Overweight people with large waists at risk of diabetes

Researchers have argued that people who are both overweight and have a large waistband are at just as much risk of developing type 2 diabetes later on in life as people who are obese, and that they should be given lifestyle advice to help them lower the chances of developing the condition.
The international study, which monitored over a third of a million people from around Europen, found that those of us who are more pear-shaped and overweight are at less risk from diabetes than people who have larger waists. With a waist size of over 40 inches in men and 34 inches in women being classified as large, being overweight or obese is believed to be the most important risk factor for type 2 diabetes that people can change in their lives.
Study leader Claudia Langenberg, from the Medical Research Council epidemiology unit in Cambridge, commented “More than a third of the UK adult population is overweight and at increased risk of diabetes, but they are not systematically monitored for this risk. Our findings suggest that if their waist circumference is large, they are just as likely to develop the condition as if they were obese.
She added “We do not suggest replacing BMI as a core health indicator, but our results show that measuring waist size in overweight patients allows doctors to ‘zoom in’ on this large population group and identify those at highest risk of diabetes.”