Patients have shared their weight loss triumphs on the NHS’s gruelling ‘soups and shake’ diet, as a major study finds that the 800 calorie regime can reverse diabetes in a third of patients.
One 47 year-old man described the diet as ‘100 per cent life changing’, helping him shed three stone in just four months, a transformation that allowed him to ditch his diabetes drugs.
The patient is still diabetes-free, eight years later. Another fan of the plan lost two stone, which saw her diabetes reversed within six months.
However, it’s not all success stories, with the most recent data showing just one in 10 people who try the diet can stick to it.
Some of those who’ve battled with the plan have told MailOnline they piled on even more pounds after the diet was finished.
Community worker Faraza Anderson took the most unflattering photo of herself she could imagine, left. Six months later she had lost weight and her type 2 diabetes was in remission. Her weight went from 12st 4lb to 10 stone
One of those to find success is Marie Laing, from Frome in Somerset.
She told BBC Radio Somerset she lost more than 3st on the diet after other options had failed.
‘The GP suggested I try this after I’d tried other things myself and hadn’t succeeded, and I’m really grateful,’ she said.
‘This remission programme isn’t a diet – it’s a lifestyle change. Learning about your body, how food impacts you, why you crave food, how you should exercise… and it isn’t stopping you having anything.
‘It’s improved my exercise and being able to be with my children and family, and being out and about and doing things that I love.’
Mrs Laing added: ‘It’s not easy, but it is well worth it to be able to have your life back.’
One Brit with a novel way of combatting the gruelling nature of the diet is community worker Faraza Anderson.
Ms Anderson, 43, used selfies of her ‘bloated’ face and stomach as motivation to keep going with the diet.
And it appears to have worked with the 43-year-old entering diabetes remission just six months later.
Ms Anderson, from Edgbaston in Birmingham, had weighed 12st 4lb at the start of the diet but is now down to just 10st.
She said: ‘The photo I saved in my phone was one I would normally delete immediately.
‘But it inspired me because I would have done absolutely anything to reverse my type 2 diabetes and avoid having to take medication for a serious condition.’
‘I’m really glad that I no longer have diabetes.’
Another success story is Kieran Ball, 47, from Morpeth in Northumberland, who previously told this website that the diet helped him lose over 3st and put his diabetes in remission.
The then 47-year-old said even eight years after stopping the diet, he no longer needs to take medication for the condition.
Mr Ball, a father of two, was involved in the original trial of the diet, and said it had been 100 per cent life-changing’.
Kieran Ball, 47, of Morpeth in Northumberland, started the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial in 2014 and has been in remission for eight years
His battle with type 2 diabetes started in September 2013 after he was diagnosed during a routine blood test while being treated in hospital for kidney stones.
He then joined the trial of what would become the soups and shakes diet a year later, crediting his two children for motivating him to take part.
The original trial lasted just four months, with Mr Ball describing the initial seven weeks of low-calorie meal replacements as ‘horrendous’.
‘I slept an awful lot and separated myself from my family when they ate,’ he said.
However, he said getting over this period allowed him to start to see the impact it was having.
‘My body just kicked into gear and I saw the benefits, which changed my mindset,’ he said.
By the end of the then four-month diet, Mr Ball lost 3st and 7lbs (22kg).
And one year later, his blood sugar levels were in the normal range and his diabetes was confirmed as being in remission.
While Mr Ball said his weight has increased slightly in the intervening years, he is still in remission for diabetes eight years later.
‘It’s amazing that what I went through all those years ago is still benefiting me today,’ he said.
‘It has completely changed the way I think and eat. I don’t deny myself, but I listen to my body now. If it tells me that I’m feeling full, I do something about it, I don’t plough on regardless.
‘The study has been positive for my family too. By supporting me they’re healthier because of the changes we made in the house, so there are these ripple effects.’
Under the regime, participants are given a low-calorie, nutrient-complete soup and shake diet, totalling around 800 calories per day, for between 12 and 20 weeks.
They also get support from a nurse or dietitian to reintroduce healthy foods and maintain weight loss, while medications for type 2 diabetes and blood pressure are stopped if deemed safe.
Backed by the late Dr Michael Mosely, previous studies found that half of people with type 2 diabetes can reverse the condition if they adhere to it, so long as they then keep the weight off.
But not all patients found the soup and shake diet to be successfulin the long term.
Lynne Lewis, 70, from Pontypool in South Wales is one person for whom the diet’s benefits were fleeting.
She was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2009 and started the diet in 2015 after experiencing diabetes-related cataracts and poor circulation in her toes, which can be a precursor to nerve damage and amputation.
But after eight weeks on the diet, her blood sugar had dropped, and she was enjoying the success.
‘I was a dress size 22 and I went down to a 12,’ she said. ‘I was able to come off metformin completely,’ she recalled.
Then in 2018, everything changed with the death of beloved husband John.
‘The grief meant everything went out the window,’ she said.
DISHEARTENED: Lynne Lewis regained the weight she lost on the low-calorie diet after her husband’s death
Lynne Lewis with her husband Thomas John Lewis in around 2012
Grappling with the loss of a loved one, she piled back on the pounds and her blood sugars entered the diabetic range once again.
‘I’m now a dress size 16, my blood sugar is high and I’m back on diabetes medication,’ she said.
‘If my husband hadn’t died, maybe I’d have managed to stick at it. But it’s completely my fault.’
It comes as the first analysis of the NHS’s implementation of the soup and shake diet found that a third of diabetes patients who followed the diet for a year lost weight and saw their symptoms disappear.
Experts said it shows obesity can be tackled ‘head-on’ through lifestyle changes alone, resulting in ‘life-changing benefits’ for patients.
However, only 12 per cent of those who embarked on the brutal diet managed to stick to it for a full year.
It means that, in total, only 3 per cent of patients who tried the diet actually achieved the desired result.
In May, NHS head Amanda Pritchard announced a £13million expansion of the plan as part of a radical NHS drive to tackle obesity and related conditions.
Costing around £1,100 per head, more than 25,000 people have been offered it since its launch in 2020 with a further 50,000 expected to sign up in England over the next five years.
Adults are eligible if they have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the last six years and if they have a body mass index score of over 27, or over 25 if they are from minority ethnic groups.
Almost 4.3 million people were living with diabetes in 2021/22. And another 850,000 people have diabetes and are completely unaware of it, which is worrying because untreated type 2 diabetes can lead to complications including heart disease and strokes.
Approximately 5million people in the UK are living with diabetes, of which an estimated 850,000 are unaware they have the condition.
A recent report from Diabetes UK suggests there has been a staggering 39 per cent rise in type 2 diabetes in people under 40 in a trend that’s been blamed on rising obesity levels.
There is no cure for neuropathy linked to diabetes, however drugs are available to combat the symptoms it causes.
Problems with nerves that help detect pain in the feet is one reason that diabetics are advised to check their feet frequently as they may not feel wounds that can become dangerously infected.
