A new study by researchers at the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Tübingen University Hospital and Helmholtz Munich qualifies one of the most repeated messages in type 2 diabetes prevention: that losing weight and keeping it off is enough to prevent it in every case.
The researchers followed for 9 years people who had achieved substantial weight loss and kept it off over time, with an average 8% reduction in body weight. However, within a higher metabolic-risk subgroup (identified as "cluster 5" in the study), blood glucose kept rising and insulin secretion declined, leaving a persistently high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The authors themselves stress that this doesn't take away from weight loss as a prevention tool, which still works well for most people, as we covered in our news about weight loss and metabolic control. The finding instead points to the fact that, in one particularly vulnerable subgroup, additional monitoring and treatment strategies are needed — watching the scale alone isn't enough.