This study, small though it is, does tend to validate what a number of previously obese T2s have been saying in the various threads about 'is T2 necessarily progressive?'.
It seems pretty clear that there are several paths to T2; one can strike healthy fit people of normal weight and is probably mostly genetic.
Another strikes those who are obese, sedentary and eat junk food and is probably more to do with lifestyle mixed with a genetic susceptibility..
I was in the latter category and lost over 40% of my weight in 8 months immediately after diagnosis by maintaining a diet of around 1000 calories per day (most of the time, slacked-off on vacations) with a *lot* of exercise. I was on Met and then Glucobay for a brief time - my Doc being an early-interventionist.
Now, I'm six and a half foot tall and very 'big boned' (still no excuse for letting myself get so obese though - BMI over 40) so 1000 cals/day on me may not be so far off being equivalent to 600 cals/day for a normal sized person - and I maintained it for far longer than three months.
Maybe they should rerun that study with 1000 cals/day for, say, six months and see what the result is. Far more people could stick at 1000 than 600, which seems far too close to starvation to me!
600 cals/day certainly needs close medical monitoring, but 1000?
My fasting this morning was 3.8 - a little lower than usual and it is very rare that I exceed 4.7 for either fasting or two hours post meal. When I do an informal OGTT, the result is a clear pass, though slightly higher than the normal non-diabetic graph - but then I'm 60 and the pancreas does age anyway - I suspect that those 'normals' were younger than me!
I don't know how long I'll stay in remission, but hopefully well into old age when there are plenty more things to fear!
Mark