Diabetes weight loss: Dietitian-approved tips

Key Points

• If you have type 2 diabetes, losing even a small amount of excess weight can help lower blood sugar levels.
• Keeping your diabetes in check can also lower your risk of heart disease, stroke, and much more.
• The best weight loss diet for diabetes is the one that works for you in the long term.
• A diabetes nutritionist can provide a personalized diabetes diet plan made just for you.

If you have diabetes or prediabetes, a healthcare provider has likely recommended weight loss. Unfortunately, knowing what we should do doesn’t always lead to real-world results.

You may wonder: How does losing weight help reverse diabetes?? What dietary changes make the biggest impact?? How do you achieve weight loss without feeling hungry all the time? What can you do to sustain a healthy weight over time?

Let’s explore the benefits of weight loss and science-backed tips to help you reach your goals, approved by a dietitian.

Benefits of weight loss if you have diabetes

Diabetes health risks

Type 2 diabetes, or diabetes mellitus, increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, organ and blood vessel damage, vision loss, and kidney problems. It can also lead to the narrowing of your blood vessels, plaque buildup in your arteries (atherosclerosis), and other complications.

Insulin resistance is also known to damage the nerves, cause irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmia), and lead to sleep apnea. Prolonged high blood sugar can slow healing, and cuts and bruises may get infected.

How a healthy weight helps

Says Registered Dietitian Rita Faycurry, RD, "Losing even 5% of your body weight can help you begin to see improvements in your health. And even moderate weight loss can give you more energy and help you feel better."

With your blood sugar under control, your healthcare provider could potentially reduce your diabetes medication dose or even discontinue it altogether.

Here's how you can lose weight and reverse diabetes.

Proven tips for diabetes weight loss

1. Introduce more dietary fiber

Studies show that high-fiber diets can help with weight loss and lower blood glucose levels and inflammation. This, in turn, may help reduce premature deaths due to type 2 diabetes-related complications.

Dietary fiber can also help people with prediabetes reduce their risk of developing diabetes.

Faycurry, RD, notes, "The recommended amount of dietary fiber is 25 grams a day for females and 38 grams for males. But the goal is to gradually increase the amount of fiber in your diet, preferably from natural sources. Increasing your fiber intake too fast can lead to digestive issues. It's also important to drink more water when you add fiber to your diet."

The best sources of dietary fiber are whole vegetables, whole fruit, beans and legumes, and nuts and seeds. Cereals and whole grains that are minimally processed, like steel-cut oats, can also help you get the fiber you need.

2. Follow the 'diabetes plate' method

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) offers a guideline to balance your meals. Known as the 'Diabetes plate,' the system keeps it simple; there's no counting, measuring, or weighing.

The ADA's Diabetes Plate Method involves:

• A 9" plate for portion control.
• 1/2 your plate: Non-starchy vegetables like asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, carrots, and leafy greens.
• 1/4 of the plate: Lean protein like chicken breast, turkey breast, tofu, yogurt, beans, and legumes.
• 1/4 of the plate: Whole-grain carbohydrates, whole fruit, milk, and starchy vegetables like potatoes, peas, plantains, pumpkins, and butternut squash.

Faycurry, RD adds, "The ADA's recommendations are an excellent first step to a reversing diabetes diet. However, my clients need help implementing the diabetes plate in real life. Some roadblocks include resisting your co-worker's candy jar when stressed or eating healthy when you're busy and tired. Another common question is about what to do on the road. Dietitians like myself customize meal plans to help people make healthy food choices."

3. Move immediately after each meal

Your muscles use up about 80% of the sugar in your blood after a meal, so moving right after eating can help people with diabetes control blood sugar levels. Walking for 20–30 minutes after each meal is ideal. The good news is that light physical activity—even a 2-5 minute walk—helps.

4. Hydrate

Consider drinking more water. Water can help flush out excess blood sugar through urine. In fact, according to a National Institutes of Health study, people who are well-hydrated have fewer chronic conditions and live longer.

If you are not used to drinking water, start slow. Try having a glass of water before reaching for a soda or while your coffee's brewing. Having a bottle of water by your desk makes it easier to reach for when you're bored or stressed.

After all, the goal is progress, not perfection.

5. Evaluate emotional eating triggers: why do you eat even after you're full?

Emotional eating is natural; food affects how we feel.

Certain foods can reduce anxiety, increase joy, and help us feel better in the moment. These foods are often high in added sugars, fats, and salt. After all, it's rare that someone craves steamed broccoli when they're stressed out by a deadline or faced with a big decision.

Instead, eating fries or a bag of Oreos offers an instant boost in energy and a better mood, temporarily. The multi-billion-dollar processed food industry knows this all too well. Today, low-cost, ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) are everywhere, chemically engineered in labs to keep us always craving more.

Over time, this type of disordered eating may lead to inflammation, digestive issues, water retention, and belly fat. It raises blood sugar levels and cholesterol and can lead to several chronic diseases, resulting in premature, preventable death.

So, how do you change these patterns?

According to Faycurry, RD, "Habits do not change overnight, but some strategies can help you get better over time. The first step is usually to identify your triggers. Do you crave fast food or sugary treats right after a meal? Do you eat more when you're stressed out or anxious? Do you fight cravings to binge at night after a day of 'eating healthy'? The next step is to understand if poor gut health or nutritional deficiencies are a part of the problem. Additionally, mental health counseling may help."

The Ozempic diet: What to eat on diabetes medications?

Drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro, and other GLP-1 agonists have become extremely popular. Studies show they can help people lose 15% to 20% of their body weight.

While these drugs have their benefits, they are not fail-safe. People have reported weight gain on Ozempic. The best diabetes-friendly diet can help sustain weight loss, support blood sugar control, and reduce discomfort from Ozempic side effects.

Tried everything but can't lose weight? Here are some reasons why.

If you're struggling to lose weight despite your best efforts, there may be other factors at play. A few reasons weight loss can be challenging include:

• Insulin resistance: Type 2 diabetes is a disease of insulin resistance. Having diabetes means that your body has become good at storing fat, and it becomes harder to lose weight.
• Hormonal imbalances: Perimenopause and menopause may be responsible for that hard-to-lose fat around your belly.
• Thyroid health: It may help to get your thyroid checked. Hypothyroidism can lead to weight gain and make it harder to lose that weight.
• Undiagnosed food sensitivities or intolerances: Sometimes, you may develop food sensitivities as you age. For example, many report lactose intolerance as they age. Food sensitivities can lead to inflammation and digestive issues that cause bloating and water retention.
• Chronic stress: When we are constantly stressed, cortisol levels remain elevated. Over time, this can lead to high blood sugar levels and weight gain.

As you can see, weight loss is complicated and intricately linked to

Ultimately, the best diabetes diet is one that works for you throughout your weight loss journey.

Find a Fay diabetes nutritionist to help you control blood sugar levels, covered by insurance.

The views expressed by authors and contributors of such content are not endorsed or approved by Fay and are intended for informational purposes only. The content is reviewed by Fay only to confirm educational value and audience interest. You are encouraged to discuss any questions that you may have about your health with a healthcare provider.