British researchers found that losing just 10 percent of your body weight during the first five years of Type 2 diabetes can lead to remission. It doesn’t matter how you lose the weight, and it doesn’t matter how fast those pounds come off, they explained.

“Extreme dieting and exercising are not necessary,” said study author Dr. Hajira Dambha-Miller, a general practice physician and clinical lecturer at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine. “Type 2 diabetes should no longer be seen as a lifelong disease,” she added.

The disease can essentially be cured if you lose weight and keep it off. Type 2 diabetes is typically considered a chronic, progressive disease.

But significant weight loss through extreme dieting (eating less than 700 calories a day) has previously been shown to bring about remission in almost 90 percent of people. Weight-loss surgery also tends to bring on remission.

But maybe remission doesn’t need to be so hard, the researchers speculated. For the new study, they followed the health of almost 900 people newly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes for five years. Thirty percent of the group were in remission at the five-year follow-up.

Those who achieved a 10 percent weight loss were 77 percent more likely to be in remission. There was no specific intervention in the study.

“There were no mandatory exercise or dietary requirements. All our participants did different things and still managed to lose weight and beat diabetes into remission,” Dr. Dambha-Miller said.