Live data from Hacker News

Type 2 diabetes: NHS to offer 800-calorie diet treatment

bbc.com

11–20 of 208 posts

Re: Type 2 diabetes: NHS to offer 800-calorie diet treatment

#11
post #3

Losing a lot of weight with very low calorie diets is hard, but not regaining it over the next couple of years is next to impossible. Your body will try all the tricks in the book, it will reduce your metabolism to way below that of the person of the same weight, it will amp up your hunger hormones so much that you will think and dream about food 24/7. Only 5 to 7% of people that lose a large amount weight are able t…

Type II diabetes is a diet-related illness. If you cure the illness with diet, then switch back to what you were eating before - of course, diabetes will come back. These dietary changes need to be seen as new habits, not temporary changes.

Exactly this. My A1C went from 8, to 4.9. My blood sugar rarely goes out of wack, even when abused.

I eat low carb, and fast intermittently. It's my life-style now.

After eating a while for an extended period of time, my blood sugar is much more stable, regardless what I eat.

Re: Type 2 diabetes: NHS to offer 800-calorie diet treatment

#12
post #3

Losing a lot of weight with very low calorie diets is hard, but not regaining it over the next couple of years is next to impossible. Your body will try all the tricks in the book, it will reduce your metabolism to way below that of the person of the same weight, it will amp up your hunger hormones so much that you will think and dream about food 24/7. Only 5 to 7% of people that lose a large amount weight are able t…

And that's why weight loss techniques need to be treated like a new lifestyle, instead of a goal you hit and then finish. I lost 60 lbs a couple of years ago and found that 20 of those had recently crept back on, so I went on another shorter diet to get myself back on track. It's totally doable. You have to be aware and keep correcting.

> And that's why weight loss techniques need to be treated like a new lifestyle, instead of a goal you hit and then finish. I lost 60 lbs a couple of years ago ...

Firstly, fantastic achievement. I'm curious as to what motivated you enough to put in the effort (I'm assuming it required effort).

Secondly, I wonder if the speed/drastic nature of the weight-loss can be counter-productive. When you think about people don't become over-weight overnight. Perhaps a more gradual pace with some time for settling at various stages of the process...I'm thinking losing weight over a couple of years as opposed to over a couple of months.

Re: Type 2 diabetes: NHS to offer 800-calorie diet treatment

#13

Calories are not the core problem - carbohydrates are. The research from VirtaHealth.com makes this clear. They are getting T2 diabetics off of insulin within a week, while still giving patients the satiety they want from meals.

Heh. Whole company launched based on single study with short duration, no control group and big drop-out rate.

But when you add long list of citations for medical literature it looks valid. Even when those studies don't directly validate your approach. People don't look at what the studies actually say.

Re: Type 2 diabetes: NHS to offer 800-calorie diet treatment

#14

Calories are not the core problem - carbohydrates are. The research from VirtaHealth.com makes this clear. They are getting T2 diabetics off of insulin within a week, while still giving patients the satiety they want from meals.

Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. McDoughall are my heros. Carbs and starch are not the problem, animal fats and proteins are. Whole food plant based diet are the best

Re: Type 2 diabetes: NHS to offer 800-calorie diet treatment

#15
post #3

Losing a lot of weight with very low calorie diets is hard, but not regaining it over the next couple of years is next to impossible. Your body will try all the tricks in the book, it will reduce your metabolism to way below that of the person of the same weight, it will amp up your hunger hormones so much that you will think and dream about food 24/7. Only 5 to 7% of people that lose a large amount weight are able t…

This new diet is specifically tailored to avoid this yoyo effect. It’s currently not yet clear whether this is indeed the case (hence this expanded epidemiological study) but preliminary results indicate that this is indeed the case.

In other words, this specific diet (severely limited calories as well as restriction of food to almost completely liquids) reportedly helps sustaining the weight loss long-term (and is allegedly effective for around 50% of patients).

Re: Type 2 diabetes: NHS to offer 800-calorie diet treatment

#17
post #9
post #3

Losing a lot of weight with very low calorie diets is hard, but not regaining it over the next couple of years is next to impossible. Your body will try all the tricks in the book, it will reduce your metabolism to way below that of the person of the same weight, it will amp up your hunger hormones so much that you will think and dream about food 24/7. Only 5 to 7% of people that lose a large amount weight are able t…

I lost 40 pounds in 3 months, then another 20 in 3 months. I've kept the weight off for another year. I still eat healthy and in moderation (and occasionally fast). I avoid sugars and high-carb foods and my body has been hovering at the same weight. Maybe, for some people, it's harder to keep the weight off (assuming diet is the same)? Or, maybe some people don't have the mental will-power to stay on the diet that lo…

Superb. Clearly in your case you summoned the necessary will to lose all that weight. But I think another important factor is that you established a new lifestyle/better eating habits.

Re: Type 2 diabetes: NHS to offer 800-calorie diet treatment

#18
post #3

Losing a lot of weight with very low calorie diets is hard, but not regaining it over the next couple of years is next to impossible. Your body will try all the tricks in the book, it will reduce your metabolism to way below that of the person of the same weight, it will amp up your hunger hormones so much that you will think and dream about food 24/7. Only 5 to 7% of people that lose a large amount weight are able t…

And that's why weight loss techniques need to be treated like a new lifestyle, instead of a goal you hit and then finish. I lost 60 lbs a couple of years ago and found that 20 of those had recently crept back on, so I went on another shorter diet to get myself back on track. It's totally doable. You have to be aware and keep correcting.

Garry's blog post about this was particularly insightful.[0] He shares a graph of his progress and how it goes both forwards and backwards, as well as the things he's learned along the way.

0: https://garry.tv/2018/10/17/fatty/

Re: Type 2 diabetes: NHS to offer 800-calorie diet treatment

#19

Makes sense, it is a diet related illness, so it should have a diet related treatment. Instead of treating the symptoms, treat the cause.

> Makes sense, it is a diet related illness, so it should have a diet related treatment. Instead of treating the symptoms, treat the cause.

If everyone starts that doing we're going to put the pharmaceuticals out of business. There'd be riots!

Re: Type 2 diabetes: NHS to offer 800-calorie diet treatment

#20

Makes sense, it is a diet related illness, so it should have a diet related treatment. Instead of treating the symptoms, treat the cause.

> Makes sense, it is a diet related illness, so it should have a diet related treatment. Instead of treating the symptoms, treat the cause.

Type 2 diabetes isn't caused by diet. Certain diets can increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, but it's not a foregone conclusion, and it's not uncommon to develop Type 2 diabetes despite an otherwise healthy diet.

Post reply on HN