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Weight management

Note: This page was written using AI as a supportive tool, all clinical content has been fact checked by a clinical professional.

Losing weight if you need to, can bring many health benefits including managing your diabetes. Having excess weight particularly around your middle can prevent insulin working effectively, causing ‘insulin resistance’. Losing weight can then help make your body naturally more sensitive to insulin. This might mean that you need less diabetes medication or insulin.

What is a healthy weight?

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a scale that uses your weight and height to determine if you are at a healthy weight

BMI	Weight category
<18.5kg/m2	Underweight
18.5 to 24.9kg/m2	Healthy weight
25 to 29.9kg/m2	Overweight
>30kg/m2	Obese

If you know your height and weight, you can calculate your BMI using the NHS BMI calculator

BMI can be a useful way to check if someone may have excess weight, but it doesn’t show where that weight sits on the body. This matters because carrying extra weight around the middle can increase the risk of insulin resistance.

A simple way to monitor this is by measuring your waist.

Please watch the video below to see how to do this step‑by‑step:

A healthy waist size depends on your gender and ethnicity. It should be:

less than 80cm (31.5in) for all women
less than 94cm (37in) for most men
less than 90cm (35in) for South Asian men

You don’t need to reach a specific BMI or waist measurement to see improvements. Even a weight loss of around 5% of your body weight can lead to meaningful health benefits such as reductions in blood glucose, pressure and cholesterol levels, as well as reduced risk of longer-term complications such as heart attacks and strokes. For example, a 100kg (or 15 stone 10 pounds) man might lose 5kg (or 11 pounds) of bodyweight to reach 5% weight loss.

How to achieve weight loss

You may find that making smaller changes is easier to achieve and maintain longer term.

Losing weight can be challenging, making small gradual changes to your food intake, activity levels and daily habits over time can feel more achievable, and sustainable in the longer term. This could be:

getting off the bus a stop earlier or parking the car further away
moving biscuits away from the kettle
eating meals away from distractions such as in front of the television

Calories are a way of measuring how much energy is in the food and drinks we have. If we eat or drink more energy than our body uses, the extra energy is stored as fat. Reducing how many calories we eat each day by 600 calories a day can lead to losing about 1 to 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kg) per week.

This can be achieved by simple changes such as:

Swapping to sugar free low-calorie drinks such as sugar free cordial, diet cola, diet lemonade
Choosing low fat dairy foods, semi-skimmed milk, reduced fat cheese, lower sugar and lower fat yoghurts
Grilling, baking, steaming or boiling instead of frying foods
Swapping high calorie snacks such as chocolate bars, biscuits and crisps for fruits and vegetables
Trimming the fat from the meat or using leaner cuts of meat such as chicken breast
Using a smaller plate at mealtimes

Apps can help you to track calories and portion sizes to help you lose weight. You may find some of the Apps below helpful:

Carbs and Cals
My Fitness Pal
Nutracheck
NHS Weight Loss Plan

A dietitian can help you with losing weight when you have diabetes and there are several ways that you can go about losing weight. It is important that you find a safe method of losing weight that you enjoy and fits into your life.

There are many ways to achieve weight loss, it is important that you find a safe method of losing weight that you enjoy and fits into your life. Try to avoid ‘Fad diets’ that focus on extreme restriction and rapid weight loss. Instead, aim for slow and steady weight loss to get long term results.

You might want to try one of these ways to lose weight:

Slimming clubs: Weight Watchers or Slimming World (make sure they are aware you have diabetes so they can make their advice right for you)
Aiming to cut out 600 calories each day may help you lose up to 1 to 2 pounds per week (0.5 to 1kg)
Following a low carbohydrate diet: Diabetes UK have some useful meal plans and guides to help, but check with your diabetes team that it is safe to follow
Intermittent fasting: This can be helpful for some people who want to lose weight, but you need to check with your diabetes team that it is safe to follow when you have diabetes
Mediterranean diet: Focusing on whole foods such as vegetables, wholegrains and nuts, lean protein source such as chicken or fish and healthy fats from olive oil and oily fishes. Read more on the Mediterranean meal plan
Meal replacement shakes or soups, such as Slimfast or Huel may help to get you started with losing some weight by replacing some meals with shakes or soups. You need to check with your diabetes team that it is safe for you to follow this diet when you have diabetes

If you are looking for further support, your dietitian can help you with losing weight safely when you have diabetes.

The following resources may be helpful for you to learn more about managing your weight and other services that are available:

Weight management

What is a healthy weight?

How to achieve weight loss

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