{"id":22160,"date":"2025-02-13T05:35:39","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T06:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22160"},"modified":"2025-02-13T17:32:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T17:32:52","slug":"i-lost-8st-on-my-gps-low-carb-diet-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22160","title":{"rendered":"‘I lost 8st on my GP’s low-carb diet programme’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
11 hours ago<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Jamie Coulson<\/span><\/p>\n

Health Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

A diabetes patient who lost eight-and-a-half-stone on a low-carb diet recommended by her GP has said it “changed her life”.<\/p>\n

Sue Myerscough, 72, from East Morton, near Keighley, used to weigh 19 stone before taking part on the Type 2 diabetes “reversal programme” at her surgery.<\/p>\n

The eating plan, which involves cutting out foods like potato and pasta, is different to the standard NHS programme, which is based on a low-calorie approach. <\/p>\n

Dr Jackie Craven, who has helped almost 600 patients at the Modality Practice since introducing the low-carb programme six years ago, said they’d seen “fantastic results”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Mrs Myerscough has been living with Type 2 diabetes for 27 years and was struggling with mobility and pain when she began the course in February 2022.<\/p>\n

The GP-led programme helped her to lose six stone in the first year and eight-and-a-half-stone in total, leading to a reduction in medication and an improvement in her health.<\/p>\n

“I’m a different person,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I just celebrated my 72nd birthday and to be fair I felt 20 years younger than that because I was the old lady and now I’m not.<\/p>\n

“I’m able to walk, I’m able to go places I didn’t have access to before, and I can get up and play with the grandchildren, instead of being sat in a chair,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"SueSue Myerscough<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Type 2 diabetes causes the level of sugar in the blood to become too high, which increases the risk of serious problems with the eyes, feet, heart and nerves.<\/p>\n

Some people can control it by making lifestyle changes but the longer someone has it the more likely it is they will need medication.<\/p>\n

The diabetes “reversal programme” at the Modality Practice was initially a nine-month course but has since been reduced to three months.<\/p>\n

Patients are invited to group sessions where they learn about diabetes and which foods to eat and avoid as part of a low-carb diet.<\/p>\n

The aim is to achieve a diet of 40-60g of carbohydrate a day, where an average slice of bread is around 15g.<\/p>\n

It has helped 590 patients since it began in 2018, with 141 putting their diabetes into remission, according to the practice.<\/p>\n

Dr Craven said: “The average weight loss in three months has been 6kg,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It improves their diabetes control and there’s lot’s of other benefits as well, such as reduction in fatty liver disease, and psychologically patients feel a lot happier.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

The low-carb approach is different to the one taken by the NHS which supports suitable patients with a three-month diet replacement programme, where normal food is swapped for low-calorie soups, shakes and nutrition bars.<\/p>\n

After the initial 12 weeks patients are then supported to reintroduce healthy, nutritious food into their diet to maintain weight loss.<\/p>\n

The NHS has said its programme is “effective” and can work “successfully to improve people’s diabetes control”.<\/p>\n

However, Dr Craven said in her experience low-calorie diets “do work” but can be difficult to maintain because it is a “starvation diet”.<\/p>\n

“With the low-carb approach they feel fuller for longer with a high protein, high-fat diet”, she said.<\/p>\n

Dr Craven said the patients on their programme were closely monitored and the higher levels of fat in the diet had not led to problems.<\/p>\n

“On average, patients’ cholesterol levels were staying the same or reducing – and when we look at those patients whose levels had risen, the ‘bad fats’ have significantly reduced.” <\/p>\n

The charity Diabetes UK said: “Low-calorie diet programmes that include total meal replacement products and full support from a healthcare team have the strongest evidence for putting Type 2 diabetes in remission, but other approaches such as low-carb diets can also help some people lose weight and go into remission.”<\/p>\n

Mrs Myerscough said she was glad “to see the back” of the person she used to be.<\/p>\n

“Life is so good now – and life was so painful and so bad then, there’s no comparison,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I like my life now more than the food I don’t eat any more.”<\/p>\n

Listen to highlights from <\/i>West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, catch up with the latest <\/i>episode of Look North<\/i><\/a> or tell us a story you think <\/i>we should be covering here<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
More on this story<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Related internet links<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 hours agoJamie CoulsonHealth Correspondent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22160"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22166,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22160\/revisions\/22166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}