I retired early @ 58 Because I developed severe sleep apnea stopping breathing for 10 seconds 80 times per hour, developed type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure& high cholesterol, giving a poor quality of life. I became fed up of doctors just giving me pills for each ailment and having to get used to sleeping in a deep sea diving mask with air supply. Very romantic.
I found that Newcastle university professor Taylor was trialing a low calorie protocol to reverse type two diabetes. They kindly helped me set up my own independent programme of 800cal/day 3 slimfast shakes, a pound of vegetables and 3l of water. After 8 weeks I had lost 6.5” off my waist, 2.5” off my neck reversed the diabetes, stopped using the apnea machine, low cholesterol and full of energy having lost 30lbs. I got out of the obese Bmi zone. I have kept this off until lockdown when I put on a stone. I used Huel in stead of Slimfast’s with the veg and lost the weight in 4 weeks. Huel made me feel fuller than the Slimfast’s for same calories.
Still not a diabetic or suffer from apnea after 3 years blood test results just came in. Hurray.
I intend to us huel in a 5:2 Diet to loose another stone to Drop my Bmi to 27 by Christmas as low Bmi seems to give you a better chance of surviving COVID! And down to 24 by a 4 week fast over January to hit best weight range.
Fair play to you. It’s mad that the NHS throws money at Big Pharma instead of getting patients to stop poor eating habits, which is free. It’s also sad that us humans have evolved to the point where we will voluntarily eat ourselves all the way to ill health. Is this the pinnacle of human achievement? We need something better to show the aliens.
Yep I got angry at the doctors and myself. I have coached several friends and neighbours in doing the same. The biggest trick is keeping on top of it. You can’t exercise your way out of it, hence all the large joggers I see around, it’s the simple attention to what you shovel in. You have to run a long way too loose a pound of fat calories at 3500cals. Exercise is much easier and enjoyable now at a lower weight. I don’t get why healthy nutrition and appreciation of what calories your body needs isn’t part of main stream science education at school. Simple stuff! And hard to recover from years of letting things slip in busy lives. Also you get very down which makes the effort even more challenging.
This might sound a little mean but I’d refrain from giving out advice. You had Professor Taylor helping you out and there are Registered Nutritionists and Dietitans who can help too!
Totally get where you’re coming from but the NHS have a section on very low calorie diets (what Mark used) and it’s being used in practice (source and source.
Totally agree! It got taken out of the curriculum a few years ago, which I think is a huge mistake.
The local hospital specialist weight management department use me to give practical advice to patients encouraged to use the low calorie approach - importance of 2-3 litres of water for ketosis reaction and stop constipation, keeping count of fluid intake important, not eating for 12 to 14 hours makes diet more effective, calorie data sources, how often to get weighed etc nothing medical or outside of agreed limits with doctors. Also the Newcastle uni web site has a standard letter to take to your JP for discussion prior to starting following protocol as well as good explanation and advice on the protocol. I concentrated on my personal experience.
Congratulations Mark! I am doing the same as you, having read about Professor Taylor’s approach. I have lost about 10lbs of the 40-ish I need to, having only Huel and fasting between about half six in the evening and 11.30-ish the next morning. I was amazed how much more energy I had and felt a lot better in many ways. However, I have been having some digestive issues which, having read your post, I am sure are related to not drinking enough water. I will really try to up that from today to get everything moving again!
Hi well done! I would strongly recommend reading the Newcastle University trial protocol on their website and taking a copy of the letter on the web site to your JP and getting checked out and their ok to continue just in case there are other issues causing your digestion issues.
In my experience Water seems to be essential as When the body consuming fat rather than glucose it needs more water hence the potential for constipation etc if it does not get enough. A word of caution I got into drinking more than 3l and gulping down a litre at a time as it helped with any hunger pangs And urges to nibble but I ended up with low Sodium levels. Not to a serious level but one to watch out for. Also Taylor recommended 3 slimfasts total 600cal and 200 cal vegetables which may be a better way for the digestion. I had soup and roasted. I now have 1.5 bottles of huel instead of the 3 slimfast and veg making up the rest. Huel makes me feel fuller.
Good luck and isn’t it great too have more energy but please talk to your GP
Thanks Mark for all your support! Digestive issues are long-standing and are, I’m sure, down to insufficient water and a change of diet. I can’t chug down that much water at once so hopefully no danger of me getting the same issue as you. Last year I took part in a medical study looking at the effect of gut microbiome on our general health and got some fascinating insights about what my gut likes and doesn’t. As a result I now take a probiotic every day which I’m sure helps. I’d recommend the book written by the Professor in charge of that study as being of great interest about nutrition generally - it’s called The Diet Myth by Prof Tim Spector. It was from him originally that I found out about the overnight fasting thing and I found it made a huge difference to me.
Nice one! I also eat in an 8 hour windows as you say as most of the perseverance wisdom seems to say this is not effective has the body has no choice but to go after fat for a longer run.
Great to find a fellow avid researcher helping themselves solve a problem with the science
Keep it going. Taylor has also produced a book Which includes recipes but I find the drinks and veg much easier to keep on the straight and narrow
Best of luck Mark
Hi I also take bimuno prebiotic with my water and every other day swap out 200cal of huel for 250ml of kefir probiotic in the last week of fasting to get my gut fired up for normal food
Cheers Mark