Losing 5 to 10 percent of your body weight might help you better manage your type 2 diabetes and keep blood sugar levels under control. Here’s how. Maintaining a healthy weight has its obvious health benefits — but it can also help you better manage your type 2 diabetes.

In fact, 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. Nudging down the number on the scale by just 5 to 10 percent has also been shown to help some people reduce the amount of diabetes medication they need, according to an article published in Diabetes Care in June 2015.

“Weight loss is very high on the priority list,” says Joanne Rinker, RD, CDE, LDN, senior director for community health improvement at Population Health Improvement Partners in Morrisville, North Carolina, and a spokeswoman for the American Association of Diabetes Educators.

Rinker admits that dropping pounds isn’t easy, but when you succeed, you’ll reap a host of health benefits, such as:

Improved insulin resistance. With type 2 diabetes, your body doesn’t properly respond to the insulin produced by the pancreas, and your blood glucose levels go up. That’s called insulin resistance, and it’s linked to excess weight. When you drop the extra pounds, your body becomes more efficient and can use the insulin more easily, Rinker explains. As a result, insulin resistance goes down, which is a good thing for diabetes management.

Better A1C results. Since insulin sensitivity improves with weight loss, you’ll see better results when your doctor does an A1C test, which provides a picture of your blood glucose levels over the previous three months.

“This is why lifestyle change through diet and exercise is the best treatment for type 2 diabetes,” says Deena Adimoolam, MD, an assistant professor of medicine, endocrinology, diabetes, and bone disease at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

A review of studies published in August 2016 in the journal Obesity Reviews found that people with type 2 diabetes who participated in certain commercial weight-loss programs saw their A1C levels go down after 6 or 12 months, depending on the plan.

Lower blood pressure and improved cholesterol. High blood pressure and cholesterol levels are common complications of type 2 diabetes. When you have both high blood pressure and high blood sugar, it can lower HDL (“good” cholesterol) levels while raising LDL (“bad” cholesterol) and triglycerides, another blood fat.

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. 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. Those who lost more than 10 percent saw even more improvement, according to the study, published in September 2016 in the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine. High-risk patients also significantly lowered their fasting glucose levels.

Decreased risk for vascular damage. Another reason to work on weight loss: Obesity and insulin resistance are associated with vascular inflammation, which can lead to atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque in the arteries. 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 a study published in April 2014 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Reduced risk for sleep apnea. Having diabetes also heightens your risk for sleep apnea, a serious breathing disorder. As many as half of all adults with type 2 diabetes may be at high risk for sleep apnea, according to a study in the July/August 2013 issue of the journal Family Medicine. Weight loss can lower your risk, which is important, since, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, sleeping better may help you get better control of your blood sugar if you already have diabetes.

Increased energy and improved mood. Rinker sees it time and time again: When people lose weight through a healthy diet and exercise, their energy level goes up and their mood improves. This boost gives them motivation to better manage their diabetes.

“Weight loss can really help our mental health because people feel better about themselves and better about the choices they’re making,” Rinker says.

Making the Most of Weight-Loss Benefits

In general, Rinker recommends choosing lifestyle changes you can sustain over your lifetime rather than relying on fad diets for weight loss and weight management.

For example, start with one healthy change, such as switching to calorie-free beverages, before adding in another. Before you know it, you’ll be a pro at managing your weight as well as your type 2 diabetes and its complications.
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