I used to be a very large person, I weighed 23 stone,
which is about 340 pounds. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes
two and a half years ago and I decided I needed to do
something about it. My name is Marc,
I'm a 56 year old ex-banker. I was born in London,
lived in London for nearly all my life and then moved to France for three years
and now live on the South Coast of the UK , near a place called Worthing. I'd already started goggling about diabetes because I thought that was
what was going to happen and I found the diabetes.co.uk website
and the forum there and I started reading about how other
people were dealing with their type 2. And from what I read, everyone who went on a low-carb diet
seemed to have the best success rates. So I thought,
"Well, it's time to give this a go".
The hardest thing in the beginning probably
was giving up crusty bread. I'd lived in France for a few years
before my diagnosis and used to eat a lot of croissants
and freshly baked baguettes. It was hard to give up, but I realized,
"It doesn't do me any good" and it sets all sorts of triggers
for kind of compulsive eating, so I just avoid it altogether now. So I met with a diabetes nurse that told me
who I was on the road to having insulin, my HbA1c was going to get worse. When I went back to see her
three months later, she said, "Oh, your HbA1c
has come down quite a lot. That must be the metformin doing that." I was very pleased to tell her that
I had stopped taking them after three weeks and hadn't taken them since and that
actually I was completely diet controlled.
And she was sure I was talking rubbish. I thanked her actually, because I said, "You made me so angry when I first met
you "that I decided to do something about it myself
rather than listening to what you were saying. So it's kind of partly down to you…
what I have achieved". My friends and family were a bit stunned
when I started losing weight and especially the speed of it,
because it was quite quick.
And some other friends,
in fact we were seeing on Sunday, they've started cutting
their own carbs down. And I try and evangelize about it
as much as I can and it seems that people
are starting to listen. Well, I think, obviously
it's been very good for me and I've lost weight and I am healthier. After one year on keto
I suddenly got this burst of energy. We were on holiday in the Canary Islands. I woke up and thought,
"I want to go the gym." And the hotel had a gym and for the first time in 10 years
I went on a running machine and ran. My advice for anyone who wants to start
low-carb diet is to just do it. It's not going to cause you any harm
and it may do you a whole lot of good. So I think it's a great idea for anyone. If they can get their mind around the fact
that it's going to do them good, it's going to be beneficial to their health,
what have they got to lose?
