The Sooner, The Better
While our study showed potential long-term benefits of just 5 percent weight loss, past research has mostly focused on larger amounts of weight loss. In a U.S. study, people with type 2 diabetes who lost 10 percent of their weight in one year had lower rates of cardiovascular disease after ten years compared with people who maintained their weight or gained weight.But unlike the participants in our study, participants in the U.S. study were not newly diagnosed with diabetes. They had, on average, been diagnosed seven years before the study started. It is possible that smaller amounts of weight loss soon after diabetes diagnosis may be just as beneficial as larger amounts of weight loss later on.
Our study participants were from the east of England and most were white, so the results may not apply to other populations. Also, most participants in the study were overweight or obese at the time of diabetes diagnosis. So the results don’t suggest that people with diabetes who are a normal weight or underweight should lose weight. However, our findings emphasize the potential benefits of even modest weight loss for people with type 2 diabetes.
Yet evidence from our study suggests that some people can lose weight after being diagnosed and hence lower their risk of cardiovascular disease, even without a weight-loss support program. So people with type 2 diabetes may want to consider focusing more attention towards setting moderate weight-loss goals.
is a postdoctoral fellow, at the University of Cambridge in the UK. This article was first published on