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Hi all, I would like to ask your advice, sometimes I am really busy,and would like to try replacement shakes. I am T2 diabetic, and desperately trying to lose weight...is it possible to have these shakes? Also if so ,which one is suitable with my health problems. Plus it would be good to get all the vitamins etc, I need. I am having 800 - 1000 cals a day. What do you advise, many thanks in advance Sue x
Hi all, I would like to ask your advice, sometimes I am really busy,and would like to try replacement shakes. I am T2 diabetic, and desperately trying to lose weight...is it possible to have these shakes? Also if so ,which one is suitable with my health problems. Plus it would be good to get all the vitamins etc, I need. I am having 800 - 1000 cals a day. What do you advise, many thanks in advance Sue x
Hello Sunnyside
I lost 4st7lbs over a 13 week period, interrupted by Xmas between Oct 23 and Jan 24. Over the same period my HbA1c dropped from 88 to 37. I found it quick and easy to rely on 3 shakes or bars a day to give me all of the daily nutrition I needed and the only decisions I needed to make was to choose the flavours. I drank plenty of water (still and sparking) and black tea and I also had a plate of salad, non starchy veg or the veg as a soup once each day. The rapid weight loss was the motivation I needed to keep going, and the hope that it would pay off in terms of HbA1c, cholestorol and blood pressure all returning to normal levels - which they did. The shakes etc are not "low carb", but my daily fasting finger prick testing averaged 5.2 throughout the diet.
I used exante shakes but other posters on this site have said that Exante are selling off existing stock and then ceasing to trade. But I believe that there are plenty of alternatives. I plan to use shakes from time to time if i need to, to maintain my weight loss.
They worked for me, but can well understand that they don't suit everyone. I rarely felt hungry after the first 48 hrs or so and if I needed a shot of flavour I'd have a pickled onion or a can of Beef consomme soup and occasionally treat myself to an M&S Prawn and Pasta salad pot for one - the same calories as a shake. For me the diet was dull rather than difficult.
Hope this helps and all the best on your weight loss efforts.
Honestly, I could not be doing with the aggravation of shaking up powders.
I have an automatic grill which cooks things to a temperature, a slow cooker, a halogen oven, a microwave and an air fryer. Timers and temperature controls rule.
I do have a very large freezer as well, so I can just pull out a few packs and set things cooking, resulting in tasty meals and low glucose levels - the weightloss was something I never planned, it just happened.
I drink coffee with cream too.
It goes against all the accepted 'knowledge' on the Human diet, but I went from full on diabetes to normal numbers very quickly, I feel great and it was really no effort at all - and I have never counted calories since diagnosis.
Even my thyroid, which wasn't working for decades so I needed to take 200 micrograms of Thyroxine has risen from the dead and I now need another check as 125 micrograms is too high.
I do have to be strict about the carbs I eat - but it is just so easy to eat well year after year.
The first time I tried a shakes diet was in 1983 and psyched myself up and had the first one and within an hour I was violently sick, but though no I persevere and had the second one and same thing, my thought was Oh that's how it works then. Forget that.
I than tried the Cambridge Diet, soups which were OK, the 'sweet' shakes just tasted of chemicals and some bars and snacks which were OK but it was just sooooo boring. I only did it because someone I knew lost 6 stone, sadly when I saw him a few years later he had put it all back.
I can't say the idea appeals at all.
I use Tesco Slim shakes, vanilla, but I don't mix them up with milk. Instead I use 2/3 water and 1/3 unsweetened almond milk. That works out at 9.2gm carbs per shake. I leave them in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to thicken up. I have also tried Exante (now defunct), Slim Fast and Protein works, which are all much higher in carbs, and much more expensive per serving. These days I have 3 or 4 per week first thing, usually just before my exercise class, or if I am going out for a meal. I've never tried the 3 shakes per day plan, as I normally have home made soup or salad at lunch and an evening meal of 2/3 veggies and 1/3 protein with the occasional couple of new potatoes, or small slice of bread during the day.
Hello Sunnyside
I lost 4st7lbs over a 13 week period, interrupted by Xmas between Oct 23 and Jan 24. Over the same period my HbA1c dropped from 88 to 37. I found it quick and easy to rely on 3 shakes or bars a day to give me all of the daily nutrition I needed and the only decisions I needed to make was to choose the flavours. I drank plenty of water (still and sparking) and black tea and I also had a plate of salad, non starchy veg or the veg as a soup once each day. The rapid weight loss was the motivation I needed to keep going, and the hope that it would pay off in terms of HbA1c, cholestorol and blood pressure all returning to normal levels - which they did. The shakes etc are not "low carb", but my daily fasting finger prick testing averaged 5.2 throughout the diet.
I used exante shakes but other posters on this site have said that Exante are selling off existing stock and then ceasing to trade. But I believe that there are plenty of alternatives. I plan to use shakes from time to time if i need to, to maintain my weight loss.
They worked for me, but can well understand that they don't suit everyone. I rarely felt hungry after the first 48 hrs or so and if I needed a shot of flavour I'd have a pickled onion or a can of Beef consomme soup and occasionally treat myself to an M&S Prawn and Pasta salad pot for one - the same calories as a shake. For me the diet was dull rather than difficult.
Hope this helps and all the best on your weight loss efforts.
Those who maintained the full ≥10% loss at year 8, compared with those who regained above baseline, reported greater practice of several weight-maintenance behaviors, including high levels of physical activity, reduced calorie intake, and frequent monitoring of body weight. These behaviors have been identified in prior studies of successful weight loss maintainers.
"Reduced calorie intake" here is partly due to more frequent use of shakes, as is clear from the details of the paper.
And other studies have also shown that people generally find it easier to adhere to a shake-based routine than other forms of dieting.
So I think there is plenty of solid evidence that shakes can indeed be an appropriate tool for T2D's.
