Intermittent fasting can completely reverse Type 2 diabetes

originally posted by: Kenzo

I also believe Intermittent fasting being very beneficial, not only diabetes but wide range of other levels too.

Autophagy is good , and Intermittent fasting can induce it.

Intermittent fasting is also powerful for against inflammation .

Fasting at least 14 hours/day solved most of my health issues - and I have far more energy.

I lost 20 lbs last year doing intermittent fasting plus cutting back all sodas and a reduction in calories most days. All my health numbers improved dramatically. Realized I’ve been doing intermittent fasting on my time off from work most of the time unless I had a night out already planned. My mother used to just tell me everyone else used to call it having brunch. I would sleep in past my normal breakfast time, not feel hungry, eat brunch later in the day. I never knew all those years I did that it was one of the healthiest things I did.

I have not lost weight this year. I increased my calories when eating out. I know if I want to lose more weight I need to either cut back calories, or do intermittent fasting while at work, or exercise more or some combination. I have been struggling with not sleeping the whole night and occasionally losing sleep.

Anyway I digress. I know intermittent fasting has a lot of health benefits but offers no money to doctors or drug companies so I do not expect doctors or drug companies to promote it. Everyone seems interested in making money. M@king patients healthy and rarely coming back is not good for their business. Fortunately I never became diabetic. I am against doctors automatically prescribing statins for elevated cholesterol when people can make healthy life style changes and not increase their chances of developing diabetes by taking a statin. I am not a doctor but did read that statins increase chances of developing diabetes and may lower testosterone levels in men all for a possible 1% lower risk of dying from elevated cholesterol. In my opinion national health care directives are terrible. Fasting, less sugar consumption, exercise should all be promoted over statins for someone who is otherwise healthy. I also believe here in the US, less sugar and less high fructose corn syrup should be added to everything we eat. It’s almost impossible not to consume it here. National health care here in the US has gone off the tracks decades ago in my opinion.

Intermittent fasting is great for helping to prevent diabetes along with cutting back sugar consumption and cutting back foods that quickly convert to sugar. I still eat a lot of bread though.

a reply to: Maxmars

As usual, great thread MaxMars, thanks for taking the time to share.. I too had heard that Type 2 diabetes was reversible, and indeed since being diagnosed in August, I managed to lose around 12kg, or 2 st, depending on your measurement units, now down to 100kg. Some way to go, but 'getting there'. I achieved this by completely eliminating processed carbohydrates, and by drinking around four-five litres of water per day.

I must admit, in the past month or so I have lapsed somewhat, but I'm determined to reverse the diagnosis, particularly because as it turns out, my doctors knew in August 2021 that I was diabetic - but they neglected to tell me! So I went on with my ridiculously unhealthy, high carb, high sugar diet for over a year until they decided to inform me of the diagnosis.

I had a very sweet tooth - I'm now in sweet tooth recovery, likely to be a lifelong process! Anyway, as you said, it reduces stress & worry to know that there's something we can do to counteract it. And of course, they put me on the medication too, hopefully that's helping...

Thanks again, I will definitely be incorporating this into my New Year strategy for continuing improvement & hopefully, a reversal of the problem. NB - I highly recommend drinking a lot of water to flush/detox the kidneys & liver, it adds a very noticeable rapidity to the weight loss & improvements in how you feel about yourself...

I was IF and only eating between 1-5pm, but I found it a lot easier to just do OMAD. I feel so much better eating this way. Sleep better, no heart burn, way less inflammation, stable blood sugar, etc. Sometimes I fall off the wagon for a bit but I miss how much better I feel so I always go back to it.

My mother has to watch her sugar and I've tried to get her to try it but she thinks you will die if you don't eat breakfast or 3 meals a day!

a reply to: JourneyAbout

I can never argue with success. It's difficult to refute, and I am happy that you found something that works for you.

But your Mom may be right, (at least for her.) Not everyone can perform to the same parameters, for many reasons including developmental age, emotional states, transient life circumstances... there's a lot to manage. But developing a digestive rhythm seems to be a good thing. I think, and this is just me saying, the idea isn't so much about what you eat (within reason) but how much and when. We may need to learn to stop thinking of our bodies as a 'useful tool' and more as a 'partner and friend.'

I think the key here is that you don't spend all day eating, eating as a practice of misery, or indulging every tiny whim for a taste in your mouth. Eating all day may work towards maintaining energy levels, depriving yourself of any sense of satisfaction ('martyr/sacrifice' dieting) might address your sense of 'food guilt', minimizing our instinctual tendency to gorge might lessen the physical stress of bad diet. But these, in and of themselves, represent a departure from nature.

Isolating a period of time in which your body can focus on digestion, the conditioning to hydrate, work, sleep without that overriding digestive workload seems beneficial.

I don't think I could be comfortable with a 4-hour window to eat. But then I am not you. Kudos.

For the majority of people losing ten to twenty pounds can reverse diabetes if they are overweight. There are quite a few people here who have had diabetes and pre-diabetes diagnosed and have changed their diet away from highly processed foods and have corrected their blood sugar problems along with losing weight and getting more energy to do stuff. It doesn't cure diabetes risk, just helps it to be controlled without medicine. Those that return back to a junk food diet get it back. They say it does not mean you have to eat all healthy, just about eighty percent decent food.

If the diabetes goes too long or far, it doesn't seem like it works to do this anymore. Long term it must damage parts of some organs resulting in metabolic issues.

The wife was in a pre-diabetes group years ago and most of the women there did pretty good, some of the women with diabetes got off of meds. It ended about two years ago but they still meet and gossip almost every week, usually either packing a healthier lunch when they go to the park in the summers or they go to a local restaurant and eat healthier choices there. I call it her fat club, it keeps her from eating tasty highly processed foods at the restaurant...the other husbands say the same thing to their wives I guess. A Small taco salad at Border Grill or homemade soup with a roll at another restaurant is a little healthier than a Pizza anyway

I'm going into my fourth decade of dieting.

I was repeatedly told never to skip a meal.

There was so much unproven and essentially made-up bad information about nutrition you have to wonder if it wasn't done on purpose to make people overweight and sick

a reply to: Daughter2

I often share your cynicism.

Being older I have heard a lot of "bad information" handed out over the years. Most of it wasn't malicious, just ignorant.

But in either case, the damage is done.

I speak with youngsters who scoff at my declarations about the 'fallibility' of medical 'science'... they have no idea.

a reply to: Maxmars

The leading cause of diabetes is diet and exercise. Full stop. Diabetes is very much a huge issue for western society where we are overly sedentary, over eat beyond words, consume food that is so unhealthy it's ridiculous, and most can't even stop chugging soda or fast food even when we all know it is horrible for you.

If you are diagnosed with diabetes (blood tests and all) and you decide to embrace intermittent fasting then get ready to experience a good old fashioned diabetic coma. Not eating does not and can not cause your body to start absorbing sugar again properly. It will, however, cause your sugar levels to drop so low that you'll pass out and slip into a coma.

a reply to: MaineLakes


The OP is talking about type 2 diabetes , so i dont understand why you claim intermittent fasting can cause diabetic coma?

Keto + intermittent fasting will reverse T2D fast. Eating your usual dose of carbohydrates and sugar with intermittent fasting does not reverse it. They are like gasoline (cause) to the fire (T2D) in your body.

I stopped taking my medications (blood pressure, metformin, statin) after a few days into keto.

a reply to: Creep Thumper

Type 1 vs Type 2.

Type 2 can be cured.

Type 1 cannot.