BMI down to 21.4
  • Average fasting level - 5.1 (range of 4.8 to 5.4)
Another good week, fasting levels seem to have settled down, 3 of the last 4 weeks have been 5.1. Weirdly I didn't feel that excited to be able to add in an evening meal, think it's been so long that I've just adapted to this diet and got used to not having to prepare any food.

I'm traveling all next week so decided to extend the diet and having my first evening meal tonight (day 5 of this week) as I'm not taking any shakes with me and will just have to eat smaller amounts (will take some snack bars I got from Keediet with the shakes) but it's going to be difficult to manage. Also got to manage food on a 12 hour flight somehow so I expect to slip a little.

Overall feeling great, slimmed down, sleeping better and really happy I went on it as soon as I could. Weirdly I've started feeling really hungry in the later afternoons this week, I think mentally I had getting through to 8 weeks in my head and now I'm past it my body wants some proper food. Going to start with simple meals so going to with fish and veg tonight and I'll start cooking proper meals when I'm back.
 
CurlyWurly said:
Week 8 Update
  • Lost 3.4 lbs
  • Total weight lost is 29.3 lbs
  • BMI down to 21.4
  • Average fasting level - 5.1 (range of 4.8 to 5.4)
Another good week, fasting levels seem to have settled down, 3 of the last 4 weeks have been 5.1. Weirdly I didn't feel that excited to be able to add in an evening meal, think it's been so long that I've just adapted to this diet and got used to not having to prepare any food.

I'm traveling all next week so decided to extend the diet and having my first evening meal tonight (day 5 of this week) as I'm not taking any shakes with me and will just have to eat smaller amounts (will take some snack bars I got from Keediet with the shakes) but it's going to be difficult to manage. Also got to manage food on a 12 hour flight somehow so I expect to slip a little.

Overall feeling great, slimmed down, sleeping better and really happy I went on it as soon as I could. Weirdly I've started feeling really hungry in the later afternoons this week, I think mentally I had getting through to 8 weeks in my head and now I'm past it my body wants some proper food. Going to start with simple meals so going to with fish and veg tonight and I'll start cooking proper meals when I'm back.
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Hey, I'm on week 2 of the diet. So encouraging to see that your fasting level is so low! Gives me a little extra motiviation to power thru this. Unfortunately I'm also a much, much higher BMI than you so its gonna be a longer journey for me.
 
Trenton Tony said:
Hey, I'm on week 2 of the diet. So encouraging to see that your fasting level is so low! Gives me a little extra motiviation to power thru this. Unfortunately I'm also a much, much higher BMI than you so its gonna be a longer journey for me.
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Good luck with it, how are you finding it so far? I don't think your BMI matters so much, lots of people have reported good results using it so fingers crossed it works for you.
 
Week 9 Update
  • Lost 0.3 lbs
  • Total weight lost is 29.6 lbs
  • BMI stayed at 21.4
  • Average fasting level - 5 (range of 4.7 to 5.2)
Another good week, carried on with 3 shakes a day for 4 days as I've been away this week then had some simple evening meals like fish, chicken etc. I did have 1 reading of 5.8 which I didn't include as I'd spend half the night awake with the kids so don't think it was a true level but would still have left the average as 5.1.

I think the readings for this week where I've been away will be more interesting as I didn't have any shakes for 5 days.
 
Week 10 Update
  • Lost 0.2 lbs
  • Total weight lost is 29.8 lbs
  • BMI went down 0.1 to 21.3
  • Average fasting level - 4.8 (range of 4.4 to 5.2)
Really happy with this week, was away for 5 days including two 11 hour flights and actually had my lowest weekly fasting average. Didn't have a single shake for 5 days but tried to be conservative on what I ate and managed to survive without any alcohol and just drank diet coke/coke zero instead. Steps averaged the same but were skewed by 2 really big days. Was nice to eat some proper food, generally just avoided carbs where possible but had a few bites here and there. Very hard to avoid on a long distance flight, feels strange compared to before when I would have eaten it all without even thinking about it.

Going to stick with 2 shakes for the next 2-3 days to balance out last week then increase it to 2 meals a day but looking forward to finishing up now.
 
Great stuff @CurlyWurly

Sounds like you are nearing the point where you can think about transitioning back to reintroducing real foods, and developing a new longer term way of eating that can maintain the amazing progress you have made <3
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Great stuff @CurlyWurly

Sounds like you are nearing the point where you can think about transitioning back to reintroducing real foods, and developing a new longer term way of eating that can maintain the amazing progress you have made <3
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Thanks, yeah I should be on 1 shake and 2 meals a day starting today but got a few surplus shakes to use up. Despite reading up on food for the last few weeks actually feels a bit nerve racking to move on to normal meals, nice and simple when it's just the shakes.

Probably just be eating meat and fish with veg for a bit and experiment with a few options and see how I react.

Just came across this bakery which does low carb sourdough (https://lowcarbsourdough.co.uk/), the company behind it are quite large and supply to others in the catering industry. They said they're starting to see demand for it (https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/ma...nches-low-carb-sourdough-range/699123.article) so hopefully we'll see that expand a bit more into other products. I love sourdough so this looks great for me, will order in a couple of weeks and report back.
 
Week 11 Update
  • Lost 4.1 lbs
  • Total weight lost is 33.9 lbs
  • BMI went down 0.6 to 20.7
  • Average fasting level - 4.9 (range of 4.5 to 5.2)
Weight loss picked up again this week after staying constant the last 2 weeks. Had 2 shakes a day just to use them up, now down to the final 7 shakes plus got 3 meal bars. I love boxing and never dreamed I could be at light welterweight, I was staggered when I got to 150 let alone 140. Also means I reached the 15KG suggested by Professor Taylor.

Ended up buying some ready cooked rotisserie chicken from the supermarket and had wraps 3 days running for tea. Found some at Tesco that are only 3.7 grams of carbs (https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/308478994), they taste a little cardboardy but once you fill them up they're fine.

Constipation is still unreal, went 4-5 days without going and had to use some microlax and spent most of the day in the bathroom but still doesn't feel great. Hoping going to 1 shake a day will help and drinking a lot more water and trying to get more veg in. I think I must have been really dehydrated which accounted for the weight loss so back on the Fybogel for the final week.

Starting to think more about meals going forwards, ordered some low carb sourdough and porridge and also got a load of low carb pasta in. Looking forward to finishing up now, it's my wife's birthday this week so going for a proper breakfast at the weekend. Probably have some carbs but little treat after 12 weeks is much needed.
 
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So nice to be able to eat some normal food, when I was just having the evening meal I couldn't be bothered to order much in or cook too much but now it's 2 meals re-discovering how nice it is to cook again. Mostly been having meat salads and trying out some different carb breads. Looking forward to getting breakfast back on the menu next week.
 
Week 12 Update - All Done
  • Lost 0.8 lbs
  • Total weight lost is 34.7 lbs
  • BMI went down 0.1 to 20.6
  • Average fasting level - 5 (range of 4.7 to 5.4)
And like that it was over, 12 weeks complete. Thought I'd put on some weight as been trying to drink a lot more water to help with the constipation and definitely felt a bit flabbier round the middle so very happy with the week and final result. Had 1 shake left over so had that on Monday and now trying to sort out some proper food and get into a good routine and hopefully get my digestion back to normal now. I realise looking back that I must have been quite dehydrated but feeling a lot better now.

Got some keto granola and porridge in so going to start on that tomorrow, aiming to have a nice quiet month and just enjoy being able to eat a bit more calories wise. Even though I didn't feel hungry on the shakes it's nice to at least sit down with the family and enjoy mealtimes again.

Got my HBA1C booked in for 2 weeks time, really curious to see the results of it.

Will do a final summary post soon with all the stats.
 
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