The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes

A new become aware of about has found that a “fasting-mimicking diet” can lead to weight loss, better kidney function, and enhanced diabetes control.

Study participants spent five consecutive days of every month eating as little as 717 calories per day, intended to “mimic” fasting (without actually fasting). Then they went back to their regular diet for the next 25 days, before starting one other 5-day fasting-mimicking session, for a total of 6 fasting sessions in 6 months.

First, a warning – we definitely require to take this learn about with a big grain of salt. It’s been published online only in pre-print form; it hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed or accepted by a reputable medical journal. It also seems to have been funded, at least in part, by a business hoping to sell its own fasting-mimicking diet plan.

Such a study may not typically be newsworthy, but we thought the concept was worth exploring, particularly given how much interest there is in the diabetes community in the subject of intermittent fasting. When we’ve studied the topic in the past, we’ve concluded that intermittent fasting has the potential to really facilitate women and men with both diabetes and weight loss. But some dieters find skipping snacks and meals uncomfortable. Perhaps a fasting-mimicking diet – in which calories are carefully controlled, but no actual fasting needs to occur – provides a solution?

The specific diet has been explained in more detail elsewhere, such as this profile in US News & World Report. The diet consisted of roughly:

• 10% of calories from protein
• 40% of calories from fat
• 40% of calories from carbohydrates

Study participants used pre-packaged vegan foods provided by L-Nutra. There’s no way to tell if the animal-free quality of the food was important or not, or even if the precise macronutrient distribution was important.

The new study is just one of many studies to show that caloric restriction can benefit people with diabetes. While the present study concentrated mostly on measures of kidney position – which the diet intervention was found to revise – researchers also tracked weight loss, body composition, and measures of insulin resistance.

After 6 months, the doctors found that:

• Average body weight decreased from 211 lbs to 189 lbs.
• Average BMI improved from 31 to 27.7
• A1C improved from 8.1% to 6.7%
• HOMA-IR improved from 6.4 to 2.6

Only a few months ago, we wrote about another diet showing terrific potential for weight loss and treatment of type 2 diabetes: This High-Protein, Low-Calorie Diet Can Beat Type 2 Diabetes. Would it Work for You?

That article examined a study in which obese adults with type 2 diabetes were asked to consume a low-calorie diet (850-1100 kcal) that was both low in carbohydrates (<50g per day) and high in protein (110-120g). After 12 weeks, participants experienced impressive weight loss and metabolic health improvements.

Given what we already realize about type 2 diabetes remission – that it is most commonly achieved through significant weight loss, either with or without surgical intervention – it is unsurprising that an extreme calorie counting diet would have great outcomes. But it might be welcome news to learn that you don’t necessarily need to count calories every day to see results.

But is it sustainable?

There’s another important warning with the study: once it concluded, the participants gained back much of the weight they’d lost. Researchers checked in 3 months after the end of the diet intervention, and the dieters that had been on the fast-mimicking diet gained back about 11 of the 22 pounds they’d originally lost. By contrast, the dieters on the control group who tried a Mediterranean diet actually continued to lose weight after the trial!

The researchers also learned that most of the benefits of the diet had waned, including the measures of kidney function improvement. Measures of glucose control were better than at baseline, but no longer statistically significant. (The improvement in insulin sensitivity did remain significant even after 3 months.)

It’s also worth noting that a handful of participants dropped out over the course of the study. Maybe they weren’t capable to keep up with the fasting-mimicking regimen.

These results aren’t surprising: most diets fail. And most obesity researchers believe that crash diets are an especially bad idea because they don’t set dieters up for future success. Dieting authorities almost unanimously recommend gradual weight loss rather than rapid weight loss.

The science isn’t perfectly clear on this: there is some evidence that crash diets create good long-term results. And it is well-established that significant caloric restriction can rapidly improve glucose management and metabolic health in type 2 diabetes.

You should always speak to your medical provider before trying a new diet, especially an extreme diet like the fasting-mimicking diet. Big dietary changes could easily necessitate adjustments to your medication and insulin use, which would be best accomplished with medical supervision.

Takeaways

We already knew that caloric restriction can really help people with type 2 diabetes, leading both to weight loss and improved glucose management.

A fasting-mimicking diet may work for the same reasons, allowing dieters to enjoy big benefits while undergoing concentrated periods of extreme dieting, and eating regularly the rest of the time. If this eating pattern appeals, keep an eye unbolt for more news on fasting-mimicking diets. It’s a new trend, driven mostly by one company hoping to sell expensive meal replacement kits. But if it catches on there may soon be multiple protocols to choose from.

However, be aware that fasting-mimicking diets may not be sustainable on their own. There may be some rare people with diabetes that can happily endure regular 5-day fasting-mimicking diets for the foreseeable future. But for most of us, an intermittently extreme diet like this one probably isn’t a long-term solution. Before starting any crash diet, it might be wise to plan a pivot to a more sustainable diet so as not to backslide into old habits.

Diabetes Daily

The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes