Obesity: losing just 13pc of your weight halves Type 2 diabetes risk

Obese people can nearly halve their chances of developing Type 2 diabetes by losing just 13 per cent of their weight, a new study suggests.

A UK-wide analysis of weight loss attempts also showed that a 13 per cent drop in body weight appeared to reduce the risk of high blood pressure by up to 25 per cent, sleep apnoea by 27 per cent, and having unusually high levels of cholesterol in the blood by 22 per cent.

Presented at The European and International Congress on Obesity, the study looked at the GP records of more than 550,000 UK adults.

Participants were divided into two groups based on their weight pattern during a four-year period after the first body mass index measurement was taken: 492,380 individuals whose weight remained stable and 60,573 who lost weight.

Further analyses looked at whether people with an average 13 per cent weight loss were at the same risk of obesity-related conditions as if they been at this  lower weight from the start of the study.

It found that those who lost weight were at significantly lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and abnormal blood fats

“Our results demonstrate the benefits of intentional weight loss in reducing the health burdens of obesity in real-world clinical practice,” said Christiane L Haase from Novo Nordisk, Denmark, who led the research.

“It is important to emphasise that this is an observational study and can only show that there is an association between weight loss and reduced cardiovascular risk factors, not that weight loss causes that reduction in risk.

“Nevertheless, the difference in the risk of these conditions is striking and indicates that people with obesity could markedly reduce their disease risk through intentional weight loss.”