Diabetes and Weight

Maintaining a healthy weight is one of the most important steps that can be taken to measure diabetes. Being overweight can raise the blood glucose level and also cause high blood pressure. Which increases the risk of heart and circulatory problems.

WHY WEIGHT MATTERS:

Being overweight in diabetes makes blood glucose level, blood pressure cholesterol more difficult and increases the risk of heart disease. Keeping weight within the ideal range of height has many health benefits. To assess whether one is overweight or not body mass index (BMI) test is used. BMI can be calculated by dividing weight into kilograms by the square of height in meters.

For example, if weight is 65kg and height is 1.7m, then BMI is 65/(1.7×1.7), which equals 22.5, a figure that puts in the healthy weight category (BMI 18.5-24.9).

WEIGHT AND TYPE 2 DIABETES:

Overweight is more likely to develop type 2 diabetes because this can make cells resistant to insulin. four out of five people with type 2 diabetes are overweight. losing more weight helps to reverse type 2 diabetes.

WHY BODY SHAPE MATTERS:

Body shape is more important than weight itself in terms of risk of heart disease. Carrying extra fat around the middle rather than around the hips have an increased risk of problems:

• Waist circumference: if the waist is more than 102cm (for a man) or 88cm (for a woman) you are at higher risk of heart and circulation problems.
• Waist-to-hip ratio: divide waist measurement by hip measurement. If the result is more than 0.9 for a man and more than 0.85 for a woman then your risk of developing heart disease is higher.