I'd been considering a very low calorie diet for 8 weeks (and still might). A very interesting study out of England used a VLC diet (600 calories/day, plus non-starchy veg). Report here . . . excerpts:
People who have had obesity-related type 2 diabetes for years have been cured, at least temporarily, by keeping to an extreme, low-calorie, diet for two months, scientists report today.
The discovery, reported by scientists at Newcastle University, overturns previous assumptions about type 2 diabetes, which was thought to be a lifelong illness.
Eleven people with diabetes took part in the study, which was funded by Diabetes UK. They had to slash their food intake to just 600 calories a day for two months. But three months later seven of the 11 were free of diabetes.
"To have people free of diabetes after years with the condition is remarkable – and all because of an eight-week diet," said Roy Taylor, professor at Newcastle University, who led the study. "This is a radical change in understanding type 2 diabetes. It will change how we can explain it to people newly diagnosed with the condition. While it has long been believed that someone with type 2 diabetes will always have the disease, and that it will steadily get worse, we have shown that we can reverse the condition."
The research, presented today at the American Diabetes Association conference, shows that an extremely low-calorie diet, consisting of diet drinks and non-starchy vegetables, prompts the body to remove the fat clogging the pancreas and preventing it from making insulin.
The volunteers were closely supervised by a medical team and matched with the same number of volunteers with diabetes who did not get the special diet. After just one week into the study, the pre-breakfast blood sugar levels of the study group had returned to normal. And MRI scans showed that the fat levels in the pancreas had returned to normal. The pancreas regained its ability to make insulin.
After the eight-week diet the volunteers returned to normal eating but had advice on healthy foods and portion size. Ten of the group were retested and seven had stayed free of diabetes.
Taylor thought the massive drop in calorie intake after surgery could be responsible and to test this hypothesis set up the study, which included MRI scans of the pancreas to look at any changes in the fatty deposits.
"We believe this shows that type 2 diabetes is all about energy balance in the body," said Taylor. "If you are eating more than you burn, then the excess is stored in the liver and pancreas as fat, which can lead to type 2 diabetes in some people. What we need to examine further is why some people are more susceptible to developing diabetes than others."
Interesting, huh?
The full study may be found here: http://www.diabetologia-journal.org/Lim.pdf
I started by thinking I'd do the diet as is, but with perhaps a little extra "good fat." Today I calculated a bit of what I'm eating and what it might look like, in terms of calories, protein, carbs, fat, etc.
My protein drinks are now Mark Sisson's protein powder, made with with 5 grams of BCCA's, one egg yolk, about 1/8 c. yoghurt (help keep healthy bacterial population in my bowel), and 2 tbl. virgin coconut oil (Tropical Traditions). I'm also talking fish oil 2 x day, plus a product called SafSlim, which is a specially processed high linoleic safflower oil, which is supposed to reduce belly fat (the bad kind!).
When I add this all together (3 shakes, plus the fish oil and SafSlim, I get the following:
87 gm. protein (ca. 20% of calories)
47 gm. carbs (ca. 10% of calories)
142 gm. fat (ca. 70% of calories)
and around 1800 calories/day.
Much more than 600 (you can probably do the math, too!).
The question is whether the coconut oil, which is a medium-chain triglyceride, fish oil, and SafSlim (there's also coconut oil in Sisson's protein powder, and a little fat in the egg yolk and yoghurt) will cause problems. MCT's are supposed to be burned directly in a different way. But will this much fat, even of a "good" kind, cause me to keep fat in the pancreas?
Presumably the positive effects of the 8 week/600 cal/day diet comes from lowering the fat in the pancreas, allowing the beta cells to return to normal function.
I'll see how I feel after a week and what the results are.
My choice, if I wish to lower fat and calories is, first, to eliminate the extra coconut oil--two tbls are 28 grams of fat, times three shakes is 84 grams, or 756 calories of fat. Hmmm . . .
I could also eliminate the yoghurt (I'm already taking some probiotics to help re-populate my gut after taking a fairly powerful antibiotic post-nasal surgery). Next would be the SafSlim, since there's perhaps not enough evidence that it works as promised.
That would lead to ca. 1000 calories/day, 84 gms. protein (33% of calories), 44 grams of carbs (17% of calories), and 54 grams of fat (ca. 50% of calories).
So, I'll see what happens this week, how my body reacts, and then decide if I should cut down fat. I could do that gradually, eliminating one element at at time.
An experiment of one. We'll see.
