Research
Energy balance
Intensive lifestyle interventions (diet and exercise) in obese type 2 diabetic patients improve quality of life, glycemic control, and metabolic syndrome markers, but do not significantly reduce cardiovascular mortality or morbidity compared to control groups.
For obese diabetics, intensive lifestyle changes (diet and exercise) will not necessarily prevent heart attacks or death, but they will significantly improve your daily quality of life, blood sugar control, and may reduce your need for insulin. Pursue it for these immediate benefits.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
The study was terminated early after a median 9.5-year follow up because the incidence of CV events was not different between the intervention and control groups. Nevertheless, despite the neutral effect on mortality, intensive treatment was associated with significantly positive changes in quality of life, glycaemic control and reduction in insulin use.
Why this rating
Based on the Look AHEAD trial, a large, randomized controlled trial, though terminated early for futility regarding CV events.
Source
Type 2 diabetes, mortality and the obesity paradox: the weight management dilemma
Ma'en Al‐Mrayat et al. · Practical Diabetes · 2014
DOI 10.1002/pdi.1840
narrative_review
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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