Why do patients with type 2 diabetes not show the body wasting seen in type 1 diabetics?
The following is based on a conversation I had with a senior biochemist in my university who conducts grant-funded research on the relationship between diabetes and heart disease. It can be criticized for the paucity of external sources from which its veracity can be checked. However, although the question is based on a misconception I thought it should be addressed. Perhaps others could help improve the answer by supplying references etc.

The following points about Type 2 diabetes mellitus are relevant.


‘Type 2 diabetes’ refers to a disease which encompasses conditions
with a spectrum of severities.
This means that the description of it being “characterized by so-called ‘insulin resistance’” — alternatively expressed as cells being refractory to insulin — in fact means that there is a variation in the degree to which the cells are refractory. In many cases, although this leads to a higher blood sugar, it does not result in the complete breakdown of fat and muscle protein found in type 1 diabetes, where insulin is completely lacking.
Type 2 diabetes does not result in an increase in fat deposition and body weight. In many — but not all — cases it is caused by overweight.
In type 2 diabetes caused by overweight there is a gradual loss of fat. It is not apparent in a ‘snapshot’ of type 2 diabetics, many of whom have such large fat reserves that it will take a long time before these are broken down.
In severe type 2 diabetes the situation eventually becomes similar to type 1 diabetes as the beta cells of the pancreas can be destroyed. In these cases insulin injection is required. 
Normally type 2 diabetes is controlled with drugs that reduce the glycemia — metaformin is currently the agent for the first line of treatment — and by lifestyle changes, especially in diet. (The treatment of type 2 diabetes was reviewed by Juan José Marín-Peñalver et al. in 2016 and considers their mechanisms of action etc..)