Effort Pays Off When
Diabetics Try to Lose Weight

Overweight adults with diabetes who try to lose weight -- even unsuccessfully -- may live longer than those who don't give it a go, new research suggests.

Investigators at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that among 1,400 diabetics they studied, those who said they had tried to lose weight in the past year were less likely to die over the next nine years.

And it didn't matter whether they actually shed any pounds, the researchers report in the journal Diabetes Care.

The reason may have to do with the overall healthier lifestyles that weight watchers tend to adopt, according to Dr. Edward W. Gregg and his colleagues at the CDC in Atlanta. People trying to lose weight, they note, may take up exercise or eat more nutritious foods, which could make for a longer life even in the absence of weight loss.

People who attempt to lose weight may also tend to follow more health recommendations in general, from not smoking to buckling up when driving, Gregg's team adds.

However, the findings do not necessarily negate the importance of weight loss for people with diabetes, Gregg stated.

Instead, he explained, they highlight a still "unresolved" question: whether the emphasis should be on shedding excess pounds, or on taking up healthy lifestyle habits such as regular exercise and improving nutrition -- even if this doesn't result in weight loss.

The study included 1,401 overweight, diabetic men and women age 35 and older who were interviewed about their health and lifestyle in 1989. Those who said they had tried to lose weight during the past year were 23 percent less likely to die over the next nine years than those who reported no weight loss effort.

The lower death risk was just as significant among participants who had tried but failed to lose weight as it was among those who successfully lost weight, Gregg and his colleagues found.

Exactly why those who actually dropped pounds did not have the lowest death risk of all study participants is unclear. It may be because they failed to keep the weight off for the long haul, the study authors speculate. They asked study participants about weight loss at only one time point, and did not look at long-term success.

Gregg said that probably the best advice for overweight diabetics would be to aim for gradual weight loss by "using healthy lifestyle changes in moderation" -- including exercise, cutting calories, and getting more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, March 2004.