anyone tried intermittent fasting for diabetes?

[Hui Tang]

Hello! My cat is 10 yrs old. He was a big boy (23 lbs), all of sudden he lost 26% weight in January, his normal weight is supposed to be 17-18lbs, but this is not a "normal" way to get here. So I brought him to vet last week and it turns out he got diabetes. I did a lot of research online and came across this video on How to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally in human:

The concept is simple: insulin will not drain the extra glucose out of the body, instead it converts glucose into fat, so it won't "cure" the problem. Intermittent fasting, however, will help consume extra glucose and hopefully lower BG "naturally". The presenter sells his fasting packages which is very expensive, but there are many other resources on methods of intermittent fasting on internet. Has anyone here tried it on cats? How did it work? Thanks!

 

[Kris & Teasel]

I'm not aware of anyone here who has used it with their cat. There are people who have tried nutritional supplements and oral diabetes medications on their cat but it either didn't help or helped very little. Some cats can be diet controlled diabetics. If you want to try something before using insulin, slowly switch your cat to a canned food diet only (no dry food at all) and make sure the food is no higher than 10% carbs. Learn to test his blood glucose at home so you can monitor the effects of this diet change.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

The presenter sells his fasting packages which is very expensive,

Based on this it seems like a scam.
Yes, insulin helps convert some glucose to fat but also converts it to other needed nutrient. It is the excess glucose (not needed for needed for bodily processes) get converted to fat. Fat can be stored to be used later for energy.

 

[Sylvie]

cats are not humans! there is no way i would ever even consider fasting my cats for more than 12hrs, even the 12hrs i left them with no food to try and firm up their poops from 10pm-10am one week caused issues in some of our cats (throwing up bile, throwing up their breakfast food and just being plain out grumpy ones towards eachother).

https://healthypets.mercola.com/sit.../10/06/dietary-habit-for-overweight-pets.aspx

""The feline liver does not down-regulate during fasting and so there is less protein-sparing effect. Hepatic lipidosis can occur with as little as two or three days of fasting in a susceptible cat. So fasting should not be continued for more than a single day, if that long.""

 

[Hui Tang]

Thanks for all replied. Since last Wednesday, I have eliminated dry food completely from his meal (used to be buffet style), and only use wet food (%carb < 7).
Here is what I am doing in terms of fasting:
on a regular day: I feed him every 6 hrs (5AM, 11AM, 5PM, 11PM);
on a fasting day: I feed him every 8 hrs (7AM, 3PM, 11PM).
Each meal is ~3oz wet food. For every fasting day, there are 3 regular days in between for the first two cycles; and 2 regular days in between for the following cycles.
I won't fast my cats for 12 hrs.
I have discussed this with my vet and she agreed to let me try it for a month to see if BG drops. If yes, I'll continue with this plan, if there is no change, I'll start insulin on him.
Yesterday 2/9 was the first fasting day and he's doing fine. Next fasting days will be 2/13, 2/17, 2/20, 2/23, etc.
My vet told me to home test BG at the end of this week, and then twice a week in the following weeks.
I bought a accu-chek meter but haven't figured out how to use it.
A lot more to learn.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.

 

[Sylvie]

Thanks for all replied. Since last Wednesday, I have eliminated dry food completely from his meal (used to be buffet style), and only use wet food (%carb < 7).
Here is what I am doing in terms of fasting:
on a regular day: I feed him every 6 hrs (5AM, 11AM, 5PM, 11PM);
on a fasting day: I feed him every 8 hrs (7AM, 3PM, 11PM).
Each meal is ~3oz wet food. For every fasting day, there are 3 regular days in between for the first two cycles; and 2 regular days in between for the following cycles.
I won't fast my cats for 12 hrs.
I have discussed this with my vet and she agreed to let me try it for a month to see if BG drops. If yes, I'll continue with this plan, if there is no change, I'll start insulin on him.
Yesterday 2/9 was the first fasting day and he's doing fine. Next fasting days will be 2/13, 2/17, 2/20, 2/23, etc.
My vet told me to home test BP at the end of this week, and then twice a week in the following weeks.
I bought a accu-chek meter but haven't figured out how to use it.
A lot more to learn.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.

sound like a safe plan and i wouldn't consider that really fasting, more like the calorie restricted diet kinda like mentioned in that link..
just changing to all low carb wet and feeding that 3-4 times a day will make a difference in BG, cats seem to do better when getting small meals like that throughout the day.. good luck, i hope your plan works out for your kitty. what was his BG numbers btw??

this is the sticky for BG testing
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/
your meter manual should tell you how to use the accu-check version you have.

 

[Hui Tang]

sound like a safe plan and i wouldn't consider that really fasting, more like the calorie restricted diet kinda like mentioned in that link..
just changing to all low carb wet and feeding that 3-4 times a day will make a difference in BG, cats seem to do better when getting small meals like that throughout the day.. good luck, i hope your plan works out for your kitty. what was his BG numbers btw??

It was 400.

 

[Sylvie]

that is on higher side, he may very well need some insulin to get to lower numbers, low carb food/restricting diets can only do so much for lowering it but, maybe your kitty will be one of the lucky ones.. did you buy some urine test strip for testing glucose/ketone? if vet lab blood work or the ketone strips shows ketones in urine, i would personally start insulin sooner than later.

 

[Hui Tang]

that is on higher side, he may very well need some insulin to get to lower numbers, low carb food/restricting diets can only do so much for lowering it but, maybe your kitty will be one of the lucky ones.. did you buy some urine test strip for testing glucose/ketone? if vet lab blood work or the ketone strips shows ketones in urine, i would personally start insulin sooner than later.

Vet did urine test too. Glucose was 3+ but Ketone was negative. He's a sofa potato type - I am having a hard time to try to let him burn more calories by exercising more, he's just not interested in any toys, even laser pointer. In summer I can play fetch sticks with him outside, but in winter it's so cold here no one wants to go outside...