‘Tough’ reality of NHS soup diet – liquid meals, side effects and weight loss

A diet on the NHS has proved to help people lose a staggering amount of weight – but it requires weight-watchers to go to extreme lengths.

A new study has found that people who embark on the programme, known as the NHS ‘soups and shakes diet’, not only can expect to see significant weight loss, but it can also reverse their type 2 diabetes. The paper published in the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology said a third put their diabetes into remission whilst following the year-long programme.

It sees users kick-start their weight loss journey with a low-calorie “meal replacement” diet of soups, shakes and bars for the first 12 weeks. People are then encouraged to reintroduce healthy food and are supported to maintain their weight loss.

Tracey Mellish, from Derbyshire, is 10 months into the NHS Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission Programme. She knows just how gruelling it can be to live off liquid meals for weeks on end, but says the tough process is worth it as it’s changed her life.

Before joining, the mum-of-two had just come out of a divorce and says she was in ‘survival mode’. She wasn’t exercising, had no energy, and weighed in at 116kg (18 stone). In her diabetes review, she was told her HbA1c (the test that measures the amount of blood sugar attached to your hemoglobin) had risen to an alarming 59mmol/mol.

“I had decided that 2023 was going to be a new chapter for me – a time to sort myself out,” Tracey told the Mirror. “I didn’t want to be on medication anymore and I wanted to be healthy.”

The 53-year-old was supported throughout by health coaches, sessions with her diabetes practitioner, but despite this, it was a shock to the system. “I didn’t realise how hard it was going to be,” she admitted. “At first, I thought it was just a 12 week-diet, but the sessions, which are spread out across the year, helped me to recognise some habits and behaviours that needed changing.”

Tracey was forced to confront her habit of ordering takeaways and reducing her calorific alcohol intake. Now, she prefers to cook fresh meals and has cut out processed food. But going from junk eats to liquid meals was no mean feat.

“At the start I was hungry but I was drinking plenty of water, which took the hunger off a very difficult the first week,” she said. She got through it with the support of her close circle of family and friends and made herself the ‘designated driver’ on nights out so she knew she couldn’t drink with her pals, instead opting for water.

But the Greencore manager unfortunately experienced one uncomfortable side-effect from the overhaul to her diet. “During the total diet replacement (TDR) stage, I struggled with constipation and needed medication from the doctor, but other than this, I had no other side effects,” she admitted. “While I was on TDR, I had a lot of energy.”

As a self-confessed party animal, Tracey has managed to work her lifestyle around her new regime. It was important for her to keep up her active social life and has attended a hen party, 80s weekend, a wedding, holidays and trips to London whilst on the diet.

“If we went out for a meal, I had my shake beforehand, so I wasn’t tempted to eat; if we went out to party, then I was the designated driver which helped me to not drink,” she explained. “During the wedding meal, I went to my hotel room until the eating was over. It was hard, but I was determined, and the key was being organised and prepared before I went out.”

She has since lost 5st 2lbs, dropping from size 24 to 14/16. Tracey, who now goes to the gym four times a week, no longer needs to take glucose-lowering medication, with her HbA1c now at 39mmol/mol.

“The programme has completely and utterly changed everything for me, and people can’t believe the transformation,” Tracey added. “I have more confidence and the most rewarding change is how much more energy I have for my grandchildren. I used to be shattered after my 5-year-old grandson visited, but now I play football with him.”

NHS England said that the paper shows that its Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission programme could benefit “thousands” of people with the condition. It was announced earlier this year that the initiative will be rolled out across the whole of England this year, doubling the capacity of the programme.

The new study examined data on 7,540 people who took part in the programme between September 2020 and the end of 2022. Of these, some 945 completed a full year of the programme and had provided blood samples.

Among this group, 32 per cent had put their condition into remission – which was defined by average blood glucose (sugar) levels over a period of time, with an average weight loss of 15.9kg – with some achieving weight loss of up to 17.4kg.

Peter Jackson, 68, is another who managed to shift several kilograms thanks to the programme. He was told by his GP in 2021 that he was on the verge of type 2 diabetes, and was tipping 19 and a half stone at the time of his diagnosis.

“I had worked in sales for a tobacco company for over 43 years and although I retired in 2018, my habits were eating on the hoof,” he told the Mirror. “I had meetings and overnight stays across the country meaning my eating and socialising wasn’t very conducive to a healthy lifestyle.”

Finding out he was on the cusp of diabetes was a huge wake-up call, and he immediately cut out his favourite snacks and fizzy drinks. He lost his first stone quickly, and it was the first time in 15 years that he dropped to below 19 stone.

He embarked on the remission programme in the August, where he was limited to just 800 calories a day for the first three months. By the following November, he weighed in at 14 and a half stone, having lost a total of five stone.

“My routine was a shake in the morning, a soup at lunchtime, a shake in the afternoon and then a soup at teatime,” he explained. “I also had to drink two and a half litres of water throughout the day. It was quite strict, and I found drinking all that water the hardest thing to do, having not been much of a water drinker.”

By the winter, he weaned back onto real food and continued exercising, noticing that he was no longer out of breath when walking up the hill to his house. His HbA1c levels had come right down, while his blood pressure tablets were able to be reduced.

“The target I wanted to achieve after three months on the programme was 15 per cent weight loss,” he said. “Both myself and a couple of other people had reached our 15 per cent weight loss with about three weeks to go, but were encouraged to keep going until the end of the 12 weeks.

“It was visibly a lot of weight to lose and living in a small village, I noticed people looking at me and thinking I might be seriously ill. I would have to tell people not to worry and that I was on a managed NHS programme and feeling great.”

He has been in remission since he finished with the programme, and has since maintained a weight of 17 stone. “My personal target is 16 stone 7, which I feel will be my optimum weight,” he added. “That’s a goal for me to aim for but it’s ongoing and I just need to keep chipping away at it.

“The positive is that I’m still a couple of stone lighter than I was previously. It’s also about changing habits. I was never a person that would go out walking but now with having dogs, I do a lot of walking – they’re a great incentive to be out and about.

“I feel really proud about making these changes. I also feel very privileged to have been given that lifeline, and just from how people respond to meeting me in the street, they could see the effort and change that I’ve made and say how good I look for it.”

He warns others to be in the right mindset for the programme, with it taking a lot of effort and self-control. But he says “the benefits at the end are so great and worth all the challenges.”

Dr Clare Hambling, NHS England’s national clinical director for diabetes and obesity, said: “The NHS Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission Programme can have a huge impact on the lives of participants, and it’s brilliant that these findings show a large number of those who completed it have seen life-changing benefits including major weight loss and type 2 diabetes remission.

“We know obesity is one of the biggest threats to health in the UK and will be one of the biggest and most costly challenges for health systems globally, so seeing such encouraging outcomes from our programme shows that obesity can be tackled head-on, and we’re looking forward to scoping any further expansion to this programme in due course.”

Commenting on the study, Dr Elizabeth Robertson, director of research at Diabetes UK, said: “Diabetes UK is proud to have funded over a decade of research that has forged new frontiers for people with type 2 diabetes and put remission on the map.

“These latest findings add to the real world evidence that the NHS England Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission Programme can help thousands of people living with type 2 diabetes on their weight loss and remission journey, which we know is tough and having support is critical.

“We hope to see even more people benefiting in years to come and an increase in referrals to the programme especially for people recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and in younger people where the impact of type 2 diabetes and remission from it is greatest.”

Adults aged 18-65 can enrol on the programme 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 if they are white or over 25 if they are from Black, Asian or other minority ethnic groups.

Source: bing.com