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PREVENTING DIABETES WITH EXERCISE, DIET, AND WEIGHT LOSS

(June 2002)

In early August 2001, the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, announced the dramatic results of a multicenter study of 3,234 men and women ages 25 to 81 years, many overweight or with a family history of diabetes, who were shown by a laboratory test to be at high risk for diabetes. Some were given a placebo and served as controls; others were given intensive counseling about exercise, diet, and weight loss. During the next three years, the controls developed diabetes twice as frequently as those who successfully followed the diet-exercise prescription and lost weight (an average of 15 pounds).

This is an important study. The United States is now suffering twin epidemics of overweight and adult onset diabetes (see feature article in Archives). The major risk factor for adult onset diabetes is overweight - and the greater the extent of overweight, the greater the risk of developing diabetes.

This study is in accord with many others - weight loss will reduce an overweight person’s likelihood of developing diabetes. So will exercise, even if there is no weight loss, but the reduction in risk is much greater if the exercise is accompanied by weight loss.

Some have interpreted the study to show that leisurely or easy paced walking thirty minutes a day five times a week is all that is needed. That is not adequately documented. Reasonably vigorous exercise is probably required - a brisk walking pace of one mile every twenty-five minutes as a minimum

CLICK HERE for moderately vigorous and vigorous exercise categories

To prevent diabetes if you are overweight, you should lose weight (try to get your body mass index under 30, and as close to 25 as possible - CLICK HERE for weight-height-body mass index table). A sensible diet is a necessity; consultation with a nutritionist or dietician is often helpful. To lose weight effectively, exercise often must accompany the diet.

If you hope to prevent diabetes solely by exercise, that is without significant weight loss, you should figure on moderately vigorous exercise for thirty minutes at least five times a week, or forty-five minutes to one hour three times a week. There should be no expectation that gentle exercise a few times a week will be beneficial.