Can't lose weight? Odds are it's not a problem with your willpower; it could be type II diabetes!

There could be a link between type II diabetes and weight gain.

The link between weight gain and diabetes explained

Dr Jonathan Wright of Nutrition & Healing explains that there’s a phrase he hears over and over again from patients who visit the Tahoma Clinic: “I’ve been on a strict low-fat diet for months [or even years] and I’m still gaining weight!”

“Every time I hear this complaint, I know to start looking for a family history of diabetes, skin tags and other clues,” he says.

You see, Dr Wright believes that while this common problem doesn’t always indicate a tendency toward type II diabetes, a combination of diet trends (low-fat, high-complex carbohydrate diet) has made it a more distinct possibility than ever before.

This combination makes it difficult for diabetes-prone people to lose weight.

And there’s science to back it up. Professor John Yudkin performed a simple experiment that illustrates this point.

He recruited university students in their 20s to live in a dormitory for one month, eating only the food provided there. One group of students had absolutely no family history of diabetes, while those in the other group had positive family histories.

At the beginning and end of the month, students were weighed and had their insulin, cholesterol and triglyceride levels measured. All of the students, for the entire month, were given exactly the same diet, one containing 400g of refined sugar, an amount easily consumed in two to three fizzy drinks.

At the end of the month, students with family histories of diabetes had gained an average of 4kg each and had developed significantly higher insulin, triglyceride and cholesterol levels. The students with no family histories of diabetes had gained an average of 1.3kg each.

If you’re struggling to lose weight, go for a checkup just to make sure you don’t have type II diabetes. It could save your life.