Starting the Newcastle Diet...

[MrsWooster]

Started yesterday after breakfast at 105.2kg. I've got a hba1c test today to track it.
So far so Good! Im using exante products as meal replacement and the almond vanilla shake was ok- quite marzipan y. The veg stir fry mixed with the laksa soup mix would have been OK if I'd added a LOT more garlic, chili and ginger. This morning's cherry berry shake was properly nasty- like thick old skool cough mixture. Live and learn.
Any hot tips, companions, advice are welcome.
Wish me luck.

Hi
I've just found your thread. I've been toying with the idea of doing the Newcastle diet but am put off by the idea of 8 weeks of low calorie as we are quite social and would have a lot of events in an 8 week period which would make it a challenge. But maybe I'm looking fur excuses!

Has your HBA1C lowered significantly? I really struggle with keeping mine down but do not want to start taking meds. And my fasting level. In the morning is usually my highest reading of the day. I've read that the FBG reading drops really quickly on the Newcastle Diet.

My other concern is that I just wouldn't have the willpower to stick to it.

I am doing the Newcastle diet. I have been having shakes, but really strict otherwise, just 200g of vegetables a day. Yes it's tough, but I have lost almost 4 stones since the beginning of April. My HBA1c has gone down to normal levels and I have been taken off blood pressure medication, now my blood is so much healthier! It's tough, but at what price health? For tens of years I never thought about what I ate; this really re educates you. Try and watch a film called That Sugar Film. You will steer clear of sugar and junk foods forever. Good luck

Thank you Buxtonstill
Which Shakes are you using?
My concern is that I'm only slightly overweight (BMI of 25.1) and so the weight will be harder to shift than if I was larger. So 8 weeks of a very strict diet might be tougher? I don't know. I used to be heavier and it was really easy to lose weight. I work out a lot - usually 2 hours every night after work. Do you find you have enough energy on this diet to workout? I wouldn't want to give up my gum classes.

I'm using Optifast shakes; my GP prescribes them. They are the shakes that the doctors doing the Newcastle research used. They are virtually identical to most of the shakes available : lighter life, Slimfast, ASDA and Tesco own brand etc.
I need to ramp up my excercise. I currently do around 10,000 steps a day and 10 minutes on my vibra plate most nights, but I leave home at 7.30 am and return at 9.00 so it's suits the diet, but not much time for gym etc.my rota means I often have 3/4/5 days off at a time and try to do a cardio video from YouTube etc on those days.

I have stopped doing 3 shakes a day now, and having just 2, plus veg/salad and some form of protein as I still have quite a few stone to lose, and do have slip ups from time to time, but not on a regular basis.

My energy levels are fine and I sleep a lot better. I'm more inclined to move now I.e to go upstairs and fetch something rather than forget it!

You sound like you're doing brilliantly. And it's good to hear you've got lots of energy.

I don't think I'll go to the GP to discuss as I am very fit and well in myself. I do wonder if I could stick to it and then maintain afterwards, which is always the hard bit. It would be lovely to lose enough weight to bring my BMI down to about 20. If I lose 4 lbs I will be in the "normal" range for BMI but I really need to lose a lot more than that! Preferably about 2 stone. And the main aim of course would be getting my HBA1C down.

93.1kg
It's easier to drink more at work, though it can be a bit touch and go about making it to the end of a lesson... relatively healthy food choices tho my peanut butter nemesis is still stalking me, as is the get-in-from-school energy drop temptation towards toast. I am trying the liv life low carb bread: calories aren't much different, though it uses the old 70s Nimble trick of having small slices, but it is lower carb even than burgen, I think, which might help.

92.5kg
On a course so quite inactive but lots of coffee, apple, veg soup, banana, orange club biscuit then loads of cake when sister visited in the afternoon. I skipped tea as I was full of cake so overall an odd day but at least all the coffee helped Get Things Moving.

93.2kg
Lost a post yesterday. I was 91.5kg after the coffee continued to work its arcane magic. Obviously I couldn't see a positive progress without sabotaging it, so double weetabix supper and three waitrose mini mini rolls. Perhaps if I hit my head repeatedly against the wall I will use up a few extra calories.

Though actually, looking at it, I think it was 92.1kg.

93.0kg
Despite the peanut butter, it's bumbling along. Having a bigger breakfast suits me, meaning I am not hungry at lunchtime. An extra bit of toast and pb seems to fill me up beyond lunchtime. Mcd chicken wrap for tea, since I couldn't face the salad again; winter is going to be harder than summer... its 350 calories so not too bad. If it werent for the umpteen spoonfuls of peanut butter that I bore-ate during the evening, id be 8 stone.

93.6kg
Trouble is, at my size, a pound up or down, which would be cause for celebration or consternation in someone who is much smaller, is half of one percent of my body weight. Meh.

94.5kg
God knows where that came from. God and me, since I have eaten a jar of peanut butter in two days. Heresy or not, I am going to have to get a grip or stop buying it. Fuxache.

93.5kg
And that's after a further rise... have been as miserable as fuck today, however, so have eaten an elephant sandwiched between two horses. Now feel bloated and as miserable as fuck. And poor. Comfort eating is not all it is cracked up to be.

Do not buy peanut butter. It is thwarting you left right and centre.

93.1kg
Must have been diet elephant between low carb horses.

94.6kg
I've been slipping ... not recording the weight, which helps me avoid the denial, and Buxton you are right: the pb is my nemesis. Time to straighten up.

96.1kg
Dessertspooonfuls of PB: 0. Get in.
I did have cereal for pudding at teatime because I was greedy exhausted and two mugs of cocoa because I was greedy watching Bake Off pudding week but at least it was high fibre cereal and cocoa not hot chocolate. Glass half full or self delusion: you decide..

96.6kg
Arse
Only a rogue bowl of weetabix instead of healthy tea marred a perfect day, with lovely smoked mackerel salad lunch (leftover from Wednesday tea). Must be a poo thing, or rogue calories take a while to congeal into lard? Sometimes my scientific ignorance can take me aback.

At least you have ditched the PB! Google 'whoosh effect diet' apart from the obvious (such as if you have eaten 3 lbs of vegetables, you will weigh 3lb + plus necessary fluids to digest it) What you weigh in the morning is not a reflection of what you have eaten in the last 24 hours.

96.7kg
Interesting reading on the whoosh. The science does seem plausible, to my discerning scientific mind!! Yesterday I was virtue personified so I await the deluge.

I have been stuck on the same weight for five days, despite having swum 1/2 a mile each day, and had under 1000 cals and drunk 4 litres of water each day. Perhaps this is why a lot of people give up with diets, me included, when we don't see instant results...

94.3kg
I've been eating (relatively) well too buxton and upped the exercise ante, due to a new dog, but much the same. Huuuuuge plateau.

Miserable mind = tummy full of Cadburys Medley chocolate bar. Only £1 from local garage. Blood sugar spike and self loathing for a quid. Bargain.

But did you walk to/from garage to burn a few squares off?

did I hell, I drove.
I AM walking the new dog tho, so that's something...