BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease with an increased blood glucose level. Lifestyle in the form of wrong diet and low or inadequate physical activity affect to type 2 diabetes. AIM: The purpose of this study was to determine the level of knowledge and attitude of medical students at the Universitas Sumatera Utara regarding diet and physical activity that contribute to type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Class 2017 medical students at the Universitas Sumatera Utara who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were asked to participate as respondents in this cross-sectional study. Respondents were asked to answer online-based questionnaires containing 14 knowledge questions and 14 attitude statements about lifestyle towards type 2 diabetes. Knowledge scores equal to above 11 were categorized as good knowledge, and attitude scores equal to above 42 were categorized as good attitude. The data were presented as frequencies and percentage proportions using SPSS program version 22. RESULTS: Out of 255 class 2017 medical students, 72 students were respondents in this study. The results showed that the level of knowledge and attitude of medical students regarding diet that plays a role in type 2 diabetes in the good, moderate, and poor categories were 94.4%, 4.2%, 1.4% and 58.3%, 41.7%, 0%, respectively. The level of knowledge and attitude regarding physical activity that plays a role in type 2 diabetes in the good, moderate, and poor categories were 97.2%, 1.4%, 1.4% and 33.3%, 66.7%, 0%, respectively. Conclusions: In this study, it was shown that the knowledge and attitude of medical students at the Universitas Sumatera Utara towards eating pattern that contributes in type 2 diabetes were in line, namely the percentage of good categories was the highest percentage for each knowledge and attitude, but different results were found on the level of knowledge and attitude for physical activity.