Reversing diabetes – “it sounded almost too good to be true”

Peter was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and was immediately prescribed medications – without any discussion of dietary changes. But Peter is a curious person and wanted to know more.

Here’s what he found and how it changed his life:

The email

Six months ago I had my yearly physical and blood testing and learned I have type 2 diabetes. I was 46, 6ft, and weighed 220 lbs (183 cm, 100 kg). I have always considered myself a bit of athlete playing various sports most of my life from soccer to tennis, to now I mostly surf or go to the gym on average three times a week. My weight would yoyo from 207 to 238 lbs (94–108 kg), mostly because I loved to drink craft beer, and living in San Diego, California, there is no shortage of craft breweries that also serve lots of yummy food to wash said beer down.

I considered myself very healthy and have tried all types of diets that allow me to fuel my activities from vegan, pescatarian, paleo, you name it and I have definitely tried it. The issue for me wasn’t sticking to a diet, I believe I have very strong willpower – I was simply eating and drinking the wrong foods to maintain good health and healthy weight.

My doctor quickly prescribed Metformin and I got an electronic blood glucose reader, there wasn’t any discussion of a dietary change before going straight to the drugs. Being a naturally inquisitive person I began to look to the internet to learn more about what type 2 diabetes is and figure out what made me get it. I initially found hope through a research project being performed in England at the University of Newcastle by Professor Roy Taylor. Their finding is that this disease can be reversed by an 8-week very strict low-calorie diet of meal replacement drinks, green vegetables, non starchy vegetables, and lots of water. In theory this sounded great, although in practice the very low calorie diet (700 calories per day!) was just not doable, I was always hungry and miserable. There had to be another way, and that’s when I found Dietdoctor.com and LCHF.

Dietdoctor.com taught me how diabetes occurs, and how to reverse it through a change in diet alone. It sounded almost too good to be true, using a LCHF diet will make you return to a healthy weight whether you exercise or not simply by removing the man-made carbohydrates and sugar and replacing them with healthy fats and moderate protein – not by starving yourself but eating until satiated. Within the first week my blood glucose was going back into the normal range, my body weight was dropping, and I was feeling great! After 3 months my weight loss stabilized at 190 lbs making a total weight loss of 30 lbs (14 kg).

Fast forward to now, six months later – after lots of macro tweaking I think I’ve found my sweet spot keeping carbohydrates and sugar to an extreme minimum, and my protein around 15 to 20% of my caloric intake, because those three things will trigger my blood glucose levels to spike. I now keep track of all of my food with a food-tracking app roughly shooting for around 2000 calories a day. I’ve lost another 6 lbs (now at 184 lbs.) by incorporating some intermittent fasting, which I never previously thought I would be able to do – before LCHF I was always hungry! I started to do an 18:6 just two days a week. No hunger and the 6 additional pounds just fell off. I still work out three days a week, working out for me has never been a weight-loss activity; it’s something I do for fun but now I can actually see results.

One thing I really want to share is: You have to be your own health advocate because no one else will do this for you. My doctor led me to believe type 2 diabetes is a life long affliction and I learned this simply is not the case.

I started a little word press blog as a form of therapy and maybe it might help someone going through the same situation:
Reversing my type 2 diabetes

And I can be found on twitter where I post numerous LCHF articles that I find across the web @Pedro_1904.

Lastly, thank you Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, your fantastic website has helped guide me back on to the path of health.

Kindest regards,
Peter Encke

Comment

Congratulations, Peter! And thank you for sharing.

Like he mentioned, Peter has started a blog where he shares low-carb news and more on how he reversed his type 2 diabetes. He’s also written more nice things about us there (thanks!). I encourage you to check it out – we’ve also put a link on our Blog News page to make it easier to follow it.

Reversing my type 2 diabetes blog

Share your story

Do you have a success story you want to share? Send your information, plus before and after photos, to success@dietdoctor.com. It would also be greatly appreciated if you shared what you eat in a typical day, whether you fast etc. More information: