ADA Guidelines Shatter Myths: Diabetes Remission Now a Clinical Goal

Unlocking Diabetes Remission: Insights from the ADA’s 2025 Guidelines

Most diabetics have heard more than once that they can manage their diabetes, but it will not go away. They have been told that they will probably die with diabetes. Doctors hardly ever use the words “remission” and “diabetes” together. That has now changed.

The American Diabetes Association has a standards of care article, “Standards of Care in Diabetes“. It was published last December, so it’s about a year old. In there, they have a pivotal shift mentioned in Section 8 that mentions weight loss as a primary treatment goal, not just controlling blood sugar for people with type 2 diabetes and who are overweight or obese.

While these guidelines show that a modest weight loss of 3 to 7% can improve blood sugar levels, the ADA acknowledges that you can do more with further weight loss.

With sustained weight loss of more than 10% of a person’s body weight, you get even more profound benefits, possibly even diabetes remission. That’s their words: diabetes remission.

ADA: With sustained weight loss of more than 10% of a person’s body weight, you get even more profound benefits, possibly even diabetes remission.

Diabetes remission is defined as achieving an A1C level below 6.5% without glucose-lowering drugs for at least 3 months. In their guidelines, they mentioned using lifestyle changes, drugs like GLP-1 agonists, and metabolic surgery. The ADA’s guidelines put all the options on the table so that remission is a realistic endpoint for as many people as possible. And maybe they included this weight-loss and remission possibility in their guidelines to help sell more GLP-1 agonists. I don’t know, but it’s possible.

The guidelines also point out that remission is especially possible for these people:

• Individuals with diabetes for less than 8 years.
• The participants are younger.
• The baseline A1C level is lower.
• The disease is less severe, as they do not require insulin yet.

The guidelines highlight that greater weight loss, especially over 10%, enhances insulin sensitivity, beta cell function, and overall metabolic health. They draw these conclusions based on some of the long-term trials showing up to 50% remission rates in select groups, things like the DiRECT trial that I’ve mentioned before.

In another blog article, I mentioned how a deepfake targeting Sanjay Gupta makes us all look bad because it promises results with no effort. They promised that just taking a capsule once a day would make your diabetes go away. Well, that’s not true.

The Key to Diabetes Remission is Weight Loss

However, what is true is that losing about 10% of your body weight has been recognized by the highest authorities, like the ADA, to lead to remission of diabetes.

So it’s not just me saying it here.

They are basically saying that type 2 diabetes isn’t a lifelong sentence. If you lose excess weight, which leads to less fat in the liver and the pancreas, you can reverse your diabetes, for that is the fundamental cause behind T2D.

This underscores that type 2 diabetes isn’t always a lifelong sentence; with targeted interventions, many can achieve sustained improvements and potentially reverse the condition’s progression. Weight loss isn’t easy. There is no easy way around it.

Many people are thinking that GLP-1 drugs are their miracle pill to lose weight. And it may seem like a miracle pill for a little while, but there are side effects you should be aware of. One of them is that it can really slow down digestion, which can lead to SIBO.

So there really is no easy way to lose weight. You can do it all on your own, and maybe you have already tried that, maybe even multiple times. Your chances of success skyrocket if you get the support, encouragement, and guidance of a health coach. Let me know when you are ready, and we can talk about working together.