BACKGROUND Obesity has always been thought to be a risk factor for diabetes; however, some studies in India have reported that even lean people are prone to diabetes. We conducted this study to see if this holds true for this part of the country. OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of lean type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in recently diagnosed type 2 DM in Manipur. METHODS All recently diagnosed type 2 DM patients, within a period of 24 weeks, who attended the endocrine clinic of RIMS from Jan to Dec 2012 are included in the study. Exclusion criteria are patients with chronic diseases. RESULTS Out of the 181 recently diagnosed diabetics 3.9% had a BMI of <19 kg/m(2) of which five are females (5.4% of female patients) and two are males (2.2% of male patients). Mean age of Lean diabetics is 54.86 ± 15.32, mean fasting glucose is 212 ± 105.5 mg% and mean postprandial glucose is 351.57 ± 167.79 mg%. DM complications were observed in 28.6% of the Lean diabetics. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows a low prevalence rate of Lean DM in recently diagnosed type 2 DM.