Can Losing Weight Improve Diabetes

This World Diabetes Day, we’re delighted to share research into how Slimming World can help members with type 2 diabetes improve their diabetes control by making healthy lifestyle changes and losing weight by following our Food Optimising eating plan.

“Losing weight by making changes to our lifestyle that are sustainable is one of the most effective ways to protect our health. Our research has shown that a fifth (22%) of members participating in the study with type 2 diabetes were able to stop taking medication completely and 85% said they were more active.

Members following Slimming World’s healthy eating plan enjoy a diet of filling and satisfying everyday foods – including fruit, vegetables, eggs, poultry, lean meat, fish, beans, pulses, pasta, rice and potatoes — which can be tailored to suit individual needs, tastes and budget.

The Best Diabetes Friendly Diets To Help You Lose Weight

Sharing ideas about preparing meals and cooking from scratch and swapping recipe tips is a key part of the group experience. Members also inspire each other to become more active as their confidence and sense of wellbeing improves.

As part of a supportive weight loss group, members motivate each other to make and stick with changes that they can live with. It both helps those with type 2 diabetes to improve their health and reduce medication and helps prevent those who are at risk from developing the condition.”

In 12 months as a Slimming World member John Dick lost more than 8st to help him reverse his type 2 diabetes and his health has improved dramatically. He says:

Ways That Weight Loss Can Help Better Control Type 2 Diabetes

“I’ve been off all my medication for over a year now and I feel fantastic. My blood pressure is normal, my cholesterol is no longer high and I don’t suffer from back pain any more either. I’m a Scout Leader and when one of the parents who I knew well didn’t recognise me at all, that really brought home to me how much I’ve changed. I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved.”

MORE ON THE BLOG: Find out how John did it here – and discover 5 ways to help reduce your diabetes risk

Before she joined Slimming World, Helen Rogers was struggling to control her type 2 diabetes and was close to being prescribed insulin medication. Now, she’s 8st lighter and she’s been able to ditch her medication completely! She says:

Benefits Of Losing Weight: How A 5 10% Loss Can Improve Your Health

“I had blood tests this month and I’m chuffed to say my latest diabetes blood results are 41, which means my diabetes is now in remission. My cholesterol looks good, too, so while I still take one tablet for my blood pressure and another for my cholesterol, I’m off all my diabetes medication and have dropped from nine tablets a day to just two.”

Losing 10% of your body weight can bring many health benefits for people who are overweight, and we’re determined to support our members with those healthy lifestyle changes that can make such a big difference. If you’d like to find out about Slimming World, your local Consultant will be happy to tell you more. You can also find out more about joining Slimming World here.

**The health information is intended to provide general knowledge and should not be used to replace the advice given by your health-care team.Losing 5 to 10 percent of your body weight may help you better manage your type 2 diabetes and keep blood sugar levels under control. Here’s how.

Weight Loss, Exercise Can Help Reverse Type 2 Diabetes: Study

Maintaining a healthy weight has its obvious health benefits — but it can also help you better manage type 2 diabetes. Losing weight can bolster your blood sugar control and lower your risk for diabetes complications like high blood pressure and plaque buildup in the arteries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nudging down the number on the scale by just 5 to 10 percent has been shown to help some people reduce the amount of diabetes medication they need, according to one article.

“Weight loss is very high on the priority list [for people with type 2 diabetes], ” says Joanne Rinker, RDN, CDCES, associate director of medical education and affairs at Mannkind.

With type 2 diabetes, your body doesn’t properly respond to the insulin produced by the pancreas, and your blood glucose levels go up, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). That’s called insulin resistance, and it’s often linked to excess weight, according to the CDC.

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“Having that weight loss will actually help make the body more sensitive to the insulin and allow that insulin resistance to decrease, ” says Joelle Malinowski, RD, CDCES, who works with Ellis Medicine in Schenectady, New York. Your body becomes more efficient and can use the insulin more easily, Rinker explains. According to a previous study, insulin sensitivity seems to improve as a result of weight loss because the inflammatory responses in the muscles decrease.

Since insulin sensitivity improves with weight loss, you’ll see better results when your doctor does an A1C test. An A1C test provides a picture of your average blood glucose levels over the previous two to three months, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

A study review found that people with type 2 diabetes who participated in Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, and Optifast weight loss programs saw their A1C levels go down after 6 or 12 months, depending on the plan. That said, research has found that the best diet for weight loss for any individual is one they’ll stick with.

Glucose Monitoring, Blood Sugar And Weight Loss: Why It's The Key To Losing Weight

“This is why lifestyle change through diet and exercise is the best treatment for type 2 diabetes, ” says Deena Adimoolam, MD, an endocrinologist at Summit Health in Clifton, New Jersey.

Heart trouble and diabetes are linked, and high blood pressure and cholesterol levels are common conditions among people with type 2 diabetes, according to the CDC. High blood pressure can end up damaging artery walls, and having too much LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides, another blood fat, can lead to buildup on the damaged artery walls — and further complications.

Excess weight adds to the problem. “Obesity is a known risk factor for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and coronary artery disease, ” Dr. Adimoolam says.

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But losing weight can lower your risk. In a study of 401 people who were overweight or obese, those who lost 5 to 10 percent of their body weight significantly lowered their total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol. Those who lost more than 10 percent saw even more improvement. High-risk patients also significantly lowered their fasting glucose levels.

As obesity progresses, cells in the body that store fat (adipocytes) become enlarged and stressed, which can increase inflammation, per an article

This can lead to atherosclerosis, a disease marked by the buildup of plaque in the arteries, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Losing Weight With Your Diabetes Medication: How Byetta And Other Drugs Can Help You Lose More Weight Than You Ever Thought Possible (marlowe Diabetes Library): Mendosa, David, Prendergast, Joe: 9781600940453: Amazon.com: Books

Exercise and weight loss lower insulin resistance and also can lead to a reduction in the amount of a certain molecule found in blood that’s involved in inflammation, according to the aforementioned research.

Diabetes also heightens the chance you’ll experience sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that presents as abnormal breathing during sleep, according to SleepFoundation.org. As many as 71 percent of adults with type 2 diabetes have obstructive sleep apnea, according to research

What’s more, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, sleeping well may help you get better control of your blood sugar, since sleep loss leads to increased insulin resistance.

Day Diabetes Diet Plan For Weight Loss: Recipes To Control Blood Sugar And Improve Your Health (paperback)

Sleep loss can hurt diabetes management in other ways, too. According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, not sleeping well can zap the motivation to exercise and increase hunger because of hormone disruption; and poor diet and lack of exercise further exacerbate problems with blood sugar control, according to the Mayo Clinic.

People with type 2 diabetes are twice as likely to have mobility-related issues as people who don’t have the disease. The study authors noted that mobility-related issues increase as the level of obesity and physical inactivity increases. People with diabetes also often have bone and joint issues, which can limit activity, whether because of nerve damage, obesity, or arterial disease, says the Mayo Clinic. The good news is that losing weight will likely make day-to-day activities easier and help keep mobility-related issues at bay.

In this case, a little weight loss can go a long way: The researchers behind the study found that losing 1 percent of body weight decreased an individual’s mobility problems by more than 7 percent.

Have A Look At Simple Weight Loss Tips For People Suffering From Diabetes

Rinker sees it time and again: When people lose weight through a healthy diet and exercise, their energy level goes up and their mood improves. According to the CDC, losing weight and keeping it off leads to improvements in self-confidence, too.

“Weight loss can really help our mental health, because people feel better about themselves and better about the choices they’re making, ” Rinker says. This boost may give people motivation to better manage their diabetes and continue their healthy habits.

For the 88 million Americans with prediabetes, a term used for people with higher-than-normal blood sugar levels that aren’t high enough to be type 2 diabetes, weight loss can lower the risk of advancing to type 2 diabetes, according to the CDC. “Losing weight can help to reduce insulin resistance and may even delay or prevent complications from arising,

Diabetes And Weight Management