It’s so satisfying to see hard work pay off with superb results.
More than seven hundred people joined in the 21st round of the Data-Driven Fasting Challenge (25 February to 26 March 2023).
The community in the DDF challenges are a wonderful blend of newbies just starting out, others coming back to continue their journey and long-term DDFers coming back for a tune-up.
Check out these amazing results from the latest round of the challenge in terms of reduced:
- weight
- premeal glucose
- waking glucose, and
- body fat.
The Data-Driven Fasting app works as a dashboard for your metabolism, enabling you to monitor and manage the most critical parameters for answering the most vital questions in nutrition:
- ‘When should I eat?’ and
- ‘What should I eat?’
Not only do we use our glucose as a fuel gauge to guide when we need to eat, but also what we need to eat to fuel our bodies and keep us satisfied.
Weight Loss
DDF has shown itself to be an incredibly effective way to lose weight without the hassle of tracking your food.
Weight loss doesn’t always go in a straight line. But if you have a few days off, you can get back on and follow the guidance of your blood glucose to catch up.
The table below shows the weight loss leaderboard (ranked by % weight loss). As you can see, there was tremendous weight loss in just four short weeks!
| name | start (lbs) | finish (lbs) | change (lbs) | % |
| Rod | 264 | 247 | 17 | 6.4% |
| Trish | 232 | 218 | 14 | 6.2% |
| Tracy | 147 | 138 | 9 | 6.1% |
| Susan | 155 | 147 | 9 | 5.7% |
| Marta | 146 | 138 | 8 | 5.6% |
| Steve | 175 | 165 | 10 | 5.6% |
| John | 211 | 200 | 11 | 5.4% |
| Brian | 155 | 147 | 8 | 5.2% |
| Cheryl | 175 | 166 | 8 | 4.8% |
| Tara | 203 | 194 | 10 | 4.7% |
| Sandra | 201 | 192 | 9 | 4.6% |
| Jamie | 239 | 228 | 11 | 4.6% |
| Beata | 162 | 155 | 7 | 4.5% |
| Andreas | 206 | 196 | 9 | 4.5% |
It’s all the more fun to do it in a supportive community, with everyone on the same journey and learning together.
Premeal Blood Glucose
While most people focus on their glucose after they eat, managing your pre-meal blood is the best way to guide your weight loss journey. Waiting until your glucose is just a bit lower than normal (for you) ensures you’re drawing down on your stored glucose and fat in your body.
| name | start (mg/dL) | finish (mg/dL) | change (mg/dL) | % |
| Marta | 130 | 72 | 58 | 45% |
| Philip | 159 | 101 | 58 | 36% |
| Tracy | 153 | 97 | 56 | 36% |
| Carolyn | 304 | 194 | 110 | 36% |
| April | 142 | 93 | 49 | 35% |
| Colleen | 129 | 85 | 44 | 34% |
| Cheryl | 124 | 85 | 40 | 32% |
| Angela | 102 | 72 | 30 | 29% |
| Pema | 100 | 71 | 29 | 29% |
| Debra | 128 | 92 | 36 | 28% |
| Vess | 112 | 81 | 31 | 28% |
| Gwyn | 127 | 92 | 35 | 28% |
Note: To convert mg/dL to mmol/L, divide by 18.
Some people with elevated glucose see their blood sugars fall quickly. However, you don’t have to decrease your glucose that much to make progress. Instead, it’s all about chipping away at your premeal trigger, learning to wait until you’re hungry and need to refuel.
Waking Glucose
As the participants in the DDF Challenge learn to manage their pre-meal blood glucose, their weight, waist:height ratio, post-meal, and waking glucose fall into place. It’s exciting to see so many people move from the prediabetes range to healthy normal blood glucose quickly!
In a world awash with Type-2 Diabetes and metabolic syndrome, we’re thrilled to see many people see such massive improvements in waking glucose.
| name | start (mg/dL) | finish (mg/dL) | change (mg/dL) | % |
| Dave | 180 | 97 | 83 | 46% |
| Isabel | 108 | 70 | 38 | 35% |
| Jeannina | 102 | 71 | 31 | 30% |
| Nikos | 102 | 71 | 31 | 30% |
| Michelle | 106 | 74 | 32 | 30% |
| Katie | 127 | 89 | 38 | 30% |
| Carolyn | 317 | 225 | 92 | 29% |
| Annemarie | 122 | 88 | 34 | 28% |
| Trish | 106 | 77 | 29 | 27% |
| Sue | 101 | 74 | 27 | 27% |
| Anne | 124 | 91 | 33 | 27% |
| Morgan | 96 | 71 | 25 | 26% |
| Toni | 119 | 88 | 31 | 26% |
| Heath | 132 | 99 | 33 | 25% |
Post-Meal Glucose
As people chase a lower premeal glucose, their post-meal glucose follows along. The table below shows the change in after-meal glucose levels before and after the four-week challenge.
| name | start (mg/dL) | finish (mg/dL) | change (mg/dL) | % |
| Annelies | 166 | 86 | 79 | 48% |
| Lu | 198 | 104 | 94 | 47% |
| Roxanne | 102 | 61 | 41 | 40% |
| Christy | 183 | 110 | 73 | 40% |
| Beti | 193 | 116 | 77 | 40% |
| Sheila | 161 | 97 | 64 | 40% |
| Lauren | 168 | 104 | 64 | 38% |
| Lynnet | 175 | 113 | 62 | 35% |
| David | 142 | 92 | 50 | 35% |
| Monica | 203 | 134 | 69 | 34% |
| Allison | 164 | 110 | 54 | 33% |
| Rosemary | 128 | 86 | 42 | 33% |
In the challenge, we initially guide people to dial back their intake of refined carbohydrates if their blood glucose rises by more than 30 mg/dL (1.6 mmol/L) after meals. This prevents excessive hunger due to reactive hypoglycaemia when blood glucose crashes.
But the majority of our participants already have great post-meal glucose numbers. So once most of your premeal glucose levels are in the normal healthy range, you can get on with chasing your premeal trigger.
The magic happens when we drain our stored glucose, glycogen, and fat. This leaves you with plenty of room to store the food you eat and allows you to dip into your stored energy reserves (i.e., body fat) for fuel. At this point, the rise in glucose after you eat drops to normal healthy levels.
Fat Loss
Finally, the table below shows the change in body fat across the four weeks, with some fantastic results. Managing your premeal glucose guides you to draw down the excess glucose and body fat in your system and address the root cause of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.
| name | start (lbs) | finish (lbs) | change (lbs) | % |
| Alin | 17.5 | 15.1 | 2.4 | 14% |
| Barbara | 46.8 | 42.3 | 4.5 | 10% |
| Wayne | 26.0 | 23.6 | 2.4 | 9% |
| Tommy | 48.3 | 44.0 | 4.3 | 9% |
| Carolyn | 35.9 | 32.9 | 3.0 | 8% |
| Christine | 38.0 | 35.0 | 3.0 | 8% |
| Goeran | 34.5 | 31.8 | 2.7 | 8% |
| Susan | 31.1 | 28.8 | 2.3 | 7% |
| Marta | 27.3 | 25.6 | 1.7 | 6% |
| John | 29.8 | 28.0 | 1.8 | 6% |
| Tara | 41.4 | 39.1 | 2.3 | 6% |
| Annemarie | 33.6 | 31.9 | 1.7 | 5% |
Thanks again to all who participated in our 21st round of the Data-Driven Fasting Challenge.
We’d love you to join us in a future challenge if you’re interested. Our next round starts on 8 April 2023!
More
To learn more about Data-Driven Fasting. You can check out the links below.