All participated in the Framingham Heart Study, a long-term examination of more than 5,000 residents of the Massachusetts city that began in 1948. For heavier people, bigger payoffs People who lost a pound a year for eight years, then kept the weight off for eight more years, reduced their risk of diabetes between 37 percent and 62 percent, depending on how heavy they were to begin with, the study says. The heavier the participants were at the start, the greater their benefit from the small weight loss. But it can have a positive effect on your health. The typical American adult gains at least a pound or two each year during middle age, Moore says.
People lose control before they realize it.
Nearly 15 million Americans have adult-onset diabetes. But diabetes is only one of the many diseases that can be made worse by obesity, which both Moore and Sherwin call one of the biggest challenges facing the American medical community today. The fact that our children are much more obese than they were 20 years ago is a substantial problem. These children are going to be developing the chronic diseases of adulthood at a much earlier age. But losing weight doesn't stave off just diabetes.