can anyone please advise if they have had any medical tests done before they started 5:2 ? I am very keen to get some done to monitor the changes. Could you please recommend what you had done? Thanks
This topic contains 16 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by oldman 10 years, 3 months ago.
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I had my HbA1c done but I am diabetic. And yes, they improved greatly in just 3 months, due another check now.
Cholesterol went up but this was not surprising. The body uses these lipoproteins to move the fat around the body so it’s got to be up if you are burning fat, and I had mine done on a fast day.
End of January 2014 my HbA1c was 63 mmol/mol (8%) and end of April 48 mmol/mol (6.5%).
I have reduced the amount of refined carbohydrates in my diet like white flour and sugar but have not eliminated them completely, so I do have the odd white bread roll or ice cream. I found that after a few weeks on 5:2 I did not want as much carbs in the diet, my sweet tooth has definitely improved and I prefer more fruit, veg and protein.
@mrsmchall
I had done IGF-1, IGFBP3 and HbA1c.
@dummerchen: I have reduced my sugar and refined carb intake for about 2 years. As I like ‘counting’ I log my food. I try to stay below 30gr of sugar including all the hidden one and below 150gr carbs.
I have read both books from Jenny Ruhl, ‘Diet 101: The Truth About Low Carb Diets’ and ‘Blood Sugar 101: What They Don’t Tell You about Diabetes’. I am planning to add ‘her’ approach after getting my lab results after 2 month of 5:2.
Jenny advocates limiting carbs for the sake of keeping blood sugar readings, 1 hour post meal, below the healthy 140 limit.
KommissarBeck, you seem to have read about diabetes quite a bit already.
I have to admit that I do not count calories or macros on my non-fast days. But I am not that concerned about the overall carb content as long as I keep my consumption of refined carbs low; by that I mean flour (in particular white) and sugar.
As you know, Fructose does not cause insulin levels to rise but on its own increases the insulin resistance in the liver due to the way it is metabolised. It also does not affect the “blood sugar readings”, the only blood sugar tested is glucose. The response to fructose is not a problem when fructose comes in its natural packaging because the fibre in fruit and veg seems to counteract this effect on insulin resistance. Therefore I try and avoid fructose without fibre, like sweets, low fat foods, but also fruit juices. I have not cut it out completely because sometimes a dollop of ketchup is just required.
If I sweeten anything I just go for sugar. The “healthy” alternatives for sugar and HFCS are just the same in an expensive package; honey, maple syrup and agave syrup are just high fructose syrups when you look at their composition. Instead I simply use less sugar which is mainly a question of habit: I used to have several teaspoons of sugar in my coffee, now I have it white, no sugar.
My next testing is due in the next couple of weeks and I am keen to see how things have developed. In addition to avoiding refined carbs and upping my protein and fat intake, I have lost of 10 kg since January which should have had an effect on my insulin sensitivity as well.
For the chuckles: when I saw my diabetic nurse in January before starting 5:2 she had heard of it as one of the GPs at the surgery had lost quite a bit of weight with it. But it was not used for diabetes and she had no idea how it would effect it. However, she thought that there might be some merit to my idea that not eating for longer periods might break the vicious cycle of insulin release and increasing insulin resistance.
In April she was very keen to report that the local dietitians had not only started to use the protocol from Newcastle University (800 kcal daily with Optifast) but were also putting suitable patients on 5:2 style diets. Looks like I was not far off with my idea and a look around the internet now confirms it.
If you read my posts from the past, you can follow the remarkable story of my OH getting off daily doses of insulin completely and now after 18 months, concerted effort, self managing testing, recording and reducing his insulin, losing 31kg….he is now 68kg…he still finds if he fasts twice weekly his blood sugar results are low and stable. He is proof 5:2 can reverse type 2 diabetes. PVE
Dummerchen
He is a bit of a horror. I have always had to keep an eye on his food choices, but since 5:2 he even admits it seems to have reset his metabolism. He doesn’t snack on anything other than the occassional handful of nuts. He doesn’t count calories but we both eat much smaller portions. He still buys his lunch near the office but I believe it is say a small taco or chinese food, leaving the rice. He thinks about when he is really hungry rather than eating because it is “mealtime”.
He no longer craves sugary food and enjoys a few berries and Greek yoghurt as desert…used to LOVE eating a big desert.
He drinks a glass (sometimes 2) of wine on non fast days but has given up beer and cider as they muck up the bs.
At my insistence, he includes many more veg in every meal and eats a lot of fish. He eats only 100gm max of meat in a meal. Often a lot less. And he never has sugary drinks. Lots of water and whole pieces of fruit (never juice). We have cut right back on all refined carbs.
Hope that helps . PVE
Thanks, PVE.
What you are describing matches what I have noticed on myself and a couple of others told me as well: the appetite and eating habits change with the fasting. Not immediately, but somehow the sweet tooth lessens and you gravitate towards more healthy natural foods.
I have to wonder if people like Drs Ludwig and Lustig from Boston are spot on when they blame processed foods and in particular fructose as a major factor in the development of obesity and diabetes.
@dummerchen
My GP told me that my BP is on the higher end of the scale some 2 years ago. That’s when I started to read/watch almost everything which I could find online about how to tackle that problem without medication. It included nutrition, sport, DASH diet, caloric restriction, insulin levels and blood sugar control you name it. For me it was really interesting and amazing while digesting all that stuff to understand how nicely the human body is doing its work if one allows it by e.g. eating the right things and the right amount.
Congratulations for the 10 kg you have lost. I guess this is something which keeps you motivated beside the beautiful HbA1c result.
I assume that blood sugar control depends on reducing refined carbs and eating according to the 5:2 4:3 or even ADF protocol. I am curious which one would make the bigger difference.
Hi everyone,
I’m just worried about being pre-diabetic but I’m getting contradictory results.
The HbA1c is 38 mmol/mol, which is JUST OK. However, my fasting blood glucose is always high at 6.3 mmol/L. A glucose tolerance test also showed poor glucose control (pre-diabetic) but a random blood glucose showed 4.9 mmol/L which is OK.
Can anyone tell me what is going on? I’m not overweight or unfit: BMI 22, waist/height 0.46 etc. Since you people are all into medical tests you might know.
Fasting glucose ” a tad high” is also typical for insulin resistance. And you can have a normal BMI and still have insulin resistance.
HbA1c is normal 38 is not “just ok” but perfectly normal. A fasting glucose of 6.3 and an abnormal OGTT indicate some problem, but it is impossible to say what exactly.
In theory you could have insulin levels and insulin resistance tested but you would have to check with your health insurance if they cover those tests.
Apart from that there is nothing you can do at present other than trying to eat healthy and exercise to keep your body healthy. Have your tests repeated in a few months to see what is going on.
@oldman: Best thing you can do is becoming knowledgeable. Either absorb over a longer period of time everything you could get about diabetes in books/blogs/forums/youtubes or you could simply take the shortcut reading the book from Jenny Ruhl I mentioned earlier in the thread.
Vielen Dank! I have got the Kindle version of Jenny Ruhl’s book and will look into the matter more deeply. My GP is also confused by my test results, so I need to provide some assistance. At my age (69) I need to be more careful. I already exercise regularly but HIT might be useful for this problem. So I will try that too.
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