Also, remember not everyone with T2 is obese, not everyone obese has T2D, and obesity doesn’t mean a little overweight. These are people with a BMI of 30 or higher. Other, lesser-used definitions from the past included a certain percentage of body weight consisting of fat. There are many people with Type 2 who are normal weight or overweight.
> T2D remission is defined as glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) < 6.5% after discontinuation of hypoglycemic drugs for at least 3 months
> In the intensive treatment group, 78.57% patients in the prediabetes subgroup returned to normoglycemia and the diabetes remission rate was 75% in the diabetes subgroup at 12 months
75% of T2D people in this study were able to get cured and stop medications. It's a good outcome.
The mean BMI in the study is around 24, which is overweight rather than obese. Their blood pressure was close to normal. Their A1C was in the diabetic range before intervention, but well below 8 so it was somewhat controlled.
After 12 months, 44% of people in the intervention group were off all their blood glucose meds. That’s far, far better than the control group for sure. It’s still not everyone in the intervention group.
This is also a pretty specific method of intermittent fasting, not just self control on a traditional meal schedule. So no, I don’t think this 72-person study shows that just having some self control solves T2D for everyone either. It looks like enough self control to stick to a specific, predesigned eating schedule works for almost half of people, though. That’s really good, but let’s not oversell it as a 100% cure.
tl;dr it's everything you expect - home-cooked healthy meals, avoid sugary stuff, moderate exercise five days per week, etc