Thin Body But Diabetes Sick? This Is The Term And Cause

Ilstrasu checks for blood sugar. (Pexels/AS Photography)

JAKARTA - In general, people with type 2 diabetes (diabetes mellitus) are people who are obese. However, there is also a group of people with diebetes with thin bodies.

This phenomenon is common in South Asia. Most people with type 2 diabetes in India are thin with a low body mass index (IMT).

This has confused experts over the decades and raises important questions about what makes Indian metabolism unique.

Then a 2020 study published in the British Medical Journal by scientists from the Madrasal Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) and the University ofwaki, Scotland, gave scientific clues to the phenomenon.

The study identified a different diabetes subtype found in Indians, who despite their low body weight suffered from insulin deficiencies as the pancreas produced too little insulin and insulin resistance.

The combination resulted in high blood sugar levels, even in thin individuals, so the researchers created the term diabetes sleek or lean diabetes.

"These findings have major implications for how diabetes is seen and treated, as well as finding the basis for precision diabetes, where treatment is personalized based on subtype patients," said MDRF president and study senior author, Dr. V. Mohan, quoted from Science Direct, on Monday, November 24, 2025.

The causes of lean diabetes can be triggered by factors such as high eating patterns of processed carbohydrates, low physical activity, and genetic tendencies.

diabetes expert, Kristina Utzschneider, MD, said thin diabetes mellitus is not necessarily rare. It is estimated that 10 to 20 percent of people with diabetes mellitus are thin.

The function of beta cells and insulin resistance is the main factor that underlies diabetes mellitus. Where the group of thin T2D sufferers tends to experience a more prominent disruption of insulin secretion in beta cells, "said Kristina.