[Effects of rigid dietary restrictions on the control of blood sugar in obese type II diabetic patients].

The improvement of glycemic control obtained with weight loss in NIDDM obese diabetics is still lacking of a prediction formula to establish which would be the weight loss to possibly obtain a fasting normoglycemia. Nine NIDDM obese diabetics of both sexes (age 51 +/- 2,64 yrs; initial body weight 91,63 +/- 6,02 Kg., IBW 156,98 +/- 13,38%, fasting plasma IRI 27,58 +/- 6 microU/ml) were hospitalized and discontinued any therapy 10 days before the study. A diet of 600 cal/day was given for a mean period of 20 days. Daily preprandial blood glucose (at 08,00,12,00,19,00 h.) and body weight (on a precision scale) were recorded. Initial fasting blood glucose was 208,89 +/- 16 mg/dl. A mean weight reduction of 3.87 +/- 0.75 Kg was obtained (corresponding to an IBW of only 6,91 +/- 1,35%, being the final IBW of 150,08 +/- 13,59%) which led to a mean blood glucose concentration of 124,89 +/- 7,81 mg/dl. A significant individual linear correlation between weight reductions and mean blood glucose values was found for all subjects with wide differences in the individual slopes of regression lines. In conclusion small weight losses obtained with hypocaloric diets can lead to a nearly normalization of fasting blood glucose, also when the subjects are still well over their ideal body weight.