Castle Hedingham
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Low Carb Programme for the Colne Valley PCN

Weight Loss & The Colne Valley Low Carb Project

Are you interested in a healthy diet, weight loss, being able to put Type 2 diabetes or Prediabetes into remission? Then read on.

A new FREE Colne Valley PCN Low Carb Programme is now available to patients of Hedingham Medical Centre with a BMI of over 25, who are looking to lose weight or eat more healthily.  The six-week programme, delivered over Zoom,  will equip you with information, skills, tips and support to help you to adopt the low carb approach and help you to achieve your health goals. 
To find out more and book a place email: [email protected] 

OCTOBER 2021 NEW APP – Download the FRESHWELL LOW CARB PROJECT APP from your usual App Stores.

The App is a weight loss tool and a beginner’s guide to low carb. It includes basic information, a 6-week structured education course and a progress / tracker section. We hope that this will be helpful, both for people who prefer self-guided learning, but also, we hope that this can also assist with a coaching approach.

This app has been developed to complement our other existing low carb educational tools of our website, meal planner (2nd volume coming soon) & recently updated educational videos (the latter only available to patients of Colne Valley PCN at the current time). The Colne Valley PCN programme has so far achieved an average of 6kg weight loss per participant at 12 weeks. At Freshwell, around 60-70 of their patients have achieved remission of their Type 2 Diabetes so far, in addition to their patients achieving a collective weight loss on an industrial scale.

Please feel free to download it and see what you think. If you are reading this on your mobile phone, then please follow this link: www.lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/App-2. If you are reading this on a computer, then you can scan the QR code below with your mobile phone.

Low Carb Support Group

Get support and share your experiences, recipes and success with others following a low carb lifestyle in the Colne Valley PCN area.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/382235179606729

The clinicians here in the Colne Valley practices including Hedingham Medical Centre are becoming increasingly excited about the low carbohydrate lifestyle revolution. There is emerging strong scientific evidence for the benefits of this way of eating, which can also be a very effective means of losing weight. A low carb diet, similar to the traditional “Mediterranean diet” focuses on using natural ingredients and it tastes good. It is rich in healthy natural fats, nuts, meat, fish, pulses and vegetables.

Even for those not looking to lose weight there is scientific evidence to suggest that a low carbohydrate high fat lifestyle can reduce appetite and maintain a healthy bodyweight, reduce visceral fat (unseen fat which can coat organs such as your liver), benefit your blood cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of developing a number of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, dementia and cancer.

Even more excitingly, there is now increasingly strong scientific evidence showing that you can not only lose weight and clear fat out of the liver but also send Type 2 Diabetes into remission with this type of lifestyle. Many people have been able to stop their diabetes and blood pressure medication as a result of their weight loss and healthier lifestyle. Many of them are able to keep the weight off longer term as well.

In the six months leading to June 2019, we have recorded that 73 of our patients have lost 660lb (300kg) between them – that’s 9lb (4.1kg) average per person! Well done to all concerned and keep up the good work! It is amazing how many of these patients have told us how well they feel, with so much more energy than they had before.

We are pleased to announce our new website: www.lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk. It has been developed as a resource to help our patients to learn more about this healthy way of living. We are hoping that the “Colne Valley Low Carb Project” (developed with our neighbouring practices) will help spread the word amongst our community, so that they will be able to share information with each other about this lifestyle.

Our low carb website outlines a number of useful resources. In particular, we have found Dr Michael Mosley’s “8 Week Blood Sugar Diet” book a very useful resource. In this book, he advocates a low carb Mediterranean diet as a way of losing weight and sets out the health benefits that arise from this – especially the impact on Type 2 Diabetes and high blood pressure. This book can help anyone lose weight, not just diabetics. He explains the theory behind this way of eating in a way that is easy to understand. He also outlines his “8 week diet plan”, which is a “very low calorie diet” and a way of kick starting this lifestyle. Although it is quite extreme, it can be very effective if you are highly motivated. The accompanying “8 Week Blood Sugar Diet Recipe Book” is full of useful low carb recipe ideas.

If you suffer with any significant health conditions, particularly affecting the kidneys or liver or suffer with diabetes or high blood pressure – then please speak to a doctor or nurse before embarking on weight loss programs. This is especially important if you are on any medication because you may find very quickly that you no longer need this medication and should stop taking it so that your blood pressure or blood sugar does not drop too low. Please also discuss with a doctor first if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, under 18, if you have a past history of any significant mental health problem or any type of eating disorder. We will be only too pleased to hear of your plans and assist you through this stage.

Below, we have included a simple guide to get you started with your low carb lifestyle, written by Dr David Unwin, an experienced low carb GP in Southport. If you have any questions about any of this, then please book in with our Health Coach Sharon Withnell and if you have any success stories to share with us, we’d love to hear them!  Contact [email protected].

Self Referral and self-guided resources-colnevalleypcn.nhs.uk/local-support-advice

Dr Unwin’s Low Carb Mediterranean Lifestyle Sheet

 

Date published: 25th October, 2021
Date last updated: 22nd May, 2023