Obesity & Diabetes

  • Obesity and type 2 diabetes are metabolic disorders that have strong associations with body composition.
  • The metabolic perturbations that characterize type 2, those of:
    • hyperglycemia, 
    • elevated fasting insulin, 
    • increased fatty acids and triglycerides, 
    • and, most fundamentally, insulin resistance, 
  • have been found to be associated with adiposity and perhaps, more particularly, with certain patterns of adipose tissue and fat distribution.
  • Insulin resistance is a principal mechanism by which obesity is considered to heighten risk of type 2 diabetes.
  • In obesity, there is insulin resistance in adipose tissue and muscle.
  • Weight change (gain vs. loss or stabilization) has been found to influence risk for development of type 2 diabetes in both men and women.
  • In several investigations of older adults, including large population studies, neither the amount of fat-free mass nor the amount of skeletal muscle was associated with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes.
  • Obese individuals are insulin resistant after adjustment for fat-free mass.
  • However, the quality rather than the quantity of fat-free mass has been found to be a very important body composition consideration in insulin resistance, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.