Fast Diabetes Reset
Get your Type 2 Diabetes under control

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  • Isn’t that it now? Why are you still here?

    Ken

    ·

    So, you miraculously reached type 2 diabetes remission in just 100 days! Yay! Let’s celebrate! But isn’t that it now? You’re done, right?

    No, of course not! Firstly, true diabetic remission is measured by getting your HbA1c result to 48mmol/mol and keeping it at or under that level for 6 months. So even if there was nothing else to do but maintain, I’d still be here talking about it.

    But as you’ll know if you’re a long time follower, or just happened to read yesterday’s recap post where I asked the somewhat tongue-in-cheek question “why did it take me so long?”, you will know that one of the reasons I didn’t address my diabetes sooner was that I got hit with the common double-whammy comorbidity – diabetes is often joined by hypertension. And my blood pressure skyrocketed to as high as 206/112 – which is classed as “hypertensive crisis!”

    It’s at this point that you are at severe risk of either a stroke or a cardiac incident.

    While diabetes is a slow, insidious disease, where high glucose levels in your blood gradually damage and ultimately kill off your nerves, starting with your extremities (feet, then hands) as well as your retinal nerves, leading to blindness, loss of feeling and related complications, hypertension is called “the silent killer”. Often presenting no symptoms at all (as in my case) until it’s too late and you have a stroke or heart attack, which of course can be fatal.

    I had to stop exercising and fasting because both can increase blood pressure, something I simply couldn’t afford to risk.

    You may also have seen me talk about how I was able to halve my blood pressure medication as a result of losing so much weight – I reached a point where I was over-medicated and experiencing low blood pressure and even fainting episodes.

    But since halving my meds, my blood pressure has still been somewhat erratic. While nowhere near as bad as it was at the outset, I’ve still had days like this last Tuesday where my first reading was 160/102! I always take three readings in a row as often the first one is high – it takes a while to just relax into it. But my second and third readings on Tuesday were 150/96 and 155/93 which puts all of the readings in the “stage 2 hypertension” category – one step down from “hypertensive crisis”.

    Shouldn’t I go to the doctor with such high readings? Not necessarily. My previousl readings a couple of days before were 140/90, 136/89, and 136/88 which is “stage 1 hypertension”. It’s not unusual for people adjusting their medication to see such big changes as your body has to adapt to less support from medication.

    This week I’ve been fighting off a really bad cold / flu virus, and today I’m feeling much better – so this morning’s readings of 144/93, 140/89, and 139/87 weren’t actually that bad. Many illnesses can result in spiked blood pressure, since they provoke a ‘stress response’ in the body, releasing adrenaline and cortisol, which naturally constrict blood vessels and raise heart rate. My elevated seated readings today are likely my body still being in ‘defense mode’ from the virus.

    I do watch these changes closely, especially if I’m stressed or ill. If I had a few days in a row of stage 2 hypertension I would definitely talk to my doctor – it’s feasible that even though I’ve made an incredible transformation, losing 30lbs (14kg), and achieving type 2 diabetes remission, the cuts we made to my medication might have been a step too far. I might still need to adjust my medication again.

    The biggest reason that I am reluctant to increase my dosage again is that there is a flip side to the coin of BP medication. These medications reduce your blood pressure, and I’ve now had two separate instances where low blood pressure has resulted in my fainting – both times linked to what is called “cough syncope” when I’ve had a cold/flu and coughed so hard I literally passed out.

    As well as taking my seated blood pressure, I am also in the habit of taking my standing blood pressure – so after my three seated readings, I then stand up and almost immediately take my BP again. At this point, we are watching for the “standing drop”. While you are seated and relaxed, your body naturally needs to maintain less “hydraulic pressure” in the system. When you stand up, the blood vessels, especially in the lower body, tighten up to maintain a healthy level of pressure. If you’ve ever experienced mild lightheadedness when standing up, this is because your vascular system isn’t able to respond to the change in position quickly enough. This is called “orthostatic hypotension” (note – hypo not hyper!) and can be quite dangerous – if your system doesn’t respond appropriately, you can simply faint, which from a standing position can be very dangerous.

    Orthostatic hypotension is classed as a drop of 20 points of systolic pressure (the first reading), or 10 points of diastolic pressure (the second reading). Today, mine dropped 52 systolic points and 17 diastolic points!

    While my seated BP wasn’t too bad, my standing drop was atrocious! I went from 139/87 to 87/70! If my starting blood pressure had in fact been “healthy”, let’s say 120/80, I would almost certainly risk a fainting episode.

    Being on blood pressure medication is, therefore, a bit of a double-edged sword, since part of the effect of these medications is to relax your vascular system, but a relaxed vascular system is what leads to orthostatic drops.

    So as long as my BP is not dangerously high (which I class as two days of concurrent stage 2 readings), I will just let it ride and keep monitoring. Every week that goes by, as I continue to exercise, fast and eat more healthily, my need for medication to support my blood pressure should reduce.

    The plumbing vs the fuel

    The main thing is that by removing the diabetes from the equation I’m helping my blood pressure hugely – there are very good reasons the two conditions are often diagnosed together. But the thing to remember is that type 2 diabetes is caused by putting the wrong fuel in your engine. Too rich a fuel in terms of glucose is not good and casues harm (nerve damage) – but it’s “easily” fixed. Change the fuel, and you very quickly begin to see improvements.

    Hypertension is not a fuel issue, it’s about the plumbing. High blood sugar doesn’t just sit in the blood; over years, it causes systemic inflammation and oxidative stress that physically stiffen the arterial walls (atherosclerosis). It’s this stiffening that makes the engine less responsive. At the same time, type 2 diabetes is often (although not always) associated with obesity. As you increase blood sugar, you put on weight, and this excess weight requires further adaptations from your plumbing.

    Studies show that a 1kg drop in body weight can be typially equated to a 1 point drop in systolic pressure. I’ve actually seen well inexcess of a 60 point drop from my initial crisis readings. Why is this? Because I haven’t simply lost weight. And this is really important. Yes, weight loss is important because carrying excess weight makes the body work harder every minute of the day, which increases blood pressure. But you HAVE TO CHANGE THE FUEL.

    You CAN lose weight just by cutting down on the amount of fuel you put in the engine, but if you’re still using the wrong fuel then you will only see minimal benefits.

    Exercise is also important. By using the machine regularly and more intesively, it automatically becomes more efficient and effective. You are not only changing the fuel, and shrinking the plumbing, but you are increasing its overall efficiency. This is why I’ve seen such a huge transformation in my health.

    Changing the fuel is the quickest and easiest thing you can do for yourself, but if you want to change the plumbing then it will take time.

    I still have my delayed diabetic check up in a months time, on 5th May, and I’ll be very excitedly showing them my MonitorMyHealth HbA1c test results. But I also always go armed with my blood pressure spreadsheet, and this will paint a more grounded picture, showing that my health transformation isn’t over yet. I’ve come a long way, and reducing my blood pressure medication is a huge step, but there’s still work to be done.


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  • Why did it take me so long?

    Ken

    ·

    If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll have seen I hit an absolutely massive milestone in record time. I’ve effectively reversed my type 2 diabetes!

    I went from a glycated blood sugar reading of 79mmol/mol in December 2025 to just 42 mmol/mol yesterday! Just 100 days, slightly over 14 weeks.

    So what do you mean, “why did it take me so long?!” That’s incredible!

    But you have to remember that I was originally diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in July 2023 – which is 2.5 years ago now!

    The initial (double) diagnosis

    I was exhausted all the time and didn’t know why. I’d beaten testicular cancer almost a decade earlier, and my initial thought was that it was low testosterone, a common enough issue in men in their 50’s. But bizarrely, my endocrinologist found that my testosterone, while a bit low, was well within “normal/healthy” bounds.

    It was while investigating that exhaustion that we found my diabetes. And being the data-driven person I am, I did my homework and knew what the risks associated with Type 2 Diabetes could be. Fatigue is definitely one of symptoms. Diabetes makes your body work so much harder just to keep going. The human body is an incredible machine, but it can only take so much before something starts to give.

    I restarted this blog at that time – on July 6th, 2023 – and even quoted this:

    Untreated diabetes affects many major organs, including your heart, blood vessels, nerves, eyes and kidneys. Diabetes UK

    On July 8th 2023 in a post titled “Shit got really, really real!” I talked about the link between diabetes and pancreatic cancer – the insidious cancer that took my dad’s life when he was younger than I was at that point, just 53 years old.

    I was clearly motivated at that point – and lost 4.6lbs by the next weigh-in, started up my walk-run program, and was doing 36-hour fasts. But then something happened. I’m piecing it together by reviewing my blogs at the time, and what happened was I was diagnosed with chronic hypertension! My first reading was 180/108 – which is “hypertensive crisis!”

    I was messed around by the NHS, but when I was finally seen by someone, partly expecting to discover that my home BP monitor cuff was wrong, but on their whizzy digital cuff, my BP came in at 206/112!! So I had to put everything else on hold while I dealt with this second, more imminent health crisis.

    Just for context, “hypertensive crisis” readings are the point at which there is a fair chance of either stroke or a cardiac incident! At one point, my reading was as high as 201/128, with a headache and tingling in my fingers! I was, of course, stressing out about all of this, which didn’t help at all. I ended up taking a few weeks off work due to the stress, as I simply couldn’t focus at all.

    I was immediately prescribed Losartan – just 25mg – which barely made a dent. It took some months of back-and-forth, an increase to 100mg, as well as two more prescriptions, before my blood pressure began to get back towards normal.

    In fact, it wasn’t until February 2024 that my BP readings started to look consistently safe – 112/85, for example – still slightly elevated systolic pressure, but my diastolic was back to normal. I was told that once diagnosed with hypertension, slightly high readings would almost always be expected.

    So I had put everything on hold while I dealt with this second, more imminent health crisis. I didn’t put weight on at this point, as I was being careful about what I was eating – reducing salt mainly – but I also wasn’t losing weight.

    My diabetes seemed to have stabilised – I was hovering between around 52 and 57 mmol/mol – so about 4-9 points above the diabetic threshold of 48 mmol/mol – so it just seemed like a much less pressing issue at that stage.

    I’m sure many of those who suffer with type 2 diabetes are aware that hypertension and T2D are often bedfellows. The increased insulin released to deal with high blood sugar often causes the kidneys to retain salt, which in turn leads to hypertension.

    And it’s worth mentioning that one of the symptoms of hypertension is also fatigue. It’s a real double whammy, and no wonder I was struggling.

    What were the root causes?

    There were a few factors leading to my double-diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and hypertension – the most obvious was dealing with my dog Willow’s chronic illness. She had been diagnosed with and treated for cancer the year before, and it came back. This time, I missed the signs, and it was too late. Despite months of vet treatments – and vet bills, which exceeded the coverage my insurance offered – I ultimately had to let her go. It was heartbreaking as she was my baby. She was 12 years old, which for a German Shepherd is, sadly, not unusual.

    While I was caring for her, the thought of cooking healthy meals went out the window – it just seemed like another chore, and I often relied on takeouts.

    One of the other causes of my stress at that point was my finances – not just Willow’s vet bills, but I hadn’t been paying attention to the increasing mortgage interest rates, and I was on a variable rate. Before I knew it my mortgage payments spiralled from around £1,800 per month to £2,800! I simply couldn’t afford my house anymore at that level. So, I started a 9-month project to find a new house and sell my own – there was work that I had to do to my home before I could even market it, which saw me relying on my credit cards since Willow’s treatment had chewed through my savings, and my mortgage ate up all of my disposable income. I was in crisis mode.

    A new home and a new start…and new stresses and diagnoses!

    I literally just closed on my new house in August 2024, right before I maxed out the very last of my credit cards. Another month and I would have been in serious financial trouble.

    It’s no surprise that during that time I was reverting to eating takeouts even though they were adding to my financial burden, as well as hurting my health.

    Even after I moved house, my money worries didn’t end. There was work that needed doing to the new house. The former owners had hidden a number of things that I should have looked into more closely. I’d only taken a house buyer survey, and not a full survey, and this didn’t cover everything.

    So 2025 started with more issues to deal with. More stress. More costs. And I was relying on takeout again.

    2025 was also a busy and stressful year at work as I was piled with more responsibilities. The summer came around, and it was in June 2025 that I was suddenly diagnosed with shingles! At first, I thought it was just a regular flu, but it was way worse. I was coughing so hard I wound up fainting. Syncopic coughing is the technical term. What happens is, as you cough, you can’t breathe in, and as a result, your blood pressure drops. For normal people, their vascular system is flexible and resilient enough that it’s not a problem, but when you are on medication that artificially lowers your blood pressure, while also reducing your vascular responsiveness, you can literally cough yourself unconscious. I did. Twice.

    The first time, in a panic, I sat up on the edge of the bed during my extreme coughing, which of course also lowered my blood pressure further, and like that I was gone. The next thing I knew I was lying on the floor with my partner anxiously hovering over me while dialling the emergency services number at the same time!

    Fortunately, shingles is very easy to treat with a simple anti-viral, and I quickly learned to sit the heck down as soon as any sign of coughing began! 😂

    It still took me a few weeks to recover, and that pretty much brings us back to where I restarted this blog, in December 2025, after my first actual symptoms of diabetic neuropathy. It was only at that point that I discovered my “stable” blood sugar had skyrocketed from 59 mmol/mol to 79mmol/mol.

    I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – “life gets in the way”. And sometimes it seems to do so quite aggressively.

    A serious of unfortunate events

    It all sounds absolutely horrendous in hindsight! I was literally prevented from exercising and fasting by my hypertension for the best part of six months, and after that, I was dealing with another stress and then another. I was moving from one crisis to another, with work stress, financial stress, and health crises.

    It wasn’t until my diabetes became the biggest, most urgent crisis that I committed to taking drastic action.

    And obviously I’m glad I did. Equally, I do wish I’d started earlier, but in hindsight, it’s hard to see when and how I could have started with everything else I was dealing with.

    So what’s the point of this post?

    The moral for me is – don’t give up. Definitely don’t give up hope. As hard as it seems, you can repair your health! And in the process of reversing my type 2 diabetes, I’ve already halved my blood pressure medication, which is a huge step forward. I’m not finished yet, but I know I have the tools necessary to get the rest of the job done.

    But go easy on yourself! If life gets in the way – let it. Don’t beat yourself up because you don’t have the time, energy or emotional bandwidth to focus on your health.

    As I mentioned, the first symptom I had of my diabetes and hypertension was fatigue. It’s really hard to do anything when you constantly feel tired. If you are feeling like that, then I feel your pain!

    But it doesn’t have to be hard – there are a few key habits that you need to change, and you will get there. Maybe not in 100 days, but if I can do it in under 4 months, maybe you can do it in 6 months. Or 9 months. Even if you did it in a year, wouldn’t that still be an amazing achievement? To turn around your health to the point where you significantly reduce your risk of nerve damage, heart attacks, or strokes?

    And I can tell you that one of the first changes I began to see after I started my aggressive protocol was that my fatigue began to lift. It was slow at first, sure, but now it’s almost entirely gone. I won’t say I feel 20 again, but I have no issue getting up to go for a swim or a run, where I might initially have dreaded it and had to really push myself. I can walk up stairs without getting out of breath. Which is great because I moved into a three-story townhouse! 😂

    So start small if you have to, but know that you can do it. If you make some changes and you stick with them, you too can turn your health around.

    You’ve got this! If I can do it, even despite all of the obstacles I found in my way, then you can too!

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  • 100 days to diabetes remission! It’s an Easter miracle! 🐇🐣A literal rebirth!

    Ken

    ·

    As you will know if you’ve been following my blog lately, I recently sent off some blood to MonitorMyHealth for a new HbA1c test. Normally, of course, I would get my HbA1c free of charge through my GP, but they rescheduled my quarterly check-up from last Friday (27th March) to early May. I had really been looking forward to seeing how much of a change there had been in my blood sugar after all my hard work over the last three months.

    So I decided to go the private route – and paid for a MonitorMyHealth HbA1c test. MonitorMyHealth is an NHS partner and uses NHS labs for their tests, ensuring the results are reliable and consistent with my usual tests.

    And the results are now in!

    And they may shock you.

    They did me.

    Can you bear the suspense?

    OK – drum roll please…

    Graph showing HbA1c blood sugar test results over a period of approximately one year months, starting at 59mmol/mol in April 2025, rising to 79 mmol/mol in December 2025 and then sharply declining to 42mmol/mol in March 2026

    Wait I hear you cry – does that really say what I think it says??!!??

    Did you really just hit 42 mmol/mol after 14 weeks!?!?

    Yes, dear reader, it’s true! 42!

    According to Douglas Adams – that’s the meaning of life!! 😝🤪 And for me, as a type 2 diabetic seeking diabetic remission, it really is the magic number! The answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42! It all makes sense now!🤣😂

    You’ve no doubt gotten bored over the last few posts of me speculating on what my results might be. I had told you (many times!) that I wouldn’t be unhappy if I made it to under 60. As you can see from the graph above my previous test before December was back in March 2025, and I was at 59mmol/mol. At that point, diabetes didn’t feel urgent to me at all. I had no real symptoms other than my high blood pressure (we’ll come back to this in a later post!), so I didn’t take any action back then. So in my heart of hearts, I knew that I would accept a return to 59 or lower as a huge success. It took me 9 months to get from 59 to 79 so getting back to 59 in 3 months or so would have been a real achievement.

    But I do like a good challenge – and I was quietly confident that I’d go beyond that. That I would even reach the “low 50’s”. But secretly, I was hoping to hit 48 mmol/mol. That’s the red line on the graph there, and that represents the barrier between “diabetic” (48 and above) and “prediabetic” (42-47).

    Let me restate this so we’re clear – hitting 48 mmol/mol after a diabetes diagnosis, and retaining it for 6 months without medication, is considered to be “diabetic remission”. Since I’ve never taken diabetic medication – despite my GP pushing me for some time to consider Metformin – I only needed to hit 48mmol/mol and retain at that level or under for another 6 months and I would be in diabetic remission.

    But I didn’t hit 48. I hit 42!! 42!!! Let me say it again for those in the back – 42 mmol/mol!!!!!

    42 was my next target – after I hit 48 this time – or very near to it, I was going to set my sights on 42!

    And I’ve hit it straight off the bat after just 14 weeks. That’s 14 weeks and 2 days to be exact.

    But here’s another magic number for you – it’s 100 days exactly from my last test results on 23rd December to my new results which came in today!!!

    100 days to diabetic remission!

    I’m no longer technically diabetic! I am now just on the border of prediabetic!!! And literally only just!!! Describing me as prediabetic is really being very conservative and while it’s factually accurate, the reality is that I’m not stopping now. I still have more weight to lose, and still have hypertension / high blood pressure to address by losing weight and increasing my fitness. So I will certainly breeze through from 42 to well under 42.

    I still have my follow-up diabetic check-in due on May 5th, and by then, I am 100% certain that I will be “normal”. No question about that whatsoever.

    Easter is, of course, symbolically a time for renewal and rebirth, so it’s also incredibly fortuitous timing with Good Friday tomorrow. I literally feel like I’ve been born again! I’m sure you can probably imagine that I’m literally quivering with excitement today. This is everything I’d worked for and more than I’d hoped to achieve in such a short space of time.

    But most importantly it’s a message of hope for other type 2 diabetes sufferers.

    Often, doctors give the impression that this is a lifelong condition that is a long haul to combat. I’ve just demonstrated that it doesn’t have to be that way. Even after being diagnosed over two and a half years ago (July 3rd 2023), it is possible to reach remission in a matter of weeks! 100 days!

    Of course, you don’t have to attack your diabetes quite as aggressively as I did. In many ways, I was ideally positioned to defeat diabetes. In the past I’d lost weight and improved my health on separate occasions through ketogenic diets (50lbs in 6 months), through intermittent fasting (60 lbs in about 9 months), and through exercise (70lbs in around a year).

    I knew that individually, each of these approaches worked for me and could achieve great results. My thesis, which I’ve now proved beyond any doubt, is that by combining all three, I could effectively achieve remission for my diabetes in record time.

    And here we are, 14 weeks / 100 days is all it took.

    And as you’ve seen if you read my blog…that wasn’t 100 days of pure denial and pain. I found new snacks to make eating strict keto more enjoyable, including regularly eating my favourites for breakfast like bacon and sausages. I discovered a keto chocolate mousse to replace a more expensive shop-bought supposedly high-protein dessert, and made keto-friendly tacos.

    I had blips and slip-ups – including a Christmas period where I allowed myself to fall off the wagon entirely and ate three Christmas dinners, with wine, and desserts! I allowed myself those little blips because I was so confident in my plan. I was easy on myself when I got ill and couldn’t fast or exercise. All it took was confidence in the plan, patience and persistence.

    And here I am! I hit what is probably the single biggest target of this entire journey, and way ahead of schedule. 42 mmol/mol in 100 days from 79! It’s a legendary result and I couldn’t be happier. This journey started, as you may recall with a wake-up call on a business trip where I experienced my first symptoms of diabetic neuropathy – pain in my foot that lasted 18 hours. I immediately started making changes as a result of that one fearful night, and since then, my symptoms have been minimal – the odd tingle and numbness lasting a few minutes, nothing more.

    I’ve now reached a point where I’m no longer diabetic, which means no more nerve damage! I’m done with that problem entirely. I mentioned I’d been diagnosed with the very earliest stage of diabetic retinopathy – which can lead to blindness – that disease is effectively stopped dead in its tracks now. No more damage, and my nerves have the time they need to recover. It’s literally a life-changing transformation. Potentially a life-saving transformation.

    Anyway – on that happy note, I’m signing off for now, to bask in my success! 🥰

    Wishing you all a fantastic Easter – I hope this festive weekend brings you the rebirth you dream of too!

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  • The suspense is killing me!

    Ken

    ·

    I just had an email notification from MonitorMyHealth, where I sent my blood on Monday for a new HbA1c test – they have confirmed receipt of my sample, which now means it’s just a matter of time before I get my results!

    Hopefully by tomorrow I will know for sure how successful I’ve been in reaching remission for my type 2 diabetes.

    A huge deal for me, it’s what I’ve been working so hard for for the last 14 weeks, and I’m really excited to see just how far I’ve come.

    I’m very confident I’ll make it into the 50s (mmol/mol), and really think I’ve done enough to get towards the low 50s.

    Anything under 55 mmol/mol would be a spectacular result from my last test in late December at 79mmol/mol.

    But secretly in my heart of hearts I’m hoping for a truly earth-shattering result – 48 mmol/mol or less! That is right at the very edge of what is conceivable based on everything I know about how lifestyle changes can affect your blood sugar.

    As you’ve seen in my blog, I took very drastic steps, not only changing my diet completely to a ketogenic and dash friendly diet, cutting out all bread, all pasta, all potatoes, all rice, not only cutting out obvious sugars but even restricting fruit intake to berries which are among the lowest sugar options.

    And on top of that I have fasted regularly for 36 hours three times a week, not quite every week, I had a few gaps, but most weeks. Intermittent fasting has been proven to be one of the most effective treatments for type 2 diabetes, and alternate day fasting with 36 hour fasts is a highly aggressive and effective protocol, giving your body plenty of time to burn out all the glucose stored.

    And obviously while you’re fasting your blood sugar is completely stable with no spikes whatsoever giving your system a chance to fully recover.

    And finally to top that off I’ve been exercising 4 to 5 days a week, alternating swimming (1km-1.5km) with running (only walk run intervals, but still, given my body weight this is still huge).

    Exercise of course will also help clear out any glucose and ensure I’m quickly switching to fat burning mode.

    At the same time I’ve lost just shy of 30lbs (13.8kg), which is precisely the figure quoted by the most reputable studies of diabetics at which diabetic remission is typically seen.

    Diabetic remission is generally measured in the UK as reaching 48 mmol/mol and maintaining that reading or lower for at least 6 months without medication.

    As you also know I have never taken medication for my diabetes, only some for my hypertension, And as you’ve also seen, I’ve changed my body so much in the last 14 weeks that just a month ago I had to halve my meds.

    All of this tells me that if anyone can possibly achieve a full remission in 14 weeks, then it should be me! 🫣

    Of course, I am hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst, I know that major body changes take time, I know that even making such radical changes to habits can take a while to register.

    In my mind the worst case is anything over 60 mmol/mol. But that certainly won’t deter me from continuing what I’m doing, it will just tell me that this is going to take 6 months rather than the 3 months I’d originally anticipated.

    It took me over 9 months of bad habits to get from 59 mmol/mol to 79 mmol/mol, so reversing that in 6 months would still be no small achievement.

    And that’s not forget, they’re even once I get to my target – and my ultimate target is 42 mmol/mol which is classed as “normal” or healthy – I will still have to maintain some elements of my lifestyle changes for the rest of my life.

    Being type 2 diabetic means I have genuine insulin sensitivity issues, and those will not go away just because I get back to normal. I have demonstrated that I have a susceptibility to diabetes, and it’s something I’ll have to always be aware of.

    Switching from aggressive protocols to reach my target to more moderate approaches for maintenance will be a whole new journey for me.

    But unlike previous occasions when I have lost significant amounts of weight – ranging from 50 to 70 lbs – this time I have a much stronger motivation to not let myself slip back into old habits.

    What started this journey was my first symptoms of diabetic neuropathy, and I have since been diagnosed with early stage diabetic retinopathy.

    I am not about to risk my nerves getting any worse by letting sugar get the better of me again.

    I’ve heard so many horror stories of people being literally crippled by their diabetes and that is not going to be me.

    Anyway, just a little rant to while away the time while I wait for my results!! 😊

  • The sweet smell of success!

    Ken

    ·

    Or not so sweet, I guess it depends on your point of view!

    What am I talking about? The smell of ketosis! When you fast and / or follow a ketogenic diet, your body switches from burning glucose as its main fuel source to burning fat.

    The Fat-Bank Audit

    Think of your body like a high-interest savings account. When you eat carbs, you’re making constant deposits into your Fat Storage Bank. But when you fast or go keto, you stop the deposits and start making massive ATM withdrawals from your waistline.

    Chemical money laundering

    To make those withdrawals usable, your liver has to “launder” that stored fat into a currency called ketones. One specific byproduct of this transaction is acetone – basically the chemical “receipt” of your fat-burning success.

    Since your body can’t spend the acetone, it tosses the receipts out through your breath and urine. So, if things start smelling a bit like nail polish remover, don’t worry – it’s just the scent of your “bank balance” finally going down!

    Fortunately, I haven’t really suffered with ketosis breath, or at least not that anyone has pointed out to me! 😬

    Eau de Adipose

    So, the smell of ketosis could more aptly be called the “fragrance of fat loss”, or perhaps the French might call it “eau de adipose”! 😜

    But ultimately, for me, it’s the sweet smell of success. It tells me that I am doing the right things, and keeping my blood sugar as low as possible.

    When my pee stops smelling I know that I’ve somehow snuck in too much sugar and I’m now making glucose deposits rather than fat withdrawals.

    Taking the piss

    This has become a bit of a light hearted mantra for me – every time I pee I discreetly sniff just to see that I’m on track. When I get that telltale scent I smile to myself and think “ah! The sweet smell of success!” 👃🏼😁

    Just a word of caution: it may be wise to avoid sharing this particular bathroom ritual with your friends or coworkers if you value their continued company and respect!

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  • Getting along swimmingly!

    Ken

    ·

    After yesterday’s fiasco, where I got to the swimming pool only to find I’d left my swim bag at home, I was back to the pool this evening, making sure not to forget anything this time!

    This was my first swim since last Monday night, just over a week, so I had fully intended to just stick to a nice leisurely 1km – 4 x 250m – which is my usual routine when I’ve taken a break.

    But the pool was very crowded this evening with a bunch of (much!) younger people all swimming faster than me. They were all doing sprint intervals – 1 or 2 lengths at a time, followed by long rests. They were often not leaving much room to stop at the end of the lap, so once I got going, I just felt like I didn’t want to stop and stretched my first set to 500m.

    The first half of the 500m I treated as a warm-up, and the second half I sped up considerably, buoyed along by the sprinters around me. I was pleased to see that I had plenty of energy to keep going and even pick up the pace.

    The second 500m was also a bit faster than my norm as well.

    On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the lane swimming sessions at my pool run for a full hour rather than the 45 minute sessions on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so I knew I had plenty of time. Since I felt like I’d missed out on my swim yesterday, and I was feeling strong, I decided to do two more sets of 250m to make it a full 1.5km!

    So that’s my first mile swim since starting back into swimming last year after a break! Yay me!

    Between my fab weigh-in results earlier breaking through the 230lb barrier into the 220’s this has actually been a really good day!

    Even though I have redundancy looming over me – as I said previously – controlling the things I can control definitely makes everything seem better!

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  • After a mild plateau – I finally broke through – under 230lbs!

    Ken

    ·

    Persistence pays off.

    I’m currently somewhat stressed about my recent “job restructuring” – as an example of how it’s affecting me I packed my swim stuff last night, went to the swimming pool for my regular Monday evening swim, and realised once I arrived that I’d left my swim bag at home! 😂 Easily done, especially when you’re over 20 hours into a 36 hour fast, but add in anxiety about your job and forgetting things due to distraction is perfectly understandable.

    Lane swimming at my pool is strictly a 45 min session on Monday, and I generally don’t allow myself much extra time to get changed, since I wear my swim gear and just have to peel everything off and put it in a locker. So by the time I got home and picked up my bag it would have been pointless heading back for what would have amounted to just a 20 or 25 minute swim.

    As I’ve said before, life gets in the way sometimes, and you just need to learn to roll with it. I’m definitely not going to beat myself up right now when life seems to be doing that quite handily all by itself! 😂

    But there are often silver linings to the darkest clouds, and this morning’s weigh-in was one of them. I was expecting to correct the 2.7lbs I put on while on business in Barcelona last week, but was delighted to see I’d done far more than that.

    My weight today – 16 St 4.4 lb (228.4 lb / 103.8 kg). That’s a loss since my last weigh-in of 5.1lbs! Even if you take out the 2.7lb I put on in Barcelona, that’s still a respectable 2.4lb lost this week.

    Progress Update • Week 14 – March 31, 2026 (from December 20th)

    16st 4.4lbs
    228.4 lbs | 103.8 kg
    Total Loss: 2st 1.5lbs (29.5 lbs / 13.8 kg)

    Exercise status: Nothing since last week!

    Fasting Status: First weekly 36-hour fast completed.

    Target: 12st 12lbs (180lbs) | Remaining: 48.4 lbs

    This takes me through the 230lb barrier into the 220’s, and I’m getting very close now to another really big milestone – a few more weeks like this, and I’ll be under 100kg!!!

    I’m now just shy of losing 30lbs in total since I started this program in December – actually 29.5 lb (13.4kg) to be exact.

    That also brings my average weight loss since December back to around 2.04 lb – still slightly behind my target of 2.56 lb per week but a very respectable average when you consider the business trips, birthdays, periods of illness, and other events that have gotten in the way. And remember this week’s weight loss when you account for the Barcelona trip was actually 2.4lb – very close to my 2.56 lb target.

    And if we look at my progress since diagnosis, that’s a grand total of 37.1lb (16.8kg). So I’ve now lost almost 14% of my body weight from diagnosis – and 10-15% is the target given by diabetic clinicians as the target weight loss required to reach type 2 diabetes remission!

    The landmark DiRECT study (Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial) showed that:

    • Loss of 10–15kg resulted in remission for 57% of participants.
    • Loss of 15kg+ resulted in remission for 86% of participants.

    Since I’ve now lost 16.8kg since diagnosis (37.1 lb), statistically, I am now in the “86% success” bracket for remission. I’m therefore now all the more excited to see the results of my self-administered HbA1c test from yesterday. While I posted it yesterday afternoon, it likely will take 48 hours at least to see the results back, but given my weight loss and my overall consistency with keto, fasting and exercise, I’m still confident that this will be somewhere under 60mmol/mol.

    I was speaking to a fellow type 2 diabetic yesterday, and they told me their HbA1c is currently at 52mmol/mol – they were very proud of themselves since they had cut out bread, pasta, potatoes, sugar etc, but went on to talk about still eating chocolates and desserts occasionally, as well as eating lots of fruit! They didn’t seem to be aware that many fruits – like bananas – are very high in sugar. For him 52mmol/mol was a blip, as he had been around 48 mmol/mol for his last two tests, and I can’t argue with him as long as he has no other symptoms. For me I will not be satisfied until I’m safely under 42 mmol/mol. I might allow myself to get over 42 on special occasions, with careful planning, but I will immediately be aiming to return to that sub 42 mmol/mol mark.

    Given my strict adherence to a much lower-sugar approach, combined with the fasting and exercise, which effectively burns out any glucose rapidly, I think getting into the low 50’s or even as low as high 40’s might well be achievable. Watch this space!

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  • Life gets in the way…with a baseball bat sometimes (at least it feels that way!)

    Ken

    ·

    I often half-joke about how life gets in the way of your best intentions, whether it’s sabotaging your diet or making it challenging to fast or exercise.

    In a recent blog, I also joked about how weight loss is like banking. When you are flush, you make deposits in your savings account (store fat), and when times are tough, you withdraw from your savings (burn fat and lose weight). I used the analogy of tough times, maybe when you’re unemployed.

    Last week, the universe decided it would be funny to test me by making me the target of a recent widescale “restructuring” effort at work. I was told last Monday that I’m being considered for redundancy. As I’m a director, this usually involves a “consulting” process, but they made me a conditional “enhanced offer” of a payout if I just left immediately, rather than making them go through the motions. So yes, unemployment beckons.

    I’m not counting myself out yet – there is a job available in an adjacent team which would seem like an ideal use of my skills and expertise, but I’m still waiting to hear back about that. And I’m not sitting around moping about it either. I also mentioned that I was due to go to a conference in Barcelona last week – I had joked about that being my “final boss” battle before a diabetic check-up I had scheduled for last Friday. That conference was an industry event that included most of my company’s competitors, and so I took the opportunity to put feelers out for potential job opportunities.

    I also managed to stick very closely to my eating plan, as well as fitting in a treadmill run at the hotel’s gym.

    The result was I only put on 2.7lbs (1.22kg) while away. Consider that on my last business trip to Paris just two weeks prior, I put on 6.1lbs (2.76kg). So this trip was far less damaging, despite my being extremely stressed due to my redundancy news. I’ll take that as a major win to be honest! As we’ve talked about before, this kind of short-term weight gain is not body fat, it’s just water and glucose and very much temporary. Regardless – consider that final boss’s butt well and truly kicked!

    The universe wasn’t quite finished throwing me under the bus. On Thursday last week, I got a message from my GP surgery telling me that my diabetic check-up had to be postponed until 5th May, which was also not ideal. I had been building up to this for many weeks now, as this was my 3-month check-in, and I was really excited to see how far I’d gone in putting my type 2 diabetes into remission.

    Again, rather than simply mope about that, I sent away for a home blood test kit, which arrived over the weekend. I’ll be taking my blood today and sending it back so I should get my results by the end of this week. I’ve used “Monitor My Health” blood tests before as they partner with the NHS and use their laboratories for the testing, thereby ensuring accurate results.

    I’m back to fasting today, and will be swimming later. I fully intend to stick to my routine as far as possible, despite the shadow of potential unemployment looming over me. Life does sometimes get in the way, and sometimes it can feel harsh. You can’t control everything that happens in life. But controlling the things that you can control is a great way to feel less a victim of the vicissitudes of life, and more like the author of your own story.

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  • What got you here won’t get you there

    Ken

    ·

    An important lesson I’ve learnt in life, that applies most especially to weight loss, is “what got you here won’t necessarily get you there”.

    This week my weight loss stalled for the first time since I began. I have seen my weight go up on occasions, like last week’s business trip to Paris where I put on 6.1lbs – but this was just water weight, and getting back on track reversed this immediately. I lost that 6 lbs in just three days with my very next 36hr fast.

    But since then I’ve had two 36 hour fasts, while maintaining my diet and exercise, and lost no further weight this week. It would be easy to get disheartened and feel like all your hard work is for nothing, but it’s important to be pragmatic about these things.

    The changes I initially made to my diet, exercise and fasting habits were great. From where I was at the beginning – 18 St 3.3 lbs (255.3 lbs / 116kg), these were very aggressive steps for combating type 2 diabetes and losing weight fast. And they worked. They were enough to see me lose over 26lbs (12kg) in 11 weeks.

    But as you’ve seen if you read my glossary of dieting terms and concepts page, the primary determinant of losing weight is a calorie deficit. Despite what many proponents of fasting, keto diets and exercise will tell you, there is no real magic to any of them. They only work because they bring you into a calorie deficit.

    Your calorie requirements are defined by your base metabolic rate or BMR, and by consuming fewer calories per week than you need to maintain your current weight, you cannot help but lose weight. Your body simply consumes the stored body fat to make up the deficit.

    Think of it like a bank. You make deposits in your savings account when you are flush with cash (storing body fat) and then maybe you are out of work for a week, so you withdraw your cash to survive (burning body fat).

    While a calorie deficit is the ‘withdrawal,’ keeping my insulin low through my keto diet and fasting is what keeps the ‘bank vault’ unlocked so I can actually access those fat stores easily.

    You can increase your deficit through exercise to an extent, since exercise raises your BMR, but there is only so much you can do. It’s a sad but true fact that exercise makes you hungry. Your body craves protein, vitamins and minerals to repair the damage done by progressive exercise. So it’s a balancing act – maintaining sufficient nutrition to support your body’s needs, while keeping the calories to a minimum.

    By losing weight, I’ve naturally reduced my BMR. It takes less energy for me to walk, stand, even sleep, with a body that weighs 16 St 7.8 lbs (231.8 lbs / 105.4 kg) than it did when I was 26lbs / 12kg heavier.

    Even though I’ve increased my activity somewhat, this is offset to a large extent by the additional efficiency of my cardiovascular system. So effectively, because of my BMR reduction, I now need 200-300 calories fewer per day than I did at the beginning.

    By continuing to eat the same meals week in and week out, I have naturally seen a gradual slowing of my weight loss.

    The only way to kick start this and keep my weight loss up is by reducing my calorie intake again. So over the next week or so, I’m going to be looking at ways to cut calories. There are some easy and quick wins for me. My breakfast omelette was often a 3 or 4 egg omelette, served up with 2 heck 97% pork sausages and 2 rashers of Finne Brogue Naked bacon (no nitrates). This always leaves me very full – maybe too full – so I’m going to be dropping this to 2 eggs and 1 slice of bacon/1 sausage. I also usually have mushrooms, red onions, spinach and a whole avocado with my omelette, as well as some cheese. I’m going to be reducing all of these as well.

    I also would have a smoothie on my eating days – 0% fat greek yogurt, frozen berries, a scoop of whey protein powder, flax and chia seeds, and another whole avocado! I’d also often add a spoonful of cashew butter and some dark chocolate. Most of this is fine, but my plan is to split my whole avocado – having half with my omelette and half in my smoothie (it makes for a really creamy texture!). I’ll also remove the cashew butter and dark chocolate. I generally have my smoothie with some keto hana granola, which is very healthy, but I’d often add a handful of mixed nuts – very healthy but very calorie-dense. So I’ll be reducing the nuts considerably.

    My dinners are probably the one thing that doesn’t need to change – typically an air fried chicken breast with veggies lightly fried in some Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce (remembering to keep Worcestershire to a light splash as it does contain some sugar).

    But I was getting to a point where my snack habit was a problem – I have been buying double-fried pork crackling, which is super keto-friendly, but also very calorie-dense. For texture, I’d also have a few slices of vintage cheddar cheese. I’m going to have to start reducing these, and I’ve recently bought some new Keto Hana granola bars, so these may replace my more caloric snacks entirely on some days.

    Just a few tweaks like these should result in a significant reduction in my weekly calorie intake, which in turn gives me a greater calorie deficit and should keep my weight loss moving at the same rate.

    I know I’m already fasting 3 x 36hrs a week, which is a lot – and these are the biggest contributors to my calorie deficit – but there’s no point in maintaining so much fasting if I then undo all that work by over-eating on my non-fasting days.

    So I just need to remind myself – what got me here won’t necessarily get me where I need to be – and adjust accordingly. As you’ve seen if you’ve been following my blog this is the first time I’ve considered reducing my intake in 3 months so it’s not something you need to do too often – but as you start to lose weight and get past 20-30lbs lost you should definitely keep track of your weekly weight loss and make sure you are still losing at the rate you want to.

    And the important thing is – it’s not about depriving yourself! You aren’t cutting calories to make you suffer! You are cutting calories because you’ve EARNED a new lighter body, which naturally needs less food to maintain its current weight, and therefore needs less food if you want to continue losing as rapidly as you have been. That is your BMR in action, and it’s what you want/need to meet your goals.

    It’s perfectly natural for weight loss to slow as you get nearer your target, but by keeping an eye on your new BMR, you can prevent this from becoming a frustrating weight loss plateau.

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  • The ups and downs of the long haul

    Ken

    ·

    Two days ago, I posted about my blood pressure vacillating. I’d seen some odd ups and downs – nothing to panic about necessarily, but still not great.

    Yesterday my BP was up again – my average reading was 144/93 with a 63bpm heart rate. Still concerning, but again not “panic stations”.

    Today, it’s back down again – 128/82 with 60bpm heart rate. My standing blood pressure was 119/82 85bpm – representing only a small dip in my systolic pressure. For someone with my history of crisis-level hypertension prior to medication, this is a super healthy reading, given I’ve recently halved my medication. Earlier in the week I saw a drop of 30 points from seated to standing so today is looking much better!

    There are so many factors that can impact your blood pressure, stress, activity/exercise, sleep (or lack thereof), diet and so on, and this is precisely why my GP tells me not to take my BP every day. I am only doing this currently because of the unexpected high readings this week, so seeing things return to a normal, healthy level is always encouraging.

    I’ll keep a track of things over the next few days until I see more stability – but these are useful data points to share with my GP when I have my quarterly diabetic check-up next Friday. The fact that it’s vacillating isn’t too surprising as my body adapts to its new weight and new medication dose, and I’m hopeful that my GP will agree that my current dosage is perfectly adequate.

    Since I’m continuing to stay on track with my diet, exercise, and fasting, my body should continue to adjust and get better at maintaining a healthy blood pressure.

    So that’s today’s good news – but as you’ve seen from today’s blog post title, there are ups and downs.

    The “bad” news isn’t that bad. I weighed in this morning and – no change. Of course, it’s not really bad news – I haven’t put any weight on – but it’s disappointing given that I’ve stuck to my usual routine: 3 x 36 hour fasts, my three swims (2 x 1.25km, 1 x 1km recovery swim), and two runs (2 min run / 1 min walk), while eating within my keto/DASH diet on my re-feeding days.

    Obviously, it’s always disheartening when you don’t see the scale move, but it’s not all about body weight. As we’ve discussed previously, body weight fluctuates for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with body fat. I saw a 6.1lb weight gain over a few days during a business trip to Paris last week, which then disappeared just as quickly when I got back on track this week.

    An aggressive plan like mine will put all kinds of stresses on my body and sometimes you just need to give it time to see the results. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and consistency is key. Especially now as I approach that diabetic checkup next week.

    That will be the real test – in many ways, that is far more important than losing a few pounds. I’ve already lost almost 34lbs (15kgs) since my diagnosis, which is approaching 13% of my starting body weight, the point at which “type 2 diabetes remission” is often seen, and crucially, I’ve stuck to my keto / DASH diet.

    Keeping my blood sugar low – through diet, exercise and fasting is my triple-whammy, gold-standard approach for getting to my type 2 diabetes remission, and I’m expecting to see a huge drop in my HbA1c, which was at 79 in December. Getting this down to under 59 mmol/mol will be a huge turnaround, although I’m secretly hoping to see a reading under 55 mmol/mol. By all measures, getting to under 55 mmol/mol in 3 months would be a massive clinical success.

    It’s definitely at the edge of what is achievable / has been seen in clinical studies, but it’s feasible that I could even see a drop to 48 mmol/mol, which is considered “pre-diabetes”, but is also the target given to type 2 diabetics looking to reduce their blood sugar before sesrious harm is done.

    Seeing readings 6 months apart of 48 mmol/mol without the support of diabetes medication is classed as “diabetic remission” for type 2 diabetics. To be fair, achieving a reading of 48 after just 3 months would be at the “staggeringly successful” end of the scale, but given how strict I’ve been with myself, I don’t want to rule it out.

    Anyway, no point getting too excited – I’ve got a big week ahead of me, I’m away this weekend seeing my partner up in Newcastle, and then I have a second business trip, this time to Barcelona. I really need to bring my “A” game for this final boss challenge, as my diabetic checkup is the day after I return from Spain. Fortunately, Spain is more famous for it’s savoury tapas than sugar-laden treats like those tempting French pastries, so hopefully it shouldn’t be too difficult to stay on track.

    Either way, I’m quietly confident that the results of my upcoming HbA1c blood test will be a huge vindication of everything I’ve done so far.

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