Losing Weight Is One of the Best Ways to Improve Diabetes: Here's Why 

Staying informed about diabetes is important year-round. But November is American Diabetes Month and a great time to learn more about this condition. If you or a loved one has or is at risk of diabetes, now’s the time to learn more about prevention and treatments. 

You might not realize the risk of developing type 2 diabetes is six times higher for people who are overweight than for those with a healthy body weight. However, your weight's role in whether you become diagnosed with diabetes isn’t straightforward.  

At Physicians WEIGHT LOSS Centers Pompano Beach, our experienced care team is dedicated to helping people in Pompano Beach, Florida, lose and maintain weight as part of diabetes management. Our practice offers a range of holistic services, including personalized weight loss plans and weight management medication. 

To help you understand the link between weight and diabetes, we’ve put together this comprehensive guide. Take a moment to find out more about how weight loss can help.   

How your weight impacts diabetes

“Diabesity” is a term coined by researchers to describe when someone has both obesity and type 2 diabetes. The conditions often exist together, and over 90% of adults with type 2 diabetes are either obese or overweight. 

Understanding how type 2 diabetes works is essential to understanding the link between weight and diabetes. When you eat, your body turns the food into glucose for fuel. 

Your pancreas controls how much sugar is in your bloodstream and uses the hormone insulin to manage it. Insulin brings glucose for immediate use to your muscles or liver to store as fat that can be used for energy later. 

If you are overweight, your liver fills with extra fat, making it difficult for your insulin to fit more glucose in your liver, raising your blood sugar. Furthermore, other cells in your body resist allowing the glucose to be used for energy, causing “insulin resistance.”

This condition leads to even more sugar in your bloodstream. In response, your pancreas makes more insulin to lower your blood sugar level, which can overwork your pancreas. The result? Diabetes. 

Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. You can manage and even reverse type 2 diabetes by taking control of your weight.

Managing your weight to improve diabetes

At Physicians WEIGHT LOSS Centers Pompano Beach, we offer many weight loss services to help you manage diabetes, including the following:

Weight loss programs

Our providers develop a weight loss program suited to your specific needs. We take the time to create a personalized weight loss program. Your program may include the following: 

• Low-carb, high-protein meal replacement program
• Low-fat, high-energy program
• Low glycemic program
• Thermogenic no fat, low-carb, hormone-driven program
• Medically prescribed programs

We may also recommend semaglutide and tirzepatide. These are weight-loss medicines for people with type 2 diabetes.  

Weight loss medicines 

Weight loss medicines for type 2 diabetes use the power of GLP-1 RAs. GLP-1 stands for glucagon-like peptide-1, and RAs stands for receptor agents. These fit into certain receptors in your body to influence insulin release. 

The GLP-1 hormone is naturally released in your body. It has two jobs: telling your pancreas to produce insulin and telling your brain you’re full. 

Natural GLP-1 breaks down quickly, so the GLP-1 RAs mimic the natural hormone but last much longer. This gives your body extra time to benefit from the effects and helps you feel full for longer.

GLP-1 RAs help you eat less, reducing your caloric intake. They have been shown to promote weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes by breaking the high blood sugar cycle, leading to weight gain. 

GLP-1 RA therapies, tirzepatide and semaglutide, are injectable treatments that help you lose weight when other weight loss programs aren’t effective. Your Physicians WEIGHT LOSS Centers Pompano Beach provider performs a comprehensive assessment to determine if GLP-1 RA therapy is right for you. 

Talk to your provider to discover if you are a good candidate for weight loss medication treatment with tirzepatide and semaglutide. 

To learn more about how your weight plays a role in improving diabetes, schedule an appointment online or over the phone with a provider at Physicians WEIGHT LOSS Centers Pompano Beach in Pompano Beach, Florida.