A September 2022 study by Newcastle University, of which Eureka notes

  • “Everyone has a ‘personal fat threshold’ which, if exceeded, will allow type 2 diabetes (T2D) to develop, even if they are of a lower body weight”

  • “The most common form of diabetes, T2D occurs when the pancreas can’t make enough insulin (a hormone which helps move the sugar in food into cells for energy) or the insulin it makes doesn’t work properly.”

  • “Having a BMI over 30 is a risk factor for T2D”

  • “An intensive weight loss programme can put T2D into remission in people who are living with obesity or overweight.”

  • “But not everyone with T2D is overweight.”

Newcastle University said,

  • “But if they lost around 10% of their weight, they would have a very good chance of putting their type 2 diabetes into remission,”

  • “The results also support the personal fat threshold concept that anyone with type 2 diabetes has a little more fat on board than they individually can cope with.  This is determined by your genes. Each of us has a threshold level under which they can store fat safely and that this has little to do with BMI.”

  • “If you develop type 2 diabetes, you simply have more fat inside your body than you can cope with, even if apparently slim.”

  • “This excess fat spills into your liver and pancreas stopping normal function and causing type 2 diabetes. You only need an extra half gram of fat in the pancreas to prevent normal insulin production.”

  • “‘I’m often asked, “Why have I got type 2 diabetes when all my friends are larger than me and do not have diabetes?” The present work answers this conundrum.”

  • “This should help to remove some of the stigma that attaches to type 2 diabetes. It is clearly a condition which is not “caused” by being over any level of BMI but by storing a little too much fat inside liver and pancreas, whatever your weight.”