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Why Are People Diabetic-shaped?

Smallbrit

Well-Known Member
Messages
284
Location
Cardiff, Wales
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I saw someone alluding to this on a different post and realised I don’t know the answer. Is it a cause or an effect? Or both. And how do you minimise it?

I have been asked dozens of times since teenagerhood whether I am pregnant. Because I look it, always, exercise or no exercise. I’m a short, stocky (always within BMI guidelines) or recently much less stocky (now, having lost 7 lbs on LCHF unintentionally) UK size 8 so am what might be termed ‘petite’ if I didn’t look heftier than that.

I always assumed I looked like my mum (short Chinese) with the build of my dad (the stocky bit) in a genetic mix that could have had a more impressive outcome. But my mum had type 1. So maybe she was diabetic shaped too and not what I thought was Asian shaped.

The diabetic nurse took one look at me and told me I was diabetic shape. After asking if I was pregnant...

Is it just me who this happens to? (Men, I’m assuming you don’t get this?)
 
I have a vague, probably unscientific theory that, in times of famine, our bodies use up all the peripheral fats first, to protect our vital organs and workings.

So when times of famine pass, visceral fat is the first to be laid down again.

And, for some unknown reason, our bodies, when our insulin response goes wonky (technical term lol) our bodies go into starvation mode and pile up reserves around our vital organs instead of feeding our daily needs.

But thats just a vague theory I am keeping in my mind.
 

I can pass for not-obese-looking when I stand up, but when I sit down, I'm horribly aware of a big mass of stomach fat.

All I know is that Type 2 is strongly correlated to visceral fat in particular, more so than overall body fat. So one might expect that, statistically, T2 people are prone to being visibly bigger around their stomachs.

This reminds me, I don't know if it's just me, but when I look at pictures of the lovely Steve Redgrave, even in his earlier Olympic-winning years, with his lovely body clad in figure-hugging lycra, I see a fit man with ... externally-visible visceral fat. Not unusually so for a typical man, but perhaps unusually so for an athlete.
 
Not sure of a 'diabetic shape', even though I know of the apple shape, I am hour glass shape, so out - in- out and shake it all about lol (size 10/12)
 
lucylocket61 said:
could some people be diabetic shaped inside, viscerally, and it hasnt got to the point of showing outwardly, for some reason?
Click to expand...

Apparently people with the same girth, as it where, can vary in visceral fat up to 8 times. E.g. 0.5 litres to over 4 litres in spite of fitting into the same trousers.

The second image here is interesting, with the cross-sections:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOFI
 
Robinredbreast said:
Not sure of a 'diabetic shape', even though I know of the apple shape, I am hour glass shape, so out - in- out and shake it all about lol (size 10/12)
Click to expand...
Yeh but you're a trim T1 I certainly am diabetic shape lol.
 
It never occurred to me that there is a diabetic shape. Could it be used as a diagnostic tool I wonder.
 
zand said:
Yeh but you're a trim T1 I certainly am diabetic shape lol.
Click to expand...

Never heard of 'diabetic shape' until now and found this :- so it is the' apple shape', but I do have to watch what I eat and try to keep active as much as I can.

The question may imply a healthy snack — or an important distinction between body shapes that affects type 2 diabetes risk. In general, people whose fat collects on their abdomen — making them resemble apples over time — are at greater risk for type 2 diabetes. But the good news is that you can escape your shape.13 Jun 2016
 
lucylocket61 said:
could some people be diabetic shaped inside, viscerally, and it hasnt got to the point of showing outwardly, for some reason?
Click to expand...

One boffin (can't remember which one) mooted the idea that in the eras of feast/famine those who stored fats around the middle survived the lean times and those who may have stored it around the organs didn't survive. He possited the theory that storing fats around the waistline might in future prove to be the safest place for it.
He was musing at this point and I did wander about those people who seem to store fats in both areas which is why I am interested in finding out exactly which fats are shed first.
 
Maybe your nurse didn’t actually mean that all diabetics are diabetic shaped.
Maybe it was an abbreviated comment that really meant ‘type 2 diabetic shape, where the type 2 fits the overweight and carrying visceral and subcutaneous fat around their middle kind of physique’.
I would get tired of saying that after only a couple of repetitions...
 
JohnEGreen said:
It never occurred to me that there is a diabetic shape. Could it be used as a diagnostic tool I wonder.
Click to expand...

It is being used as a diagnostic tool at my surgery, as a sort of early warning sign for those of us who are apple shaped. Its a recent tick box for the DN - waist measurement as a sign of IR. Along with her new found enthusiasm for low-ish (around 130g a day) carbing being recommended by her. Its progress!!!!!
 
Yeah, I never meant to imply that all type 2s are shaped this way. “Some people” would be a better description

Robinredbreast said:
But the good news is that you can escape your shape.13 Jun 2016
Click to expand...

How do I escape my shape then...? I have visions of running as fast as I can while it huffs and puffs behind...!
 
Smallbrit said:
Yeah, I never meant to imply that all type 2s are shaped this way. “Some people” would be a better description



How do I escape my shape then...? I have visions of running as fast as I can while it huffs and puffs behind...!
Click to expand...
since I have been low carbing, I have only lost about 2 stones or so, but my shape is altering and my tummy is the place the weight is going, not elsewhere. Which is different from any other ways of eating I have tried. Usually the girls go first : )
 
Smallbrit said:
Yeah, I never meant to imply that all type 2s are shaped this way. “Some people” would be a better description



How do I escape my shape then...? I have visions of running as fast as I can while it huffs and puffs behind...!
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't know, as that sentence used was part of the link I posted. I know that now I am 60 I do have to work harder at it. I used to do a lot more exercise, walking to and from my dad's care home, nearly every day and work and other chores too, but when he passed away in January, I didn't go out very much, I couldn't face work, I knew I was letting things slide, emotionally and physically. I know my dear dad wouldn't of wanted me to be like that, so now nearly back to my original weight.
 
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