A new study reports that people who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and lost weight soon after being diagnosed were more likely to be able to control their disease as compared to people who didn’t lose weight or those who gained weight.

Gregory A. Nichols, PhD, an investigator for Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., and a co-author of the study said, "People who lost weight were more likely to attain their blood sugar and blood pressure goals than people who gained weight or maintained a stable weight."

What was surprising was that this benefit lasted even if they regained the lost weight.  

"If you lose weight after diagnosis, you can achieve some long-term benefits in terms of blood pressure and glycemic control that extend even beyond the point at which you regain weight," said Nicholas.

The new research published online Aug. 12 in the journal Diabetes Care reported that they tracked 2500 adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes for four years and looked at their medical records to track weight, blood sugar, and blood pressure. According to the American Diabetes Association upwards of 23 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, with a majority either overweight or obese.

Dr. Spyros Mezitis, an endocrinologist with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City said, "We haven't had results like this before. This is telling us that with a significant mean weight loss of 10.7 kilograms [23.5 pounds] in 18 months, there's an improvement despite weight regain after 36 months."

In order to maintain blood-sugar and blood-pressure control as well as to keep cholesterol levels in check, weight loss is important. These factors are critical to try to avoid other complications of diabetes like heart disease, blindness, kidney damage, amputations and even death. "We do ask that those diabetics who are overweight lose weight, and that, in general, improves all the factors that affect vascular disease, and that's blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol," said Mezitis.

The effect lasting beyond the trial period of four years was not a certainty. "It's entirely possible that one of the explanations here is that if we looked at 15 years, we wouldn't find that benefit continuing," Nichols said. As to why the effect continued even after the participants had regained the lost weight could be due to "metabolic memory", where the body remembers benefits such as weight loss. "One possibility is, had we looked further out, the benefit may be gone," he said. "The other possibility is, there are long-term benefits to weight loss even if the weight is regained."

Another reason explained by Steven Edelman, MD, professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego and director of the Diabetes Care Clinic at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Diego.

"Kaiser has a very good education program," he feels the patients may have made the lifestyle changes they learnt a part of their life even later despite the weight coming back. "These people could still be doing regular exercise but still be overweight," he said.

"The study is a reminder that we need to diagnose diabetes early, we need to treat it aggressively as soon as it is diagnosed to maintain the remission of the diabetic state," said Om Ganda, MD, a senior physician at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.

Nichols sums it up by saying, "losing weight is a good idea, even if you regain it. "You shouldn't get discouraged if you regain some or all of what you lose because your blood sugar and blood pressure control may still be better."