LOS ANGELES, November 2, 2026 – A diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes at 38 years old could feel like being sentenced to life in prison. According to a recent medical study, this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case—particularly in younger patients.
In fact, a recently conducted clinical trial revealed that 54 per cent of people below the age of 45 with type 2 diabetes entered into remission after six months of an intensive low-calorie diet and physical activity.
What the trial tested
The RESET for Remission trial involved 96 adults between 18 and 45 years old with early-onset type 2 diabetes and obesity, who were not taking insulin. The subjects were recruited from three clinical research centers in England and Canada and were either placed in the standard care arm or in the intervention arm.
For the initial 12 weeks, the intervention arm was put on a very low-calorie diet of 800 to 900 calories per day, which initially entailed the use of meal replacement products. They also underwent supervised aerobic and resistance exercise twice a week, together with one individual exercise session per week. From week 13 to 24, they were placed on a maintenance diet while exercising individually.
The results
In the intensive programme, 27 out of 50 individuals entered into remission after 24 weeks, whereas only two out of 46 people entered into remission in the usual care condition. Remission was defined in terms of having an HbA1c level below 6.5% and being off glucose-lowering drugs for a period of 12 weeks.
In simple words, the probability of achieving remission for the intervention group was 21 times greater than for the control group after adjusting the statistics.
Weight loss was also impressive. Individuals in the diet and exercise group lost an average of 8.4 kg in 24 weeks, whereas the usual care group lost 1.2 kg. In addition to this, the intervention group lost an extra 6.6 kg of fat after adjustment.
Why this matters
Early-onset type 2 diabetes is not just early-onset diabetes. It’s more severe, and patients may suffer from blood sugar management problems more quickly and develop complications sooner, living shorter lives than patients diagnosed at a later age.
This is what makes the findings of the study on muscle preservation particularly intriguing. Rapid weight loss often leads to loss of both fat and lean body mass, and when patients regain the lost weight, it comes back in the form of fat more quickly. By combining resistance training with weight loss, scientists wanted to preserve muscles and lose fat.
It seems they were right about it. However, one should remember that the scientists haven’t proved the long-term effectiveness of their approach yet.
Not a DIY cure
This is not something anyone can take as permission to embark on an 800-calorie diet regimen themselves. The subjects discontinued diabetic drugs and blood pressure medication under medical supervision, but the use of such medications was prevalent among the test group; adverse events were observed in 43 of the 50 participants, mostly constipation, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue early on in the restrictive diet period.
No adverse events were serious in nature, although the regimen was intense and medically supervised. Remission, meanwhile, is not a synonym for cure; it merely denotes a drop in blood sugar level below the diagnostic point without glucose-lowering agents.
What comes next
The research, which was conducted under the leadership of Professors Kaberi Dasgupta and Thomas Yates, was introduced at the annual conference of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas.
Another key point is the sustainability of results. Can patients sustain their weight loss, muscle mass, and remission after eliminating the meal replacement program, guidance, and a strict schedule? Only long-term clinical trials can determine if this treatment regimen will be scalable or if it will remain only another interesting discovery impossible to replicate in the real world.
As it stands now, the message is positive, yet cautious: early, intensive medical treatment of lifestyle can help young patients reverse the development of type 2 diabetes. Not for all. Not permanently. At least, not yet. But for over half of patients who were involved in the trial, six months proved to make a significant difference.
