It has been recently suggested, that not the diet by itself, but also patient's adherence to dietary recommendations and all actions performed to improve dietary compliance, may be a significant factor influencing blood glucose control. There are no clinical data on the influence of different approaches to dietary advising on the effects of acarbose treatment in obese diabetic patients under real-life setting in Poland. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the influence of different approaches to dietary advisory on the effects of acarbose treatment (reflected by changes in HbA1c) in obese DM patients. We also intended to assess the influence of different approaches to dietary advising on the appearance of potential adverse events in acarbose treated obese DM patients.