Why Does Losing Weight Help My Diabetes?

— -- Question: Hi. My name is Jay from Austin, Texas. Why does losing weight help my diabetes?

Answer: Hi Jay. Losing weight really helps diabetes, especially if it's type 2 diabetes. When you cut down the amount of food you are eating before even before the first pound is lost, your blood sugars will get a lot better. And then if you lose five to ten pounds you even have further improvements in blood sugar. It really, the weight loss and reduced calories, what they do is they reduce the workload of the pancreas. Every time you eat, the body has to produce insulin to manage that food. So by the nature of you eating less, you're giving the pancreas a jump-start and break and it helps it work more efficiently.