Obesity and type 2 diabetes (Update 2023)

Abstract

The body mass index (BMI) is a very crude measure of body fatness in individuals. Even normal weight persons can have too much body fat in cases of a lack of muscle mass (sarcopenia), which is why additional measurements of waist circumference and body fatness, e.g. bioimpedance analysis (BIA), are recommended. Lifestyle management including nutrition modification and increase in physical activity are important measures for the prevention and treatment of diabetes. Regarding the treatment of type 2 diabetes, body weight is increasingly used as a secondary target parameter. The choice of anti-diabetic treatment and additional concomitant therapies is increasingly influenced by body weight. The importance of modern GLP‑1 agonists and dual GLP‑1 GIP agonists increases since these drugs target obesity and type 2 diabetes. Bariatric surgery is at present indicated with a BMI > 35 kg/m2 with concomitant risk factors, such as diabetes and can lead at least to partial diabetes remission but has to be incorporated into an appropriate lifelong care concept.