Beating Type 2 Diabetes<\/strong> I describe an effective weight loss plan that is well suited to people with prediabetes or Type 2 diabetes and uses sensible, varied, non-extreme dieting (typically allowing up to 1,400 calories per day on average), combined with enjoyable and exhilarating (but not exhausting) exercise that should kick diabetes into remission and improve many other aspects of health in the process.<\/p>\nThe great thing about the diet part of my weight loss plan is that it does not require sticking with the same boring diet for week after week so most people will find it easier to stick to as well as being more varied and nutritious than the much stricter NHS option. I utilize a variety of different, but equally effective diets that can be changed on a weekly basis and in the book I have also devoted a chapter to describing meal ideas and recipes for all the diets in the weight loss plan.<\/p>\n
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I know this weight loss plan works as I used it successfully to get rid of type 2 diabetes myself when I was diagnosed with the condition seven years ago. I lost 10 kilograms in 10 weeks and that did the trick for me!<\/p>\n
Here is a brief summary of the diets that work for weight loss and are suitable for people with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes:<\/p>\n
Intermittent Fasting Diet<\/h4>\n
There are several different versions but I advocate using the 4:3 diet which involves eating normally on four days of the week and consume only about 500 calories on alternate days. Your meals on these days should be high in protein but low in fat and carbohydrate so think mostly lean meats or fish and green vegetables.<\/p>\n
Reduced Fat Diet<\/h4>\n
Because fat is the most energy dense nutrient (each gram of fat contains 9 calories compared with only 4 for carbohydrate and protein), reducing the dietary fat intake from 25-30% to around 10-15 % of total energy intake can be a very effective way to reduce overall daily energy intake and promote weight loss. Eliminating all fat from the diet is not recommended as you will be missing essential fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins. A moderate reduction in dietary fat is, however, very desirable and is best achieved by eliminating foods with high-fat content from the diet. That means cutting out fatty meats, sauces, cheese, creams, pizza, cakes, and cookies and substituting some foods or beverages with lower fat alternatives (e.g., skimmed milk, low-fat yoghurt, and reduced fat coleslaw).<\/p>\n
Very Low Energy Diet<\/h4>\n
Essentially the same as the 800 calories per day diet promoted by the NHS but on my diet plan you only need to apply this on four days of the week.<\/p>\n
High-Protein Diet<\/h4>\n
For most diets, protein will provide 10 to 15% of the calories; with a high-protein diet, this is increased to about 30% with a moderate reduction in fat and carbohydrate intake. One main reason that is often given for its effectiveness is that a high-protein diet suppresses the appetite, which might be a mechanism that could help to promote weight loss. In addition, compared with fat and carbohydrate, protein is generally less digestible meaning that a smaller percentage of its available energy is digested and absorbed. A high-protein diet can be even more effective if the carbohydrate foods you consume are low glycaemic index and you trim the fat off cuts of meat and avoid other high-fat foods.<\/p>\n
Skip Lunch Diet<\/h4>\n
A very simple diet in which you just avoid eating anything at lunch-time! For most people that cuts out around 500 calories per day.<\/p>\n
Low Energy Density Diet<\/h4>\n
A low energy density diet provides about 1,400 calories per day with an energy density of less than 1.5 calories per gram. The main principle of a low energy density diet is to avoid fatty foods (or use reduced fat versions of foods like cheese and milk), use only lean meat (trim off any visible fat and remove skin from poultry) and fish, and include lots of non-tropical fruit and non-starchy but bulky, high-fibre vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, or salad leaves with tomatoes, onion and celery.<\/p>\n
Some of you may have spotted that I have not included the Low Glycaemic Index (GI) Diet in this list. The GI is a measure of how much a particular food item raises your blood glucose after eating an amount containing 50 grams of carbohydrate. Selecting foods that have a low GI value may help you manage your weight and control your blood sugar because many foods that should be included in a well-balanced, low-fat, healthy diet with minimally processed foods \u2014 wholegrain products, fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products \u2014 have low GI values. Avoiding high GI foods generally means eliminating candy, chocolate, sugar-sweetened beverages, most sauces, many processed foods, and starchy vegetables like potato as well as rice, bread, and pasta from your diet. But a low GI diet does not specify portion sizes and to lose a significant amount of weight you will need to reduce your energy intake by at least 500 calories per day. For these reasons a low GI diet is not one I would recommend if your main goal is effective weight loss.<\/p>\n
You can choose the diets that suit you best according to your personal preferences and to fit in with what you are doing that week. This is a very simple approach and you won\u2019t get bored; every week will be different to the previous one. You can follow the suggested sequence in the list above which ensures you will be having different foods each week, or you can come up with your own sequence. To achieve the desired weekly dietary energy deficit on some diets (the 4:3 and very low energy diet) you won\u2019t need to diet every day of the week. On the other days you can eat normally, but don\u2019t overcompensate by eating more than usual. You could try out the Mediterranean or Japanese diet or go vegetarian on these days to add further healthy variety to your programme.<\/p>\n
As for the exercise part of the weight loss plan it only involves doing light to moderate intensity aerobic activities (no high intensity training is involved here!) such as fast walking or jogging – many build up to jogging, cycling, swimming or aerobics for around 60-90 minutes in total per day. None of the exercises I recommend should leave anyone with aching muscles or feeling sick or tired – it\u2019s not necessary.<\/p>\n
The important message is that it is indeed possible for people to modify their current lifestyle for the better, get rid of their diabetes for good, improve their quality of life and actually live longer.<\/p>\n
<\/b>Eat, Move, Sleep, Repeat: Beating Type 2 Diabetes (\u00a315.95), The Pick \u2018n Mix Diet (\u00a315.95) (Meyer & Meyer) and Beating Type 2 Diabetes (\u00a316.95) by Professor Michael Gleeson (Meyer & Meyer) are out now in paperback and ebook.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Emeritus Professor Michael Gleeson, PhD \u2013 Chair in Exercise Biochemistry at Loughborough University and author of \u2018Beating Type 2 Diabetes\u2019 \u2013 a life-changing and potentially life-saving book for people with this serious condition. The huge and growing problem of type 2 diabetes already affects about 4 million people in the UK. Around three times …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":40649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"loftocean_post_format_gallery":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_ids":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_urls":"","loftocean_post_format_video_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_video_url":"","loftocean_post_format_video_type":"","loftocean_post_format_video":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_type":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_url":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_audio":"","loftocean-featured-post":"","loftocean-like-count":0,"loftocean-view-count":1330,"tinysalt_single_post_intro_label":"","tinysalt_single_post_intro_description":"","tinysalt_hide_post_featured_image":"","tinysalt_post_featured_media_position":"","tinysalt_single_site_header_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header_style":"sticky-scroll-up","tinysalt_single_site_footer_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_footer":"0","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Professor-Michael-Gleeson.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40628"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40650,"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40628\/revisions\/40650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sloanmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}