How to Reverse Type II Diabetes / Dr. Jason Fung

originally posted by: Alien Abduct
a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks
What is his solution to excessive insulin hormone?

IF (intermittent fasting) is the solution.

Here is how it works...

Every time you eat anything with any calories in it, your blood insulin spikes.

What causes insulin resistance is persistently elevated blood insulin levels.

What cause persistent blood insulin levels is... eating all the time.

Stop snacking. Don't eat at least 3-4 hours before bed. Don't eat immediately upon arising.

originally posted by: putnam6
Thanks, I will, I've done 2-3 fasts in the past and have heard the benefits of intermittent fasting.

Fasting has different meanings to different people.

With IF, the main thing is, no calories... so black coffee, some teas, etc are ok (obviously no sweeteners, even artificial ones, they are bad, bad, but that is a whole nother topic.)

Also, there are some tricks you can use to get past plateaus (I had to do this to break through the 190lb mark) - a short, 48 hour or 72 hour fast will bust through any weight loss plateau you may encounter. I've got a lot of experience fasting so I'm not afraid of them, so it was easy for me, but it can be daunting for some. Just relax and understand you aren't going to die if you go without any food for a few days. I've done 4 or 5 of the 'Master Cleanse' 11 day 'lemon water' fasts, and my longest was a 33 day water only fast.

Glad you're making progress, but I wanted to point one thing out...

1. Calorie counting and exercise are totally useless for permanent healthy weight loss.

Completely... useless...

Some exercise is extremely beneficial for fitness, but it will never, ever work for permanent weight loss.

2. As for lowering calories - that will actually backfire on you.

The reason for the two points above is quite simple - your body, your metabolsim, is smart.

a) 95+% of the calories you burn in a day are burned via your basal metabolic rate.

b) Reducing calories causes your basal metabolic rate to slow down - it is your body's intelligent response to what it perceives as a potential problem - your getting fewer calories in, so it adjusts the number of calories it burns to compensate.

Just don't do it.

originally posted by: Hundroid
a reply to: Mantiss2021

I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes on february 2021. Both my daily and 1AC sugar levels were skyrocketing, way too high. It was like the world collapsing on me, I was kind of desperate and helpless. But on that same day I decided it was time to change my eating patterns and habits. I decided to do some cardio activities, too. Since then, I stopped eating white bread and pasta (I am italian, it's a HUGE sacrifice lol) and thanks to a food app I learned to check what I eat and keep the amount of calories under control. Every evening I do 60 min on my 'home trainer' (a cardio bike) and 2 times a week have long walks (at least 2 hours). Now it's july and I am 12 kg lighter but more important my sugar levels are back to normal (also the 1AC) and my doc consequently reduced the amount of daily metformin (from 2 pills to one. She told me that if the sugar levels will be that good in october I can totally stop with metformin and declare that I no longer have T2 diabetes. That would be great, so I wll go on with my new and healthier lifestyle and I believe I will stick to that for all my remaining years, with the help of God. I want to loose more kg and go back to the weight I had when I was 20. The cardio activities also improved my blood pressure (i had 170/120 last february, now it's stabilized on 140/90) and my asthma got much better.

I hope my experience will be of some help. Stop eating snacks and sweets, cook not-processed, fresh food by yourself, reduce dairy, have meals 3 times a day (absolutely do not eat anything in the night!!) and make daily cardio activities. This worked with me and probably it will with you. I feel so much better now, full of energy, and I am no longer ashamed of myself when I look to the mirror.

The key is: loose weight, at least 10% of your body mass, to have a good chance to bring your sugar back to normal.

Peace

a reply to: tanstaafl

Does anyone want to know what a low carb, high fat diet is comprised of?

originally posted by: TiredofControlFreaks
a reply to: tanstaafl

Does anyone want to know what a low carb, high fat diet is comprised of?

Well, there there is no 'one' high fat low carb diet, there are a tremendous number of different versions.

That said, I'm happy to hear your version, and compare it to mine and others...

Fire away!

a reply to: tanstaafl

The first thing that has to happen:

No Bread (meaning no grains period. No flour, no cereal, no oatmeal, no muffins, no crackers etc)
No Potatoes (meaning no or very limited vegetables that grow underground, also no squashes, pumpkins are starch veggies)
No Rice (fits in with no grains)
No Pasta (fits in with no flour)

Vegetables you can have: those that grow above ground and are low starchy. Includes peppers, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, zuchini, eggplant (eat your fill of this kind of veggie)

Proteins you can have: all meats, eggs, tofu, fish and beans (not the kind in the can that has sugar)
Try to eat only moderate protein. Don't go overboard

Health Fats you can eat: Avocado oil, olive oil, nuts and seed, nut butters, animal fats (butter, lards). Stay away from plant based oils. They are chemically processed.

Fruits: Now you must consider restricting your fruit intake to 2 or 3 servings per day because all fruits naturally contain fructose. Restrict yourself to berries, apples and pears only and check serving sizes for each.

Dairy: You must also restrict dairy because it naturally contains lactose. You can have cottage cheese, cheese, greek yogurt and kefir. I make my own kefir because honestly commercial brands are essentially candy.

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks
My dietitians say to picture a plate...1/4 protein, 1/4 carbs and 1/2 vegetable. As a burger and fries kinda guy that makes me sad, but there's pasta from chickpeas or beans that helps. Ozempic seems an interesting way of balancing insulin.

originally posted by: TiredofControlFreaks
a reply to: tanstaafl
The first thing that has to happen:

No Bread (meaning no grains period. No flour, no cereal, no oatmeal, no muffins, no crackers etc)
No Potatoes (meaning no or very limited vegetables that grow underground, also no squashes, pumpkins are starch veggies)
No Rice (fits in with no grains)
No Pasta (fits in with no flour)

You left a biggie out, probably because it is so obvious:

No Sugar (meaning, no added sugar, no soft drinks/sodas, ice cream, etc)

Vegetables you can have: those that grow above ground and are low starchy. Includes peppers, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, zuchini, eggplant (eat your fill of this kind of veggie)

Proteins you can have: all meats, eggs, tofu, fish and beans (not the kind in the can that has sugar)
Try to eat only moderate protein. Don't go overboard

Mostly agree, although I occasionally eat high protein too. The jury is still out on the carnivore diet.

Health Fats you can eat: Avocado oil, olive oil, nuts and seed, nut butters, animal fats (butter, lards). Stay away from plant based oils. They are chemically processed.

Agreed, except I'd put the high quality animal fats first as most important. Fatty meats, brains, suet, and definitely lard, butter, and ghee.

Fruits: Now you must consider restricting your fruit intake to 2 or 3 servings per day because all fruits naturally contain fructose. Restrict yourself to berries, apples and pears only and check serving sizes for each.

You forgot lemon, which is I think the healthiest and most important fruit of all. Fasting on lemon water is amazing.

Dairy: You must also restrict dairy because it naturally contains lactose. You can have cottage cheese, cheese, greek yogurt and kefir. I make my own kefir because honestly commercial brands are essentially candy.

No question there.

Also, fermented vegetables (sauerkraut, etc) are amazing if done right and still raw/unpasteurized.

And the most amazing drink I have ever drunk (drank? drinked?):

Beet Kvass (fermented drink made from beets). My wife makes/sells fermented foods/drinks commercially, and her ginger turmeric beet kvass is amazing.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

mmm so you don't mind side effects? What will you do when the ozempic is no longer effective.

a reply to: tanstaafl

You are correct. No sugar, further fake sugars (alcohol sugars do spike your insulin) Try to avoid those as well.

originally posted by: TiredofControlFreaks
a reply to: tanstaafl

You are correct. No sugar, further fake sugars (alcohol sugars do spike your insulin) Try to avoid those as well.

True...

Although, monkfruit and erythritol aren't bad, but yeah, best to avoid them completely (or at least as much as possible).

Bottom line though, a little bit on occasion is fine, and won't cause any problems once you've hit an equilibrium healthwise.

Eat less, move more. It's not rocket science. But if it was, it would be eat fewer rockets, build more rockets.

originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck
a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks
My dietitians say to picture a plate...1/4 protein, 1/4 carbs and 1/2 vegetable.

Dieticians... ugh. Some are decent, but most are clueless and still going by totally outdated and plain bad information.

Hint: if they say to avoid animal fats ('saturated fats'), run away.

Also... veggies have a lot of carbs (each one varies of course), but it is also good to know that the minimum daily requirement for carbs is a whopping big fat ZERO. Carbs are simply not a necessary dietary requirement. I'm not saying they're bad (some are, some aren;t), but they are not a dietary 'must'.

As a burger and fries kinda guy that makes me sad, but there's pasta from chickpeas or beans that helps.

You can make some killer Keto friendly buns and pizza crust from cauliflower and cheese.

Ozempic seems an interesting way of balancing insulin.

Type II? or Type I?

If type II, all I can say to that is, you need to work to transition off the 'ozempic'.

Work with your doctor, start an intermittent fasting regimen, lose the weight and fix your metabolic syndrome, and you'll slowly come off it until you don't need it anymore.

Then you can start the real work of getting healthy.

I'm getting ready to start a year long protocol of off/on fasting (short 3-5 day fasts) to engage/stimulate autophagy/stem cell production, to radically clean up my body, at the same time fixing my cataracts (or AMD, whichever it is), and elevated CRP (4.64) and PSA (9.3).

My Cholesterol numbers were interesting. After a year and a half of eating mostly carnivore (mostly fatty steaks, occasional liver (beef and chicken), lots of eggs, ham, bacon, sausages, butter, ghee, and my occasional (@ 2 times per week) large NY style pizza with double extra sauce, extra cheese, ham, canadian bacon and italian sausage (yeah I eat the whole thing myself): Total 243, HDL 55, LDL 174, Triglycerides 79 - they say I need to consult my doc for it to get on a statin. Rotflmao! They know nothing... the latest way to look at Cholesterol numbers as an actual indicator for cardio risk is dividing Triglycerides by HDL, and mine is right smack dab where it should be (less than 3, but the closer to 1 the better), mine is 1.43, so not worried about that at all.

I'll be starting a thread on my fasting journey to heal my eyesight when I start. I'm going to get a formal eye exam and diagnosis for my eye problems first, and another set of bloodwork labs for my PSA (I'm curious to see if it has gone up, there are a number of reasons it can show high in a test and there not be a problem, but I do have some symptoms of something going on with my prostate, so I'm doing the fasting to work on that too.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Reply to Blue Shift

Eat less and move more???? I am sorry but that is the calculation for energy of a pump!

If this really really worked, then we would all be slim. We have eaten less and moved more for over 40 years . Then when we failed to lose weight, the health community was more than willing to shake their finger at us for failing to follow their advice.

the real deal is that the more you exercise< the more energy you need hence you end up eating more

originally posted by: TiredofControlFreaks
the real deal is that the more you exercise< the more energy you need hence you end up eating more

For most people, eating is a social activity and has very little to do with actually ingesting matter for energy. Nobody is forcing food down anyone's throat after they work out. Yeah, you get hungrier when you first start doing it, but after a while you'll get a handle on it, particularly if you get enough fat so the hunger isn't distracting.

The experts at this are bodybuilders, not nutritionists. They know how to build and they know how to lose. They're just not babies about it with the "Oh, I've worked out now and now I have to eat a half-dozen cheeseburgers." When they want to drop pounds for competition, they work out and eat just the proper amount to stay healthy. They hydrate, they eat smaller amounts with more nutrition. They get along just fine.

a reply to: Blue Shift

How come the calorie in less than energy out is so common sense, why is it such a spectacular failure?

originally posted by: Mantiss2021
a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

As a T2 myself, I don't think I'd trust a nephrologist to treat diabetes anymore than I'd trust a gastroenterologist to treat arteriosclerosis. That's why diabetics are referred to a qualified endocrinologist, and heart patients are referred to cardiologists.

Actually, specialization is one of the many reasons that in virtually all cases, allopathic medicine is a 100% total abject failure when it comes to treating chronic disease. Incidentally, these are now believed, by many prominent Doctors that have chosen a different path, like Dr. Fung - to be all related to one primary cause - metabolic dysfunction.

Why?

Because the body's systems are not separate and independent. They all work together, synergistically, to accomplish their goals of keeping you not just alive, but healthy and fit.

originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck
a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks
My dietitians say to picture a plate...1/4 protein, 1/4 carbs and 1/2 vegetable. As a burger and fries kinda guy that makes me sad, but there's pasta from chickpeas or beans that helps. Ozempic seems an interesting way of balancing insulin.

Ummm... dieticians are the last people, in general, that you should ever listen to for advice on a healthy diet. They are trained under the exact same guidelines pushed by the exact same people that have been lying to us for the last 100 years.

If you want to achieve vital health, you need to take back full control and responsibility for it. You need to research, and decide for yourself, based on the science, what you will eat. Some people are unwilling to do this.

And the science says - and has said for some time - that high quality animal fats and proteins (basically a 1-1 ratio of fat to protein by weight), with a small amount of healthy fruits (many are way too high in sugar to be eaten except in only rare occasions, best is lemons, apples, peaches, pears, plums - those with the lowest glycemic load), and maybe some honey.

Almost all vegetables have a whole lot of anti-nutrients that can cause a lot of problems for many people.If yu have been trying to achieve health diligently, and been mostly unsuccessful, I submit to you that is almost certainly one or more of the vegetables you are eating causing your problem.

originally posted by: Blue Shift
Eat less, move more.

Rotflmao!

Thanks for the laugh, I needed that.

If that worked, there wouldn't be so many obese people in the world.