Research

Hormonal

Weight loss induced by diet and exercise improves insulin sensitivity in overweight and obese postmenopausal women, an effect mediated by reductions in systemic inflammation (specifically CRP, IL-6, and sTNFR-1) independent of fat mass loss.

For postmenopausal women, combining a modest caloric deficit (250-350 kcal/day) with regular moderate-intensity exercise (3x/week) significantly improves how your body uses insulin. This benefit comes not just from losing weight, but from the reduction in body-wide inflammation, which directly helps insulin work better.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Improvements in glucose metabolism with weight loss programs are independently associated with decreases in cytokine concentrations, suggesting that a reduction in inflammation is a potential mechanism that mediates improvements in insulin sensitivity.
Alice S. Ryan et al. · Diabetes Care · 2004

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial design with hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps (gold standard for insulin sensitivity) and rigorous statistical controls for adiposity and fitness.

Source

Reductions in Plasma Cytokine Levels With Weight Loss Improve Insulin Sensitivity in Overweight and Obese Postmenopausal Women

Alice S. Ryan et al. · Diabetes Care · 2004

DOI 10.2337/diacare.27.7.1699

clinical_trial · n=58Cited 209×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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