Almost 90% of people that have type 2 diabetes are also overweight or obese according to the obesity society. Diabetes is a huge deal. It can cause blindness, serious kidney diseases, nerve damage that results in lower extremity amputation in adults. Read the full article here http://www.obesity.org/content/weight-diabetes. The best indicator of type 2 diabetes is being overweight or obesity.

Type 2 diabetes is caused by the body not being able to make enough insulin to keep up with the high levels of glucose in the body. The obvious way to help fix this is to lose weight and this would decrease the number of type 2 diabetics immensely. Statistics are hard to grasp on a topic like diabetes because so many case go undiagnosed but take a look at some of the information from the American  society for metabolic and bariatric surgery here https://asmbs.org/resources/weight-and-type-2-diabetes-after-bariatric-surgery-fact-sheet. Type 2 diabetes can often be improved even if a person only loses 5% of their total body weight.  That’s not a lot of weight, but it can cause big improvements. These improvements are necessary because for type 2 diabetics weight loss can often reverse it and at the very least improve it.

The diabetic population is made up of 5% type 1 diabetics, they’re typically diagnosed as children or adolescents, and they don’t naturally create enough insulin, and 95% type 2 diabetics. About 85% of health complications can be prevented with proper diet, exercise, medication, and frequent meetings with health care professionals. However, type 2 diabetes can be improved with just a 5-10% weight loss that a lifestyle change could easily accomplish. Check out this article detailing how to adopt a healthy lifestyle for obese diabetics http://www.diabetes.org/are-you-at-risk/lower-your-risk/healthy-eating.html.