Research
Hormonal
Obesogenic anti-diabetes medications, specifically those that increase insulin exposure (insulin, sulfonylureas, meglitinides), actively promote weight gain and hypoglycemia, which necessitates increased caloric intake and impairs weight loss.
If you are taking insulin, sulfonylureas, or meglitinides, these drugs may be making weight loss impossible by causing low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). To prevent lows, you may be eating extra carbs. Ask your doctor about switching to diabetes medications that do not cause hypoglycemia or weight gain, such as GLP-1 agonists or SGLT2 inhibitors.
ModerateRefutesHIGH confidence
Administration of the first three listed hypoglycemic medications (i.e., anti-diabetes mellitus medications that increase insulin exposure) may contribute to hypoglycemia, necessitating increased caloric intake to avoid or treat low blood sugar. Increasing caloric consumption to treat or avoid hypoglycemia may impair weight reduction compared to patients without diabetes mellitus who do not require increased caloric consumption to treat or avoid hypoglycemia.
Why this rating
Review paper citing clinical data on weight gain with these drugs.
Source
Why does type 2 diabetes mellitus impair weight reduction in patients with obesity? A review
Harold Bays · Obesity Pillars · 2023
DOI 10.1016/j.obpill.2023.100076
narrative_reviewCited 34×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Type 2 diabetes mellitus impairs weight reduction in obese patients primarily through energy conservation (reduced glucosuria), hyperinsulinemia-driven lipid storage, and the use of obesogenic anti-diabetes medications.Moderate
- Improvement in glycemic control in T2D patients leads to energy conservation via reduced glucosuria and osmotic water weight loss, which mechanically impedes scale-based weight reduction.Moderate
Related findings · Hormonal
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