Just 5% of body weight loss could take obese a long way to fight type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. Acting on this insignificant proportion could play significant role in lives of people suffering from obesity. This is a new finding by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.

Earlier, it was suggested to reduce body weight by about 5 to 10% for good health. But now, the experts recommend something else. “Five percent is really a very reasonable goal for most obese patients to achieve, it’s much easier than 10%”, said senior author Dr. Samuel Klein of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.

For the study, the researchers put 40 participants on goals to either reduce their body weight by 5, 10 or 15%, or to stay at their current body weight. There were 19 participants, out of 20, to be able to achieve the target of 5% weight loss. Some of them even reduced more than that. The average weight of participants was about 106 kg, which was reduced to 100.8 kg after achieving the target of 5%.

After the experiment, the participants were tested for diabetes and heart disease risk. Participants, who maintained their body weight, underwent test after six months, while the group which reduced body weight by 5% were tested after four months. For reducing 11% and 16% of the weight, tests were conducted after six and 11 months respectively.

The results of the tests disclosed the facts that people who targeted 5% of their body weight were able to reduce overall fat mass. In those people, there was improvement in function of the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Improvement was also seen in sensitivity of their liver and muscle to the effects of the hormone insulin. Reduction in weight by more than 5% could improve these functions even more, as per the study.