Diet and exercise put type 2 diabetes into remission for over half of young adults in trial
In the RESET for Remission trial, run by McGill, Leicester and Alberta universities, 54% of people aged 18 to 45 who followed 12 weeks of a very low-calorie diet with supervised exercise were in remission at six months, against 4% on usual care. The catch: it was a small trial, 96 people over six months under close medical supervision. Nobody yet knows how long remission lasts, and it is not a cure.
Twenty-seven out of fifty. That is how many young adults with type 2 diabetes had blood sugar below the diagnostic threshold, without any medication, six months after starting a supervised diet and exercise programme. In the group that stayed on usual care, it was 2 out of 46.
The results come from RESET for Remission, a trial by McGill University and the University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Leicester in England, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas. It was led by Dr Kaberi Dasgupta of McGill with Professor Tom Yates of Leicester. The authors are clear about its limits: 96 people took part, follow-up lasted six months, and everything happened under medical supervision, including coming off medication.
Twelve weeks on 800 calories, three workouts a week
Participants were aged 18 to 45, had early-onset type 2 diabetes and obesity, and were not on insulin. They were randomly split into two groups.
The programme group spent 12 weeks on a diet of 800 to 900 calories a day, with two supervised aerobic and strength sessions a week plus one on their own. For the next 12 weeks they moved to a weight-maintenance diet and kept exercising.
At six months, 54% were in remission: HbA1c below 6.5% without glucose-lowering drugs for at least 12 weeks. On usual care, 4%. Average weight in the programme group fell from 100.7kg to 92.3kg, and the authors say the loss was mostly fat, with muscle preserved.
Early side effects, none serious
It was not easy. 43 of the 50 people on the programme had at least one side effect, mostly constipation, headaches, dizziness and tiredness in the first weeks. These passed, and none were serious.
Remission is not a cure: blood sugar can climb again if the weight comes back. The researchers want longer, real-world studies to see whether the effect lasts, and stress that nobody should try a diet like this or stop medication without their doctor.
