Research

Energy balance

In overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes, patterns of weight regain or weight cycling following intentional weight loss do not significantly increase the risk of incident fractures or significantly reduce bone mineral density compared to sustained weight loss/maintenance.

If you have type 2 diabetes and are overweight, you do not need to fear that regaining some weight after a successful loss will increase your risk of breaking a bone. Studies show that the fracture risk for people who regain or cycle weight is similar to those who maintain their weight loss. Focus on maintaining overall health rather than stressing over minor weight fluctuations.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
Patterns of weight change in the 3 years following 1 year of intentional weight loss were not associated with subsequent fracture or significantly reduced BMD in this cohort of overweight and obese adults with type 2 diabetes.
Kristen M. Beavers et al. · JBMR Plus · 2018

Why this rating

Large RCT (Look AHEAD) with long follow-up (median 11.5 years), but the study was not primarily powered for fracture differences between subgroups, and BMD data was a subset.

Source

Impact of Body Weight Dynamics Following Intentional Weight Loss on Fracture Risk: Results from The Action for Health in Diabetes Study

Kristen M. Beavers et al. · JBMR Plus · 2018

DOI 10.1002/jbm4.10086

rct · n=1885Cited 5×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →