Research

Energy balance

A weight gain of ≥5% over a 3-year period significantly increases the risk of incident type 2 diabetes, while a weight loss of ≥5% significantly decreases it, independent of attained weight.

To lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, aim for a weight change of at least 5% of your body weight over a few years. Losing 5% or more significantly reduces your risk, while gaining 5% or more significantly increases it. This benefit exists regardless of your final weight, meaning the act of changing your weight matters for your metabolic health.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Weight gain and loss of ≥ 5% were associated with increased and decreased risks of incident T2DM, respectively, regardless of attained weight.
Samaneh Asgari et al. · Cardiovascular Diabetology · 2024

Why this rating

Large cohort (n=6930), longitudinal design (up to 9 years), objective measurements, and robust adjustment for confounders, though observational nature prevents definitive causality.

Source

Weight change and risk of incident type 2 diabetes: short, medium and long-term follow-up in tehran lipid and glucose study

Samaneh Asgari et al. · Cardiovascular Diabetology · 2024

DOI 10.1186/s12933-024-02297-w

cohort · n=6930Cited 1×
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 →