I am 28 years old, I am approximately five stone (10 pounds) overweight, and I have had type 2 diabetes for about five years. I am on tablets (Prandin [repaglinide] and Glucophage [metformin]), and lately there have been complications with high cholesterol and high blood pressure. I have to wear a 24 hour blood pressure monitor so the doctors can decide whether or not to put me on medication. I do not want to take tablets for the rest of my life, so, if I lost weight, do you think I would be able to refrain from taking tablets (with doctors’ consent of course)? Is there any diet on the market which I can follow safely with diabetes? I enjoy the Slimming World diet, but have been told this is not good for people with diabetes. What about Weight Watchers International? I feel I cannot manage a diet on my own without the support you receive from these groups.

Your comments are consistent with many other people with diabetes. Yes, weight loss for any length of time is most difficult. In fact, when prescribing therapy, I feel this is somewhat of a dilemma. Do I let patients try and work their way to some level of weight loss or go ahead and treat only to withdraw treatment if weight loss is successful? Although weight loss would be great, it is hard to do. I would not recommend you stop medications prior to starting a diet. It may be you can decrease the number or doses of the medication, rather than stop them altogether. The same holds true for hypertension medications. Remember that type�2 diabetes is associated with a genetic predisposition. You maintain this genetic predisposition, even though weight may fluctuate.

With regard to specific diets, I think the Weight Watchers diet is good.However, you do not necessarily have to have a commercial vendor help you with this if you have a dietitian who treats people with diabetes and can help you.

JTL