Obesity increases the risk for diabetes

Overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions globally along with an adoption of westernized lifestyle characterized by a combination of excessive food intake and inadequate physical activity.

About 2% excess in daily energy consumption can increase body weight by 22.7 kg within 10 years. The rapid growth promotes increased cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer in adulthood.

The dramatic rise in the prevalence of obesity and changes in lifestyle related factors such as a reduction in physical activity have been accompanied by alarming increases in the incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes.

Being overweight or obese greatly increases the risk. Colditz (1990) 76 followed a cohort of 113,861 women aged between 30 and 55 years and reported a positive correlation between BMI and risk of diabetes type 2; over 90% of cases diabetes type 2 could be attributed to BMIs of ≥ 22 kg/m2, with the risk rising progressively with increasing BMI.

Earlier onset of diabetes type 2 is associated with a higher BMI, and increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity is the most important factor in the increasing number of younger people diagnosed with type 2-diabetes.

High waist circumference increases the risk of glucose intolerance and diabetes independent of the risk reflected by high BMI. Studies in China, the US and Finland have shown that diabetes can be prevented or delayed in people at high risk of diabetes through a combination of change in diet and lifestyle and modest weight loss.
Obesity increases the risk for diabetes