Fifteen-minute workouts could reverse diabetes in just six weeks, new research suggests. A trial of overweight men found that short, intense resistance training sessions three times a week significantly boosted their ability to manage insulin.

Previous research has indicated that 45-minute workouts could have this effect, but the new study has been greeted with particular excitement as experts believe type 2 diabetes patients will be more likely to commit to shorter sessions.

It is estimated that by 2025 there will be five million people with a diabetes diagnosis in the UK, 90 per cent of whom will have type 2, which is related to lifestyle.

Despite rates getting worse, public awareness that many people can delay or even reverse their condition through lifestyle changes is improving, thanks in part to high-profile examples such as Labour MP Tom Watson, who is free of the disease after losing seven stone.

Published in the journal Experimental Physiology, researchers from the University of Glasgow recruited ten men who were overweight, defined as having a body mass index of 25 to 29.

In each training session they were required to undertake a single set of nine standard resistance exercises such as leg presses and bicep curls at 80 per cent of their maximum lift capability until they were no longer able to lift any more.