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Type 2 Is this true that Obesity is not the cause of my Diabetes?

My aunt is 7st 2lb and is type2 is slim
I am over weight and type2
 
It isn't a cause, but a contributing factor. Losing weight will help, but if it was the cause every overweight/obese person would have T2 and that's just not true. I've friends who weight a lot less than me who have it and friends who weigh a lot more that don't
 
I was slim and nearly got it but had a blood test in time and I went sugar free and lost weight and ate loads and have reversed my pre diabetis in 2 months, numbers still dropping but normal, don't panic you can do this over time all the folks here will teach you loads and surport you or your way to health. Keep the faith. Don't worry what you have done to yourself start your journey today, one foot on the mountain. Deliously Ella was 18 months getting well from all her horrible illnesses and she is very young check out her web and Facebook. Good luck.
 
Another theory is that insulin resistance causes weight gain when eating a high carb diet. The pancreas has to make more insulin to overcome that and the added weight causes more insulin resistance. The excess insulin being produced adds more weight and insulin resistance goes up. On and On and On in a vicious cycle. Losing the weight helps to break this cycle and eating low carb helps reduce insulin production and also helps break the cycle as well as helping you lose weight. So a low carb diet starts another beneficial cycle. Some people who have always been thin get type 2 which points to more than one cause. Blaming yourself gets you nowhere. It is largely genetic I believe.
 
Visceral fat, thats the fat that develops around your internal organs and cant be seen has the effect of making your bodies naturally produced insulin infective so that the glucose in your blood can not be effectively drawn into your bodies cells and used for energy and as any excess glucose in the blood stream will be laid down as fat that will lead to a person putting on weight.

Therefore you could assume that visceral fat can be responsible for causing T2 diabetes and for making people overweight but overeating is also a cause for being overweight, so its confusing and there is shall we say a grey area.

Only a small percentage of overweight people will develop T2 diabetes but most that do develop it will be overweight which is why this is assumption is made, but thin fit people can develop T2 diabetes too although it is most commonly seen in overweight people.

As visceral fat cant be seen and is expensive to test for, there is no easy way of knowing who will develop T2 diabetes but it is probably a good idea not to be overweight.

Research undertaken by Prof Taylor of Newcastle University has shown that if one can remove the visceral fat in the first few years of a diagnosis of T2 it is possible to reverse the condition 'but' if someone is susceptible to visceral fat anyway then they may always need to watch their diet so that it does not return and with it T2 diabetes.

So lets just say its best to be in the normal weight category of the body fat index if you want to avoid T2 diabetes but its no guaranty.
 
As you can see from here there are manifold causes and contributing factors involved with T2 diabetes. The thing is not to ask why have I got this but to ask what do I do to control it or maybe even reverse it blame and guilt are counter productive.
 
Being obese is only one of the precursors to getting type 2, it's in the only precursor or risk factor. I had several of them. I was told on the day of my diagnosis that I had developed type 2 diabetes because I had undiagnosed PCOS. Of course I got diagnosed with PCOS the same day as type 2. I wasn't impressed being told I had 2 chronic diseases. It's been one diagnosis after another for me ever since. But it did explain things for me about some issues I had. I have other family members with type 2 diabetes and they've never ever had a weight problem at all in their life unlike me. My weight has gone up and down over the years. I've been quite slim and also overweight at times. Your weight could be a contributing factor, but it may not be the only one.
 
john5220 said:
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14046739.php

Says here, but are these people sure about that? I have a gut feeling my obesity has caused this. Though admittedly my brother was in decent shape and he also got diabetes. But I still feel I could have prevented this if I was thin and ate right and exercised.
Click to expand...

I really like that phlaunt website.

There are huge amounts of T2 applicable information on there. I was recommended to read it soon after I found this site, and did so. Now I have been here longer, read wider, and learned a lot more, I STILL think it is an excellent source.

We are all very programmed to blame ourselves - for anything. Unless of course we default to 'It isn't MY fault'. lol

But the reality isn't that simple.

For instance, there is plenty of evidence that insulin resistance and problems with glucose tolerance happen long before blood glucose levels get out of wack, and people have weight gain. They are symptoms, not the cause.

But unfortunately, every extra pound in weight then increases the insulin resistance and the glucose intolerance - especially if part of the weight gain goes to the liver. It then becomes an endless vicious circle of escalation.

Worth remembering though, that even if you lost the excess weight, and lost any fatty liver you may have, your body has certain predispositions which caused you to go down the T2 pathway. Genetics, environment, lifestyle, diet, exercise choices... they all play a part. But don't play the blame game. Trace it back to the root cause, and tackle that. Saves an awful lot of unnecessary angst and time wasting. :)

The longer I spend with this T2 lark, the more I learn about insulin resistance, the more I think that it is the root of it all.
- if I lower my insulin resistance, my appetite drops, my food cravings disappear, my energy levels rise, my glucose levels drop, and I feel better.
I prioritise all those over weight loss!
With the added advantage that reducing insulin resistance makes weight loss easier.

So it is a kind of win-win-win-win-win-win situation. What's not to love?

NB, Insulin resistance can be caused by a lot of things - too many carbs, not enough exercise, medication, genetics, hormonal dysfunction, environmental pollution...
 
chalup said:
Another theory is that insulin resistance causes weight gain when eating a high carb diet. The pancreas has to make more insulin to overcome that and the added weight causes more insulin resistance. The excess insulin being produced adds more weight and insulin resistance goes up. On and On and On in a vicious cycle. Losing the weight helps to break this cycle and eating low carb helps reduce insulin production and also helps break the cycle as well as helping you lose weight. So a low carb diet starts another beneficial cycle. Some people who have always been thin get type 2 which points to more than one cause. Blaming yourself gets you nowhere. It is largely genetic I believe.
Click to expand...
Many of those slim T2s will actually be mis-diagnosed T1s like myself. If the GPs diagnosis was better it would help sort out the true group of T2s and the various causes, of which insulin resistance seems to be the main cause together with genetic susceptibility.
 
Daibell said:
Many of those slim T2s will actually be mis-diagnosed T1s like myself. If the GPs diagnosis was better it would help sort out the true group of T2s and the various causes, of which insulin resistance seems to be the main cause together with genetic susceptibility.
Click to expand...

I think that's where it's different where I live. I didn't just have a GP tell me I have T2 diabetes. I was referred to an endocrinologist for diagnosis. So the appropriate tests were done on me right from the start. The bonus of that is that the endo discovered I also have PCOS. I wouldn't have known that without being referred to an endocrinologist. But funnily enough the T2's in my family are definitely T2's and they've had the tests like I have.... so not misdiagnosed. They're sure thin though. I've had those diagnostic tests done 3 times in the past 18 years too and I'm still T2 even though I hardly produce any insulin now.
 
I'm the 4th generation T2 in our family
I'm the first girl, and the first fat one.
Very curious to see what happens to my skinny sister.
 
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