Weight management in Diabetes.

So we know from evidence that weight loss in management of type 2 diabetes is very very important if we want to have better outcomes, if we want to stay away from a lot of the diabetes complications and also if we want to come off some of the medications that we are on for type 2 diabetes. Weight loss management requires a lot of support, it requires a lot of motivation and a lot of goal setting and this can be done through the support of an online forum, it could be done through a structured education program or it could be done through a structured app. So the first easiest thing to do is to look at what suits your needs, whether you are more IT savvy and you want to go down the application route of finding a program online which suits you because they will send you regular reminders. We know that in weight loss that regular reminders or the nudge effect where you regularly get sort of messages telling you about your exercise, your food intake, your sort of calorie counting for the day is very effective in long-term weight management. The second thing you could do is look for support around you so whether it's your family or a friend or a healthcare professional who could support you on a regular basis reminding you about the benefits of weight loss and also the importance of weight loss in your diabetes journey. Or the third thing you could do is sign up to a weight loss program. So the NHS England have lots of new programs where they can offer you support for 12 months. You can ask your GP or your nurse or your pharmacist for any new programs that have been just launched from NHS England where they're offering people online support for 12 months and through these 12 months the main benefit is that you get a lot of psychological support, you get a lot of support in terms of how to address some of the barriers and the challenges that people face when they are trying to lose weight because we know weight loss is not always as straightforward, there can be lots of challenges that come in the way, stress, anxiety, depression can come and prevent us from losing weight, comfort eating, also not sleeping well. If we don't sleep, that can have an impact on our weight loss. So there are lots and lots of triggers that we know that can impact the success of weight loss. But one of the most successful thing that we've seen is the ongoing support by signing up to a really good website. So Diabetes UK, the British Heart Foundation, No Diabetes website, MyDiabetes. There are lots of free resources out there that can support you with your weight loss journey. It's just a matter of finding the right one for you. There are lots of apps which you have to pay for. It's a small fee, but they can actually provide a lot of useful information in sending you information about recipes, meal plans, exercise programs, even helping you calculate amount of calories that that you're having. So whatever you decide to do, whichever pathway you wish to follow, it's just about finding the right one for you.