Patients have shared their weight loss successes thanks to the NHS’s gruelling ‘soups and shakes’ diet, as a major study found the 800-calorie diet could reverse diabetes in a third of patients.
A 47-year-old man described the diet as “a 100 percent life-changing experience.” It helped him lose 60 pounds in just four months. This transformation allowed him to stop taking his diabetes medications.
The patient is still diabetes-free eight years later. Another fan of the plan lost two stone, which made her diabetes disappear within six months.
However, it’s not all success stories: the latest data shows that only one in ten people who try the diet stick to it.
Some people who struggled with the diet told MailOnline that they gained more weight after going off the diet.
Social 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 the people who has had success is Marie Laing from Frome in Somerset.
She told BBC Radio Somerset she had lost more than 60 pounds on the diet after other options failed.
“The GP suggested I try this after I had tried other things myself and it didn’t work. I am very grateful to him for that,” she said.
‘This remission program is not a diet – it’s a lifestyle change. Learning about your body, how food affects you, why you crave food, how to exercise… and it doesn’t stop you from having anything.
‘I can move better now and I can spend time with my children and family again. I can be outside and do things that I enjoy.’
Mrs Laing added: ‘It’s not easy, but it’s worth it to get your life back.’
One Brit who is tackling the strict diet in a new way is social worker Faraza Anderson.
Ms Anderson, 43, used selfies of her ‘bloated’ face and stomach as motivation to continue the diet.
And it seems to have worked: the 43-year-old man went into remission from his diabetes six months later.
Mrs Anderson, from Edgbaston in Birmingham, weighed 12st 4lb (7.5kg) when she started the diet but is now down to just 10st (7.5kg).
She said: ‘The photo I had saved on my phone was one I would normally delete straight away.
“But it inspired me because I would do absolutely anything to reverse my type 2 diabetes and no longer have to take medication for a serious condition.”
“I am very happy that I no longer have diabetes.”
Another success story is that of Kieran Ball, 47, from Morpeth in Northumberland. He previously told this website that the diet helped him lose over 60 pounds and put his diabetes into remission.
The then 47-year-old man said that even eight years after going off the diet, he no longer needed medication for the condition.
Mr Ball, a father of two, was involved in the original trial of the diet and said it had changed his life 100 per cent.
Kieran Ball, 47, from Morpeth in Northumberland, entered the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial in 2014 and has been in remission for eight years
His battle with type 2 diabetes began in September 2013, after he was diagnosed with it during a routine blood test while in hospital being treated for kidney stones.
A year later he joined the soup and shake diet experiment, and he owed it to his two children that they had motivated him to join.
The original trial lasted just four months, with Mr Ball describing the first seven weeks of low-calorie meal replacements as ‘horrible’.
“I slept a lot and isolated myself from my family when they ate,” he said.
However, he said that as he got through this period, he began to see its impact.
“My body kicked in and I saw the benefits, which changed my mindset,” he said.
At the end of the four-month diet, Mr. Ball had lost 50 pounds.
And a year later, his blood sugar levels were back to normal and it was confirmed that his diabetes was in remission.
Although Mr Ball says his weight has increased slightly in the intervening years, he is still in remission from his diabetes eight years later.
“It’s amazing that I still benefit from what I experienced all those years ago,” he said.
‘It has completely changed the way I think and eat. I don’t deny myself anything, but I listen to my body now. If it tells me I’m full, I do something about it, I don’t push through, no matter what.
“The study is also positive for my family. By supporting me, they have become healthier because of the changes we have made in the house, so there are a kind of domino effect.”
In this program, participants are fed a low-calorie, yet nutritious soup and shake diet, totaling approximately 800 calories per day, for 12 to 20 weeks.
They also receive support from a nurse or dietician to reintroduce healthy eating and maintain weight loss. In addition, medications for type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure are stopped if they are deemed safe.
Previous studies, supported by the late Dr. Michael Mosely, have shown that half of people with type 2 diabetes can reverse the condition if they stick to the diet, provided they keep the weight off afterwards.
But not all patients found the soup and shake diet successful in the long term.
Lynne Lewis, 70, from Pontypool in South Wales is someone for whom the benefits of the diet were only temporary.
She was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2009 and started the diet in 2015. She developed 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 levels had dropped and she was enjoying success.
“I was a size 22 and I’m down to a size 12 now,” she said. “I was able to get off metformin completely,” she recalled.
In 2018, everything changed when her beloved husband John passed away.
“The grief made everything go out the window,” she said.
MEET: Lynne Lewis regained the weight she lost on a low-calorie diet after her husband’s death
Lynne Lewis with her husband Thomas John Lewis circa 2012
She struggled with the loss of a loved one, the pounds piled back on and her blood sugar levels reached diabetic levels again.
“I’m now a size 16, my blood sugar is high and I’m back on diabetes medication,” she said.
“If my husband hadn’t died, I might have kept going. But it’s all my fault.”
The first analysis of the NHS’s implementation of the soup and shake diet has found that a third of diabetes patients who followed the diet for a year lost weight and saw their symptoms disappear.
Experts say it shows that obesity can be tackled “head-on” through lifestyle changes alone, resulting in “life-changing benefits” for patients.
However, only 12 percent of those who started the strict diet stuck with it for a year.
This means that in total, only 3 percent of patients who tried the diet actually achieved the desired results.
In May, NHS chief Amanda Pritchard announced a £13m expansion of the scheme as part of a radical NHS drive to tackle obesity and related conditions.
Since its launch in 2020, more than 25,000 people have been offered the service, costing around £1,100 per person. It is expected that another 50,000 people will sign up in England over the next five years.
Adults are eligible if they have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the past six years and have a BMI of over 27, or over 25 if they are from an ethnic minority group.
Nearly 4.3 million people were living with diabetes in 2021/22. And another 850,000 people have diabetes without knowing it, which is worrying because untreated type 2 diabetes can lead to complications including heart disease and stroke.
There are around 5 million people in the UK living with diabetes, with an estimated 850,000 people unaware they have the condition.
A recent report from Diabetes UK has revealed a staggering 39 percent increase in type 2 diabetes in people under 40. This trend has been attributed to rising obesity rates.
There is no cure for neuropathy associated with diabetes. However, there are medications available to treat the symptoms it causes.
Problems with the nerves that sense pain in the feet are one reason diabetics are advised to check their feet regularly. They may not be able to sense wounds that could become dangerously infected.
