The best way of getting someone to maintain a healthy lifestyle is to make it easy and enjoyable. This is at the heart of all we do.
Unhealthy living is caused by our environments, not individuals. We aim to design a way of life that can be achieved, from tasty enjoyable food, to behavioural change nudges to help stop those habits that lead us down the wrong routes.
We are a group of doctors, nutritionists and lifestyle specialists who grew frustrated with the increasing gap between what has long been widely accepted as “healthy eating”, and the latest evidence on what actually works.
Picking some of the most promising and studied areas of research, we started looking into what actually is healthy eating and started sharing it with patients and friends.
The results were incredible. From the start, it was clear that this was not just a weight-loss programme, but a whole-system reset of appetite and energy levels.
Since then, we have been sharing the message to help combat type 2 diabetes, obesity and other chronic diseases – areas described as the ‘greatest public health challenge of the 21st century’. Combined with focused, tailored and flexible lifestyle support, we have the expertise to help you achieve the right weight – for life.
We all have our own personal fat threshold, the point at which the extra fat you are carrying causes problems. Your fat threshold will be different to mine.
Your personal fat threshold depends not just on how much extra fat you have but also where it’s deposited. If, when you put on weight, that extra fat goes mainly on your bottom or thighs then this may not be where you want it, but it’s not dangerous.
The worst place to put on fat is round your tummy; abdominal fat infiltrates your internal organs, like your liver and your pancreas (which in turn control your blood sugar levels) and that is where your problems start.
I wrote the Blood Sugar Diet because, in 2014, I was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic. I was not particularly overweight, weighing about 189lbs (86kgs) and I didn’t look particularly fat, but that was because a lot of the fat I was carrying was internal. I was a TOFI, Thin on the Outside, Fat Inside. I went for a special MRI scan and as you can see from my picture below I had lots of fat (the white stuff) clogging up my internal organs.
“It was a shock when I discovered my blood sugar was raised, so I did some research and found that not only could I improve my diabetes, but I could actually reverse it.”
Rather than start on medication I went on the 5:2 diet (eat normally 5 days a week, cut your calories to around 600 calories – now 800 calories – for the other two days), lost 20lbs (9kgs) and reversed my diabetes.
I’m not exceptional. Studies carried out by Professor Roy Taylor and his team at Newcastle University have shown that losing 10-15% of body weight can reverse type 2 diabetes in 84% of recently diagnosed diabetics, and 50% of those who have been diabetic for more than 10 years.
If you are prediabetic, then losing belly fat is also important. Studies by the National Institutes of Health in the US have shown that if you can reduce your weight by just 7% you massively cut your risk of developing diabetes. Even modest weight loss can be helpful, particularly when it is combined with exercise.
So, perhaps it’s time to get started.”