[Development of body weight during antidiabetic treatment]

Antidiabetic treatment of persons with type I or 2 diabetes mellitus is usually accompanied by body-weight gain. This is because any improvement in metabolism is associated with a decrease in glycosuria: Long-persisting loss of calories via urine is decreased. Furthermore, insulin has an antilipolytic effect simulates lipogenesis and promotes fluid retention. Hypoglycemia always necessitates additional intake of carbohydrates and thus also favors weight gain. During antidiabetic treatment with metformin the increase in body weight is significantly less than during treatment with sulphonylurea compounds or insulin. For this reason metformin is the drug of choice in the antidiabetic treatment of overweight diabetics. It is also superior to all other drugs when given together with insulin. The best results of insulin treatment with regard to weight control are obtained with basal insulin combined with metformin rather than insulin alone, prandial insulin substitution or intensified insulin treatment. If the aim is weight reduction, the pharmacokinetics of short-acting insulin analogs makes adaptation of insulin dose to reduced food intake easier than normal insulin. More attention than has previously been the case should be paid from the start to measures that prevent weight gain when planning antidiabetic treatment: prevention of weight gain is easier to achieve than weight reduction.